The Bombay High Court asked Maharashtra government to give an undertaking by tomorrow that it will comply with earlier orders to provide generators and inverters during load shedding at Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination centres across the state.
If the government failed to give the undertaking, the Principal Secretary of Education department would have to remain present tomorrow, said the division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka, hearing a petition filed by Vishnu Gavali.
The bench expressed anguish over the apathy shown by the government, saying that the court had passed orders in July and September 2014 on this issue.
The judges said the government had committed contempt by not obeying its orders and it would take action if the government failed to solve the problem during load shedding.
The observations of the bench came on an affidavit filed today by PrakashThube, joint secretary, Education and Sports, saying that the responsibility of providing generators and inverters lies with the examination centres.
The bench said the state cannot shirk its responsibility by the passing the buck to HSC and SSC boards.
“It is the essential duty of the state to ensure that electricity is provided at the examination centres,” the court had said earlier.
Gavali’s petition alleges that the government has not implemented earlier orders. In July, the High Court had asked the state to provide generators, inverters and solar systems on a war-footing to schools as HSC/SSC candidates sometimes have to write in darkness, with ceiling fans not operating due to power cuts.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Union Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh had promised to release drought relief funds for Maharashtra at the earliest.
Fadnavis held a meeting with the union minister and MPs from the state here today.
“He (Singh) also assured that funds for Vidarbha irrigation scheme too would be given, which the previous government had denied,” Fadnavis said in a statement.
The union minister congratulated Maharashtra Government for being the first state to take up projects under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana’.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s cartoon ridiculing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah over their party’s humiliating rout in the Delhi Assembly polls has invited sharp rebuke from the saffron party.
Not at all amused by the cartoon released, an angry BJP advised Raj, once an ardent Modi admirer, to renounce politics and take up sketching full-time.
“Raj Thackerayji has found a way to hog limelight (after his party’s poor show in Maharashtra Assembly poll). His cartoon has grabbed attention. (He) should do it full-time,” Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar said.
The cartoon, which comes days after Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray lampooned Modi and Shah over their party’s rout in Delhi poll, shows both leaders as twin towers demolished and left burning by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, who is depicted as a tiny aircraft named ‘AAP Jhadu.’ The cartoon also shows US President Barack Obama sitting in front of a TV screen watching the election result and saying “It is the twin towers once again, and the aircraft is safe.”
BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said it is ‘amusing’ that the President of a party needs to resort to sketching images of political leaders to stay in news. “Raj Thackeray seems to be in a wishful thinking mode. It is amusing that he has time to draw such cartoons despite running a political party. I hope he gets time for more such cartoons. It seems that he (Thackeray) is compelled to draw such cartoons to stay in news, which is hilarious,” Bhandari said.
Hitting back at BJP, MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar said Raj does not need their advice and he knows how to run his party. “Raj saheb is a self-made charismatic leader. He is not only a cartoonist, but a political leader who has set up a party by himself and is effectively running it. We do not need advice of running a party from external factors. Ashish Shelar comes nowhere close to him as far as politics is concerned,” Nandgaonkar said.
Two officials of revenue department were arrested for allegedly taking bribe from a villager, Anti-Corruption Bureau said.
Talasari circle officer Laxman Pawar (54) and Vevji village talathi Pandurang Shingole (58) had allegedly demanded Rs. 7,000 from a villager to include his son’s name in land records, Thane ACB division’s Deputy Superintendent of Police Jairaj Chapria said.
The villager complained against them to the ACB, which laid a trap and nabbed the talathi while accepting the bribe at his office, he said.
Later, the accused circle officer was also arrested in connection with the matter, he said.
Offences under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act have been registered against the accused, the ACB added.
CBI decided to reinvestigate the murder of Pune-based RTI activist Satish Shetty in view of new evidence recovered during the searches at the offices and residence of a prominent builder in January.
The decision to close the murder case was taken nearly eight months back–in June last year–while the closure report was filed before the special court in August case, CBI sources said.
They said the agency has decided to reinvestigate the murder after it recovered certain documents, indicative of possible missing evidence in the murder case, from a builder whose offices and residence were searched in Janurary in a separate case registered in November.
