With an eye on upcoming local bodies poll, the Cabinet on Tuesday decided to reconstitute the statutory development boards for Marathwada, Vidarbha and the rest of Maharashtra.
The term of these boards had expired on April 30, 2020.
Then MVA government had come under criticism from BJP for not reconstituting the boards. The BJP had accused the MVA government of neglecting the backward Marathwada and Vidarbha regions by not reconstituting the boards. Former President Pranab Mukherjee, by an order dated April 30, 2015 had extended the term of boards by five years.
The statutory development boards came into being on May 1, 1994. The board has functions to ascertain the relative levels of development in different sectors in relation to its area on the basis of appropriate indicators, having regard to the levels of development in the state as a whole; assess the impact of various development efforts in removing backlog and in achieving overall development within its area; suggest the levels of development expenditure over the area of the development boards during a plan period including the Annual Plan; and prepare an annual report on its working and send it, as far as practicable, within three months after the end of every financial year to the Governor for placing it before the state legislature.
On the other important function of the Boards, namely assessing the impact of the various development efforts in removing backlog and achieving overall development within a Board’s area, the Governor had directed the Development Boards to identify two or three major areas of importance in their regions and form study groups of experts to come up with report on the impact of the schemes in selected areas of study.
