Maharashtra government in its 44 page report on the draft of National New Education Policy has recommended a tag-line of “100 per cent students in schools learning for eight hours a day.”

The School Education and Sports Ministry headed by Vinod Tawde has invited suggestions from the public by November 23 that too online and in English only. The report poses 73 questions which are based on 14 themes that have been culled out from discussions right from village, tehsil, district to state level. The state government supports the National New Education Policy statement of One Nation One Curriculum, free and compulsory education till secondary and flexibility in syllabus.

Among the various issues discussed in the report the state government has advocated the need for engaging parents as a partner in education. On the contentious issue of No Detention Policy (not failing students till Std VIIIth), the report says that the policy needs to be linked with well defined learning outcomes and remedial teaching.

The report also advocates the need for introduction of biometric attendance system and remote monitoring devices for teachers. It also advocates the promotion of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support for increasing number of schools and strengthening school infrastructure.

It calls for access to secondary education, face to face, Distance Education, ICT based education. Some of the 73 questions put across for inviting public response include – “why do our school children not seem to acquire age appropriate skills in reading, writing and numeracy? Assess the reasons in detail. Do the teachers have a lack of command over language. Is the teaching method traditional and not adapting to new age requirements.

Are trained teachers are not available especially for Semi-English. Text-book oriented teaching is done instead of curriculum. In Maths numerical skills are to be practised a lot.” ‘No exams’ is nothing but a misconception spread all over among the parents. In fact evaluation is made formative and summative as per Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) students are promoted with their performance in CCE. Result of this misconception, parents and students are neglecting the studies. They are not serious about studies, it says.

The report also calls for strengthening of Parent Teacher Associations (PTA). Keeping in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Skill India Initiative, the state report calls for Skill-based education – giving the choice of subjects and the curriculum relevant to employment.

The Secondary education should enable each student find their strengths, equip them with life skills and suitable higher education that leads to livelihood opportunities, the report states.

The report can be accessed at https://education.maharashtra.gov.in. Suggestions and recommendations should be sent only in English by November 23 at schoolnnep@gmail.com.

The Maharashtra Government spent over Rs. 25 lakh on visits of Ministers and bureaucrats to London to finalise the purchase of the house where Dalit icon B R Ambedkar stayed while pursuing higher studies, an RTI query has revealed.

Also, it has come to light that name of the actual owner of the UK property has not been mentioned in the state government records.

According to a query filed by RTI activist Anil Galgali, the sum of Rs. 32 crore paid by the Government to buy the bungalow has been transferred to the solicitor M/s Sedon rather than the property’s actual owner.

Information seeking the owner’s name and total built up area of the bungalow from the Maharashtra Social Justice Department was forwarded to the Mahatma Phule Backward Development Corporation (MPBDC), which facilitated the deal.

MPBDC, too, was not aware of the owner’s name.

“The information received states that a total of Rs. 25.45 lakh was spent from public exchequer for the travel and stay of Social Justice Ministers Raj Kumar Badole (Cabinet rank) and Dilip Kamble (MoS) and Secretary of the Department Ujjwal Uke.

“They had travelled to London for site visits when the negotiation for the bungalow was on. It is surprising that in spite of spending a huge sum, the Government is unaware of the name of the house owner,” Galgali said.

The Government in January this year decided to buy the house at 10 Kings Henry Road in London where Ambedkar lived in 1921-22. In September, it took possession of the 2,050 sq ft three-storey house, where Ambedkar resided while pursuing his doctoral studies at the London School of Economics.

The Government had made a provision of Rs. 40 crore to buy the house, which was finally purchased for Rs. 32 crore.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi to London to throw open the home to public.

Fadnavis had earlier said research papers written by the architect of the Constitution, along with some artifacts will be kept on the first and second floors of the house. He had also said two students chosen for scholarships every year will get a chance to reside on the third floor.

Shiv Sena’s Rajendra Deolekar was elected unopposed to the post of mayor of the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation on Wednesday.

Deolekar’s unopposed election was facilitated after ally Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate Rahul Damble withdrew his candidature, ending weeks of bickering between the two parties.

The development follows an understanding on power sharing terms between the two parties reached last Saturday after negotiations held by BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde.

“We are only concerned for the development of Kalyan-Dombivali region. It was clear that we would have bagged the mayor’s post on our own strength. We came together only to implement the development agenda,” Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said on the occasion.

