<p>A massive fire broke out at the Kamala Mills complex&nbsp;in Lower Parel, Mumbai early Friday morning killing 15 people and injuring 12.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The fire was reported at 12.30 am Friday.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The fire is thought to have been caused by a short circuit in the 1 Above&nbsp;restaurant on the top floor of a four-storey building in the complex.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a>: Last night visuals of fire at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KamalaMills?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KamalaMills</a> compound in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mumbai?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mumbai</a>&#39;s Lower Parel, the incident has claimed 14 lives. <a href="https://t.co/Ud2s6QXTFF">pic.twitter.com/Ud2s6QXTFF</a></p>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/946569274868428800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Anguished by the fire in Mumbai. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I pray that those injured recover quickly: PM <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@narendramodi</a></p>
&mdash; PMO India (@PMOIndia) <a href="https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/946589058225942528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Disturbing news about the fire in Mumbai. Condolences to the bereaved families and wishing the injured an early recovery. Commend the valiant efforts of fire-fighters and those in rescue ops <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PresidentKovind?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PresidentKovind</a></p>
&mdash; President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) <a href="https://twitter.com/rashtrapatibhvn/status/946572230653132800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p>Kamala Mills is an old mill complex which now houses commercial establishments.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Eyewitnesses said the fire spread quickly, leading to a stampede since no one knew where the fire escape doors were.&nbsp;</p>

<p>An FIR has been lodged against the 1 Above restaurant.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The FIR says 14 people&nbsp;died, of which 11 were men and three women.&nbsp;</p>

<p>It added that the transmission&nbsp;of a number of television channels which have their offices at Kamala Mills was affected.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>The people&nbsp;injured in the fire had been rushed to KEM hospital.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&quot;All the 12 injured are out of danger now,&quot; ANI reported the Dean of KEM Hospital, Avinash Supe, as saying.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


Doctors said the 12 people injured were now out of danger

A massive fire broke out at the Kamala Mills complex in Lower Parel, Mumbai early Friday morning killing 15 people and injuring 12. The fire was reported at 12.30 am Friday. The fire is thought to have been caused by a short circuit in the 1 Above restaurant on the top floor of a four-storey building in the complex. #WATCH: Last night visuals of fire at #KamalaMills compound in #Mumbai's Lower Parel, the incident has claimed 14 lives. pic.twitter.com/Ud2s6QXTFF — ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2017 × Anguished by the fire in Mumbai. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I pray that those injured recover quickly: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) December 29, 2017 × Disturbing news about the fire in Mumbai. Condolences to the bereaved families and wishing the injured an early recovery. Commend the valiant efforts of fire-fighters and those in rescue ops #PresidentKovind — President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) December 29, 2017 × Kamala Mills is an old mill complex which now houses commercial establishments. Eyewitnesses said the fire spread quickly, leading to a stampede since no one knew where the fire escape doors were. An FIR has been lodged against the 1 Above restaurant. The FIR says 14 people died, of which 11 were men and three women. It added that the transmission of a number of television channels which have their offices at Kamala Mills was affected. The people injured in the fire had been rushed to KEM hospital. "All the 12 injured are out of danger now," ANI reported the Dean of KEM Hospital, Avinash Supe, as saying.

Video: 15 dead after massive fire breaks out at Mumbai's Kamala Mills

<p>Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde &amp; other dignitaries flagged off Mumbai&#39;s first air-conditioned local train today at the Borivali station.&nbsp;</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Mumbai: First air conditioned local train of India flagged off from Borivali station by Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde &amp; other dignitaries <a href="https://t.co/LPzJ48wsq2">pic.twitter.com/LPzJ48wsq2</a></p>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/945175089305100288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p>Mumbai&#39;s first AC local train will run only over the weekdays with weekends reserved mainly for maintenance.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Eight out of twelve daily services will be operated on the congested Churchgate-Virar (Palghar) route while three services will be run between Churchgate and Borivali.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Train services will halt only at major stations with an exception to one service which will operate between Mahalaxmi and Borivali, halting at all stations.&nbsp;</p>

<p><br />
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The train will run only over the weekdays with weekends reserved mainly for maintenance

Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde & other dignitaries flagged off Mumbai's first air-conditioned local train today at the Borivali station. Mumbai: First air conditioned local train of India flagged off from Borivali station by Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde & other dignitaries pic.twitter.com/LPzJ48wsq2 — ANI (@ANI) December 25, 2017 × Mumbai's first AC local train will run only over the weekdays with weekends reserved mainly for maintenance. Eight out of twelve daily services will be operated on the congested Churchgate-Virar (Palghar) route while three services will be run between Churchgate and Borivali. Train services will halt only at major stations with an exception to one service which will operate between Mahalaxmi and Borivali, halting at all stations.

