Congress' Rahul Gandhi releases white paper on Centreās COVID management 2
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday released a “white paper” by the party on the Centre’s Covid management and urged the government to prepare for the third wave of coronavirus.
Releasing the “white paper”, the former Congress chief said it is clear that the management of the first and second wave of COVID-19 was “disastrous”.
“There were certain reasons as to why it was disastrous, we’ve tried to point out those reasons in our white paper. This is a blueprint about how to react to the third wave which is going to come,” he said.
“It is our intention to provide the government with information and insights into what went wrong,” Gandhi said.
It's clear that management of the first & second wave of COVID was disastrous, & we've tried to point out the reasons behind it. I would even go so far as to say that there might be waves even after the third wave of COVID19 as the virus is mutating: Rahul Gandhi, Congress
The aim of this white paper is not finger-pointing at the government but to help the nation prepare for the third wave of infection, he said.
Asserting that the central pillar to fight Covid is vaccination, Gandhi said it is important that “we cross bridge of 100 per cent vaccination as soon as possible”.
He also urged the government to treat all states equally for COVID-19 vaccinations, asserting that there should be no bias and they should not be viewed as BJP or opposition states.
SC judge Aniruddha Bose recuses from hearing pleas of WB CM Mamata, Law Min in Narada case 4
Supreme Court judge Justice Aniruddha Bose on Tuesday recused himself from hearing appeals of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state law minister Moloy Ghatak about their role on the day of the arrest of four TMC leaders by the CBI in the Narada sting tape case.
As soon as a vacation bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Bose assembled to commence the day’s proceedings, Justice Gupta said his brother judge is recusing himself from hearing these appeals.
Justice Gupta, presiding over the bench, said the issue would be now placed before Chief Justice N V Ramana who may take the decision and the pleas may be listed for hearing during the day itself.
The top court was scheduled to hear three appeals including that of the state government challenging the high court’s denial for filing of affidavits by her and the state Law Minister in their role on the day of the arrest of four Trinamool Congress leaders on May 17 by the central agency in the case.
It has been alleged that the state ruling party leaders played a key role in stopping the CBI from performing its legal duty after arresting four leaders in the case.
Can Pawar and Prashant Kishor steer a path for the third front? 6
The third front is not a new obsession with Indian politics. It happened just after Atal Bihari Vajpayeeās 13-days old government came down. HD Deve Gowda became then the PM despite his party Janata Dal (Secular) was confined to only Karnataka and had no existence anywhere outside his state.
Keeping BJP and Narendra Modi out of power will be the main objective of the 2024 elections. Many regional parties have shown how they can keep BJP out of power. Meanwhile, Modiās marketing has gone overboard with the people of India and somehow he failed to convince voters in the recent past.
Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, the regional parties have emerged as giant killers. The regional parties have shown that they could stop the massive force of BJP but putting them all on one stage is an enormous task that has lingered unaccomplished. Now Prashant Kishor and Pawar together kick off a ‘third front’-type play with more success than the likes of Chandrababu Naidu managed in the lead-up to the 2019 elections?
Can they address each state’s internal contradictions that would need influence and untiring negotiation? Can Didi, the Left in Kerala, Mayawati and Akhilesh in UP, YSRCP and TDP in Andhra Pradesh conceal their past to march towards the complicated power corridors of Delhi? Most 3rd front leaders are regionally powerful but nationally weak leaders. So basically they may be winning chunks of votes wherever they are, whether West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, but outside their boundaries, they are either too weak or completely non-existent.
Prashant Kishor who spoke about ‘quitting this space’ after the assembly elections know more than anyone else the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. Could that mean he is no longer looking at the transformation of regional straps into giant killers in their limited political spaces but pulling out a force that can challenge the colossal Modi enigma? On the other hand, Sharad Pawar could help bring a consensus on a face that could be put opposite Modi in the national arena. There have been numerous efforts made to zero down on one name but all in vain so far.
Moreover, the regional parties have no common ideology to keep them together but a feeling of anti-BJPism and their desire to oust Modi. Their effort at weaving the third front has failed each time because of the myopic view of their own provincial ambitions. This is very obvious that the BJP has become a powerful force; even the most regionally powerful leaders know what threatens their existence. So basically itās a “Modi Hatao Front”. This front has no agenda, no ideology, and no vision for what to do after elections (just like the front during Deve Gowdaās days), except one, remove Modi at all costs.
