Various departments of the government like School Education, Higher and Technical Education, Social Justice and Special Assistance, Tribal Development are currently offering various scholarships, free ships to students of various categories of various educational courses under different schemes.

With a view to review all such schemes as well to examine feasibility of establishing certain criteria for eligibility of the students and schools, colleges and course which benefit from all such schemes, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has constituted a committee. This committee will be headed by Principal Secretary (Financial Reforms) and will have secretaries of Medical Education, Social Justice, Planning, Higher and Technical Education, School Education as its other members. A government Resolution in this regard has been issued by Finance Department on 01.07.2015

The Finance Minister had tabled a White Paper on Financial position of the state in the Budget session of the legislature. In this White Paper the need to establish a Fees Determination Tribunal has been stressed with a view to bring more efficiency and transparency in fees determination.

The committee has been entrusted with suggesting measures to determine criteria for students to be given free ships, Scholarships as well as schools, colleges who will be eligible to implement these schemes. The committee will also look into bringing transparency in the procedure of expenditure of these funds thereby improving efficiency of these schemes.

The Bombay High Court disposed of a plea seeking prosecution against former Maharashtra minister Vijaykumar Gavit and his family in a disproportionate assets case after the petitioners informed that they were satisfied with Anti-Corruption Bureau probe and wanted to withdraw their petition.

A bench, headed by Justice Naresh Patil, while disposing of the PIL, took into account “the clean chit” given by ACB, which was later accepted by the state government.

The bench said “we do not express any opinion on the ACB report and the state’s decision to accept it and accordingly dispose of the PIL.”

The bench also recorded the statement of petitioners that they were satisfied with ACB probe and wanted to withdraw the petition. All the petitioners said they wanted to withdraw the plea out of their own free will and said there was no pressure on them from any quarters to do so.

The bench, however, asked the Income Tax department to proceed with the assessment of returns of the Gavits.

The HC did not entertain the plea of three intervenors — Babulal Gite, Shantaram Dhatrak and Rahul Bharsakhale — urging the court to keep the petition pending as the probe was still on. The court was of the view that they were disposing of the matter as the petitioners were not willing to pursue further. Moreover, the intervenors can seek legal remedy by filing separate petitions if the situation warranted in future.

Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council, Dhananjay Munde demanded the Maharashtra government to cut water supply by 15 per cent to liquor- producing factories in Marathwada so as to mitigate the water crisis in the region.

“There is a large number of alcohol-manufacturing factories located in Aurangabad. These units are the ones that consume largest amount of water. The government also have to collect water tax worth Rs. 45 crore (from these factories), which they have not yet paid. They are using water and not even paying taxes,” Munde said.

He said it is “insane” to allow liquor factories to use large quantity of water at a time when there is severe crisis in the state.

“Even this year, Maharashtra has only received around 25 per cent of the average annual rainfall, as per last week’s water review, done by the government. In such a situation, how can we let alcohol manufacturers use water just to do their business?

“The residuals from these factories also cause harm to the agricultural farms. On one hand farmers’ crops are getting affected (due to residuals), and on the other we are further depriving them of water,” Munde said.

The government should, thus, immediately levy a water cut of 15 per cent on these factories and the hence, the water saved can be used for farmers, the leader added.

Marathwada region, which include Aurangabad, Beed, Nanded and Osmanabad districts, are worst affected by sweltering heat prevailing across the state.

As many as 1,265 villages and 455 wadis in Marathwada were facing water shortage and 1,672 tankers were plying to provide water.

Last year, water was supplied through tanker to 242 villages and 164 wadis in the region. The region is not only facing shortage of drinking water, but it only has 8 per cent water in its small, medium and large irrigation projects, as per information available till May 22.

Last year, the region had 22 per cent water storage and in 2013 it was 5 per cent.

Celebrity hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani, known for her stint on “Bigg Boss 6”, has revealed in an emotional Facebook post that she was gangraped in Chicago when she was 24.

Sapna, now 44, said it took her two decades to break her silence on the fateful night that she has tried forgetting about every day.

“After my father’s death, I moved to Chicago where there were so many like me and it gave me the freedom to get inked, experiment with my hair and just be myself. One Christmas Eve in Chicago, I walked out of a bar alone late at night in a short dress and red lipstick.

“I was 24 and had been drinking, when from a dumpster a group of guys walked upto me and put a gun to my head…

Eventually leading to a gang rape. I remember walking home, showering and pushing this incident to the back of my mind for years and never letting it break my spirit, I still wear short dresses and the brightest red on my lips,” Sapna said via “Humans of Bombay”, a website that lets people of Mumbai share their experiences and incidents.

The reality TV star said while it is important for women to open up about violence in any form but she also believes hiding one’s misery is not a sign of weakness.

“We live in a world where everyone stresses the importance of voicing yourself or walking out of tough situations, but I just want to say this? no one wants to be beaten up, get raped or sell their bodies.

“It took me 20 years to voice my incident, but for me a woman keeping it all within her because she has no other choice isn’t a sign of weakness- it’s a mark of strength and something we need to start respecting,” she said.