Mumbai gets its first air-conditioned local

<p>As many as 2,965 girls have gone missing from Maharashtra in the first six months this year, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday.</p>

<p>The number has gone up from 2,881 girls, who had gone missing between January 1 and June 30 in 2016, he said in a written reply in tabled in the state Legislative Assembly in response to a query by BJP MLA Randheer Savarkar.</p>

<p>The chief minister, who heads the home department, said, &quot;No case was registered against any particular gang in this connection. Some 12 police departments have been instructed to take immediate action against such activities.&quot;&nbsp;</p>

<p>According to Fadnavis, the union government formed www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in for tracking a missing girl child.</p>

<p>&quot;The Railways is also updating their portals www.shodh.gov.in for the same purpose. These websites have been helpful in detecting cases,&quot; he said in the reply.</p>

<p>The state government had undertaken four special drives, such as Operation Muskan and Operation Smile, which helped in finding 1,613 girls between January 1 and June 30, 2016. The drive also helped find 645 girls this year, Fadnavis said in the reply.</p>


Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said as many as 2,965 girls went missing in the first six months of the year

As many as 2,965 girls have gone missing from Maharashtra in the first six months this year, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday. The number has gone up from 2,881 girls, who had gone missing between January 1 and June 30 in 2016, he said in a written reply in tabled in the state Legislative Assembly in response to a query by BJP MLA Randheer Savarkar. The chief minister, who heads the home department, said, "No case was registered against any particular gang in this connection. Some 12 police departments have been instructed to take immediate action against such activities." According to Fadnavis, the union government formed www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in for tracking a missing girl child. "The Railways is also updating their portals www.shodh.gov.in for the same purpose. These websites have been helpful in detecting cases," he said in the reply. The state government had undertaken four special drives, such as Operation Muskan and Operation Smile, which helped in finding 1,613 girls between January 1 and June 30, 2016. The drive also helped find 645 girls this year, Fadnavis said in the reply.

Maharashtra: Almost 3,000 girls missing in 6 months, says Fadnavis

<p>After announcing the next-generation Snapdragon 845 SoC at the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2017 in Maui, Hawaii, Qualcomm&nbsp;has today detailed the features of the new mobile platform. The new chipset is based on the 10nm FinFET process with big.LITTLE architecture. Qualcomm has already mentioned that the new chipsets will be manufactured by Samsung Foundry. Here are the changes that the new chipset brings over last year&rsquo;s Snapdragon 835 SoC.</p>

<p><strong>Kryo 385 CPU</strong></p>

<p>The key enhancements over Snapdragon 835 comes in the form of better battery life and faster performance. The chipset is manufactured using Samsung&rsquo;s second-gen 10nm LPP FinFET process. The Kryo CPU architecture includes four performance cores (Cortex A75) clocked up to 2.8GHz with up to 30 percent performance improvement over Snapdragon 835. These performance cores are paired with four efficiency cores (Cortex A55) clocked at 1.8GHz, which Qualcomm says is 30 percent more energy efficient compared to its predecessor.</p>

<p>The Snapdragon 845 SoC comes with Quick Charge 4 support, which Qualcomm claims can take the battery from empty to 50 percent in 15 minutes. Also, on full charge, the chipmaker says that smartphones powered by Snapdragon 845 SoC can offer around four hours of Ultra HD 4K video playback, up to three hours of immersive unwired VR usage, and talk time of up to two days on VoLTE.</p>

<p><strong>Adreno 630 GPU</strong></p>

<p>The Snapdragon 845 SoC is paired with the Adreno 630 GPU, which Qualcomm says is faster and more efficient in processing. The new GPU is designed to offer 30 percent faster graphics, 30 percent improved energy efficiency and 2.5 times faster display throughput. It will also support 2K + 2K 120fps XR for virtual and augmented reality devices.</p>

<p><strong>X20 LTE modem</strong></p>

<p>The X20 is Qualcomm&rsquo;s second-generation Gigabit LTE modem with TrueWireless connectivity. It is designed to over 20 percent improvement over X16 modem on the Snapdragon 835 SoC. The X20 modem can offer maximum speeds of up to 1.2Gbps over 12 streams. It comes with 5 carrier aggregation with 4&times;4 MIMO technology. So, what do these specifications mean? Well, it can offer faster upload and download data speeds on upcoming 5G networks.</p>

<p>It also supports multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi with 60GHz range with ad baseband. The modem also supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac for 16 times faster connection setup and 30 percent efficiency. The X20 modem on the Snapdragon 845 SoC now supports dual-SIM 4G connectivity and Dual-VoLTE on both SIMs. It also comes with advanced Bluetooth capabilities to broadcast HD quality music or live audio to connect to multiple devices. Also, the modem is designed to consume 50 percent less power when using wireless earbuds.</p>

<p><strong>Camera</strong></p>

<p>The Snapdragon 845 SoC comes with Hexagon 685 DSP and Spectra 280 ISP (Image Signal Processing) for improved photography. The smartphone camera will also support capturing Ultra HD Premium videos at 60fps. Qualcomm has also made improvements to the ISP to correct the color gamut, color depth and luminance to make your captured photos look more lifelike.</p>

<p>It basically helps to correct the color volume, dynamic range and improve the banding. The new chipset will also support slow-motion video capture at 720p in HDR10 format, with a frame rate of 480fps. The chipset will also consume 30 percent less power when recording videos.</p>

<p>Most smartphones today come with dual-camera setups and they allow capturing photos with DSLR-like bokeh effects. The new Snapdragon chipset comes with &lsquo;Computer Vision&rsquo; for depth mapping and to add the depth-of-field effects even when using a single camera. It also supports Face scanning for biometric authentication and security.</p>

<p><strong>Artificial Intelligence</strong></p>

<p>Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) is everywhere today, right from finance to healthcare, entertainment, insurance, and transportation. The Snapdragon 845 SoC is the third generation mobile AI platform from Qualcomm. With the new chipset, Qualcomm is moving intelligence from cloud to edge to improve low latency, privacy and reliability.</p>

<p>With AI integration, Qualcomm wants to offer richer and more personalized experiences. It works with multiple platforms, such as Android, Linux and Windows, and Qualcomm is working with a number of partners such as Facebook, Google, Amazon Alexa, Baidu, and more for improved experiences.</p>

