Gandhinagar, Dec. 31 -- Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has taken a significant public interest decision aimed at ensuring the holistic and inclusive development of rural areas across the state's districts.

For this purpose, he has issued directions to allocate a discretionary grant of Rs one crore to the presidents of all 34 District Panchayats of the state for development works of local importance in their respective districts.

In the state, there is an existing practice of allocating a grant of Rs. 2.5 crore to MLAs for development works under the Decentralised District Planning Programme, an official release said.

The presidents of the District Panchayats had made representations to the Chief Minister seeking the allocation ...