Cautioning Maharashtra government about negative implications of giving reservations to the Maratha community, the Maharashtra BJP said on Thursday that there ought to be “proportional quantification” of reservations.
Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council, Vinod Tawde (BJP) appealed to the Maharashtra government not to take any decision to allocate reservation to the Maratha community in “haste”.
“The Maharashtra government should not take the decision in haste. It appears that the Congress-led government wants to allocate reservation to the Maratha community before the model code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls comes into effect,” Tawde said.
“If anything goes wrong while taking the decision, it will prove to be dangerous in future to the Maratha community,” he said.
The development comes after a committee formed by the Maharashtra government under senior Congress Minister Narayan Rane submitted its report on Wednesday, which recommended allocating a 20 per cent reservation to the Maratha community, without affecting the quota for other backward castes (OBCs).
“The Maratha community should get reservations in government and semi-government jobs as well in other educational institutions like universities, colleges and schools. A decision should be taken in this regard,” the Rane committee report said.
Tawde also criticised the state government’s recent announcement of three important decisions in the state legislature, a day after its interim budget was presented by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
“By making these announcements, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress took away credit from Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar,” Tawde said.
Union minister Praful Patel and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who is NCP’s OBC face, are among 18 candidates announced by the party on Thursday for Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra.
Anand Paranjape, who is the sitting member of Shiv Sena from Kalyan-Dombivali, is now the NCP nominee from the seat while the party has fielded former Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil from Madha.
The Madha seat was represented by party supremo Sharad Pawar in the outgoing Lok Sabha. Pawar has now become a member of Rajya Sabha.
Bhujbal has been nominated from Nashik replacing his nephew Samir Bhujbal. Pawar had indicated that some Maharashtra ministers will be asked to contest the Lok Sabha polls.
Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule has been renominated from his pocketborough of Baramati, Praful Patel from Bhandara- Gondia, Sanjeev Naik from Thane, Sanjay Dina Patil from Mumbai Northeast, Padamsing Patil from Usmanabad and Udayanraje Bhosale from Satara.
Manish Jain, son of party’s Rajya Sabha member Ishwarchand Jain, has been made a nominee from Raver while Dhananjay Mahadik will fight the polls from Kolhapur, Navneet Rana from Amravati, Bharti Pravin Pawar from Dindori, Rajiv Rajale from Ahmednagar, Krishnarao Ingle from Buldhana, Devdatta Nikam from Shirur and Vijay Bhamle from Parabhani.
The announcement was made by party spokesman D P Tripathi who told reporters that a decision on four Maharashtra seats–Hingoli, Beed, Mawal and Hathkanangale– is still pending and exchange of any of these seats with Congress is still possible.
Talk is that Congress would like to get Hingoli seat for Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav. The party also announced six candidates from other regions including R S Uma Bharathy from Andaman and Nicobar, Gicho Kabak from Western Arunachal Pradesh, P P Mohd Faizal from Lakshadweep, Fazle Masood from Devaria (Gujarat) and Ghazi Saaduddin Zaheer Ahmed from Nagina.
A madrasa teacher was arrested for allegedly molesting two minor girls, police said on Thursday.
The accused Samiulla Karudddin Shah (25) had offered to teach the girls Arabic at the seminary which falls under Rabodi Police Station limits, they said.
He allegedly molested them at the madrasa, police said quoting the complaint filed by the father of one of the girls.
The girls (both aged 8) hailed from Rehmatnagar area, police said, adding Shah was apprehended last night and booked under section 354 (outraging modesty of woman) of IPC and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012.
Meanwhile, in another incident, a BEST employee Laxman Chavan (50) from Kharigaon in Kalwa was arrested last night for allegedly molesting a six-year-old girl from the same locality, police said.
Chavan was booked under section 354 of IPC and the provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, they added.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that in a molestation case the intention of the accused can be determined only by the trial court after hearing the victim.
The HC made the observation while declining to quash a molestation case registered against Machindra Chate, Director of Chate Coaching Classes, and asked him to approach the Sessions Court with a discharge application.
A Division Bench of Justices N H Patil and V L Achliya was hearing a petition of Chate seeking to quash the case registered against him with the police on January 30, 2013.
According to Chate, on the day the FIR was filed there was a meeting between teachers of the coaching class and parents of students studying there.
