Tag: ajit pawar

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Big story

State to get Olympic Bhavan

All-in-one facility for Olympics training will see sportspersons from each district representating their area;there will be competitions, meets at Balewadi.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Maharashtra State has produced such Olympians as swimmer Veerdhaval Khadye and ace hockey player Dhanraj Pillay, but for a State producing scores of talented sportspeople every year in all disciplines, there is still a paucity of proper training guidelines and facilities that can create more Olympians from the State.

In response to this, Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has decided to erect an all-in-one ‘Olympic Bhavan’ in Maharashtra, where all associations and activities affiliated to the Maharashtra Olympic Association (MOA) will come under one roof. The Bhavan will house administrative amenities related to sports, as well as provide for quality training facilities. Sports associations from all districts are to be equally represented to the MOA.

Meanwhile, Pawar, who also heads the MOA, has announced that sporting competitions, training camps and coaching camps can happen at Pune’s Balewadi Sports Complex at nominal rates.

(Pictures courtesy businessweek.com, zeenewsindia.com)

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Kharcha paani

Tea cheaper, cigarettes, tobacco dearer

Maharashtra State releases Budget 2013-2014 in State Legislature today. Cigarettes, alcohol to be dearer; tea and essential commodities enjoy concessions.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Every successive Budget, State or Union-presented, comes down heavily on certain things while letting others off a bit easy. The Maharashtra State Budget 2013-2014 was tabled in both Houses of the State Legislature today by Deputy Chief Minister and State Finance Minister Ajit Pawar today. Here are some of the Budget’s highlights:

– Concessional rate on tea to continue up to March 31, 2014.

– Increase in tax rate of gold, silver and their jewellery from 1 per cent to 1.10 per cent and sugar cane purchase tax from 3 per cent to 5 per cent to raise fund for drought relief for one year.

– Increase in tax on bidis, cigarette and tobacco.

– Tax on paver blocks to be increased from 5 per cent to 12.5 per cent.

– Surveillance of transactions by Sales Tax Department to go up.

– VAT exemption on Braille watches and vehicles for handicapped.

– Reduction in rate of tax of AICD heart implant from 12.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

– Financial Institutions liable to pay stamp duty on mortgage deeds.

– Increase in excise duty on country liquor, I.M.F.L. and strong beer.

– Rs 150.83 crore allotted to State sports and youth policy.

– Rs 80 crore earmarked for technical education quality improvement.

– Rs 317.17 crore for police modernisation.

For complete Budget 2013-2014 coverage, click here. 

(Picture courtesy fanpop.com)

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Deal with it

State bats for responsible Holi this year

Government wants the State to celebrate an environment-friendly Holi this year. You can buy natural colours at the Mantralaya, too.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

There’s a severe drought on in the State, the likes of which has not been seen for several years. The situation is set to spiral totally out of control, with farmers letting livestock go, and people looking for water to drink far and wide.

Meanwhile, the rest of the State is gearing up for Holi.

It is indeed a worrying dichotomy that while one of Maharashtra grapples with even small quantities of drinking water, cities like ours have water in plenty, and which we will use to the maximum limits when Holi arrives. Anticipating the unprecedented wastage of water that is soon to take place as the Holi celebrations get underway, State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan wants us all to celebrate responsibly.

What Chavan wants

“Please avoid the use of water to celebrate Holi this year,” Chavan said via a statement released earlier this evening. “Opt for natural colours and celebrate a water-less Holi if possible. The cities tend to celebrate also with plastic balloons and synthetic colours, which damage the environment and which are dangerous for health as well.”

So committed is the State to a responsible and environmentally-conscious Holi this year, that a stall selling natural colours will be set up for the public at the Mantralaya on March 21 and 22. Apart from this, public service announcements will be made through all radio and TV channels (private and government-controlled), as well as in 205 cinema theatres across the city and State. The Government will also flash these announcements on local trains and BEST buses.

Plans are also afoot to have Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will communicate, via voice calls, with about one crore mobile subscribers and talk about using non-chemical based colours during Holi, apart from considering a water-less celebration. A letter bearing the public service message will also reach Government offices, editors of newspapers and channels, schools, colleges, courts, etc.

(Picture courtesy handmaidliset.blogspot.com)

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Big story

Dhoble transfer issue hots up

Public support for recently-transferred cop increases daily; if probe absolves Dhoble of wrongdoing, he might be reinstated as ACP, Vakola.
by the Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Vasant Dhoble is one lucky man. Transferred by the Chief Minister following the death of a hawker during a hawker eviction drive last week in the suburbs, the controversial cop is receiving tremendous support from all quarters – most recently from the Congress’ ally in the State, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Yesterday, NCP leader and State Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had jokingly agreed to support CM Prithviraj Chavan’s decision to transfer Dhoble from Vakola to the police control room following the hawker’s death – the post mortem report reveals he died of a brain haemorrhage, and not of cardiac arrest, as originally surmised – but today, Pawar took a different line altogether. “We should not transfer a person wrongly,” he said. “If the probe (initiated into the incident by the Home Department) does not show that Dhoble was responsible (for the hawker’s death), he will be reinstated with immediate effect,” he added.

Interestingly, Home Department chief RR Patil, who also belongs to the NCP, had said yesterday that the decision to transfer Dhoble was a welcome one, since it would “help in an impartial probe’.

