- Sunday, February 23, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Shubham Ghosh
The western Indian state of Maharashtra has continued to be plagued by the Covid-19 pandemic and the state government has now come up with monetary incentives to boost the state’s rural districts in the battle against the deadly disease. Maharashtra, which is the third-largest Indian state in area and second-largest in terms of population, has been the worst hit with almost six million cases. More than 1,00,000 have died in the state alone.
The state government, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena, has laid down guidelines for all the state’s villages to become Covid-free and this has seen a competition among villages to produce best results. Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif announced that the village which will grab the first position will get an award of Rs 50 lakh (USD 68,410). The second and third place-holders will get Rs 25 (USD 34,205) lakh and Rs 15 lakh (USD 20,523), respectively, according to ANI. The prizes will be awarded to three gram panchayats from each of the six revenue divisions. The ‘village>Covid-free village’ contest requires the villages to compete under 22 parameters. They will contest for 50 marks and the time frame of the competition will be between June 1, 2021, March 31, 2022.
ThePrint reported that the guidelines of the unique contest are based on measures that have paid off in Maharashtra’s urban areas. They include: door-to-door surveys to identify people who have symptoms, institutional quarantine for high-risk contacts, speedy inoculations, etc. The state government recently expressed satisfaction over the performance of a number of villages in the state in their fight against the spread of the pandemic. One official from the rural development department stressed on the basics saying if families, mohallas, neighbourhoods and villages can defeat the virus, then it will be easier for the talukas and districts and the entire state to emerge Covid-free.
On Sunday, May 30, CM Thackeray praised a number of villages in a public speech over their efforts to control the spread of the pandemic by reducing the number of cases to zero. Among such villages are Hiware Bazar and Bhoyare Khurd in Ahmednagar district, Antroli and Ghatne in Solapur district and Bhosi in Nanded district.
Five teams will be in place
As per the state government’s guidelines, all villages in Maharashtra will have to form five teams featuring gram panchayat members, healthcare workers, doctors from primary health-care centres or sub-centres and private doctors and pharmacists and volunteers. These teams will carry out a series of actions – from surveying all families in the village to ensure that maximum numbers of villagers get vaccinated.
On Thursday, Maharashtra registered more than 15,000 new infections, 307 deaths and recoveries above 25,000. The recovery rate was found to be at 94.73 percent and there are more than two lakh active cases. The state government has claimed that the Covid caseload in Maharashtra has dropped significantly over the last month (from 6,68,353 to 2,16,016). However, 13 out of 36 districts have continued to witness a positivity rate which is higher than the state average.