After registering the fresh case, CBI had carried out searches at 21 locations in Mumbai and Pune in the premises of IRB infrastructure developer to probe allegations of land grabbing along Mumbai-Pune Highway on the directions of the Bombay High Court.
CBI sources said the searches were an off-shoot of the murder of Satish Shetty who had sought information on the alleged land grabbing by IRB Infrastructure developers.
The Bombay High Court, on the request of CBI, had handed over the probe to it to investigate allegations of land grabbing.
CBI had registered a case under various Sections of IPC related to cheating and forgery against Deepak Dattatrey Gadgil, who is the authorised signatory for Aryan Infrastructure (a subsidiary of IRB infrastructure) and 12 others, the sources said.
CBI had carried out searches at 21 locations including the offices and residence of Gadgil and Virendra Mahaiskar, Managing Director IRB Infrastructure. The premises of other 15 individuals were also searched, they said.
Firing yet another salvo at ally BJP, Shiv Sena taunted it over the issue of supporting Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi saying backing him would be a “sin” as it would be an endorsement of “black era in politics”.
“Nobody should indulge in this sin of backing for political interest someone who has publicly said he accepts commission,” an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said.
“Nitish Kumar has the backing of 130 legislators and yet he (Manjhi) is trying to get BJP support. BJP is pitting Manjhi against Nitish Kumar,” it said.
The Sena’s latest attack on BJP comes two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar met at the latter’s home turf Baramati. NCP had announced unconditional outside support to BJP when it emerged single largest party in October 15 Assembly polls.
Earlier, the Shiv Sena had said the “broom wielding” AAP had reduced the BJP to “dirt” in the Delhi elections and virtually demanded that Modi accept the blame for it.
The Sena said that “nobody should justify the current goings on in Bihar politics”.
“Manjhi has said he gets commission for development work. What he has said is a fact in politics. A CM who accepts he gets commission is trying to win majority in Assembly with BJP support,” Sena said.
Manjhi exceeded his limits by announcing reservations for Dalits and Mahadalits in government contract tender process, Sena said.
Manjhi while addressing a function, had said, “engineers and technocrats used to escalate cost of bridge construction projects and used to pay some share to contractors and some to me even.”
He later said he uttered “symbolic” things to highlight that money used to come to even such a high level but actually he did not take money as CM.
The sharp exchanges between BJP and Shiv Sena have brought to the fore the underlying unease in their relations despite a patch-up.
The two had parted ways before the Maharashtra Assembly election. Contesting separately, BJP emerged as the single largest party in the assembly but fell short of a majority, while Sena finished second. Shiv Sena briefly occupied the main Opposition’s space in the House before realigning with BJP and joining the government.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Modi on Monday and the two signed agreements including one on civil nuclear cooperation.
Modi said the two leaders discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between both countries. He also said he discussed the fishermen issue with Sirisena and hoped for a solution soon.
“The bilateral agreement on civil nuke deal is a sign of trust between the two countries,” said Modi.
On the fishermen issue, Modi added, “President and I have attached high importance to the fishermen issue. Fishermen from both regions should meet and share their proposals with the government.”
PM Modi said he will be visiting Sri Lanka in March.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena is in India on his maiden foreign visit after taking charge last month. “We are honoured that you chose India for your first foreign tour,” said Modi.
Earlier in the day, Sirisena received the ceremonial guard of honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan and also met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
President Pranab Mukherjee will be hosting a banquet in Sirisena’s honour.
The final arguments in the Uber cab rape case could not commence on Monday in a Delhi court as the accused driver moved a plea seeking to recall all the 28 prosecution witnesses on the ground that he was not given fair opportunity to defend himself.
32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, who is facing trial for allegedly raping a 25-year-old woman executive in his cab on the night of December 5, 2014, alleged that there were “glaring defects, mistakes and illegalities” requiring recall of all the witnesses to re-cross examine for just and fair decision of the case.
Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja after hearing arguments of the counsel for Yadav and the prosecutor, reserved the order on the plea for February 18.
The court was slated to hear from today the final arguments, which could not commence in view of the fresh application of the accused.
Advocate D K Mishra, who was recently appointed by Yadav to defend himself, argued that “miscarriage of justice” was done to the accused who was not represented properly by the earlier defence counsel.
The plea was opposed by Senior Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava who said a change of defence counsel was no ground to recall the witnesses.
