The passage of a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for Marathas in Maharashtra Legislature Thursday has now made the state second in the country in terms of quota quantum.
Haryana which offers 67 per cent reservations, used to be second in the list, followed by Telangana where the quantum of quota rose to 62 per cent last year, an official said.
With the passage of the Maratha quota bill, the reservation quantum in Maharashtra will rise to 68 per cent, just a per cent less than Tamil Nadu, which tops the tally with 69 per cent reservations in various categories.
In Rajasthan, the quota quantum rose to 54 per cent last year after that government increased reservations for Gujjars and four other backward communities, the official said.
Asked how Maharashtra government will defend the increase in reservations in court, the official said, “If needed, we can submit strong data supporting our decision of awarding 16 per cent quota to Marathas.”
“The Supreme Court, in a 1992 order, had put a cap on reservations in government jobs and education at 50 per cent. But in an order in July 2010, it allowed states to exceed that limit, provided they had solid scientific data to justify the increase,” the official said.
Mumbai. In order to make remedy for deadly traffic jam and difficulties in parking of vehicles in Mumbai, public parking facility should be provided by the Government in Mumbai at Mantralay, Raj Bhavan and all govern ment places. Senior BJP MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha raised this demand in the assembly and stated that a separate ministry should be formed for planned development of Mumbai.
Under ‘Half an Hour Discussion’ on important public issues in Vidhan Sabha, on Wednesday, Lodha gave this proposal regarding development of fundamental facilities, parking problem in Mumbai and traffic jam issue and stated that the Chief Minister is proactively working for development of Mumbai and Maharashtra in a transparent manner. Work of Metro is speedy. But there is no space for vehicles on the roads and still every day thousands of new vehicles are registered. As a result, being stuck in traffic jams for hours has now become the greatest identity of this city.
There is no space for walkers to walk on the footpaths, stated MLA Lodha and added that a very small part of taxes levied from Mumbai are used for Mumbai. He demanded to the Government that long time pending Haji Ali circle fly over bridge work should be completed and road from Banganga to Rocky Hill should be urgently opened. Lodha expressed sorrow that the file for renaming Mumbai Central Railway Station after Nana Jagannath Shankarsheth who had planned for fundamental facilities in Mumbai is still stuck in government departments and it is high case of negligence towards schemes. Lodha demanded a separate ministry for development of Mumbai and stated that urgent remedies should be done to save Mumbai. He stated that if a separate ministry is formed for Mumbai, then it would benefit not only for rapid development of Mumbai city, but also that of the state.
A 39-year-old Indian Navy commander has been booked by Pune police for allegedly uploading objectionable and morphed pictures of his wife on an online photo application, a police official said Thursday.
The victim in her complaint to police on Tuesday claimed that her husband, currently posted in Delhi, had “pornography addiction”, Kondhwa police station’s inspector Mahadeo Kumbhar said.
The woman, who is a former Army officer, mentioned that she had recently moved to her parent’s place here along with her children as her husband did not give up his habit, despite several efforts by her and other family members, he said.
After being fed up of her husband’s behaviour, the woman shifted to Pune and also filed a divorce case at a family court here last month, he said.
While moving from Delhi to Pune, she brought along her husband’s mobile phone and on checking it, she found the objectionable pictures uploaded on the photo app, Kumbhar said quoting the complaint.
Besides uploading the victim’s photos, her husband had also posted objectionable pictures of his colleague’s wife and some other women on the app, he said.
“As per the complaint, the accused used his e-mail account to upload his wife’s pictures on the photo app,” Kumbhar said, adding that they have so far not received any complaint from the other women.
The accused was also allegedly having an affair with his colleague’s wife, he said quoting the complaint.
A case was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, the police official said.
“We will write to Navy authorities seeking permission to question him in the case,” he added.
The Bombay High Court Thursday continued an earlier order restraining Mumbai Police from filing its charge sheet or taking coercive steps against actors Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and director Karan Johar and others accused in an obscenity case.
The celebrities had approached the high court in 2015 after a case was lodged against them in February that year under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 292 and 294 pertaining to obscenity.
A charity event by the name of ‘Roast’ was arranged by comedy group AIB in December 2014. The video of the event was uploaded by the AIB in January 2015.
The video was removed a few days later after it faced ire for its alleged vulgar and obscene content.
In February 2015, an activist, Santosh Daundkar, filed a complaint before a court here seeking direction to police to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) against AIB’s founders and the show producers and celebrities who took part in it.
A magistrate court had then ordered that an FIR be registered against 10 people, including AIB founder Rohan Joshi, film-maker Karan Johar, and actors Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor and Deepika Padukone.