<p>AI on Snapdragon 845 comes with features such as speech recognition, object detection, face recognition, single camera bokeh effects to your camera photos, landmark detection, malware detection and more.</p>

<p><strong>Security</strong></p>

<p>The security architecture on the Snapdragon 845 SoC comes with a secure vault. It is hardware based and comes with its own Secure Processing Unit to keep your photos, videos, content and other details safe and secure. We have moved from typing passwords to fingerprint scanning, iris scanning and face scanning biometric authentication systems. And because biometrics is important to us from a privacy viewpoint, the data is encrypted and validated in the secure processing unit, thus keeping it secure. Also, with mobile payments becoming increasingly mainstream, the integration of secure vault in the chipset will enable higher level of security of your biometrics.</p>

<p><em>Disclaimer: The correspondent Ritesh Bendre is in Maui, Hawaii on Qualcomm&rsquo;s invite. Qualcomm paid for his travel and accommodation in Hawaii. The article was originally published in BGR.in, <a href="http://www.bgr.in/features/qualcomm-snapdragon-845-soc-with-kryo-385-cpu-x20-lte-modem-ai-capabilities-launched/">click here</a> to read it.</em></p>


Gujarat tops the list with more than three-fourths of its working population in the informal sector being blatantly vulnerable

After announcing the next-generation Snapdragon 845 SoC at the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2017 in Maui, Hawaii, Qualcomm has today detailed the features of the new mobile platform. The new chipset is based on the 10nm FinFET process with big.LITTLE architecture. Qualcomm has already mentioned that the new chipsets will be manufactured by Samsung Foundry. Here are the changes that the new chipset brings over last year’s Snapdragon 835 SoC. Kryo 385 CPU The key enhancements over Snapdragon 835 comes in the form of better battery life and faster performance. The chipset is manufactured using Samsung’s second-gen 10nm LPP FinFET process. The Kryo CPU architecture includes four performance cores (Cortex A75) clocked up to 2.8GHz with up to 30 percent performance improvement over Snapdragon 835. These performance cores are paired with four efficiency cores (Cortex A55) clocked at 1.8GHz, which Qualcomm says is 30 percent more energy efficient compared to its predecessor. The Snapdragon 845 SoC comes with Quick Charge 4 support, which Qualcomm claims can take the battery from empty to 50 percent in 15 minutes. Also, on full charge, the chipmaker says that smartphones powered by Snapdragon 845 SoC can offer around four hours of Ultra HD 4K video playback, up to three hours of immersive unwired VR usage, and talk time of up to two days on VoLTE. Adreno 630 GPU The Snapdragon 845 SoC is paired with the Adreno 630 GPU, which Qualcomm says is faster and more efficient in processing. The new GPU is designed to offer 30 percent faster graphics, 30 percent improved energy efficiency and 2.5 times faster display throughput. It will also support 2K + 2K 120fps XR for virtual and augmented reality devices. X20 LTE modem The X20 is Qualcomm’s second-generation Gigabit LTE modem with TrueWireless connectivity. It is designed to over 20 percent improvement over X16 modem on the Snapdragon 835 SoC. The X20 modem can offer maximum speeds of up to 1.2Gbps over 12 streams. It comes with 5 carrier aggregation with 4×4 MIMO technology. So, what do these specifications mean? Well, it can offer faster upload and download data speeds on upcoming 5G networks. It also supports multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi with 60GHz range with ad baseband. The modem also supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac for 16 times faster connection setup and 30 percent efficiency. The X20 modem on the Snapdragon 845 SoC now supports dual-SIM 4G connectivity and Dual-VoLTE on both SIMs. It also comes with advanced Bluetooth capabilities to broadcast HD quality music or live audio to connect to multiple devices. Also, the modem is designed to consume 50 percent less power when using wireless earbuds. Camera The Snapdragon 845 SoC comes with Hexagon 685 DSP and Spectra 280 ISP (Image Signal Processing) for improved photography. The smartphone camera will also support capturing Ultra HD Premium videos at 60fps. Qualcomm has also made improvements to the ISP to correct the color gamut, color depth and luminance to make your captured photos look more lifelike. It basically helps to correct the color volume, dynamic range and improve the banding. The new chipset will also support slow-motion video capture at 720p in HDR10 format, with a frame rate of 480fps. The chipset will also consume 30 percent less power when recording videos. Most smartphones today come with dual-camera setups and they allow capturing photos with DSLR-like bokeh effects. The new Snapdragon chipset comes with ‘Computer Vision’ for depth mapping and to add the depth-of-field effects even when using a single camera. It also supports Face scanning for biometric authentication and security. Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) is everywhere today, right from finance to healthcare, entertainment, insurance, and transportation. The Snapdragon 845 SoC is the third generation mobile AI platform from Qualcomm. With the new chipset, Qualcomm is moving intelligence from cloud to edge to improve low latency, privacy and reliability. With AI integration, Qualcomm wants to offer richer and more personalized experiences. It works with multiple platforms, such as Android, Linux and Windows, and Qualcomm is working with a number of partners such as Facebook, Google, Amazon Alexa, Baidu, and more for improved experiences. AI on Snapdragon 845 comes with features such as speech recognition, object detection, face recognition, single camera bokeh effects to your camera photos, landmark detection, malware detection and more. Security The security architecture on the Snapdragon 845 SoC comes with a secure vault. It is hardware based and comes with its own Secure Processing Unit to keep your photos, videos, content and other details safe and secure. We have moved from typing passwords to fingerprint scanning, iris scanning and face scanning biometric authentication systems. And because biometrics is important to us from a privacy viewpoint, the data is encrypted and validated in the secure processing unit, thus keeping it secure. Also, with mobile payments becoming increasingly mainstream, the integration of secure vault in the chipset will enable higher level of security of your biometrics. Disclaimer: The correspondent Ritesh Bendre is in Maui, Hawaii on Qualcomm’s invite. Qualcomm paid for his travel and accommodation in Hawaii. The article was originally published in BGR.in, click here to read it.