The deal envisages Shiv Sena getting the mayor’s post for the first 30 months, followed by BJP for 12 months and back to the Sena for 18 months.

The other important posts like deputy mayor and standing committee chairman shall also be held on rotation on the lines of the power-share between the two parties implemented in Aurangabad.

The twin cities of Kalyan-Dombivali, located round 50 km from Mumbai has grown into a cosmopolitan region with a rich history and cultural heritage, offering tremendous potential for growth.

In last week’s crucial elections to the KDMC with 122 seats, fought separately by all main parties, the Shiv Sena emerged the single largest party with 52, followed by BJP’s 42, both unable to reach the magic figure of 62.

The rest of the parties scored in single digits: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena nine, Congress four, Nationalist Congress Party two, Independents and others 11, while the electorate boycotted elections in two wards.

The Maharashtra government will soon instruct every Guardian Secretary to visit the district under his jurisdiction on the first Friday-Saturday of every month to oversee progress of development works.

Additional Chief Secretary of General Administration Department (GAD) P S Meena said that a Government Resolution (GR) in this regard will be issued next week.

The moves comes after remarks made by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently that the state bureaucracy was not fully co-operating with the new government and this was posing a hurdle in implementing policies.

Fadnavis had also said that around 30 per cent of the state’s higher bureaucracy and about 50 per cent of lower level bureaucrats are still reluctant to implement the policies and programmes of the government.

“Also, the bureaucrat will visit a district on the third Friday-Saturday of every month of which he is not the Guardian Secretary,” he said.

A meeting was held recently by Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya with senior officials in this connection at the state secretariat.

Meena further said the government will restart the ‘Memo Reading’ system.

“The official manual states that senior officials should go and inspect all documents and files to check the status of works related to common people. Officers used to stay in tehsils for the 2-3 days, meet local villagers, talk to them about progress of the work and address their complaints,” he added.

Meena said that the new GR will be issued as there are complaints of work not being done at grass-root level and that these complaints are reaching the Chief Minister directly on the ‘Lokshahi Din.’

“Now officers will have to go and carry out inspections at district levels to check the status of work and make people aware of government schemes,” he added.

Another bureaucrat of the GAD said that instructions have been given that if any officer of lower level is found to be delaying work, immediate action should be taken against him.

The Bombay High Court has directed Maharashtra Government to spell out the steps it proposes to take to hand over additional area required for co-operative courts in the city.

The division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi on October 27 heard a bunch of public interest litigations highlighting the lack of infrastructure and facilities in the co-operative court and consumer courts.

Government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani had earlier informed the court that the government proposes to call a meeting of the officials of co-operative court. Vagyani had also said that additional area for the court will be provided in the Old Customs House in south Mumbai or elsewhere.

In an order on October 27, the bench noted that despite several opportunities, the government had not taken any decision.

“The state government shall within one week inform this court about the steps which they are taking to hand over additional area… Either in the premises available from the Old Customs House building or any other premises which are vacant and unused and in possession of the state,” it said.

It directed the government to file a compliance report on November 29.

The Bombay High Court has directed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to carry out a survey of the allotments made in all its schemes in the city and find out illegal transfers of tenements by the allottees.

The direction was passed recently by the division bench of Justices VL Achilya and Abhay Oka in response to a public interest litigation filed by the NGO Janhit Manch and others.

The court noted that if effective action was not taken against those who, in contravention of the rules, transfer the tenements, the very objective of the slum rehabilitation scheme would be defeated, especially when the allottees are given the tenements for free.

The HC, however, also clarified that it would have to be seen in which category an illegal transfer falls — one category is where the transfer is within 10 years of the allotment (which is prohibited) and the second is where the transfer is made after 10 years (which is allowed) but without the mandatory permission of the SRA.

“After carrying out a survey in a phase-wise manner, action shall be initiated,” HC said.

The court directed the chief executive officer of SRA to file an affidavit within a month setting out the time within which the survey would be carried out and action would be taken.

As per a March 2010 affidavit by the director, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, 8,711 tenements were allotted for the rehabilitation of those living illegally inside the park. Of these, 3,198 tenements were later inspected and it was found that 329 allottees had rented out the tenements illegally.

The next hearing would be on December 4.