Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday said he was hopeful of speedy clearance to the Navi Mumbai airport project but Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh feared it would destroy large swathe of mangroves at the proposed site.
United States-based Los Angeles Emergency Operation Centre will train officers of Force One, an elite force formed on the lines of National Security Guard, and Maharashtra disaster management staff.
The BMC was expected to control the water theft and Rs 98 crore (Rs 980 million) was being provided for repairs of underground pipelines which were supplying contaminated water to Mumbai.
'Force One,' the specialised commando battalion raised after the Mumbai attacks, will be deployed as part of the tight security arrangements being made for the winter session of the Maharashtra Legislature, commencing in Nagpur from Tuesday.
Ashok Chavan on Tuesday said his resignation as Maharashtra chief minister does not prove his guilt in the Adarsh Housing Society scam and claimed he was '100 per cent' sure that he will come clean on the issue. "Acceptance of my resignation by the Congress does not prove my guilt in the Adarsh Housing Society scam," Chavan told reporters after tendering his resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan. "I resigned because of Cong's moral stand on such issues," he said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday indicated that unnecessary use of electricity in the state would be restricted due to shortage of power.
When Air Force One lands in Mumbai on 6 November and US President Barack Obama sets foot on the Indian soil, senior police officials barring the exception of Director General of Police and Mumbai police commissioner may not even get a glimpse of the visiting dignitary.
The suspense over the fate of embattled Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan continued on Sunday night with a high-level Congress committee tasked to give a report on the housing scam in Mumbai saying it would need 'more time' to do its job. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is heading the two-member committee, met fellow panel member Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday night shortly after his arrival from Kolkata.
The finance minister along with his cabinet colleague and Defence Minister A K Antony have been asked by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to submit a report on the scam.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will visit the city on the first anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and inaugurate a martyrs' memorial.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, whose name has been linked to a property scam related to the Adarsh Society in Colaba, Mumbai, attempted to clarify his stand on Friday.
Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai will meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in Mumbai on Saturday to lodge a formal protest over the attack on the offices of TV channel IBN-Lokmat. Sardesai will meet Chavan in his capacity as the president of the Editors Guild, along with several senior journalists, and discuss the issue with the chief minister. Journalists will also stage a demonstration at Hutatma Chowk at 1 pm on Saturday to condemn the attack, he said.
Mumbai electricity consumers do not have to face powercuts for a while. The Maharashtra Cabinet subcommittee chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Thursday intervened to resolve the ongoing dispute between Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure over power purchase.
On Maharashtra's 50th foundation day, Governor K Sankaranarayanan and Chief Minister Ashok Chavan led the state in paying tributes to the 105 martyrs of the movement that led to the creation of the state.
Ashok Chavan, the Congress' choice of Maharashtra chief minister for the second time, on Sunday said the state cabinet would be formed after the meeting of Nationalist Congress Party Member of Legislative Assembly on Monday and added that Raj Thackeray's support would not be taken to form the government.
Going for status quo, the Congress named Ashok Chavan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda as leaders of its legislature parties in Maharashtra and Haryana, clearing the decks for their return as chief ministers even as Arunachal strongman Dorjee Khandu was on Sunday sworn in for a second consecutive term in the state's top post.
As far as calling names goes, campaigning for the October 13 Maharashtra Assembly elections seems to have reached a new low, with key players in state political arena calling rivals names, including those of animals.
The Congress on Thursday backed Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in the wake of a controversy over actor Amitabh Bachchan's presence at a state government function in Mumbai."The party is aware of whatever has happened there. The chief minister of Maharashtra has already given a clarification. Party workers are angry because Amitabh Bachchan has identified himself with Narendra Modi," All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters.
Describing the 'Marathi versus non-Marathi' issue as the narrow political agenda of a few politicians, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Monday said a placement agency owned by one such leader had recruited 150 non-Maharashtrians."Their party's public stand says something and the leaders act otherwise. I am not complaining," Chavan said without naming any party, during his reply to the motion of thanks to the governor.