Opinion: Gujarat is prosperous, but where is the job security

<p>The people of Gujarat and the state administration today heaved a sigh of relief as Cyclone Ockhi dissipated over the Arabian Sea, sparing the poll-bound state. The cyclone was yesterday headed towards Gujarat after leaving a trail of destruction on the southern Indian coast.</p>

<p>The cyclone yesterday passed the Mumbai coast and much to the relief of the people in Maharashtra&#39;s capital, it just brought rains and there was no loss of life or damage to property.</p>

<p>As per an early morning release by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cyclonic storm first turned into a &#39;deep depression&#39;, then into a &#39;depression&#39; and finally into a &#39;low pressure&#39; area after midnight. &quot;The depression over east-central and adjoining north-east the Arabian Sea weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area over the east-central Arabian sea and adjoining areas of north-east Arabian Sea, north coastal Maharashtra and south coastal Gujarat at 23:30 hours yesterday&quot;, the release said.</p>

<p>The cyclone dissipated over the sea before hitting the Gujarat coast, said Jayanta Sarkar, the director of the MeT Centre here.&nbsp;&quot;The cyclone did not reach Surat at all. It dissipated into the sea before making a landfall on the southern coast. From deep depression, it became a depression, then became a well-marked low pressure. Now, it is just low pressure. It may bring light to moderate rain in some parts of the state today,&quot; added Sarkar.</p>

<p>As per the IMD release, the sea condition would be rough along and off south Gujarat and adjoining north Maharashtra coasts during the next 12 hours.&nbsp;&quot;Fishermen along and off north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts are advised not to venture into sea during the next 12 hours,&quot; the release said.</p>

<p>Until last evening, there was a fear that Cyclone Ockhi may hit Gujarat coast by midnight. However, the cyclone lost its strength and turned into a &#39;deep depression&#39; when it was around 240 km away from Surat.&nbsp;The cyclone later turned into a &#39;depression&#39; when it was still away from the coast and gradually weakened into a well marked low pressure by this morning.</p>

<p>To face the eventuality in view of the cyclonic storm, the state government deployed teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in several parts of south Gujarat and Saurashtra.&nbsp;The government also alerted the Air Force, Coast Guard, and Navy.&nbsp;Around 1,600 people were also shifted to safer locations, as a precautionary measure.</p>

<p>Amid his busy poll campaign schedule, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and state chief secretary J N Singh rushed to Surat yesterday to oversee the relief operations.</p>


The fear of Cyclone Ockhi hitting Gujarat proved futile as the storm lost its strength over the Arabian Sea when it was 240 km away from Surat. The cyclonic storm first turned into a deep depression, then to a depression and finally into a low pressure area over the night.

The people of Gujarat and the state administration today heaved a sigh of relief as Cyclone Ockhi dissipated over the Arabian Sea, sparing the poll-bound state. The cyclone was yesterday headed towards Gujarat after leaving a trail of destruction on the southern Indian coast. The cyclone yesterday passed the Mumbai coast and much to the relief of the people in Maharashtra's capital, it just brought rains and there was no loss of life or damage to property. As per an early morning release by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cyclonic storm first turned into a 'deep depression', then into a 'depression' and finally into a 'low pressure' area after midnight. "The depression over east-central and adjoining north-east the Arabian Sea weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area over the east-central Arabian sea and adjoining areas of north-east Arabian Sea, north coastal Maharashtra and south coastal Gujarat at 23:30 hours yesterday", the release said. The cyclone dissipated over the sea before hitting the Gujarat coast, said Jayanta Sarkar, the director of the MeT Centre here. "The cyclone did not reach Surat at all. It dissipated into the sea before making a landfall on the southern coast. From deep depression, it became a depression, then became a well-marked low pressure. Now, it is just low pressure. It may bring light to moderate rain in some parts of the state today," added Sarkar. As per the IMD release, the sea condition would be rough along and off south Gujarat and adjoining north Maharashtra coasts during the next 12 hours. "Fishermen along and off north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts are advised not to venture into sea during the next 12 hours," the release said. Until last evening, there was a fear that Cyclone Ockhi may hit Gujarat coast by midnight. However, the cyclone lost its strength and turned into a 'deep depression' when it was around 240 km away from Surat. The cyclone later turned into a 'depression' when it was still away from the coast and gradually weakened into a well marked low pressure by this morning. To face the eventuality in view of the cyclonic storm, the state government deployed teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in several parts of south Gujarat and Saurashtra. The government also alerted the Air Force, Coast Guard, and Navy. Around 1,600 people were also shifted to safer locations, as a precautionary measure. Amid his busy poll campaign schedule, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and state chief secretary J N Singh rushed to Surat yesterday to oversee the relief operations.