“There was some problem in the meeting following which a few parents and three girl students forcibly entered Chate’s office and started physically and verbally abusing him. In the scuffle, Chate also abused the parents and asked them to leave his office,” the petition said.
The same day, Chate went to Bhoiwada police and lodged a case against the parents. However, he was later informed that one of the girl students had lodged a counter case, accusing him of molestation.
The HC opined that at this stage, it cannot decide whether the accused person had intention of molesting the girl or it was just a misunderstanding.
“That is for the trial court to decide after the victim deposes. It all depends on what the girl says. In this case the girl has said the accused person indulged in a shameful act. At this stage, to ask the girl to explain in detail what was the shameful act, is not permissible. The High Court cannot go into evidence now,” the Bench said.
The Bench suggested Chate’s lawyer Krishna Holambe Patil to move the Sessions Court with a discharge plea since chargesheet has been filed in the case. Patil agreed and withdrew the petition.
Six persons, mostly workers, were killed on Thursday and 20 others injured one seriously, when crackers exploded in a fireworks factory in Raigad district of Maharashtra, police said.
The explosion took place around 4.30 pm at the Bhaimala village factory, 10 kms from Alibaug town, they said.
Bodies of six persons, mostly workers, were pulled out from the rubble of the crackers unit, which caught fire due to the explosion.
Six fire tenders were rushed to the factory after the blast following which flames were brought under control.
The deceased have not been identified yet and all the injured were admitted to the civil hospital here.
One woman among the injured is said to be critical and has been shifted to Mumbai, police said.
The factory manager is being quizzed and further details are awaited.
The Bombay High Court restrained IRB Infrastructure Developers from collecting toll on its road projects in Kolhapur city in western Maharashtra, noting that the road works by the company were incomplete.
The city was rocked by a violent anti-toll agitation recently.
The order was passed by a division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka.
Three petitions had been filed by Kolhapur residents challenging the toll collection by IRB at nine entry points.
Legal sources said that High Court’s decision to stop the toll collection on account of incomplete works may impact toll projects elsewhere in the state.
The Court was informed that an independent consultant had certified that 95 per cent of the work was complete, following which the government issued a notification authorising IRB to collect toll from December 2011.
However, during the hearing, the judges concluded that evidence on record showed that much work was incomplete.
Petitioners also argued that section 20 of the Bombay Motor Vehicles Tax Act provides that before levying toll, the state government has to prepare a capital outlay of the project which takes into account factors such as the revenue earning capacity, vehicular movement etc.
No such capital outlay was made. Instead, the government prepared a table of expenditure which did not justify levy of toll, argued Kolhapur Municipal Corporation’s lawyer S S Patwardhan. The civic body too is opposing toll collection.
The petitions were admitted for final hearing, which would take place in due course.
Two people were killed after their speeding bike jumped a divider and rammed into a four-wheeler coming from the opposite direction on J J flyover in south Mumbai, police said today.
“The bike was speeding towards CST on the flyover when it lost control and hit the divider at about 10.45 pm yesterday. And then it jumped and hit a Honda city car,” said Dinesh Ahir, Senior Inspector at Pydhonie police station.
The deceased were identified as Siddhesh Kadam (23) and Nitin Patare (25), residents of Dadar and Kalva areas respectively.
According to police, Kadam and Patare left home last night saying they would be visiting the Babulnath temple on the occasion of Mahashivratri. The route for the temple was different and police was not clear as to why they took J J flyover.
The bleeding duo was rushed to nearby J J Hospital but were declared dead before admission, police said.
Ahead of the forthcoming elections, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan managed to get as much as Rs. 23,850 crore investment commitments, mostly in greenfield projects from 32 companies that can create as many as 20,200 direct jobs in the state over next few years.
Addressing an investor summit and launching of an industry facilitation cell here, Chavan announced signing of 32 MoUs from various sectors, envisaging an investment commitment of Rs. 23,842 crore from the Tatas, German auto majors Merc and Bosche, domestic steel company Shree Uttam Steel & Power among others.
While the biggest investment will come in the steel sector, the next in line is auto and auto components.
Shree Uttam Steel & Power has committed Rs. 11,156 crore investment to set up a 1.5 million tonne per annum hot-rolled coil plant and a 40-mw captive power plant in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.
The German luxury auto major Mercedes Benz has committed Rs 1,500 crore to increase its capacity at the Chakan plant near Pune as part of its second phase of expansion over the next few years.
