What some of our politicians were up to on Friday, October 18, 2024.
Voters, it is said, get the government they deserve. We will soon see what voters in Maharashtra choose. Till then, a sense of helplessness and scepticism hangs in the air, notes Ramesh Menon.
The Election Commission of India has announced that the Delhi Assembly elections will be held on February 5, 2023, with the counting of votes scheduled for February 8. The last date to file nominations is January 17, and the scrutiny of nominations will be done by January 18. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until January 20.
Chief ministers of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha on Wednesday evening condoled the demise of Tata Group's chairman emeritus and veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, and said his legacy will live on forever.
Pawar urged people not to fall prey to the Opposition's "fake campaigns", highlighting government schemes for the youth, women, Warkaris (followers of Lord Vithoba) and others.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved conferring the status of classical language on Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali languages.
Jarange is a strident critic of the senior BJP leader and has routinely accused him of being the main obstacle in the Maratha community's quest for reservations.
The perception is rapidly gaining ground that though the chief minister is from the Shiv Sena, the government is being run by the NCP.
The National Testing Agency, however, denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres are some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
'Crores of rupees have been spent on paper but nothing has actually happened on the ground.'
Jarange has repeatedly targeted the BJP warning that the community would defeat its candidates in the assembly polls, which will be held on November 20.
The Maratha community is not backward and hence it does not require reservation in government jobs and education, a petitioner argued before the Bombay high court on Wednesday.
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.
'Peninsular Indians could ask 'Why should we contribute half of India's tax revenues if we account for only a quarter of the seats in the Lok Sabha?'.' 'The rest of the country seems likely to counter that 'democracy means one vote per person irrespective of where that person resides in India'.' 'With no easy answers to this thorny debate, the south's economic ascendancy could end up creating a Hobson's choice.' A revealing excerpt from Nandita Rajhansa and Saurabh Mukherjea's book, Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India.
Talking to reporters, state medical education minister Girish Mahajan said he has asked resident doctors to engage in a dialogue and urged them not to stretch the matter further.
'The Shiv Sena and the Ambedkarites are two powerful social forces in Maharashtra with a presence in the toiling classes. However, they were made to fight each other by the powers that be. Now, they are joining hands while overcoming this contentious past.'
Much drama is likely to continue in the coming year, within the Sangh Parivar as well as involving the Opposition parties and, of course the BJP's allies, predicts Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The primary market is expected to remain vibrant, with at least 10 companies, including supermart major Vishal Mega Mart and Blackstone-owned diamond grading firm International Gemmological Institute (India) Ltd expected to raise a combined Rs 20,000 crore in the next month, merchant bankers said. Education-focused NBFC Avanse Financial Services, TPG Capital-backed Sai Life Sciences, hospital chain operator Paras Healthcare, and investment bank DAM Capital Advisors are also among the companies planning to launch their IPOs in December, they added. The companies aim to raise a total of Rs 20,000 crore through their public offerings.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
He further commented on the current state of public discourse, saying a "mob rule" is being created wherein politicians capitalise on certain incidents and assure people of the death penalty for culprits even though only the judiciary has the power to pass legal verdicts.
Eleven villages in Akkalkot tehsil of Maharashtra's Solapur district have asked the district administration to provide them basic facilities or grant them permission to merge with adjoining Karnataka.
Disale announced that he will be sharing 50 per cent of his prize money with his fellow finalists to support their "incredible work".
'Naseer does not have the sense of humour that Om Puri has. 'Also Om has a great deal of compassion as a human being. Naseer was too focused on his own self.' A fascinating excerpt from Sangeeta Datta's book, Shyam Benegal.
Modi claimed the Congress, when in power at the Centre, had drawn up plans to allocate 15 percent of the total budget to minorities.
Rao suggested changes should also be brought in the evaluation methods and pitched for introduction of an open-book examination system for competitive examinations designed to test the candidates' "competence, aptitude, attitude and Intelligence Quotient".
Maharashtra minister Varsha Gaikwad on Thursday said that schools for Classes 1 to 9 in the state can be reopened for offline classroom sessions from January 24.
Patil said Shinde during his Dussehra speech at Azad Maidan in Mumbai assured the community of reservation.
'You need hard work along with talent to reach exceptional heights.'
In her resignation letter, Battull Hammid, who served as the principal of Viva College of Law in Virar, claimed she was quitting the post as she was feeling uncomfortable and suffocated.
'I had told Fadnavisji that I will be with the party till the Lok Sabha election and I will give my 100 per cent to campaign for the BJP. But ultimately I will have to take this decision (to quit the BJP).' 'When I requested him to see this from the point of view of an elder brother, he could not say anything more after that.'
The activist said leaders opposing Maratha interests would face consequences in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections.
'They are attacking my wife; they are attacking our 13-month-old daughter. They are saying that I do drugs.' 'I'm giving an open challenge to Mr Nawab Malik and Ms Sana Malik let's go to the labs and let's do the medical test of our family and your family.'
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday suspended two doctors of the state government-run Sassoon General Hospital and a staffer, two days after they were arrested in connection with the alleged manipulation of blood samples of the minor driver involved in the Porsche car crash in Pune.
The protest against the alleged sexual abuse of two girls at a school in Badlapur town of Maharashtra's Thane district turned violent on Tuesday as the angry agitators vandalised the school and also indulged in stone-pelting at the local railway station during the 'rail blockade', police said.
'The lack of opportunities here remains the biggest worry.' 'We have seen investment summits, but if you look around, much of it is only on paper and not on the ground.'
Now, class 12th exams will be held by end of May, while 10th standard exams will be in June.
"They both were produced in the court and were granted bail on a surety of Rs 50,000 each," special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday decided to name the proposed international music college in Mumbai after legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, who died recently, a state minister said.
The government is thrusting new leaders to the fore and moving others aside to create a rift between the Maratha and OBC communities, he said, stressing that those protesting over their demand for non-dilution of the OBC quota are not at fault.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Bombay high court order granting bail to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in a money laundering case.