Cyclone Ockhi dissipates, Gujarat spared

<p>A sessions court here today awarded death sentence to three men convicted for the brutal rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Maharashtra&#39;s Kopardi village in 2016.</p>

<p>Additional Special Judge Suvarna Kevale awarded the death sentence to Jitendra Babulal Shinde, Santosh Gorakh Bhawal and Nitin Gopinath Bhailume.</p>

<p>The judge had on November 18 convicted the three men on charges of rape, murder and criminal conspiracy.</p>

<p>The incident had triggered widespread protests from the Maratha community, who took out marches across the state over it.</p>

<p>The victim, who belonged to the Maratha community, was found murdered after being raped on July 13, 2016 at Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district.</p>

<p>The accused also inflicted injuries all over her body and broke her limbs before throttling her, police said.</p>

<p>On&nbsp;October 7, the Ahmednagar Police had filed the charge sheet running into over 350 pages before the court in which the trio was charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.</p>


A sessions court awarded death sentence to Jitendra Babulal Shinde, Santosh Gorakh Bhawal and Nitin Gopinath Bhailume convicted for the brutal rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Maharashtra's Kopardi village in 2016

A sessions court here today awarded death sentence to three men convicted for the brutal rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Maharashtra's Kopardi village in 2016. Additional Special Judge Suvarna Kevale awarded the death sentence to Jitendra Babulal Shinde, Santosh Gorakh Bhawal and Nitin Gopinath Bhailume. The judge had on November 18 convicted the three men on charges of rape, murder and criminal conspiracy. The incident had triggered widespread protests from the Maratha community, who took out marches across the state over it. The victim, who belonged to the Maratha community, was found murdered after being raped on July 13, 2016 at Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district. The accused also inflicted injuries all over her body and broke her limbs before throttling her, police said. On October 7, the Ahmednagar Police had filed the charge sheet running into over 350 pages before the court in which the trio was charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Kopardi rape and murder case: 3 convicts get death sentence

<p>The death toll in Bhiwandi building collapse in Maharashtra rose to four from one on Saturday.</p>

<p>A three-storey residential building collapsed on Friday morning in Bhiwandi in Thane district.</p>

<p>Many people were injured, while several others feared to be trapped inside the debris.</p>

<p>However, they were saved following a rescue operation.</p>


The death toll in Bhiwandi building collapse in Maharashtra rose to four from one on Saturday

The death toll in Bhiwandi building collapse in Maharashtra rose to four from one on Saturday. A three-storey residential building collapsed on Friday morning in Bhiwandi in Thane district. Many people were injured, while several others feared to be trapped inside the debris. However, they were saved following a rescue operation.

Death toll rises to four in Mumbai building collapse

<p>A policeman died in a landmine blast at&nbsp;Korchi&#39;s &nbsp;Kotgul in Maharashtra on Friday.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Maharashtra: 1 police jawan lost his life, 2 injured in a landmine blast in Korchi&#39;s Kotgul in Gadchiroli.</p>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/934107783728787461?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p>The blast occurred at&nbsp; Korchi&#39;s&nbsp;Kotgul in Gadchiroli.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Two other policemen were also injured in the bast.&nbsp;</p>


Two other policemen were injured in the bast

A policeman died in a landmine blast at Korchi's Kotgul in Maharashtra on Friday. Maharashtra: 1 police jawan lost his life, 2 injured in a landmine blast in Korchi's Kotgul in Gadchiroli. — ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017 × The blast occurred at Korchi's Kotgul in Gadchiroli. Two other policemen were also injured in the bast.

Policeman dies in landmine blast in Maharashtra

<p>Google paid tribute to Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to practice law in India, with a doodle on the occasion of her 151st birth anniversary.</p>

<p>Sorabji, born in Maharashtra&#39;s Nashik in 1866 is also recognised as the first woman graduate of Bombay University, the first woman to study law at Oxford University and first Indian national to study at any British University and first female advocate in India.</p>

<p>Sorabji was the first woman advocate to join Allahabad High Court bar, fought tirelessly for the rights of &#39;Purdanashins&#39;, veiled women forbidden by social custom from communicating with men outside their families.</p>

<p>&nbsp;Sorabji helped an estimated 600 women and orphans fight legal battles, sometimes at no charge.&nbsp;</p>

<p>She was barred from practising her profession in both Britain and India despite clearing the law examination in&nbsp; <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Allahabad-High-Court" pg="AS1_InlineMedia#AS1_https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/google-doodle-honours-cornelia-sorabhji-indias-first-female-advocate/articleshow/61654203.cms~Allahabad High Court-https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Allahabad-High-Court">Allahabad High Court</a>&nbsp;in 1899.<br />
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Later, she became&nbsp;the legal advisor to the colonial government of India.</p>

<p>The doodle is designed by illustrator Jasjot Singh Hans, that shows Sorabji in front of Allahabad court, to which she was eventually admitted in 1923 when the ban on female lawyers was lifted.</p>

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Sorabji was the first woman to practise law in India

Google paid tribute to Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to practice law in India, with a doodle on the occasion of her 151st birth anniversary. Sorabji, born in Maharashtra's Nashik in 1866 is also recognised as the first woman graduate of Bombay University, the first woman to study law at Oxford University and first Indian national to study at any British University and first female advocate in India. Sorabji was the first woman advocate to join Allahabad High Court bar, fought tirelessly for the rights of 'Purdanashins', veiled women forbidden by social custom from communicating with men outside their families. Sorabji helped an estimated 600 women and orphans fight legal battles, sometimes at no charge. She was barred from practising her profession in both Britain and India despite clearing the law examination in Allahabad High Court in 1899. Later, she became the legal advisor to the colonial government of India. The doodle is designed by illustrator Jasjot Singh Hans, that shows Sorabji in front of Allahabad court, to which she was eventually admitted in 1923 when the ban on female lawyers was lifted.

