Daily Briefing: BJP-Eknath Shinde coalition wins trust vote in Maharashtra; scientists look at Omicron sub-variant amid spike in Covid cases

The Indian Express | 1 month ago | 05-07-2022 | 11:40 am

Daily Briefing: BJP-Eknath Shinde coalition wins trust vote in Maharashtra; scientists look at Omicron sub-variant amid spike in Covid cases

Good morning,The BJP-Shinde Sena coalition won the trust vote with 164 votes, the same number it previously garnered in the Speaker’s election. The last day of the special assembly session was marked by an emotional speech from Shinde, who referred to the death of two of his children in a boat accident in June 2000. He also tried to reassure his political rivals saying: “We don’t subscribe to the politics of vendetta…”🔴 Having comfortably won the floor test, the coalition may not press for disqualification of the 15 MLAs left with Uddhav Thackeray. Highly placed sources in the BJP said the party wanted “truce”, even though Speaker Rahul Narwekar said he would seek their disqualification as they had ignored a whip issued by the Shinde side for the Speaker election.🔴 Meanwhile, the failure of 11 Congress MLAs, including former CM Ashok Chavan, to cast their vote in the floor test led to raised eyebrows within the party with senior leaders raising concern and questioning their “recklessness” and “casual behaviour”. Chavan said: “We were late by two or three minutes. They closed the gates. There is no foul play. We were stuck in traffic.”At least 26 recommendations for appointment of judges to the Bombay High Court, which is currently functioning at almost half its sanctioned strength, are pending with the government at different stages of consideration, The Indian Express has learnt. The Bombay High Court currently has 57 judges against a sanctioned strength of 96 judges. At least five more judges are expected to retire this year.Scientists in India probing the possible causes for the recent rise in Coronavirus cases said BA.2.75, one of the several sub-variants of the parent Omicron variant, was now one of the most commonly detected sub-variant in the country in recent results of genome sequencing. It has been found to have an 18 per cent growth advantage over the other currently circulating Omicron sub-variants. However, there is no evidence as of now to suggest that the BA.2.75 also causes a more severe form of infection.The government has barred hotels and restaurants from adding service charge “automatically or by default” in the food bill. It said that in case of violation, a consumer can ask the hotel/ restaurant to remove the service charge, or seek redressal by filing a complaint.As drama swirled around the Maharashtra government’s survival, one of the characters at the heart of it was a politician from Haryana, Sonia Doohan. The 30-year-old national president of the NCP students’ wing was held along with an aide for allegedly using fake identification documents to check into a hotel in Goa, where Sena rebels were staying. Doohan, who played an “important role in the fall of the three-day BJP government in 2019” according to NCP’s Dheeraj Sharma, has denied the allegations.A day after their capture of two heavily armed LeT militants, the residents of Tukson village in J&K remain firm: they will not give way to terrorists, at any cost. One of the residents involved in the capture, a BA student, told The Indian Express about how he had alerted his brother of two “unknown people posing as traders” at a dhok. This led to a gathering of seven residents, who formed a cordon, and eventually went on to overpower the duo.A year since the Covid-induced oxygen crisis, hospitals in Delhi are struggling to keep the pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) plants going. Most of them switch on the plant once a week or for a couple of hours every day to ensure that the machine remains functional. The reason for this are multiple: High operation and maintenance cost, lower quality of oxygen generated, and fear of antagonising the regular liquid medical oxygen suppliers.Mumbai’s chawl and low-income housing localities have always boasted of a community dance culture. B-Girl Bar-B, born Siddhi Tambe, took her first steps in Breaking at a similar community centre. The 18-year-old has now earned a ticket to New York after emerging India champ at the Red Bull BC One Cypher earlier this month. We take a look at her journey.Delhi Confidential: Union Minister Amit Shah annually visits his village on the occasion of Bhaidooj and the second day of Navratri and participates in the meeting of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies. Shah revealed this while responding to Cabinet colleague Parshottam Rupala, who took a jibe at cooperative leaders and asked them how they contribute to the sector, during an event to mark the 100th International Day of Cooperatives.In today’s episode of the ‘3 things’ podcast, we talk about Maharashtra’s new government clearing the floor test in the Assembly and the protests against its decision to build a metro shed in Aarey forest. We also discuss a fratricide case in BSF and the rising concern of mental health issues among police forces.Until tomorrow,Leela Prasad and Sonal Gupta

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Goa: Court junks former Congress president’s plea for FIR against 10 ex-MLAs
Times of India | 22 hours ago | 10-08-2022 | 06:24 am
Times of India
22 hours ago | 10-08-2022 | 06:24 am

PANAJI: A Mapusa court has dismissed the application of former Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar who was seeking directions for an FIR to be registered for cheating and forgery against 10 of its former MLAs who merged with BJP in 2019. Chodankar had alleged that they forged documents for the purpose of producing it in a disqualification petition which was then pending before the speaker of the legislative assembly. The court relied on the order passed by the high court in a writ petition between the same parties in which the order of the speaker was maintained by the high court. “Thus, there is no element of forgery for which no direction can be given to the respondent to register the FIR,” stated Shilpa S Pandit, JMFC, A-Court, Mapusa. “Merely because the letter head and the seal of the said committee is used for preparing the resolution, it cannot be said that the persons named therein have committed any forgery in creating the said resolution. That being so, no cognisable offence is made out in the complaint of the applicant. Hence, no FIR can be registered for any such offence alleged in the application,” the court added. The court observed that on July 10, 2019, when the resolution was passed to merge with BJP, all the persons who allegedly committed forgery were members of the GPCC and that being so had access to the letter head and seal of the committee. Public prosecutor R Barreto contended that none of them have alleged that their signatures on the resolution are forged. “That being so, it is an admitted position that said letter is signed by them all. Hence, there is no question of any forgery for which the complaint can be registered,” the court held. Chodankar had lodged a police complaint on April 20 last year alleging that the 10 MLAs conspired and fraudulently created a false document claiming to be a resolution of the GPCC and purportedly passed in the meeting of the GPCC held on July 10, 2019 to merge GPCC with BJP. He alleged the resolution was falsely created using counterfeit letter head and counterfeit seal of GPCC. Despite Chodankar’s complaint no FIR was registered, his counsel S Vaingankar submitted to the court.