After the FIR was lodged, the accused persons moved the high court seeking for the case to be quashed.
In 2015, the HC had directed police not to take any coercive steps or file charge sheet in the case.
When the petitions came up for hearing on Thursday, Daundkar’s advocate Aditya Pratap sought for a stay on the probe to be vacated and to permit the police to finish its investigation and file a charge sheet.
A division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and S V Kotwal, however, refused to do so and said since the petitions are directed to be tagged with a public interest litigation (PIL) on the same issue, the HC registry department shall do the needful and place matters before the appropriate bench.
Nearly 37.28 per cent Marathas in Maharashtra are living below poverty line (BPL) and 93 per cent families from the community have an annual income less than Rs 1 lakh, according to the summary of findings of the State Backward Class Commission (SBCC).
The state Assembly Thursday unanimously passed a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation for Marathas under ‘socially and educationally backward’ category.
The summary of the SBCC, which studied the social, educational and financial status of Marathas, was tabled in the state Assembly by the government.
It said the Maratha community constitutes 30 per cent of the state’s total population and that 76.86 per cent of its families were dependent on agriculture and farm labour.
The community had six per cent representation in government and semi-government services and the representation was primarily higher in the D-class of government service, it said.
The percentage of the community which migrated to cities for work had more people serving as ‘Mathadi’ workers (head loaders) and domestic workers, the summary said.
The commission conducted public hearings at 21 places while analysing the social, educational and financial status of Marathas in the state.
It received a total of 1,93,651 personal memorandums, 814 from various organisations, while 784-gram panchayats also collectively submitted 282 resolutions.
Besides, elected representatives submitted 196 memorandums which supported reservation to Marathas under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.
However, 1,523 personal memorandums, 86 submitted by various organisations, 78 political representatives and 37 gram panchayats said Marathas should get a separate reservation without disturbing the existing quota.
Also, there were 84 representations opposing the inclusion of Marathas under the OBC category, the findings said.
The SBCC findings said there were 6.92 per cent Marathas in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), out of which direct recruitment was of only 0.27 per cent.
The representation of Marathas in the Indian Police Service (IPS) was 15.92 per cent while in Indian Forest service, it was 7.87 per cent.
The findings also said that as compared to the community’s population, only 4.30 per cent posts were taken by highly qualified Maratha members.
“The poor representation of the community in higher, technical and professional courses shows social inefficiency, inept financial situation and educational weakness,” the SBCC mentioned in its findings.
It said that from 2013 to 2018, 13,368 farmers committed suicide, of whom 23.56 per cent (2,152) were from the Maratha community.
The main reasons for suicide were indebtedness and crop failure, it added.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Thursday dubbed as “politically motivated” the ACB’s affidavit claiming major lapses on part of former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and others in the alleged multi-crore irrigation scam.
NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik questioned why the probe was lingering for four years “while it could have been completed in a year”, and accused the government of using it “as a tool” against the party.
“It is a politically motivated move. We will definitely keep our position before the court, and the court will decide, as dada (Pawar) has already said,” Malik added.
Pawar had yesterday declined to comment on the issue, saying the matter was sub-judice and that the response would be filed in court.
Besides questioning the time taken to complete the probe, Malik sought to know why the contracts concerned have not been cancelled yet “if at all there was any corruption”.
He also sought to know why payments were still being made to the contractors and noted that cost escalations were also happening.
“So, they are using it as a tool. And if at all corruption has taken place there…all the contractors belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP will also have to explain if they too were part of the corruption,” he said.
Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan had Wednesday said there was no political interference in the probe into the alleged irrigation scam when the previous Congress-NCP government was in power.
The Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) informed the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench on Tuesday that its probe into the alleged scam has revealed major lapses on part of Pawar and other government officials.
The scam, pegged at around Rs 70,000 crore, relates to alleged corruption and irregularities in approval and execution of various irrigation projects in Maharashtra during the Congress-NCP rule.
Pawar was among the NCP ministers who were in-charge of the irrigation department at different times between 1999 and 2014 during the Congress-NCP coalition rule in Maharashtra.
Adoption of drone technology along with artificial intelligence (AI) will change the face of the irrigation and agriculture sectors in the long-run, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday.
Addressing the first workshop of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution India at the Sahyadri Guest House, he said new technologies will also improve predictability, which will help farmers plan the agricultural produce well in advance.
The World Economic Forum had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Maharashtra to set up the centre in the satellite city of Navi Mumbai.
The multi-million dollar centre will help the larger society benefit from industrial revolution 4.0 technologies including IoT, blockchain, AI among others.