Google doodles Cornelia Sorabji on 151st birth anniversary

<p>Farmer&#39;s death is one of the most discussed topics in India. Along with farmer&#39;s suicide, deaths due to pesticide poisoning and accidental intake of harmful pesticides or insecticides is also one of the major problems that Indian farmers are facing.</p>

<p>&ldquo;The death of farmers in Maharashtra due to pesticide poisoning is because of the gross negligence in pesticide management in the country. The Ministry of Agriculture at the Centre and agricultural departments of the states are solely responsible for the unsafe use of pesticides in the country. Deaths and illnesses due to pesticides can be avoided if we can urgently fix some of the crucial gaps in our regulations and improve its enforcement,&rdquo; said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE.</p>

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<h5>Farmer&#39;s suicide is a highly politicised issue in India, but on the other hand, pesticide poisoning is the least reported cause for farm fatalities.</h5>
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<p>To tackle farmer&#39;s suicide, the government is coming up with various dysfunctional schemes but&nbsp;problems related to pesticide poisoning is completely neglected. Farmer&#39;s suicide is a highly politicised issue in India, but on the other hand, pesticide poisoning is the least reported cause for farm fatalities.&nbsp;Over 35 farmers have reportedly died and hundreds have become ill due to&nbsp;pesticide&nbsp;poisoning in several districts of Vidharba region in Maharashtra, since July this year.</p>

<p>Every year, there are about 10,000&nbsp;cases of pesticide poisoning in India. In 2015, about 7,000 people died because of accidental intake of insecticides/pesticides.&nbsp;The incident highlights the urgent need to fix several long-standing gaps in&nbsp;pesticide&nbsp;management&nbsp;in the country</p>

<p>Most of the&nbsp;incidents have been reported from the districts of Yavatmal, Nagpur, Akola and Amravati, where farm workers died due to inhalation of toxic pesticides while spraying it on the fields. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said, &quot;India&rsquo;s terrible management of pesticides has started taking a deadly toll&quot;.</p>

<p title="'This is the darkest period of our life'"><strong>Also read: <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/this-is-the-darkest-period-of-our-life-22533">This is the darkest period of life</a></strong></p>

<p title="'This is the darkest period of our life'">On the basis of acute toxicity of active ingredients, pesticides are categorised as extremely hazardous (class Ia), highly hazardous (class Ib), moderately hazardous (class II), slightly hazardous (class III) and unlikely to present acute hazard in normal use (class U).</p>

<p title="'This is the darkest period of our life'">Pesticides such as Monocrotophos, Oxydemeton-methyl, Acephate and Profenophos are believed to be responsible for the tragic deaths and illness.&nbsp;In Maharashtra, pesticides such as Monocrotophos, Oxydemeton-methyl, Acephate and Profenophos are believed to be responsible for the deaths and illness.</p>

<p>Class I pesticides have been excessively used in India over the last many years. Many of the class I&nbsp;banned in several countries, but India&nbsp;still allows its usage. For example, Monocrotophos is banned in 60 countries.&nbsp;Carbofuran is banned in 49 countries, Phosphamidon is banned in 49 countries.</p>

<p>There are 18 class I pesticides that are allowed to be used in India. In 2015-16, of the 7,717 tonnes of pesticides (technical grade) used in the country, 2,254 tonnes were the class I pesticides (about 30 per cent of total pesticides).</p>

<p>The International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management, jointly released by FAO and WHO, &ldquo;pesticides whose handling and application require the use of personal protective equipment that is uncomfortable, expensive or not readily available should be avoided, especially in the case of small-scale users and farm workers in hot climates&rdquo;.</p>

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<h5>All class I pesticides are supposed to be used under proper supervision and guidelines but due to illiteracy and ignorance farmers are suffering from the pesticide poisoning.</h5>
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<p>In Maharashtra, the difficulty level for the farmers is comparatively more than farmers of other states because it is a cotton&nbsp;belt. When the cotton crop grows above 6 ft then it becomes really difficult for a farmer to save himself from chemical contact as he has to spray above his height.</p>

<p>There are various precautionary steps that have to be&nbsp;followed to avoid such fatalities. But, it is very difficult for a daily wage farm worker and small-scale farmer&nbsp;to use all essential equipment and tools such as&nbsp;hand gloves, face mask, a cap and&nbsp;gumboots are required while spraying pesticide because they can not afford to buy it.</p>

<p>In the absence of proper and appropriate tools, farmers are getting immensely affected because they don&#39;t know the exact &quot;dos and don&#39;ts&quot; which are taken as read and has to be followed while spraying the chemical. For example, the sprays must be done before sunrise or late in the evening as there is a lesser possibility of strong winds, and also with the rise in temperature, the chemical becomes more toxic.</p>

<p>&ldquo;While India urgently needs to address pesticide mismanagement from several aspects, the most urgent step needed is to ban the use of class I pesticides. The recommendations of the Anupam Verma Committee is inadequate and the government actions so far are not in line with the urgency and scale of the problem,&rdquo; said Amit Khurana, senior programme manager for food safety and toxins, CSE.</p>

<p>All class I pesticides are supposed to be used under proper supervision and guidelines but due to illiteracy and ignorance farmers are suffering from the pesticide poisoning. Regardless of what the &lsquo;Lethal Dose 50&rsquo; (LD50) level that is present on the packaging of any pesticide containers, the fact remains that the active ingredients of any pesticide are nothing but poison, hence, it has to be handled carefully.</p>