Namco Industries has committed Rs. 857.5 crore investment to set up a electrical equipment plant in Raigad district, and German auto component major Bosche has inked an agreement to invest Rs. 753 crore to expand its common rail injector capacity for heavy vehicles at its Nashik facility, while Tata Auto Component Systems will be pumping in Rs. 702 crore at its Chakan plant for capacity addition.
Similarly, Spanish company SCA Hygiene Products will be investing Rs. 650 crore over the next five years to set up a facility to manufacture tissues and other hygiene products at Ranjangaon near Pune.
Another auto component player Fenace Auto has agreed to invest Rs. 550 crore to put up a ferrous casting and machinery plant in Pune.
Can a woman be booked for molesting another woman under section 354 of the Indian Penal Code?
This observation was made by the Bombay High Court while hearing a petition filed by a 78-year-old woman seeking to quash a molestation case filed against her by a 55-year-old lady.
A division bench of Justices N H Patil and V L Achliya today sought to know if a woman can be booked for molesting another woman.
“What is the legal position? If a woman is alleged to have committed such an act can she be held under the available section?” the bench queried.
The court has asked petitioner’s counsel Pradeep Havnur to go through the legal position and posted the petition for further hearing after two weeks.
Vimalabai Shah and her family approached the High court seeking to quash a case lodged against them on March 1, 2010 for allegedly assaulting and molesting the lady in their building in suburban Mumbai.
According to Shah and her family, the complaint was filed as a retaliation to a notice issued by Shah’s son, who is the secretary of the building, to the complainant woman over alleged illegality in transfer of her flat.
The Shah family and the complainant’s family have been embroiled in a dispute since 2006 over this. In 2009, Shah family had lodged a case against them for allegedly threatening and assaulting Vimalabai.
According to the HC, Only Victim Can Explain Intention of Molester, Observes HC.
More than 60 per cent of Indian voters favour the BJP in the general election which is scheduled in April- May. While less than 20 per cent are backing the ruling Congress, a major American survey released and published it. With the Indian parliamentary elections just round the corner, every political party has tightened its belt for the election; the Indian public, by a margin of more than three-to-one, would prefer the Hindu-nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lead the next Indian government rather than the Indian National Congress (INC), which heads the current left-of-centre governing coalition.
The survey, which does not project the number of seats that each party is likely to win, said the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is more popular than Rahul Gandhi, who is leading his Congress party’s struggling campaign. Pew, a Washington-based think tank, interviewed only 2,464 randomly selected voters in states and territories that are home to roughly 91 per cent of the Indian population, between December 7 and January 12. The margin of error is 3.8 per cent. According to the survey, less than a third of Indians are satisfied with the way things are today. The survey said more than six-in-ten Indians prefer the BJP to lead the next government. Just two-in-ten picked the incumbent Congress, which is battling perception of a government mired in corruption scandals and unable to check a sliding economy. Other parties have the support of 12 per cent of the public. The BJP’s backing is consistent across age groups and almost equal between rural (64 per cent) and urban (60 per cent) Indians, the survey found. The northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, together home to more than 400 million, support the BJP most, with 74 per cent saying they preferred the party. The BJP’s weakest backing, around 54 per cent, is in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Mr. Modi’s Gujarat. Nearly 60 per cent voters said the BJP is likely to be more successful than the Congress in creating job opportunities, reducing terrorism and check corruption. The Pew survey said only 17 per cent say Congress would do a better job dealing with graft.
Meanwhile, some astrologers predict that Modi can never be a prime minister of this country as his stars are not in favour. However, BJP and Narendra Modi are not leaving a single stone unturned to make his political rallies a mega success. He kicked off his Lok Sabha campaign in UP with a grand rally in Kanpur. UP is a very crucial state for BJP as it is dominated by BSP and SP. I fail to understand, why did Rajnath Singh emphasise Modi’s OBC caste in Kanpur. Hindutva is supposed to be about Hindus, not castes — no? The seeds of caste politics were sown in 1950s when backward castes used to dominate the political scenario. Ram Manohar Lohia mobilised the backwards and advocated for 60 per cent reservation for Muslims, backward classes and SC/STs. Charan Singh in the 1960s promoted the Jats and the Yadavs. The Mandal panel’s recommendations and its implementation in 1989 gave a new twist to caste politics. Suddenly, many caste-based leaders have emerged from the social churning. The Constitution of India does not talk about caste; it talks only about class. The leaders have included the word ‘caste’ in politics only to garner votes on caste lines — and that has created a divide in society.