“Industrial revolution with artificial intelligence is changing the face of every single business which we used to do. It is making it more predictable more reliable more efficient,” Fadnavis said.
He said even though the irrigation sector has seen some technological advancement, there is no proper evaluation tool for accurate assessment.
“But now with the drone technology associated with AI capabilities, information will be very assessable and I think that would increase the efficiency and accuracy of the department and we would really know that what we claim is correct. This would also increase the revenues of the department,” Fadnavis said.
Similarly, he said, agriculture sector also requires sustainability considering the weather uncertainties and climate change, which can cause huge distress.
“All this can be accessed through drones and AI and we can actually reach the farmers before distress happens,” he added.
Davis further said that if data can be collated from automated weather stations in the state’s 2,000 revenue circles, AI and drones, an effective tool or platform can be created to make the entire agriculture space more predictable.
In a fresh turn of events, Mumbai special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Thursday rejected Vijay Mallya’s plea seeking a stay on hearing of Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) application to declare him a fugitive.
The decision from the judicature came after five parties, including a family member of Mallya, sought court dossiers with regard to the ED seeking to get Mallya declared a fugitive economic offender under the new law.
The special courts, under the new law, have a right to declare a person a fugitive economic offender. The courts can order immediate confiscation of the offenders’ properties and other assets. A fugitive economic offender is a person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued for committing a scheduled offence and who has left India to avoid criminal prosecution, or being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.
Mallya is also facing money-laundering charges in the United Kingdom after India initiated extradition proceedings against him. Both, ED along with Central Bureau of Investigation have filed several cases for alleged loan default against him.
On November 22, the United Kingdom (UK) High Court issued an order asking Mallya to pay a hefty amount of GBP 88,000 to UBS Investment Bank, which had issued GBP 20.4 million in the mortgage loan for his London property, and ruled in favour of UBS to take possession of Mallya’s palatial Cornwall Terrace home.
Mallya is residing in the UK from the past two years. His extradition case is reportedly in its final stage at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court which is expected to deliver it ruling by the year-end.
Top-seeded Manav Thakkar clinched the singles and doubles titles at the Portugal Junior and Cadet Open in Guimaraes.
Manav defeated compatriot Jeet Chandra in a singles match which went down to the wire. He won 11-5, 7-11, 10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9 on Wednesday night.
He had beaten fifth-seed Italian John Oyebode 11-9, 11-6, 11-3, 9-11, 11-5 in the pre-quarterfinals, Portugal’s Goncalo Gomez 11-5, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4 in the quarterfinals and third-seeded Indian Snehit 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5, 7-11, 6-11, 11-4 in the semifinals.
Manav partnered with Manush Shah to win the doubles title, as the top Indian pair overcame a stiff challenge from compatriots, second seeds Jeet Chandra and Snehit Suravajjula before winning 11-7, 11-6, 13-15, 7-11, 11-6.
Jeet also put up a fine effort throughout the tournament as he beat Italy’s Andrea Puppo 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-8 in the pre-quarters and then Chinese Tao Yuchang 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-7 before defeating Spaniard Marc Gutierrez 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-5, 11-5 in the semifinals.
The other successful Indians included Selenadeepthi Selvakumar and Swastika Ghosh who won a bronze medal each in the junior girls singles after failing to go past the semifinal hurdles.
Top-seeded Indian Selenadeepthi lost her match to local favourite Liu Yangzi 8-11, 16-18, 8-11, 3-11 while China’s Qin Xiaoce beat Swastika 13-11, 11-3, 11-6, 12-10.
Earlier, the Chennai girl, pairing up with Italian Marie Chapet, lost their semifinals in junior girls doubles to third-seeded Portugal duo of Raquel Martins and Celia Silva 7-11, 6-11, 9-11 to settle for bronze medals.
The Congress in its Rajasthan poll manifesto, which was released earlier on Thursday, promised to do away with the condition of minimum educational qualification for contesting local body elections in the state.
Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and chairman of the manifesto committee Harish Choudhary released the party manifesto.
The pilot said it was prepared after taking opinions through multiple platforms such as social media.
Choudhary said the party’s promise to remove the minimum educational qualification condition was for both urban and rural bodies.
The condition was introduced by the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in 2015.
It requires a candidate to have passed Class X for contesting municipal elections.
A candidate contesting the elections to Panchayati raj institutions for the post of a sarpanch is required to have passed Class VIII and Class V in tribal reserved areas.
For contesting Zila Parishad or panchayat Samiti elections, a candidate requires to have passed Class X.
