Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar acknowledged that some ministers are unhappy with the portfolios assigned to them in the new cabinet, which includes a high number of ministers. Pawar said that the work on pending projects will begin soon after the ministers take charge of their respective ministries. The budget session of the Maharashtra legislature will commence on March 3.
In a major goof-up, the Maharashtra government has appointed two senior officials to the top post in Excise Department, raising questions over coordination among various concerned departments.
Rescue efforts to reach eight people trapped inside a partially collapsed tunnel in Telangana have been intensified with an increased deployment of personnel and equipment. Scientists from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) have located four of the trapped workers using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). The damaged conveyor belt is expected to be repaired by Monday, allowing for easier removal of debris. The Chief Minister is scheduled to visit the site and hold a review meeting with officials. The condition of the four located workers is said to be grim.
He said the government was also planning to bring uniformity in the height and facade of all buildings along the Grand Road.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has uncovered "multiple irregularities" in the operations of TASMAC, the state-run monopoly controlling liquor trade in Tamil Nadu. The agency found evidence of "manipulation" in tender processes and "unaccounted" cash transactions worth Rs 1,000 crore through distillery companies. The ED alleges that these irregularities involved "kickbacks" to secure increased supply orders from TASMAC and systematic inflation of expenses by distillery companies to siphon off unaccounted cash.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti asked additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the two probe agencies, when will the arguments on charges against Sisodia commence in the trial court.
The Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested nine more excise officials in Khammam district on charges of "subverting" the tender process for allotment of liquor shops for pecuniary benefits, the ACB officials said on Friday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday raided the home of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 30 other locations in connection with alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) may initiate a money laundering investigation over the framing and execution of the Aam Aadmi Party government's excise policy, official sources said on Friday after the Central Bureau of Investigation raided Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others in the matter.
Shiv Sena's Dadaji Bhuse is the new school education minister while Uday Samant continues to be the industries minister.
Four times more liquor has been seized in the 2024 election than during the 2019 polls.
According to sources in the Excise department, the Sahara Airlines, while submitting opinion of its Chartered Accountant on service tax, had allegedly backdated it to 2003 in which it was stated that Rs 1442 crore (Rs 14.42 billion) income from advertising services provided to its group company was not taxable under advertising services.
The ED said its investigation also revealed that from 2019 to 2022, the sale of 'unaccounted illicit' liquor was almost 30-40 per cent of the total liquor sale in the state.
The AAP claimed that Sisodia would be arrested on Monday and alleged the move was initiated in view of the forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat where it is in a direct contest with the BJP.
The IAS officer was later taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and is expected to be produced before a magistrate seeking his remand, the sources said.
Goa excise commissioner Narayan Gad on Monday heard arguments over a complaint against a restaurant, which the Congress claimed was linked to Union minister Smriti Irani's daughter.
The seizure of liquor has been a matter of concern for the EC since it apprehends that the liquor might be used to influence the voters.
Nearly 250 private liquor vends, licensed under now-withdrawn Excise Policy 2021-22, are running currently in the city.
The Maharashtra government plans to extend timings of the bar counters at star hotels especially to facilitate foreign tourists, a senior state excise official said.
The chief engineer of the Public Works Department, however, said that the process of denotification has nothing to do with the apex court directive.
Stating that the police had "reliable inputs" that Anwar "may have been murdered", Akhilesh Chaturvedi, IG, CID, said that the police were yet to recover the victim's body.
A senior excise official said that his department will now seal the bar and seize the stock.
The move by the excise department has come in the wake of lifting of certain coronavirus-induced curbs, which included allowing reopening of liquor shops. As the demand for alcohol has increased in Maharashtra, there is a possibility of liquor smuggling by inter-state organised syndicates, the official said.
A students' organization in Madhya Pradesh has demanded an inquiry after a woman, recently selected in the government service in the disabled quota, was seen dancing in a viral social media video. The woman, however, denied any irregularity in her appointment, claiming that she suffers from 45 percent disability due to bone-related problems. She stated that she is able to walk and even dance for short periods due to implants from surgery following a serious hip injury.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested the special secretary of the Chhattisgarh excise department in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor syndicate scam in the state.
Statements of five 'Angadiya' firm operators have also been recorded by the ED to establish the "money trail" of this alleged Rs 45 crore bribe amount.