The Third Front concept is an election-eve stunt thrown on gullible electorates, to hoodwink the same. Each time, we hear the Third Front and our TV media carry the story to the highest pitch exciting the public to new dizziness. After the elections are over, results declared, the Third Front too vanishes into thin air. Also, TV media forget about the same handily. This is the history of the Third Front right from the time it came into existence.
The decimation can only happen once the players are convinced that there is only one king and it’s better to be a pawn on the winning side rather than being written off a third time over. Sharad Pawar can get the players on the chessboard and PK can determine every move. But to checkmate the ‘king’, you need to have one on your own first. Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar underlined the need for a third front in the country as he welcomed former leader PC Chacko.
Sitaram Yechury (Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader) has also stated the need for it. According to reports, Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha are among the invitees. Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha had joined the Trinamool Congress just before the Bengal election. Itās not clear yet whether a third front will be formed of the like-minded parties or the parties will join hands with the Congress.
The Third Front of 2019 is no different. It will be a hotchpotch of regional parties. The SP, and BSP, are not as powerful now as they were earlier before 2014. RLD had its natural death. INLD is no more power in Haryana. TMC, and BJD, is wilting under pressure from BJP. The Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu, TRS of Telangana, TDP & YSRCP of Andhra Pradesh, are the only ones who can hold on to their grounds in their states. Hence the Third Front even if it is conceived will be another joke on the people.
The Third Front may have an array of parties that once were great or powerful but now pushed to the brink. RLD, INLD, Jogiās party, JDS, JMM, Shiv Sena, etc., are certainly not as powerful as the Third Front expects them to be. Only if they align with a national party in their state can they expect to show some teeth. Alone in the Third Front will be a zero. Meanwhile, the oldest national party Congress has already shrunk and is fighting for its existence. All these parties in the Third Front can give some glamour for advertisement and nothing more. Hence the Third Front cannot go beyond publicity stunt.
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Mission 2024: Sharad Pawar to host a meeting of non-Congress opposition parties tomorrow 8
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar has called a meeting of opposition parties tomorrow (June 22) to explore a combined fight against Narendra Modi and the BJP in the 2024 national election. Poll strategist Prashant Kishor also met with Sharad Pawar for the second time in two weeks amid buzz about preps for “Mission 2024”.
The two met in Delhi days after their last meeting on June 11 at Sharad Pawar’s Mumbai home. Their second meeting lasted half an hour, sources say, unlike the previous one that went on for three hours.
The political sources said, Pawar and Prashant discussions are seen to have a larger context related to the 2024 election and talk of a third front – minus the BJP or Congress – and a joint opposition candidate to challenge PM Modi. Many parties have indicated their willingness to join such a grouping.
Mamata Banerjee, who won a third straight term in West Bengal after fighting off a difficult challenge from the BJP, was asked whether she saw herself as the opposition prime ministerial candidate. “I think altogether, we can fight the battle for 2024. But let’s fight Covid first,” she had said soon after the verdict.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had talked about the need for an alliance of opposition parties at the national level. Raut had said that he had spoken to Sharad Pawar on this. Invitations have gone to several parties on behalf of Sharad Pawar and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, who joined the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee just before the Bengal election.
“Sharad Pawar Ji and Shri Yashwant Sinha Ji are co-chairing a discussion on the present national scenario. Yashwant Sinha has requested your kind presence and participation in the meeting,” says the invite put out by Rashtra Manch, Sinha’s outfit. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Sanjay Singh and Congress leader Vivek Tankha are some of the invitees.
Here in Maharashtra, the three-party MVA alliance, comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, was formed in Maharashtra for five years and is not a permanent fixture, state Congress president Nana Patole has said. His remarks came after Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said people would “beat with footwear” those who only talk about contesting polls alone without offering solutions to people’s problems. Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Patole said there was no clarity in Thackeray’s speech about who he was referring to.