In 1996, UP gave the party 52 of the 85 MPs. In 1998, BJP won 57 out of total 80 in its kitty from UP alone. In 1999, the party won only 29 seats with around 25 per cent voteshare from UP. But the loss was offset by the Kargil factor and the sympathy for the then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee for having lost the government because of a solitary vote. Since then, the party has languished in the state, and could post a meager tally of 10 seats in last elections. The recommendations of the Mandal Commission and their acceptance by the VP Singh regime led to an explosion of caste-based politics and political parties. The dangerous trend is irreversible, especially in UP. While weaker sections are fed up and slowly drifting away from Congress, minority vote bank is still intact with the party. If roti, kapada, makan and education are given to all which will encourage rational thinking, then who will vote for non-performers?
Congress makes alliance with Indian Union Muslim league at one place and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in another place. It is tying up with another regional party to remain in power and keeps claiming itself as secular. Even parties like BSP and SP are doing the same thing. They join hands with anybody to throw BJP out of power. Narendra Modi’s elevation to lead the party in general elections had led to the estrangement between the BJP and the JD(U) with the latter walking out of the NDA on June 16. Modi launched his crucial UP campaign with a promise to boost growth and employment and by steering clear of the prickly Ram Mandir issue even as he professed commitment to social harmony and fair play. A person born with a golden spoon in his mouth goes to the house of a Dalit family and eats the food cooked by that Dalit. Now, a person from poor business family becomes head of state. For him, people are preparing air conditioned Swiss cottage.
Mayawati always defended caste-based rallies and called these meetings a binding force in society which unites different castes. Her argument was diagonally opposite to what the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court laid out in its order banning caste-based rallies organised by political parties in Uttar Pradesh. She knows that in politics, caste is the one driving force that can catapult a party to power. The BSP has brazenly promoted caste in Uttar Pradesh’s politics for the last two decades or so. It was in the 80s that BSP founder Kanshi Ram declared that he would oust the upper castes from power. He promoted caste rallies and even coined slogans like, ‘Tilak, tarazu aur talwar; inko maaro joote chaar’ — which was a direct and vicious attack on Hindus. The other parties frowned at BSP’s slogans, not realising then that those very slogans would one day fetch power for the BSP. What the BSP does openly, the other parties do clandestinely. Such has been the political pressure that Rahul Gandhi played up the caste affiliation of techie Sam Pitroda at an election rally. He is a Badhai — carpenter, Rahul advocated that the Congress even projected people belonging to lower castes like the Vishwakarmas. In the last two decades, caste politics has played an increasingly crucial role in Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats — the highest in the country. There has been a spurt in caste rallies with an eye on the Lok Sabha election due in 2014.The BSP got off the blocks with 38 Brahmin conferences in May-June alone. This culminated in its major Brahmin rally in Lucknow, which was addressed by Mayawati. The BSP also held a series of what it calls Muslim Bhaichara conferences. The ruling Samajwadi Party in the State held a ‘Backward Class Mahasammelan’ in Meerut. The party had also organised a Muslims’ conference and a Brahmin sammelan in the name of Baudhik (intellectual) meet. In the absence of well-defined data, a rough estimate of Uttar Pradesh’s caste combination goes thus: Backward classes comprise 52 per cent (as per the Mandal report), Dalits log up to 18 per cent, Brahmins and Thakurs make up five per cent each, Muslims constitute 17 per cent, while the remaining constitute three per cent of the population. Such was the quest for caste that in its name, all of a sudden, small parties cropped up in Uttar Pradesh. The Kurmis, a backward caste, formed the Apna Dal and even projected Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as a Kurmi neta, taking him down from the pedestal of one of the biggest leaders of this country.
Then the Rajbhars formed the Bharat Samaj Party and the Congress joined hands with the little known Mahan Dal. Sensing the importance of location, BJP’s national president Rajnath Singh said that Modi belongs to a backward and poor background and survived as tea vendor in his early life.
Cautioning Maharashtra government about negative implications of giving reservations to the Maratha community, the Maharashtra BJP said on Thursday that there ought to be “proportional quantification” of reservations. 
Union minister Praful Patel and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who is NCP’s OBC face, are among 18 candidates announced by the party on Thursday for Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra. 
