Mumbai, Jun 28 (IANS): At least 35 village sarpanches across Maharashtra have fallen prey to the Covid-19 pandemic in the past 16 months, officials said here on Monday.

A delegation of sarpanches, comprising eight men and six women, called on Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan and conveyed this information to him.

They told the Governor that since more than 35 sarpanches have been felled by Covid-19 in the past over a year, the state government should extend financial assistance to their families or dependents.

The delegation, which was led by Sarpanch Parishad's regional president Datta Kakde-Patil, handed over a memorandum of various demands to the Governor.

The sarpanches demanded that th funds received by the gram panchayats under the 15th Finance Commission should be spent only for development purposes and creation of infrastructure facilities in the concerned villages.

The delegation -- which included the trustees of the Sarpanch Parishad, Avinash Avhad, Rajaram Potnis, Anand Jadhav, Ashwini Thorat and others -- also stressed the need for building a well-equipped 'Sarpanch Bhavan' in Mumbai for the lodging and boarding of the village heads whenever they visit the state capital for various works.