Even the BJP has spoken of contesting elections independently, Patole said, noting that previously all the four parties – Congress, NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena – had contested local bodies and Assembly polls independently. He was referring to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge HK Patil’s comments made during a function on Saturday, wherein the latter asked the state Congress to focus on strengthening the party while the high command would decide on going solo in elections.
Maha Vikas Aghadi alliances slogans of going it alone in 2024 10
The Next Maharashtra Legislative assembly election is scheduled to be held in or before October 2024 to elect all 288 members of the state’s Legislative Assembly. Uddhav Thackeray is expected to be the incumbent Chief Minister at the time of the election. The previous Assembly elections were held in October 2019.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance NDA got a clear majority to form the government but due to internal conflict, Shiv Sena left the alliance (NDA) and form a new alliance with Nationalist Congress Party and Indian National Congress called MVA and formed the state government, with Uddhav Thackeray becoming chief minister.
Since then, Uddhav Thackeray might have been proven to be a good Chief Minister but Aghadi has a lot of internal issues. Indicating unease within the MVA, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole revealed that he had been given the task of helping his party emerge as number one in the state. After winning only 44 seats in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Congress is currently the fourth-largest party in the state Assembly after BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP.
Speaking to the media Patole showed confidence in Congress becoming the number one party in Maharashtra by 2024. At the same time as Patole lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket to Nitin Gadkari, he got elected to the Maharashtra Assembly from Sakoli in the Bhandara district. In other appointments to Maharashtra Congress, 6 working presidents and 10 vice presidents have been named.
Answering the Congressās desire to go alone, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that Shiv Sena can also give a slogan of going it alone in future elections but this is not the time to indulge in politics. The statement comes days after Senaās ally Congress announced that while it will stay on as a partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, henceforth, it will contest all elections on its own.
Congress president Nana Patole maintained that Congress will not enter into alliances with either the NCP or the Shiv Sena. They have to expand the party base by contesting all seats in all elections.
In a virtual address on the occasion of Senaās 55th foundation day, Thackeray said, “Even we can give the slogan of going solo. It is our birthright. But this is not the right time. At a time when the pandemic remains a challenge, we should keep electoral politics aside. Instead, we must use our self-confidence and self-esteem to ensure the wellbeing of the people and the state.”
On multiple occasions, Congress has made it clear that it would not dither to quit the Maharashtra government if anyone speaks against its leadership. In the last few months, multiple Congress leaders including Balasaheb Thorat have expressed their concerns over their party being neglected in the coalition government. In May 2020, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had publicly stated that Congress was not the key decision-maker in Maharashtra. Recently, Congress has locked horns with Shiv Sena over its suggestion that Sharad Pawar should replace Sonia Gandhi as UPA chairperson and the demand to rename Aurangabad.
Whereas, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and the game-changer who holds all the controls maintained a dignified silence.
Malls and hotels face similar problems, almost 35 per cent of hotels and restaurants remain shut in the state due to last year’s lockdown because they could not sustain or survive. The turnover of the remaining establishments is below 50 per cent against pre-COVID-19 levels. With the latest lockdown order, at least another 30 per cent of restaurants will shut down permanently.
In the wake of a dip in the positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy, the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) requested that the restaurants in the city have been operating with level 3 restrictions whereas most cities in the State have been offered relaxations. The association has appealed to the government to be fair and to allow restaurants to operate as per permissible guidelines listed in the Level 1 unlock order.
This exaggeratedly watchful approach is resulting in extremely serious damage to the businesses, especially to restaurants in Mumbai. In cities falling under Level 2 including Thane, Navi Mumbai and Pune, restaurants and bars are operating till 11 pm even on weekends but only Mumbai remains an exception. Now Mumbai is in level 1 and it is extremely unfair to restaurants in the city to be not allowed to operate as per the permitted relaxations. The cure is turning out to be worse than the disease.
Since March 2020 restaurants in Mumbai have remained closed and were allowed to reopen briefly for a period of 4 to 5 months with several restrictions. No relief has been granted to the industry with regards to the payment of statutory charges. All these factors combined have led to financial losses resulting in the closure of almost 40 per cent of restaurants and hotels in the State so far and several more are walking a tightrope.
