Kartik Lokhande's blog

* No pre or post LS poll alliance with any party, says AAP Maharashtra Convener * The activist claims that Anna’s supporters are joining AAP with his blessings Staff Reporter Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been targeting former National President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nitin Gadkari, now has decided to ‘expose’ the ‘nexus’ between Gadkari and Congress MP Vilas Muttemwar. “Both, the BJP and the Congress, are on the same plank for AAP. Soon, we will be exposing nexus between Gadkari and Muttemwar,” said Maharashtra Convener of AAP Anjali Damania. She was responding to a question during ‘Meet the Press’ programme organised by Nagpur Union of Working Journalists (NUWJ) at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan here on Saturday. Photo courtesy: Satish Raut Stating that AAP would not opt for any pre- or post-poll alliance, Damania said, “If any outfit or party wants to join us, that is possible only through its merger with AAP.” Asked about Congress’ support to AAP in Delhi, she maintaine...

History buried those wanting to finish Congress: Rahul * Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi addresses national meet of party members elected to Panchayati Raj and municipal bodies * Calls ensuing Lok Sabha as a ‘battle of ideologies’ * Stresses on need to think about MPLAD Scheme as funds provided under it are ‘inadequate’ for a Lok Sabha constituency Staff Reporter SEWAGRAM (Wardha), Jan 24: During freedom struggle, the then All India Congress Committee (AICC) top heads had come together at Sewagram and had finalised strategy for Independence under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Years after, in Independent India, AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi addressed a national convention of Congress members elected to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and municipal bodies on Friday. The convention was organised to draw up ‘People’s Manifesto’ with inputs from Panchayat and municipal body members of Congress party. Rahul used this occasion to send a ‘message of change’ to pa...

Special Report By Ramesh Marulkar and Kartik Lokhande Sometimes, good start does not lead to equally good result. This applies aptly to the Bill proposed by Maharashtra Government for effecting amendments to age-old Indian Forest Act of 1927 in its application to the State of Maharashtra. The committee appointed to suggest changes did its job quite well, but its recommendations included in the Bill are ‘diluted’ in nature. The result is loopholes in the Bill. As several provisions of the Indian Forest Act have become outdated, amendments were effected previously its its application to Maharashtra to address the conditions at relevant point of time. Still, several changes were needed considering new challenges. To study the situation and suggest changes to the existing law in its application to Maharashtra, Forest Department had appointed a committee headed by Tasneem Ahmad, the then Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Production and Management); and comprising A K ...

State releases additional aid of Rs 60 crore for MIHAN Staff Reporter State Government has started expediting release of funds required to complete different tasks pertaining to various projects. As part of this marathon release of funds, it has released an additional aid of Rs 60 crore for expediting the process of acquisition of land for ambitious Multimodal International Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN). As far as approval to land acquisition proposals is concerned, State Government had given a nod to Rs 302.61 crore for acquisition of 145.29 hectares in the year 2012. As against this, the Government had released Rs 53.66 crore in the financial year 2011-12. For the year 2012-13, the Government released Rs 50 crore, and later released Rs 100 crore on August 30, 2013. So far, thus, the Government has released Rs 203.66 crore for land acquisition under MIHAN project. In the year 2011, the Government had sanctioned Rs 266 crore as ex-gratia to project-affected pers...

After 5 years, President gives assent to Money Lending (Regulation) Act * The law provides for five years’ imprisonment and fine up to Rs 50,000 to unauthorised money lenders * At present, there are 12,000 authorised money lenders who have lent farmers Rs 737 crore By Kartik Lokhande It is five years since the announcement for a stringent law to punish private money lenders exploiting farmers. In October 2013, the Centre returned the draft of this much-awaited law to Maharashtra for the seventh time. After such a long wait and several changes, the President of India Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to Maharashtra Money Lending (Regulation) Act on Friday. In 2008, the then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had announced to amend Bombay Money Lending Act to incorporate stringent punishment for private money-lenders exploiting farmers. His announcement had come after the then Deputy Chief Minister (now Home Minister) R R Patil had announced to punish money lenders hard, f...

* The Buddhist spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient will stay at Nagaloka Centre on Thursday, and will address a public meeting at Bhandara on Friday, before proceeding to two-day visit to Gothangaon Staff Reporter His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, arrived in the Orange City on Wednesday. He was welcomed with showering of Rose petals on his convoy at Indora Square here. The Dalai Lama, who is on Vidarbha tour, arrived in the city from Himachal Pradesh via Mumbai in a chartered plane at 4.35 pm. From the airport, he proceeded straight to Nagaloka Centre situated on Kamptee Road. The Buddhist spiritual leader arrived in Vidarbha after a few years. Last time, he had visited Vidarbha to meet revered social worker late Baba Amte at Anandvan, Warora in Chandrapur district. As soon as the news about his arrival at the airport spread, scores of Buddhist followers gathered at Indora Square from where his motorcade was to proceed towards Nagaloka Centr...

* Since 2011, the annual signature cultural event of Nagpur has not been held * Collector says, he is ‘positive’ about organising the event this year and is in touch with MTDC bosses By Kartik Lokhande Signatures often fade away into history. The same thing is happening with Nagpur’s signature cultural event ‘Kalidas Festival’. Since February 2011, when it was last organised, the festival has found no place on the city’s events calendar. This year also, the festival faces similar fate as the administration is citing the reason of ‘paucity of funds’. ‘Kalidas Festival’ is organised by the district administration in collaboration with Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). Every year, MTDC allocates a sum of Rs 5 lakh for organising the event. Over the years, as the expenditure involved increased, the district administration tried a hand with finding sponsors and the event was held on a larger scale in February 2011. However, since then, ‘Kalidas Festival’ has...