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<h5>Why is the government of India not putting a complete ban on usage of Class I category of pesticides?</h5>
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<p>There is a major problem with the way pesticides are approved for use in India. There is even a bigger problem of enforcement. Use of unapproved pesticides&nbsp;and&nbsp;unsafe application of the pesticide&nbsp;by farmers continues to be a big problem.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Till we reform our pesticides regulations and regulatory institutions, pesticide poisoning and accidental deaths would continue. A Pesticide Management Bill was introduced in the Parliament in 2008 but it was allowed to lapse. We need a new Pesticide Management Bill to address the issues related to the unsafe use of pesticides,&rdquo; said Chandra Bhushan.</p>

<p>The data and facts suggest that India needs to ban the use of class I pesticides and there is an urgent need to develop a proper channel to train and educate farmers about the correct usage of pesticides and insecticides. If some casualty happens then, the first aid must be given on time. Block level hospitals need to be well equipped to tackle such cases. The enforcement should focus on each blocks and districts of various states.</p>

<p>With a&nbsp;proper system of pesticides management in India, the government will be able to put an end to the unfortunate deaths caused by pesticide poisoning.</p>

<p><strong>Also read:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/how-beneficial-is-loan-waiver-scheme-22674">How beneficial is loan waiver scheme? </a></p>


India needs a proper pesticide management to stop the unsafe use of toxic pesticides and improve enforcement

Farmer's death is one of the most discussed topics in India. Along with farmer's suicide, deaths due to pesticide poisoning and accidental intake of harmful pesticides or insecticides is also one of the major problems that Indian farmers are facing. “The death of farmers in Maharashtra due to pesticide poisoning is because of the gross negligence in pesticide management in the country. The Ministry of Agriculture at the Centre and agricultural departments of the states are solely responsible for the unsafe use of pesticides in the country. Deaths and illnesses due to pesticides can be avoided if we can urgently fix some of the crucial gaps in our regulations and improve its enforcement,” said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE. Farmer's suicide is a highly politicised issue in India, but on the other hand, pesticide poisoning is the least reported cause for farm fatalities. × To tackle farmer's suicide, the government is coming up with various dysfunctional schemes but problems related to pesticide poisoning is completely neglected. Farmer's suicide is a highly politicised issue in India, but on the other hand, pesticide poisoning is the least reported cause for farm fatalities. Over 35 farmers have reportedly died and hundreds have become ill due to pesticide poisoning in several districts of Vidharba region in Maharashtra, since July this year. Every year, there are about 10,000 cases of pesticide poisoning in India. In 2015, about 7,000 people died because of accidental intake of insecticides/pesticides. The incident highlights the urgent need to fix several long-standing gaps in pesticide management in the country Most of the incidents have been reported from the districts of Yavatmal, Nagpur, Akola and Amravati, where farm workers died due to inhalation of toxic pesticides while spraying it on the fields. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said, "India’s terrible management of pesticides has started taking a deadly toll". Also read: This is the darkest period of life On the basis of acute toxicity of active ingredients, pesticides are categorised as extremely hazardous (class Ia), highly hazardous (class Ib), moderately hazardous (class II), slightly hazardous (class III) and unlikely to present acute hazard in normal use (class U). Pesticides such as Monocrotophos, Oxydemeton-methyl, Acephate and Profenophos are believed to be responsible for the tragic deaths and illness. In Maharashtra, pesticides such as Monocrotophos, Oxydemeton-methyl, Acephate and Profenophos are believed to be responsible for the deaths and illness. Class I pesticides have been excessively used in India over the last many years. Many of the class I banned in several countries, but India still allows its usage. For example, Monocrotophos is banned in 60 countries. Carbofuran is banned in 49 countries, Phosphamidon is banned in 49 countries. There are 18 class I pesticides that are allowed to be used in India. In 2015-16, of the 7,717 tonnes of pesticides (technical grade) used in the country, 2,254 tonnes were the class I pesticides (about 30 per cent of total pesticides). The International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management, jointly released by FAO and WHO, “pesticides whose handling and application require the use of personal protective equipment that is uncomfortable, expensive or not readily available should be avoided, especially in the case of small-scale users and farm workers in hot climates”. All class I pesticides are supposed to be used under proper supervision and guidelines but due to illiteracy and ignorance farmers are suffering from the pesticide poisoning. × In Maharashtra, the difficulty level for the farmers is comparatively more than farmers of other states because it is a cotton belt. When the cotton crop grows above 6 ft then it becomes really difficult for a farmer to save himself from chemical contact as he has to spray above his height. There are various precautionary steps that have to be followed to avoid such fatalities. But, it is very difficult for a daily wage farm worker and small-scale farmer to use all essential equipment and tools such as hand gloves, face mask, a cap and gumboots are required while spraying pesticide because they can not afford to buy it. In the absence of proper and appropriate tools, farmers are getting immensely affected because they don't know the exact "dos and don'ts" which are taken as read and has to be followed while spraying the chemical. For example, the sprays must be done before sunrise or late in the evening as there is a lesser possibility of strong winds, and also with the rise in temperature, the chemical becomes more toxic. “While India urgently needs to address pesticide mismanagement from several aspects, the most urgent step needed is to ban the use of class I pesticides. The recommendations of the Anupam Verma Committee is inadequate and the government actions so far are not in line with the urgency and scale of the problem,” said Amit Khurana, senior programme manager for food safety and toxins, CSE. All class I pesticides are supposed to be used under proper supervision and guidelines but due to illiteracy and ignorance farmers are suffering from the pesticide poisoning. Regardless of what the ‘Lethal Dose 50’ (LD50) level that is present on the packaging of any pesticide containers, the fact remains that the active ingredients of any pesticide are nothing but poison, hence, it has to be handled carefully. Why is the government of India not putting a complete ban on usage of Class I category of pesticides? × There is a major problem with the way pesticides are approved for use in India. There is even a bigger problem of enforcement. Use of unapproved pesticides and unsafe application of the pesticide by farmers continues to be a big problem. “Till we reform our pesticides regulations and regulatory institutions, pesticide poisoning and accidental deaths would continue. A Pesticide Management Bill was introduced in the Parliament in 2008 but it was allowed to lapse. We need a new Pesticide Management Bill to address the issues related to the unsafe use of pesticides,” said Chandra Bhushan. The data and facts suggest that India needs to ban the use of class I pesticides and there is an urgent need to develop a proper channel to train and educate farmers about the correct usage of pesticides and insecticides. If some casualty happens then, the first aid must be given on time. Block level hospitals need to be well equipped to tackle such cases. The enforcement should focus on each blocks and districts of various states. With a proper system of pesticides management in India, the government will be able to put an end to the unfortunate deaths caused by pesticide poisoning. Also read: How beneficial is loan waiver scheme?