Goa: Court junks former Congress president’s plea for FIR against 10 ex-MLAs
Sack minister, officials responsible for tur dal wastage: Congress
Times of India | 4 days ago | 07-08-2022 | 04:01 am
Times of India
4 days ago | 07-08-2022 | 04:01 am

Panaji: The state government must immediately sack civil supplies minister Ravi Naik and the officials responsible for the “criminal wastage” of over 200 tonnes of tur dal and 10 tonnes of sugar, Congress said on Saturday. The party’s mahila wing state president Beena Naik said that women would curse the government for allowing the food items to rot and go to waste in government warehouses.Congress also demanded that chief minister Pramod Sawant conducts a high-level inquiry to find out how Rs 3.5 crore worth of essential food items went to waste.“The BJP government will get cursed by the women in Goa who struggle to feed their families, for this wastage,” said Naik. “It is most unfortunate that this careless government allowed the tur dal to rot in godowns, when people were struggling to buy it.” She said that the wastage once again proves how “irresponsible and insensitive” the BJP-led state government is.She alleged that the food items are deliberately allowed to get spoiled in order to facilitate private companies to import more food items and earn profits.“I want to remind the people of Goa about the hoarding of essential commodities done by then deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar at a godown in Quepem during the nationwide lockdown due to Covid. People were struggling to buy essential commodities and videos had surfaced of the BJP minister hoarding various items,” Naik said.

Sack minister, officials responsible for tur dal wastage: Congress
Formulate employment policy, TMC tells Goa government
Times of India | 4 days ago | 06-08-2022 | 11:27 am
Times of India
4 days ago | 06-08-2022 | 11:27 am

PANAJI: TMC on Friday criticised the BJP-led government for Goa’s high rate of unemployment. Addressing the press at the party office, functionaries Trajano D’Mello, Mariano Rodrigues and Pratibha Borkar said that the state government needs to formulate a comprehensive policy to generate employment and upskill local youth. TMC highlighted the reply given by Union minister of state for labour and employment, Rameshwar Teli, who informed the Rajya Sabha that Goa’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average. Teli provided the information in response to a question raised by TMC MP Luizinho Faleiro. “Goa TMC demands the BJP-led government comes up with a proper employment policy and to ensure that the same is implemented, to have gainful employment,” said D’Mello. Goa’s unemployment rate was 10.5% in 2020-21, which is more than double the national average of 4.2%. A recent CMIE report showed that Goa’s unemployment rate sharply increased from 11.6% in January to 13.7% in July. TMC blamed the BJP government, which has recently secured a third term in Goa, for Goa’s rising unemployment. “Chief minister Pramod Sawant has abdicated his responsibilities and is failing the people of Goa. The government is no longer in a position to assure jobs to the people of Goa and by blaming the teachers, the chief minister is using them as a scapegoat to hide his incompetence,” said D’Mello. While Sawant has blamed Goa’s teachers for the falling academic standards and grades, D’Mello blamed the government for not motivating students to pursue higher education. “The government has failed to motivate the youth to pursue higher education. Even graduates in the state are unemployed,” said D’Mello. TMC said that Goa’s education system has fallen behind, and does not impart the required skills to make Goan youth employable. “Rather than focusing on improving the education system, the government is busy rewriting history. The BJP government cannot keep silent on the matter. They have failed to create more jobs,” said D’Mello.

Formulate employment policy, TMC tells Goa government
State turning blind eye as Karnataka diverts Mhadei water: Goa Forward Party
Times of India | 4 days ago | 06-08-2022 | 11:08 am
Times of India
4 days ago | 06-08-2022 | 11:08 am

PANAJI: Goa Forward Party said on Friday that the state government is continuing to turn a blind eye to Karnataka’s attempt to divert water from the Mhadei basin. Party president Vijai Sardesai said that the government is doing nothing to stop the neighbouring state’s attempt to build bandharas to divert the water, and demanded the chief minister conduct a site inspection. “Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant should go there immediately and inspect the site. He roams with so many policemen, so now he should take those policemen and hold an inspection,” Sardesai said. In a letter to chief secretary Puneet Kumar Goel, Sardesai said that the government must lodge a strong protest against Karnataka’s move. “The Karnataka government has started building bandharas to divert water from the Mhadei river,” said Sardesai. Given that the Karnataka assembly elections are scheduled around May 2023, Sardesai said that the state BJP is keeping silent about the diversion attempts, since Karnataka also has a BJP-led government, which is looking to win again. “We all know that the Karnataka assembly polls are being held in 2023, and it has to be seen whether BJP here in Goa will help BJP in Karnataka by completely selling Mhadei. The chief minister needs to take steps, escalate the issue and approach the tribunal and the Supreme Court to bring all this to light,” Sardesai said. In his letter to Goel, Sardesai said that Karnataka’s actions pose a “severe threat” to the Mhadei river that flows through North Goa. “Prior to this, the Karnataka government has shown that it does not care about the law and they are willing to, by hook or crook, divert Mhadei, which is our lifeline,” he said. The Fatorda MLA also said that Karnataka is building small bandharas instead of a large dam, because the construction of a dam requires environmental clearance.

State turning blind eye as Karnataka diverts Mhadei water: Goa Forward Party