The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a Zilla Parishad school teacher from Latur in Maharashtra and registered a case against four persons after it emerged that a racket was being operated to help NEET students willing to pay money to crack the exam, police said on Monday.
'If you look at the average age of all our candidates, you will notice that their average age is between 35 and 40. It is a kind of revolution that the MNS is bringing in Maharashtra.'
Dharashiv, earlier Osmanabad, is among the eight districts that comprise the state's Marathwada region, where activist Manoj Jarange has led an agitation demanding reservation for Marathas in education and government jobs.
Later in the afternoon, he also said that he was planning to hold a rally of the Maratha community at the protest site on October 12. "It will be attended by all the Marathas. It will show our plight and disappointment.... I will continue my protest here and will not even see the faces of my children till then," he said.
Amid a fresh wave of protests in Maharashtra over the Maratha quota demand, authorities in Dharashiv district of the state on Wednesday started distributing Kunbi caste certificates to the eligible Maratha community members, paving the way for their inclusion in the OBC category.
The MNS joining the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra could help it with a 'Thackeray versus Thackeray' narrative, fielding Raj Thackeray, an articulate speaker, to take on his cousin Uddhav Thackeray.
Ten to 20 days of heatwave are expected against the normal of four to eight days in the entire April-June period.
Heatwave conditions have been prevailing in Odisha since April 15 and the Gangetic West Bengal since April 17, according to the MeT department.
Temperatures in 17 locations breached 48 degrees Celsius on Monday, with the relentless heat affecting health and livelihoods across large parts of northwestern and central India.
Fasting quota activist Manoj Jarange on Monday sought reservation for the Maratha community in entire Maharashtra and not in specific regions and warned the ongoing agitation will be ratcheted up if the demand was not fulfilled by the state government.
Lakhs of voters will have to bear the searing heat when they step out to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
Intense heat swept through east India and parts of the southern peninsular region on Thursday, testing power grids and prompting the Kerala government to order closure of educational institutions till May 6.
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.
Jarange, whose hunger strike at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district for reservation for the community in government jobs and education entered 12th day, also rejected the fresh outcome of talks held with a delegation of Maratha community leaders and the government late on Friday night in Mumbai.
There is a growing unease among Lok Sabha ticket aspirants in the Shiv Sena amid its decision to drop three sitting MPs and the ongoing seat-sharing talks between the Mahayuti partners, party sources said.
State-run bus services have been completely suspended in five Marathwada districts while curfew and Internet shut-down have been imposed in parts of Beed where the houses of political leaders were targeted by protesters.
Quota activist Manoj Jarange has announced that he will start an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan in Mumbai from January 20 to intensify his demand of reservation for the Maratha community.
Godavari Dange, a school dropout who was widowed at the age of 19 is now changing the lives of farmers in her village and beyond.
Jarange had also claimed that a poisoning attempt was made against him through saline, though he did not elaborate on it.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Chandrakant Khaire on Monday said the Congress cannot stake claim to the Aurangabad constituency in Maharashtra for the next Lok Sabha polls as Shiv Sena (undivided) had won this seat multiple times in the past.
Maharashtra cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal has demanded a stay on the Kunbi caste certificates issued to Marathas following their latest agitation for reservation and scrapping of the Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde committee formed over the quota issue.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said the all-party meeting held earlier in the day decided that reservation should be given to the Maratha community without tampering with the existing quotas of other communities in the state.
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
'These betrayers don't realise that their exit opens up vast new opportunities to those whose growth they have always stunted'
A Maratha community member from Dharashiv in Maharashtra, who was the first one to be given the Kunbi caste certificate in the district as part of the ongoing survey exercise, has decided to return the document to the authorities, saying he wants all Marathas in the state to be given this benefit.
Some India states are likely to record a significantly higher number of heatwave days, according to the national weather body.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Monday said he will set out on a tour of Maharashtra after the Diwali festival to meet Marathas and make them aware about the issue of reservation for the community.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Thursday that spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had given him blessings and told him that he would succeed when he and other rebel Shiv Sena MLAs were camping in a Guwahati hotel.
Jarange, aged around 40, has been holding the hunger protest in Jalna district's Antarwali Sarati village since August 29.
'The BJP, already falling short of a strong OBC leader from Maharashtra, will be more than happy to welcome Chhagan Bhujbal in its fold.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the Rs 17,840 crore Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri-Nhava Sheva Atal Setu, the longest bridge as well as the longest sea bridge in the country connecting south Mumbai with Nhava-Sheva in Navi Mumbai.
In a setback to the Congress ahead of Lok Sabha elections, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Monday quit the Congress, amid speculation that he is veering towards the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The NCP leader asked how suddenly a number of records showing Marathas as belonging to the Kunbi caste were being found.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday reiterated that he will stop drinking water from Wednesday evening if his demand for reservation to the Maratha community is not fulfilled by the Maharashtra government.
Union minister Raosaheb Danve has caused a flutter by saying if the Bharatiya Janata Party needs victory in the Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra in 2024, then it must ensure that All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and sitting MP Imtiaz Jaleel contests the election next year.
'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.'
Leaders at an all-party meeting on Maratha quota chaired by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday passed a resolution asking activist Manoj Jarange to call off his indefinite fast.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mumbai on Tuesday, a day after quitting the Congress.
A delegation of the Maharashtra government, comprising ministers, on Tuesday failed to convince Manoj Jarange, whose hunger strike for Maratha quota entered the 8th day, to withdraw his protest.
Some MLAs (from Shinde bloc) have been sending messages that they want to "seek forgiveness from 'Matoshree'.