Huge numbers of businesses have suffered losses and many have closed down, particularly, the small and micro sector units that have a small investment. Many have been unable to pay their EMIs, shop rents and electricity bills above all taking care of family needs without any income. A moratorium was offered till the end of August but that has not helped many strained units. With failures, the already high NPAs of the banks will spurt and the financial sector is likely to face further problems.
In India business groups or small big traders, never got any support from anyone. They are assumed to be wealthy and get ignored by every sector. For the past one and half years many are gone hand to mouth and at least fifty traders of Mumbai committed suicide. Many Beauticians, salon owners, spa therapists and street vendors have taken their lives. They need to have savings to be able to take care of their families.
When there is no business, there is no work for daily wage workers. Daily workers need to be paid a living wage so that they can face the challenge of a future pandemic. The possibility of new viruses attacking humankind has increased as the environment has been greatly troubled and animals have come closer to human populations. In the last 20 years, the coronavirus is the seventh virus to have infected humans. Business is a chain if one segment suffers an entire setup collapse.
Some could work from home (WFH) via the net but most could not. Children had to have classes via the net. The use of telecom services shot up. But the efficiency of work and studies was not what it used to be since people were not used to the new requirements. Businesses cannot expand unless demand revives but that is unlikely with the low consumer sentiment in the organized sector itself. It is much worse in the unorganized sector.
The governmentās pro-business stance is also clear from the way lockdown was handled, very irresponsible and inefficient. It was eased when India had a rising number of cases. In most countries, the lockdown was eased when the new cases had dropped sharply. The business is down by 50 per cent in Mumbai. Hundreds of retailers in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, face similar challenges. Worst hit by the lockdown are stores that deal in non-essential services, as they aren’t even allowed to open at all, even for four hours.
The USD 300-billion-strong (EUR 250 billion) Maharashtra economy sunken into lockdown on April 4 with a nighttime curfew, followed by a complete lockdown announced on April 14, in an attempt to control the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which is ravaging the country. The government announced later that only essential services stores will be allowed to open, from 7 am to 11 am, which means that all other businesses, including malls, multiplexes, spas, clubs, restaurants, bars and beauty parlours will be completely shut.
Maharashtra is the richest state in the country, according to its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), and represents around 15 per cent of India’s total GDP. Mumbai-based rating agency Care Ratings has projected that around USD 5.4 billion of GDP is being lost in every month of lockdown. This kind of mass destruction of business has not been witnessed since Independence.
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In May 2020, three student activists were arrested and are accused of being the “instigators” of the February 2020 violence in North Delhi, which left 53 people dead and more than 200 injured. The high court, while granting them bail on June 15, 2021, almost after a year had observed that “in an apprehension to suppress dissent, the state has blurred the line between the right to protest and terrorist activity” and if such a mindset gains traction, it would be a “sad day for democracy”.
Thank God that the courts in India have an understanding of the democratic rights of citizens. After spending nearly a year in jail, Pinjra Tod activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Jamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha could see the open sky but there are many such activists still languishing in jail.
From environmental activists to Social activists and the RTI activists are always under threat. Freedom of information act 2002 was the precursor to the Right to Information Act, 2005 of Parliament of India. The main weakness of this act was that it did not acknowledge the right to information of the people. Consequently, it provided for appeals only within the government bodies.
Many Right to Information Act (RTI) activists, including policemen, have been harassed and even murdered for seeking information to “promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority” in India. Many face assaults on a regular basis. People seeking information from their gram panchayat and the local administration also face social ostracism. Many activists, who sought crucial information under RTI related to scams, were killed. Many threats and attacks (including murder) go unreported by the media.
Media reports of more than 300 instances of attacks on or harassment of citizens and at least 51 murders and 5 suicides can be linked to information sought under The Right to Information Act. Maharashtra followed by Gujarat tops the list for states with the most attacks on RTI users.
Similarly, be it studentās activists or social activists they all are vulnerable in India. Here making noise against the ruling party or its policy failures is a crime. People cannot protest for their rights. Activists are vulnerable in India. Studentās activists are moved by anger at government policies, atrocities and corruption and other illegal activities.
