Vikrant Shekhawat : Jun 03, 2021, 06:37 AM
Mumbai. The Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced a 'Corona Free Village' competition to motivate people to take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in rural areas. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray recently praised the efforts made by some villages to prevent the spread of this infection and announced the 'Mera Gaon Corona Mukt' initiative. State Rural Development Minister Hassan Mushrif said in a statement that the 'Corona Mukt Gaon' competition is part of the initiative announced by the Chief Minister.Under this competition, prizes will be given to three village panchayats who have done good work to deal with Kovid-19 in each revenue division. The minister informed that Rs 50 lakh will be given under the first prize, Rs 25 lakh will be given to the second winner and Rs 15 lakh to the third winner. He said that there are six revenue circles in the state, so there will be a total of 18 awards. The total amount of the reward is Rs 5.4 crore.Villages will be tested on 22 criteriaThe minister said that the villages winning the competition would be given an additional amount equal to the prize money as incentive and it would be used for development works in these villages. He informed that the participating villages in the competition will be judged on 22 criteria. A committee will be formed to decide this. Appreciation of the youngest Sarpanch, Rituraj DeshmukhUddhav Thackeray, in a virtual address on Sunday, praised Maharashtra's youngest sarpanch Rituraj Deshmukh (21) and his workforce for keeping his Ghatne village in Solapur district free from coronavirus.