Expenditure limit hiked for Bihar panchayat candidate

Bihar cabinet today increased the election expenditure limit for candidates willing to contest the upcoming panchayat elections in the state.
"The state cabinet today gave its nod to Panchayati Raj Department's proposal to amend Bihar Panchayat Election Rules, 2006 in order to increase the election expenditure limit for candidates of panchayat elections," Cabinet Secretariat Department's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters in a post cabinet briefing here.
The panchayat election, from gram panchayat to District Board, is expected to be held in April and May.
The cabinet increased the election expenditure limit keeping in mind the increase in prices of various goods and services in the past one decade that made the existing expenditure limit unpractical, Mehrotra said.

The expenditure limit for District Board contestants have been increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000, while the limit for Panchayat samiti candidates have been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000, he said.
Similarly, the limit for village head (Mukhiya) and Sarpanch has been increased from existing Rs 25000 to Rs 40,000. The expenditure limit for candidates of gram panchayat and gram kutchery have been raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.

There are around 8500 gram panchayats across the state in which an equal numbers of village heads and sarpanch would be elected. Around 11,500 members of panchayat samiti and around 1150 members of district board would also be elected.

In another major decision, the cabinet sanctioned Rs 478.13 crore for 2015-16 for payment of salary of 66104 teachers of primary and middle schools working in blocks and urban local bodies, Mehrotra said.
The cabinet also approved the government's bank guarantee for getting a loan of Rs 2000 crore from various banks for carrying out paddy procurement programme for kharif marketing season of 2015-16 (that runs from December 5, 2015 to March 31, 2016), the Principal Secretary said.