Kartik Lokhande's blog

* ANO, Special Action Group, Gadchiroli Range are critical units and all are without full-time heads By Kartik Lokhande  Can one expect the army to fight a war without commander? At least, Maharashtra Government expects so in case of anti-Naxalite operations. For over one year, Anti-Naxalite Operations (ANO) headquartered at Nagpur is functioning without any full-time head. Similar is the case with other critical posts in the operations against Maoists. Since the transfer of Anup Kumar Singh one year ago, the post of Inspector General of Police (ANO) is lying vacant. Anup Kumar Singh is currently posted as Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration), Mumbai Police. Rajvardhan, Joint Commissioner of Police, Nagpur, is holding additional charge as IG (ANO). The task of Joint Commissioner of Police, Nagpur, itself is a big one as the city is growing in prominence. Whereas, the position of IG (ANO) requires full-time attention as it is critical from operations point of vie

By Kartik Lokhande This is the only word that can best describe the acts of self-proclaimed intellectuals, judicial activists lacking in prudence, and learned individuals who are out-of-sync with the overwhelming national sentiment. And, there was one more segment -- the media. All these put together staged an outrageous show before the nation, and achieved in part what they set out for -- polarisation on communal lines using the hanging of terror convict Yakub Memon’s hanging. It all started with the issuance of death warrant regarding Yakub’s hanging reaching to his family. Within a matter of a few days, the nation was stirred up with the ‘anarchist elements’ opening up a front to discuss why the terror convict -- whose acts resulted in killing of 257 innocents and left more than 700 persons injured in 1993 serial bomb blasts -- should not be hanged. They roped in activists, became activists, ranted and panted day in and day out. In all this, Nagpur -- the city where

* Govt to compensate loss of municipal corporations by way of providing them revenue earned through stamp duty collection from urban areas * Amnesty Scheme extended up to August 15 Staff Reporter Maharashtra Government, on Friday evening, announced that the Local Body Tax (LBT) would be abolished from August 1, 2015, for the traders having annual turnover below Rs 50 crore. The move will provide relief to 99.85 per cent of the traders enrolled for LBT in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said while making a statement before the State Legislature. The announcement comes as a great relief to traders across Maharashtra and Nagpur, the Second Capital. For, though the deadline of July 31 was drawing closer the municipal corporations had not received any final communication regarding abolition of the much-discussed tax from August 1. Chief Minister informed the State Legislative Assembly on Friday that LBT would be abolished in the limits of 25 municipal corporatio

* Focusses on creating Retail Entertainment Zones, accelerate investment flow to under-developed regions By Kartik Lokhande  Maharashtra Government, on Thursday, released draft of the Retail Trade Policy-2015 becoming the first state to do so. The draft policy defines retailer, multi-brand retail or supermarket, and single-brand retailer, and also covers direct selling as well as sale of goods through e-commerce, television, mobile phone or tablet, and other new-age platforms. The draft will become full-fledged policy once approved, and it will be applicable for five years. The policy has been drafted with a vision to boost State’s economic competitiveness by promoting and facilitating world-class logistics and warehouse chain, minimising wastage and transaction cost within retail enterprise, and giving the best value for money to consumer while maximising returns to producers, farmers, and small and medium enterprises. It also aims at making Maharashtra the most favoure

Waiting for ‘the’ word, media and cops work through night By Kartik Lokhande Will he be hanged as scheduled? What is the Supreme Court’s decision in unprecedented late-night hearing? Do cops have any inputs? Time of hanging has changed, is it? These and countless many questions filled the otherwise silent night in the radius of around 1 km from Nagpur Central Jail after 12 am on July 30. Tension was palpable. The questions were being asked by mediapersons to fellow journalists, cops to cops, media to cops, and commoners to media and cops. Mediapersons from Nagpur as well as the adjoining states and even Mumbai and Delhi remained awake through the night to telecast the latest inputs with respective media houses, especially electronic media houses. Cops on duty inside Central Jail premises and those on bandobast/nakabandi duty across the city, also were anxious about what was happening. Various routes to and fro Central Jail had barricades, with armed cops deployed