He argued that the accused was trying to delay the trial in the case by moving such applications.
During the arguments, the defence counsel argued it was the legal and lawful right of the accused to get a fair trial.
“But the records reveal that the entire state machinery has tried to secure conviction of the accused without giving him a fair and just opportunity to defend himself,” he said in the application.
He claimed that the previous counsel was a newbie who was not well versed with the criminal trial of such a magnitude and did not conduct the trial in a proper manner.
Seeking to recall all the 28 prosecution witnesses, including the victim, her friend, investigating officer, doctors and forensic experts, Yadav’s counsel said he wanted to cross examine them again to bring out the truth.
“Accused has been falsely implicated in this case at the instance of the vested interests as is apparent from the records and for bringing the truth before this court in the interests of justice, the true and correct material facts need to be brought on record by cross examination of all the prosecution witnesses again by recalling them due to the compelling and peculiar circumstances of this case,” he said.
The counsel also alleged that there were fabrication, manipulation and plantation of evidence and tampering of record or statements in the case.
There were material improvements and contradictions in the statements of the victim made to PCR, police, magistrate and the sessions court and she was required to be cross examined on those aspects, he claimed.
The trial in the case has commenced on January 15 and the prosecution had concluded recording its evidence in 17 days by examining 28 witnesses. The accused had not examined any witness in his defence.
The court had earlier noted in one of its order that the accused appeared to have made an attempt to delay the proceedings by moving applications.
During recording of her statement in the court, the victim had identified Yadav as the one who had raped her.
The court had also recorded the testimony of the accused in which he termed the charge against him as “false”.
The court on January 13 had framed charges against Yadav under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for alleged offences of endangering a woman’s life while raping her, kidnapping with an intent to compel her for marriage, criminally intimidating and causing hurt.
The 50-year-old security guard who was seriously injured after a businessman allegedly rammed his luxury vehicle into him in a fit of rage last month, died in a nearby private hospital on Monday.
Doctors attending on Chandarabose (50) said his heart had not been functioning properly following the impact of the internal injuries.
His heart ceased functioning at 13:40 hours and he was declared dead, doctors said. Businessman Muhammad Nizam, arrested in connection with the incident, is presently in police custody.
Nizam allegedly roughed up the security guard and then dragged him to the wall of the parking lot and ran his Hummer vehicle into his body for delay in opening the gate of the apartment complex.
Police had earlier booked Nizam for posting photographs of his seven-year-old son driving a Ferrari on the social media.
The businessman, who owns a tobacco company, has faced 10 police cases, and most of them were reportedly settled out of court, police said.
In 2013, Nisham ran into trouble with the police for allowing his nine-year-old son to drive his Ferrari in their neighbourhood. The video was uploaded on YouTube, and created a huge controversy. He is also accused of allegedly locking up a woman constable in his car.
BJP leader Kiran Bedi, who suffered defeat at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi elections, has shared her thoughts about the election campaign in a blog titled “An open letter to fellow Indians.”
While she thanked everyone for supporting her candidature in the campaign, she appeared distraught at the criticism she received.
“All who called me with foulest possible names, I am relieved my parents were not alive to see this,” Bedi wrote in her blog.
Bedi, who was locked in a bitter personality contest with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during the election campaign, lost out from the BJP stronghold seat of Krishna Nagar in east Delhi. Her party itself slid from 32 seats in 2013 to a mere 3 seats this time.
During the start of the campaign, the Aam Aadmi Party had portrayed Bedi as ‘opportunistic’ using her posters alongside Kejriwal on auto-rickshaws. This in turn led Bedi to file complaints against AAP on charges of defaming her. However, after the elections, Kejriwal has openly said that he admired Bedi and even invited her to his oath-taking ceremony.
Bedi, who was para-trooped as the BJP’s chief ministerial nominee days ahead of the high-stakes election, clarified in the blog post that she did not contest the elections for power or position.
“I opted for electoral politics not for position or power, but for serving the city which is home to me for the last over 40 years. A city which I have served in various capacities, through thick and thin,” she wrote.
She claimed full responsibility for the defeat as well.
“I have failed the test and I take full responsibility for my decision,” she wrote.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Modi on Monday and the two signed agreements including one on civil nuclear cooperation.