Don't create an "atmosphere of fear", the Supreme Court Tuesday told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the Chhattisgarh government alleged the probe agency is "running amok" and is trying to implicate Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in the state.
The toll in the hooch tragedy in Lucknow and Unnao districts climbed to 38 on Tuesday with the death of seven more persons even as the state excise commissioner was removed in connection with the incident and a state-wide crackdown launched by police against sale of spurious liquor.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has distributed portfolios among the new ministers, keeping key departments such as Home, Personnel, and several others to himself. The Congress' Radhakrishna Kishore was given Finance, Commercial Tax, Planning and Development Department, and Parliamentary Affairs departments. JMM's Deepak Biruwa was allotted the departments of Revenue, Registration and Land Reforms (non-registration), and Transport. Chamra Linda, another JMM leader, was allotted the departments of Schedule Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes (except Minority Welfare). RJD's Sanjay Prasad Yadav was given the departments of Industries, and Labour, Planning, Training and Skill Development. The Congress' Irfan Ansari got Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, besides Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, and Disaster Management departments. The chief minister also kept to himself the departments of Cabinet Secretariat, Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Official Language, Road Construction, Building Construction, and those departments yet to be distributed to anyone. Among the other ministers, JMM's Ramdas Soren was given the School Education and Literacy, and Registration departments. Party colleague Hafizul Hasan was allotted the departments of Water Resources, and Minority Welfare Department. Panchayati Raj, Rural Works, and Rural Development departments were given to Congress MLA Deepika Pandey Singh. The CM gave Drinking Water and Sanitation, and Excise and Prohibition departments to JMM's Yogendra Prasad. JMM legislator Sudhivya Kumar became the minister for Urban Development and Housing, Higher and Technical Education, and Tourism, Art Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs departments. Shilpi Neha Tirkey of the Congress was allotted Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department. A total of 11 MLAs took oath as ministers in the Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand on Thursday.
The Election Commission has deployed 36 observers for monitoring the flow of illegal cash and other inducements during the upcoming assembly polls in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. The officials have been deputed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (Income Tax department) and Central Board of Excise and Customs (Customs and Excise department) and will act as Election Expenditure Observers, a senior Revenue department official said.
The Kerala Police are investigating the mysterious deaths of an IRS officer, his sister, and their mother in Kochi. The officer, Maneesh Vijay, and his sister, Shalini Vijay, were found hanging inside their house, while their mother, Shakuntala Agarwal, was discovered dead on her bed. Police have not yet established a direct link between the deaths and a CBI case in which Shalini was summoned as an accused. Preliminary findings suggest the siblings died by suicide, but the cause of their mother's death is still under investigation. The family had been residing in the quarters for the past year and a half but reportedly kept to themselves, maintaining limited interaction with neighbours, police added.
The Election Commission has said it will allow suspected fake voters to cast their ballots in the Palakkad assembly by-poll, but will take action against them later. The CPI(M), Congress, and BJP have accused each other of enrolling fake voters. The by-poll is scheduled for November 20.
The Supreme Court of India has asked DMK leader V Senthil Balaji to choose between his ministerial post in Tamil Nadu and his freedom. The court expressed concern over Balaji's reinstatement as a minister despite being granted bail in a money laundering case related to the "cash-for-job" scam. The court fears that Balaji's presence as a minister could influence witnesses in the case. The court has given Balaji until April 28 to make a decision.
The toll due to consumption of spurious liquor in the Malad area of Mumbai climbed to 94 with the death of four more persons on Sunday.
While the two-phased assembly polls voting has concluded in Assam, in West Bengal two phases have completed while four more remain.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday raided the premises of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel as part of a money laundering investigation against his son in the alleged liquor scam case and seized about Rs 30 lakh apart from some documents, official sources said.
In more than one way, it's a setback for the DMK and Chief Minister Stalin in political terms. The electoral fall-out, if any, will have to wait until the next summer, only when assembly elections are due in the state, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
From small restaurants to mighty software companies, it is businesses, not the government, that create jobs. Yet, in a cruel irony, they have to fight extortive and brutal State power every step of the way, says Debashis Basu.
Reports had it that a US state department official had said that Washington "encouraged a fair, transparent and timely legal process for chief minister Kejriwal".