Meanwhile, the rabble-rousing cop himself has chosen to keep a low profile since his transfer, refusing to comment even on the support from such parties as the Shiv Sena and the MNS, which surprised all by actually uniting over the issue of his transfer.

‘Bring him back’

Residents and local corporators of the area under Dhoble’s purview as ACP have reacted strongly to the cop’s transfer. This morning, two separate ALMs in Vile Parle had initiated signature campaigns in support of Dhoble. The signatures are to submitted to the Chief Minister. “We are extremely pleased with his performance as a cop in our area,” said Vile Parle resident Rohini Gupte (53). “I have lived in Vile Parle all my life, and after Dhoble came here and started cracking down on illegal hawkers, we saw the footpaths on our streets for the first time. It is wrong to transfer a police officer who is doing his job for the betterment of an area.”

Senior citizens, especially, profess to be more than satisfied with Dhoble’s stint as ACP. “Even before, when he was posted at Goregaon, he was very popular with the local residents because he came down very heavily on wrong activities,” said MS Prakash (69). “If a police officer is carrying out his duties and he gets punished for it, then why should the police do any work at all? I strongly feel that the Government should reconsider and bring him back, instead of deputing him to some ordinary post.”

(Picture courtesy intoday.in)

 

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Big story

He’s back

Ajit Pawar assumes office as Deputy Chief Minister today. Stage is set for a stormy Winter Session of the Legislature.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

As political exiles go, this one was curiously short-lived. Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, had quit his post in September this year, amid allegations of corruption in irrigation projects. Today, a little over two months later, he returns to his former post, just in time for the Winter Session of the State Legislature, which begins in Nagpur on December 11.

However, Pawar has made it clear that he will not handle any portfolio at the moment. A letter from the NCP asking that Pawar be reinstated to his former office was sent to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan this week, following which, the date and the time for the swearing-in was fixed. Pawar will take oath at Raj Bhavan.

The stage was set for Pawar’s return the moment the State Government received the white paper on irrigation a few days ago, and which did not speak of the spate of irregularities in irrigation, or the alleged rampant politician-contractor nexus. Without naming Pawar anywhere, the Government succeeded in indirectly absolving him of all blame, though Chavan kept clarifying that a ‘clean chit’ had not been given to anybody.

Yet, the white paper presented the perfect opportunity for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), to which Pawar belongs – he is the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar – to clamour for his return. Yesterday, party spokesperson Nawab Malik reiterated that the party had been demanding that Ajit Pawar return to the Government, and that this demand had been conveyed to the party leadership. It may be remembered that the NCP had not replaced Pawar with another NCP leader; it was almost as if the Deputy CM’s chair had been kept vacant for him, with his return imminent.

Opposition parties in attack mode

However, the Opposition parties in the State – led by the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have not taken kindly to Pawar’s return. The Winter Session of the State Legislature begins on December 11, and all political action will then move to Nagpur. However, on hearing of Pawar’s return to the State Cabinet today, the Shiv Sena threatened to move a No Confidence motion against the Government. “We oppose his return to power till his role (in the irrigation scams) is investigated thoroughly,” said Sena leader Subhash Desai, while the BJP reiterated its demand for an SIT-level probe into Pawar’s and Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare’s roles in the controversy.

(Picture courtesy pardaphash.com)

 

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Learn

AAP Pawar pe chup kyun hain?

While Aam Aadmi Party’s ‘black paper’ on Maha irrigation irregularities tears into Sunil Tatkare, it says nothing on Ajit Pawar.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Yesterday was clearly Ajit Pawar’s day. The decks were cleared for his return to the Deputy Chief Minister’s post he resigned from on September this year, owing to his name being mired in alleged irregularities in the irrigation sector, and on the other hand, the ‘black paper’ submitted by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) vehemently tore into Water Resources Minister (WRD) Sunil Tatkare, but did not name Ajit Pawar.

The AAP presented its black paper to State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan yesterday, following which, Chavan had a meeting with the party’s activists Anjali Damania and Praful Vora, among others. In the paper, AAP has called the white paper on irrigation brought out by the Tatkare-led WRD a “total farce” and demanded for Tatkare’s resignation, but does not name Ajit Pawar anywhere.

Like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the AAP has also demanded for an SIT-level probe in the matter.

In black and white

In its black paper, AAP has countered almost all of the white paper’s claims, starting with the area under irrigation in the State. While the white paper claims that the area under irrigation increased by 5.17 per cent from 2001 to 2010, the black paper calls this as an attempt to mislead people.

Further, the black paper says that water was illegally diverted from irrigation projects to non-irrigation purposes, and that there were plans to approve 71 new water-intensive thermal power projects in the suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha.

The black paper blames the WRD for rampant corruption and violation, and calls for Tatkare’s resignation, an SIT probe in the irrigation scam and action against politicians, officials and contractors responsible for the mess, apart from demanding an immediate stop on projects that have committed violations. The paper also criticises Chavan, adding that the white paper presented by the WRD to the Government was merely a ‘status paper’ that toed the coalition politics line.

AAP will most likely bring out another black paper on irrigation soon.

(Picture courtesy forbesindia.com)

 

 

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