* Feb 20, 1950 -- Siparam Nuho Yala * Aug 25, 1950 -- Pantheyadi Nandalala * Sept 22, 1950 -- Zakiya Narayan * June 26, 1951 -- Sitaram Parayya * Aug 3, 1951 -- Iramann Upyorsi * Oct 4, 1951 -- Bhamya Gouda * Jan 12, 1952 -- Sardar Yala * Aug 3, 1952 -- Niyato Kanhu * Aug 5, 1952 -- Abdul Rehman Imran Khan * Sept 2, 1952 -- Ganpat Sakharam * Sept 24, 1952 -- Sakharam Foksu * Mar 19, 1953 -- Vinsa Hari * June 19, 1953 -- Jageshwar Maroti * July 4, 1953 -- Premlal Amrish * Sept 15, 1953 -- Lotanwala * Feb 3, 1956 -- Dayaram Balaji * Aug 28, 1959 -- Abbas Khan Vazir Khan * Feb 15, 1960 -- Bajirao Tawanno * July 8, 1970 -- Shyamrao Pandurang * Jan 19, 1973 -- Nana Gangaji * Apr 17, 1973 -- Moriram Godan * Nov 5, 1984 -- Wankhede brothers * July 30, 2015 -- Yakub Memon (on his birthday, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict)  (29-07-15)

* The nation can never forget the scientist-litterateur- philosopher-gentleman that ‘Bharat Ratna’ Dr A P J Abdul Kalam was By Kartik Lokhande Even before one could grasp the details being flashed on television screen on Monday late evening, one’s eyes welled up and a lump came to one’s throat. For, the nation was learning the shocking and saddest news of demise of ‘Bharat Ratna’ Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, the most loved President and scientist of India. Immediately, memories of brief interactions with him and his inspiring speeches flashed before one’s eyes, with the last ones being of his speeches at Nagpur in the past two years.  A man deeply inspired by the commitment of his teachers, Dr Kalam himself rose to become a great teacher in the true sense of the term. Be it his brisk walk defying his age, be it his charming and disarming smile, be it his animated gestures when his speech was at its peak, be it his typical accented English, he left i

 By Kartik Lokhande July 26, 2015 marked the 16 th anniversary of India’s military triumph over Pakistan in Kargil theatre. Ther were documentaries on television channels, columns full of articles in newspapers and magazines, flood of photographs on websites and social sites, and talk-talk-talk in various corners of the country. All of them in all of these said, all this is aimed at remembering our heroes. But, the pertinent question to ask here is – Do we really want these real-life military heroes to be remembered? The answer to this question is a clear ‘NO’. For, if we as a nation wanted to remember these heroes, hadn’t we made efforts to include their real-life stories of valour in our school and college curricula? Previously, during our school days, we were taught the story of Abdul Hamid, Company Quarter Master Havildar, who had performed super-human act of destroying five Pakistani tanks in the 1965 India-Pakistan war. The martyr finds no place in present-day school

By Kartik Lokhande Once again, Pakistan is at it. Being very well aware of its misdeeds, she has now started crying hoarse and hurling utterly false accusations of ‘ceasefire violations’ against a restraining India. Obviously, nobody is inclined to believe Pakistan, which has been habitual about telling lies. The latest incident of Pakistan’s lie standing exposed is that of ‘Indian’ drone shot down near the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Inter Services Public Relations of Pakistan raked up the controversy by issuing a statement that ‘Indian’ drone was brought down as it was doing aerial photography. And, Pakistan’s blatant lie was nailed by none other than her friend China. The People’s Daily run by the ruling Communist Party of China disclosed that the drone shot down by Pakistan was of Chinese make. Deeply embarrassed by this disclosure by China, and sulking over her lie getting exposed internationally, Pakistan resorted