The Maharashtra government has been receiving praises from other states of the country for its commendable job in controlling the spread of the virus. With its timely lockdown and strict measures, the Maharashtra government could bring down the daily cases from 65,000 at the start of April to 15,000 now. Mumbai also saw an immense drop in cases. But in a bid to make the rural area of Mumbai COVID-free, the Maharashtra government has announced prize money of ₹50 lakh for the village panchayat who can successfully make their village COVID-19 free.
The First Prize Winner Gets ₹50 Lakh & The Second Gets ₹25 lakh
The Maharashtra government has launched a ‘Corona-free village’ contest to encourage the implementation of precautionary measures and curb the spread of the virus in rural areas. The rural development department announced that they will give prizes to three village panchayats in each of the six revenue divisions. The village panchayat that wins the first prize gets ₹50 lakh, the second gets ₹25 lakh, and the third ₹15 lakh.
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Corona-free village competitions will be held in Maharashtra to encourage steps to curb the spread of COVID-19. Three village panchayats will be awarded for doing good work in COVID-19 management in each revenue division: State Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif (02.06)
— ANI (@ANI) June 3, 2021
The Contest Will Run For A Year
The contest will go on for a year and the villages will be judged by a committee on 22 parameters. RDD will soon issue a resolution outlining the parameter and other details for the contest. Eighteen villages will be awarded a total amounting to ₹5.4 crores. The villages that win the contest will get another incentive in the form of an additional amount equivalent to the prize money that will be utilised for development works in the villages.
Maharashtra government announced a ‘corona free village’ contest under which prizes worth ₹50 lakh, ₹25 lakh, and ₹15 lakh will be given to three village panchayats for managing the pandemic well in their revenue divisions
Updates: https://t.co/DPCTvekZcb pic.twitter.com/6SCLvN3uBe
— HTMumbai (@HTMumbai) June 2, 2021
The initiative came a few days after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray asked to run a Covid-free village drive to arrest the spread of Covid-19 in rural areas. In the past, the Maharashtra government had launched a Clean Village competition which had evoked enormous responses from the villages in the state.