Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan who signed the suspension orders and sent it to various departments said that despite being warned to resume duties in Gadchiroli, the officials have defied the transfer orders and failed to join their duties. He instructed the departments to transfer competent officers and employees to the Maoist-infested districts in future.
To counter the Maoist insurgency in Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and other districts in Marathwada region, the home department had placed an action plan before the weekly Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Alarmed at the refusal of government officials to join duties in Gadchiroli and other district, the chief minister issued the largest mass suspension order of the officials in the history of the state, and instructed the chief secretary S.A. Dange to implement it without delay. For the implementation of the action plan, a committee consisting of the district guardian minister and guardian secretary was constituted.
Taking to task the senior officials of the home ministry at the Cabinet meeting, Chavan questioned them and asked that when economic package has been worked out and sanctioned to halt the Maoist insurgency in the state then why were the commodities requirement not purchased.
In response the home ministry officials laid the blame on the police and alleged that the delay was at the level of the Director General of Police (DGP) and in his office. But the DGP denied this allegation and stated that it was the delay at the home ministry where the files were pending. The chief minister then reprimanding officials of both the departments said that such things should not occur in future.
Meanwhile in another development, Uddhav Thackeray, the working president of the Shiv Sena, defended his father and Sena chief Bal Thackeray‘s demand for ban on hijab.
Speaking to journalists in Karad in Satara district on Friday, Uddhav said that police were not searching hijab-clad women in the way they are searched at airports and other important places. It is in light of the lifting of a child by a hijab wearing woman from a hospital in Mumbai recently that Thackeray had demanded the ban on hijab to avoid such incidents or some other terror kind of incidents in future.
In a counter-attack on senior Congress leader and state revenue minister Narayan Rane for calling Thackeray as a “confirmed liar,” Uddhav described Rane as a “useless” person. “The Congress will use him for the elections to the Municipal Corporations and then within few days kick him out of the party,” he said adding that the Sena-BJP alliance would gain victory and come to power in the Kalyan Dombivili Municipal Corporation polls. “I’m very confident that our alliance will bounce back and capture power again in the polls with huge margin,” he claimed.
In another development, after the Sena agitation against the “Big Boss” reality show featuring two Pakistani artistes, whom the Sena wants to be expelled from the show, it was the turn of the local Lonavala Municipal Council (LMC) to serve a notice on Colors Television Network, the producers of the reality show, ordering them to stop the shooting of the reality show at the ABCL studios in the Lonavala hill station immediately.
A show cause notice was served by the LMC on the producers on Thursday by chief administrator of the LMC Yogesh Godse stated that action should not be taken against the Colors TV for using industrial land for business purposes without seeking the permission of the LMC. Similar notice was also served on the ABCL business house, which has rented out their premises for the shooting of the reality show.
Godse said, “A month ago, the Colors TV had sought a proper permission from the LMC for the shooting of the reality show. But without seeking any permission the producers had developed the land meant for industrial use only and erected a set for the shooting of the show. The producers did not submit any building plans for the site or even sought permission for the same. Therefore first the Colors TV and then the owner of the land were informed then to seek proper permission from the LMC for the shooting after which permission would be given. Even after this information being relayed and communicated, the Colors TV nor the land owner cared to response even after a one month lapse, hence this show cause notice was served,” Godse stated.