Twelve people, including children, were killed and 13 others injured in landslides triggered by heavy rains in suburban Andheri in Mumbai on Thursday night, the police said.
Apparently referring to Shiv Sena's parochial attitude, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Sunday said acts of hooliganism by any party in the state will not be tolerated.
A foreign cargo ship, which collided with another vessel about 10 km off Mumbai harbour, tilted further spilling oil for the third day as Navy and Coast Guard made hectic efforts to contain the leak.
The Maharashtra government decided to increase tax for commercial and tourist vehicles by amending Mumbai Motor Vehicle Act 1958.
Chavan's helplessness could be seen when he indirectly also appealed to the Sainiks by saying that such acts of 'threats and vandalism' were not in the interests of the state. In a bid to show that the state has not been a mute spectator, Chavan reeled out figures to say that more than a 1000 Sena activists have been booked and arrested for the violence and the state is stringently opposing their bail.
Amid a raging row over the screening of 'My Name is Khan', Shiv Sena Members of Parliament today decided to return their security to protest Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's threat to remove security cover provided to the party's executive chief Uddhav Thackeray.
Chavan told television channel CNN-IBN that the state government would pull out all stops to ensure the film's release on February 12. "We have told them that we'll withdraw security of all those people who are involved in those activities. I have already withdrawn the security of all Shiv Sena leaders, and if required, I will also withdraw the security of Uddhav Thackeray," he said.
Maytas was awarded the Rs 4.8 billion contract for commissioning of sub-stations, transmission and distribution lines in the Ahmadnagar, Beed and Latur districts in September last year. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said, "After the fraud committed by Raju came to light and the connection between Satyam and Maytas became evident, I have ordered Mahavitaran to cancel the contract and start bidding process afresh."
The Maharashtra government said on Saturday that it would ensure security for screening of movies of actor Shah Rukh Khan, under Shiv Sena threat for favouring inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the Indian Premier League, and asserted that it will act against anyone trying to "bully" others.
Members of the inquiry committee set up by the Press Council to examine the dangerous trend of 'paid news' met Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who has received a notice from the Election Commission, after complaints that he allegedly paid newspapers to publish stories in his favour before the state assembly polls. The panel met the chief minister at his official residence 'Varsha' on Thursday and recorded his statement on the issue.
The truckers' associations in Maharashtra on Sunday decided to withdraw from the seven-day old nation-wide truckers' strike.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday insisted that he had not given up on the demand for Union Territory status for disputed boundary areas in Karnataka but refrained from raising it with party chief Sonia Gandhi.
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link, which was inaugurated by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Mumbai on Tuesday, will be named as Rajiv Gandhi Setu.
When citizens realise that things won't change, the lose faith in the system. That is the most dangerous thing to happen to a country, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Countering Shiv Sena's anti-migrant stand, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Thursday said Mumbai welcomed everyone provided they do not 'encroach on the land illegally.'
The Maharashtra government on Monday tabled in the state assembly the Ram Pradhan committee report on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, which cited instances of non-adherence to the Standard Operating Practice during the terror siege.
Body blow for real estate developers as state switches off tap to high-rise projects.
The new chief minister, if backed by the Congress high command, can give Maharashtra a chance to recover from being looted by rent-seeking politicians, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
"The copy given to me by the Opposition has no relation with the four copies we have. No photo copy of the original report went out," Chavan informed the Legislative Council, replying to the issue raised by the Opposition leaders.
The Congress high command has decided that Chavan who was 10, Janpath's handpicked choice for the post after 26/11 will have to go. But the only question, according to sources, before the Congress is when to show him the door.
Facing the Opposition's onslaught over issue of compensation to 26/11 victims, the Maharashtra government on Friday announced that it would go the extra mile to ensure that relief measures reach all those affected in the incident.
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