Mumbai, Jan 18 (PTI) Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif on Monday said mandatory four gram sabhas can be held without compromising the guidelines of COVID-19, hours after results of some 12,000 Gram Panchayats were declared.

The village-level governing body will now serve for a period of five years and need to hold four public meetings where key issues can be discussed.

"No such gram sabhas were held in the state because of the pandemic situation. The state had issued guidelines regarding the same from time to time. However, the village level governing body can now hold such public meetings from time to time. A circular regarding the same has been issued as well. The life is now coming back to normalcy," the minister said in a statement.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)