Student’ activists are vulnerable because they live in the campus areas as the political leaders who do not want to protest against their policies brutalise them easily. For the most part, human rights defenders receive media attention only when killed or seriously injured. When complaints are made by activists, law enforcement personnel (who often work with dishonest rulers) do not take appropriate action.
What happened in Delhi is not new to people, it started from Kanhaiya Kumar and came down to three students. Natasha Narwal is a student and a women human rights activist. She is also one of the founding members of the Pinjra Tod, a grouping of women students and university alumni from across Delhi, who seek to fight against oppressive forces, precincts imposed on female students and an overabundance of other social issues. She is a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Natasha Narwalās father, Mahavir, a retired senior scientist from the Haryana Agricultural University, was a senior member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M).In 2020, Narwal was arrested on May 24 for protesting against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act proposed by the central government.
Devangana Kalita is an MPhil student from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. Devangana grabbed eyeballs in 2020 after she took part in various anti-CAA & NRC protests in Delhi and NCR following which she was arrested in May 2020 and charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Devangana had been very inclined towards student politics during her days at Miranda House, University of Delhi. She had contested the student council elections as an independent candidate and got elected as the student council vice president of the university. She regularly took part in various protests related to safety and social issues both inside and outside the university campus.
After her graduation from Miranda House, the University of Delhi in 2010, Devangana interned at the Seva Mandir, an NGO based in Udaipur. Thereafter, she moved to the UK to pursue a masterās course in Gender and Development from the University of Sussex. In 2015, she enrolled at JNU to pursue a second masterās degree in History. In JNU, she started taking part in various events and indulged in a campaign in Delhiās Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University to create awareness about menstrual hygiene.
Asif Iqbal Tanha is a 25-year-old student pursuing his final year of the BA (Hons) Persian programme at the Jamia Millia Islamia University. Along with Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, he was also arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the northeast Delhi riots case and was charged under UAPA. Tanha is a member of the Students’ Islamic Organisation of India. While demanding the release of other prisoners, he also appealed to the government to address the COVID conditions in prison. Tanha also asserted that the fight against the CAA, NRC and the NPR would continue.
Finally, the three activist students came out of the jail with a big smile on their face. Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha walked out of Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Thursday night, two days after the High Court highlighted the distinction between the “right to protest” and terrorist activity, and granted bail.
The Supreme Court said three students could remain on bail but agreed to examine the legal aspects of the Delhi High Court verdict. However, a two-member bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Rama Subramanian said the Supreme Court would examine the bail order, noting that this case could have “pan-India ramifications” because of the way UAPA, or the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, had been interpreted. This will be heard next month, the Supreme Court said as it issued notices to the activists and stressed that the High Court order could not, in the meantime, be used as precedent for other cases.
Their release had been opposed by Delhi Police, which said the High Court, in permitting bail, had “conducted a mini-trial and recorded perverse findings which are contrary to the record”.
At today’s hearing Delhi Police asked the Supreme Court to “stay the (High Court) order because (it) virtually records the acquittal of the accused” and others would seek bail using this as precedent.
“(Delhi) High Court watered down UAPA (and) it had been turned upside down,” Delhi Police claimed. The court acknowledged that discussing all laws in a bail hearing was “something very surprising”, and said: “We agree. There are many questions that arise. The issue is important and can have pan-India ramifications. We would like to issue notice and hear the other side.”
However, the court also noted that bail had, in fact, been granted.
“They (the activists) will not be affected, but we will stay the effect of the High Court order,” it said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta (appearing for Delhi Police) and senior advocate Kapil Sibal (appearing for the activists) agreed with the court’s decision on both counts.
Group photo of the trekking day with the members of Anubhuti
Before lockdown, with our hectic long hours of travelling life, spending some quality time at home for the weekends used to be the norm. But after lockdown, nowadays moving out at least on weekends is on my wish list. Last week, my dearest friend decided to surprise me with a Nature-Walk to see some fireflies. A group walk was planned where all had to reach a certain meeting point in Panvel by late evening. Such Nature trips are organized every year by nature groups and planned around the fireflies mating season as that’s the time firefly males and females communicate by their bioluminescent patterns of light and are sighted together in big numbers. On location, our tour guide gave a quick introduction to the fireflies and advised us all to be silent and not disturb the plants around as we walked.
