The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday cleared a proposal that offers an option of availing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to the state government employees who joined the service after November 2005.
Maharashtra Forest Minister and BJP leader Ganesh Naik will hold a 'janata darbar' in Thane, a stronghold of Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Eknath Shinde, amid speculation of unease within the ruling Mahayuti alliance. The event, which will be held near the collector's office in Thane city, is being seen by some political circles as a direct challenge to the Shiv Sena's influence in the area. The BJP and Shiv Sena have been experiencing tensions in their relationship for the past few weeks, which came to the forefront with Shinde's recent warning to not take him lightly. The rivalry between Naik and Shinde goes back several years, with both competing to increase their influence in Thane. The event has been downplayed by Shiv Sena leaders, who emphasize that it is simply a public hearing to address grievances. However, the timing of the event and the recent tensions between the BJP and Shiv Sena have fueled speculation about its political significance.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's jail bharo agitation was cancelled on Friday in the wake of the massive fire at the Mantralaya.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday visited the state secretariat 'Mantralaya' for the first time after recovering from a spine surgery which he underwent in November last year, and asked the state administration to focus on paperless governance with increased use of technology.
Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn-in as new chief minister of Maharashtra while allies Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy CMs at a grand ceremony in Mumbai on Thursday evening.
Pune Police have announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the arrest of a history-sheeter who allegedly raped a 26-year-old woman inside a state transport bus at the Swargate bus station. The accused, Dattatray Ramdas Gade (37), is on the run since the incident which took place on early Tuesday morning. He has half a dozen cases of theft, robbery and chain-snatching registered against him in Pune and adjoining Ahilyanagar district, and was out on bail since 2019 in one of the offences.
Maharashtra government employees returned to work at Mantralaya, the secretariat building in Mumbai, on Monday, four days after its top floors were damaged in a fire.
Renovation of the Mantralaya, the Maharashtra state secretariat, which was engulfed by a devastating fire last week is likely cost about Rs 50 crore.
The CM also said all papers and files in his office have been gutted.
Devendra Fadnavis, thrice Maharashtra chief minister, approaches Vasantdada Patil and Sharad Pawar's records.
The race for the Maharashtra Chief Minister post has intensified following the Mahayuti coalition's landslide victory in the state assembly polls. The Shiv Sena has backed Eknath Shinde for the top job, citing the Bihar model, while the BJP has thrown its weight behind Devendra Fadnavis, emphasizing his leadership qualities and understanding of the state. The BJP's preference for Fadnavis stems from its dominance in the alliance with 132 seats, compared to Shiv Sena's 57 seats. Amidst these developments, both parties have held meetings to discuss the matter, while Fadnavis and other BJP leaders have denied any dispute over the CM's post.
A special meeting of Maharashtra Cabinet will be held on Friday to review the situation in the aftermath of the massive fire that engulfed the state secretariat 'Mantralaya'.
Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to acquire the iconic Air India building at Nariman Point in Mumbai for Rs 1,601 crore. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet in Mumbai. The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, also decided to waive off around Rs 250 crore unrealised income and interest on the property, an official said.
As the race for Maharashtra chief minister enters the last lap, Hemant Waje looks at several scenarios which can play out.
An alleged attack on a Marathi-speaking family by a government employee in Thane district sparked outrage in the Maharashtra Assembly, where the BJP-led government assured justice and condemned the incident. Opposition parties demanded immediate action against the accused, Akhilesh Shukla, and his wife, who have been arrested. The incident has raised concerns about discrimination against Marathi people and fueled tensions in the state.
Two days after a devastating fire swept Maharashtra's secretariat Mantralaya, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday said all files of the Urban Development Department will be reconstructed within a month's time.
A major fire broke out at the fourth floor of the Mantralaya building which houses the state secretariat in south Mumbai on Thursday afternoon, fire brigade sources said.
Following a fatal collision between a ferry and a Navy craft off the Mumbai coast, authorities have made life jackets mandatory for all passengers taking boat rides from the Gateway of India. The decision comes after survivors of the Wednesday tragedy claimed the ferry did not have enough life jackets. Some tourists, however, raised concerns about the effectiveness of life jackets if people don't know how to use them properly.
The Badlapur school, where two young girls were allegedly sexually abused, preferred to cover up the crime instead of helping their parents file a police complaint, said Susieben Shah, chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, on Wednesday.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly on Friday passed a bill empowering local tree authorities to allow the felling of all types of trees without referring matters to the State Tree Authority.
The two missing persons have been identified as 43-year-old Hansraj Bhati and seven-year-old Johan Mohammad Nisar Ahmed Pathan, the police said.
Learning a lesson from the fire that destroyed top four floors of the state secretariat last week, the authorities at the Maharashtra Legislature have imposed a ban on plywood in its vicinity.
Efforts on seeking information about structural audit of the Mantralaya building, where a massive blaze gutted several offices on Thursday, will take place on Friday morning, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said. The Crime Branch will probe the fire.
The department has installed the system that would prevent the employees from accessing these two sites and making any transactions online.
A 21-year-old woman was allegedly raped by three persons on the outskirts of Pune, while her male was assaulted, police said on Friday.
Hinting at sabotage in Mantralaya blaze, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar "showed courage" to step down as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra only after files pertaining to various scams gutted in the fire.
A devastating fire in the Maharashtra government secretariat, including offices of the chief minister and the deputy chief minister, on Thursday left two persons dead and 16 injured and destroyed large number of files, raising questions on whether any sabotage was the cause.
A major fire broke out on Thursday at Mantralaya, the Maharashtra government Secretariat, gutting three floors of the seven-storey building including the offices of the chief minister and injuring at least 16 people.
Several legislators cutting across party lines in Maharashtra on Thursday staged an agitation outside the Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai, in support of the demand for reservation to the Maratha community.
Admitting that there were lessons to be learnt from the devastating fire at Mantralaya that claimed five lives, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday announced that a fire audit would be conducted in all the government buildings.
'Since September 1, a senior cabinet minister has been to-ing and fro-ing between Jalna and Mumbai by chartered flight every single day with messages from the two deputy chief ministers and the chief minister to get Manoj Jarange-Patil to back down from his agitation.'
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) president Sharad Pawar has invited Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar to share a meal at his residence in Baramati during their visit to his hometown on March 2.
The Nationalist Congress Party is livid as Shivtare continues to criticise Pawar, whose wife Sunetra is likely to contest from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat, even after meeting Shinde in Mumbai recently.
Mumbai Police has stepped up vigil after an anonymous letter sent to the Maharashtra secretariat 'Mantralaya' threatened to bomb important government installations in Mumbai and Nagpur.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
'Instead of doing ground work they are sitting and monitoring the drought through Mantralaya and trying to solve the problem with Aamir Khan.'
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and various other state ministers sat on a dharna in Mumbai on Thursday to protest against the arrest of their cabinet colleague Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
The files pertaining names and the total number of counsels, solicitors, advocates and legal advisors, public prosecutors appointed by the state in the hit-and-run case were destroyed in the Mantralaya blaze.
Maharashtra blames IFCI for attachment orders
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday termed the criticism of Uddhav Thackeray in Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar's autobiography "wrong information" and downplayed it by claiming books are read for two days and then put into libraries.
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