EC allows government to implement water scheme

Mumbai: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has allowed the Maharashtra government to sanction and implement drinking water supply schemes in areas where the election is over. However, the ECI letter of May 2 added that there should be no “undue publicity” of the work for political gains.

The state government on April 24 wrote to the ECI, seeking permission for sanctioning and implementing drinking water supply schemes in view of the model code of conduct (MCC) for the 2019 general elections.

An official of the state branch of the ECI said, “We have received the letter from the ECI saying that it has no objection to the execution of such works in areas where the voting process has been completed and remaining constituencies after completion of voting, subject to the condition that no undue publicity is done in this regard by anyone to get political mileage out of it.”

The government had already announced drought in 151 out of the 358 talukas in the state

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis chaired a cabinet meeting on Thursday in which the drought situation and the steps taken to provide relief to the people were reviewed.

At present, 4,774 tankers have been sent to 12,116 villages, up from 4,640 tankers sent to 9,579 villages in 2016. Also, 1,264 fodder camps are in operation for 8.5 lakh livestock.

Earlier in the week, after 17 seats in the state went to polls in the fourth phase of the general elections, Mr Fadnavis sought relaxation in the MCC from the ECI to provide relief to drought-affected regions. In this connection, Mr Fadnavis wrote a letter to the ECI commissioner requesting that the MCC be relaxed for drought mitigation measures as polling had been completed in all 48 Lok Sabha seats of the state.

Five days since the CM’s letter, the ECI commissioner hadn’t communicated his decision to the state government about relaxation of the MCC.