Frankly speaking, I am sure that it’s not that we all do not know anything about these glowing beetles, or we have never seen them or not viewed some informative pictures on the web or social media. Often I have seen random fireflies glisten by on Aarey roads or some gardens nearby. I am always happy to see them as they are a rare sight and literally vanish in a flash, so on this trip, I truly looked forward to seeing some more of them.
But friends, the reason I decided to write about them today is that in spite of my prior introduction, nothing prepared me for this moment of sheer awe and wonderment as I and my friends turned around a corner in the lane and suddenly sighted whole trees and shrubs full of their starry presence. Their incandescent glow filled the trees with shimmering soft glitter and it was truly a wonderful sight to behold. All surrounding fields, trees and bushes were their resting places where they all twinkled away to glory to fulfil their natural lifecycle. The whole space pulsated with their glowing energy and as we all were completely enchanted by the glittering trees we realized that the fireflies’ natural luminance could any day put an LED-lit Christmas tree to shame. As we explored the terrain ahead, the whole landscape was transformed into a shimmering fairyland and all of us were completely enamoured by the fascinating sight.
Nature is such an integral part of human existence and its influence on our lives is undeniable. But ironically, in our race for survival, we have become more distant from nature and have to make a conscious effort to connect with it. The present generation especially is more distant from most natural elements and more bonded to technology. Still, I feel that people living in villages at least are closer to animals and nature, but sadly for city dwellers, the cement tree-line is just increasing that disconnect as builders exploit every patch of free land for buildings. There is no importance given to tree plantation, parks or animals natural habitats preservation even by city planners.
Our government does not care about nature and has no desire to preserve natural reserves or the country’s rich biodiversity. Most ruling official authorities are insensitive and inconsiderate to environment conservation and sadly most politicians are out to consume open land to the last square foot. Therefore biological preservation will be the biggest challenge for future generations and as city boundaries ruthlessly expand, natural habitats are destroyed and species are further compromised till the point they reach extinction. Insects like these fireflies are a natural wonder and all these species need their environment of land, plants and trees to survive.
I often see photographs of Bombay landmarks like VT, Dadar and Ghatkopar stations in comparison to pictures from fifty years ago vs today and the extreme transformation of these locations is quite obvious. So one can imagine how most of these pristine habitats will be non-existent and vanish fifty years from now on or perhaps even earlier, thus depleting natural flora and fauna presence at a faster pace. Acknowledging the ground realities of the drastically changing geographical canvas can only suggest that all reach out for such natural occurrences and make the most of the unique moment at the earliest. I truly wish every family and friends groups would explore such rare opportunities of nature trips as they are a mix of tourism, education, pure air, fun and quality family time.
Calmly walking down a lane full of naturally glittering trees, glowing bushes amidst flying fireflies with people you love and care for is such a beautiful experience and fills your heart with gratitude. Such ethereal moments in life are precious. For me, this surprise trip will always be a fond memory as I truly enjoyed walking with my dearest star amongst some magically twinkling ‘Tare Zameen Par’.
Maharashtra Governor possess a list of 12 members of the Legislative Council with him 17
Anil Galgali, an RTI activist revealed that the list of 12 candidates whose names were approved by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet and sent to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for approval was not available for the RTI query. The list is resting with the Governor and the information will be available only after the governor takes a decision.
Anil Galgali had sought information from the Governor’s Secretariat on April 22, 2021, that the list submitted by the Chief Minister / Chief Minister’s Secretariat to the Governor regarding the appointment of members to the Legislative Council nominated the Governor. Also, the present status of the proposal submitted by the Chief Minister / Chief Minister’s Secretariat to the Governor regarding the appointment of members to the Legislative Council nominated by the Governor should be informed.
Replying to Anil Galgali’s application on 19 May 2021, Jayaraj Chaudhary, Under Secretary, Governor’s Secretariat, informed that the list of Governor-appointed Legislative Council members was not available in the office of the Public Information Officer (Administration).
Galgali had filed the first appeal against the misleading information. On 15th June 2021, Prachi Jambhekar, Deputy Secretary to the Governor, took the hearing. In this hearing, Anil Galgali asked for the availability of the list.