Farmer deaths due to pesticide use: An issue less reported

<p>The Maharashtra government has exempted interest/fine on outstanding electricity bills of farmers.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The move has come a day after the state&#39;s energy minister&nbsp;Chandrashekhar Bawankule appealed to the farmers&nbsp;to clear off their pending electricity dues within the next week to avail the benefit of a scheme under which the interest on pending bills was exempted.&nbsp;</p>

<p>He asked the farmers to pay their dues without any penalty under the Mukhyamantri Krushi Sanjeevani Yojana.&nbsp;</p>

<p>He also said that they will issue notice for disconnection of electricity of&nbsp;farmers who do not pay their electricity bills by next week.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The minister said that around 41 lakh farmers had outstanding electricity bills which amounted to about Rs 19,272 crore.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
He added that the government spends Rs 6.50 per unit for supplying electricity to farmers, but it charges only Rs 1.80 per unit in return.</p>

<p>He also said that in the last three years not a single electricity connection of farmers was disconnected.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, the farmer&#39;s groups in the state have announced three protests in November.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The farmers&nbsp;will protest for the continuous disruption of power from the electricity suppliers, who disconnect services to make farmers pay their pending dues.&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>(With inputs from PTI and ANI)</em></p>

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The move has come a day after the state's energy minister?Chandrashekhar Bawankule appealed to the farmers?to clear off their pending electricity dues within the next week to avail the benefit of a scheme under which the interest on pending bills was exempted

The Maharashtra government has exempted interest/fine on outstanding electricity bills of farmers. The move has come a day after the state's energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule appealed to the farmers to clear off their pending electricity dues within the next week to avail the benefit of a scheme under which the interest on pending bills was exempted. He asked the farmers to pay their dues without any penalty under the Mukhyamantri Krushi Sanjeevani Yojana. He also said that they will issue notice for disconnection of electricity of farmers who do not pay their electricity bills by next week. The minister said that around 41 lakh farmers had outstanding electricity bills which amounted to about Rs 19,272 crore. He added that the government spends Rs 6.50 per unit for supplying electricity to farmers, but it charges only Rs 1.80 per unit in return. He also said that in the last three years not a single electricity connection of farmers was disconnected. Meanwhile, the farmer's groups in the state have announced three protests in November. The farmers will protest for the continuous disruption of power from the electricity suppliers, who disconnect services to make farmers pay their pending dues. (With inputs from PTI and ANI)

Maharashtra government exempts fine on farmer's outstanding electricity bill

<p>The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) called off its five-day strike on Saturday, ANI reported, after a meeting of their core committee.</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Maharashtra: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MSRTCstrike?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MSRTCstrike</a> called off late last night, bus operations have resumed; visuals from Mumbai&#39;s Parel station depot. <a href="https://t.co/sS7vbschu2">pic.twitter.com/sS7vbschu2</a></p>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/921565245868425216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p>MSRTC employees had gone on indefinite strike on October 17 demanding implementation of the 7th pay commission.</p>

<p>The Bombay High Court had on Friday called the strike illegal.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The court had also observed that the state government was taking no concrete steps to end the strike.&nbsp;</p>

<p>ANI reported that after that, the state government submitted an undertaking before the court that it was ready to constitute a high-powered committee to look into the issue. And that the committee would submit its&nbsp;report within three weeks.</p>

<p>More than 17,000 MSRTC buses ply in Maharashtra, and about one lakh of its employees had gone on strike.</p>


Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation employees had gone on indefinite strike on October 17 demanding implementation of the 7th pay commission

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) called off its five-day strike on Saturday, ANI reported, after a meeting of their core committee. Maharashtra: #MSRTCstrike called off late last night, bus operations have resumed; visuals from Mumbai's Parel station depot. pic.twitter.com/sS7vbschu2 — ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2017 × MSRTC employees had gone on indefinite strike on October 17 demanding implementation of the 7th pay commission. The Bombay High Court had on Friday called the strike illegal. The court had also observed that the state government was taking no concrete steps to end the strike. ANI reported that after that, the state government submitted an undertaking before the court that it was ready to constitute a high-powered committee to look into the issue. And that the committee would submit its report within three weeks. More than 17,000 MSRTC buses ply in Maharashtra, and about one lakh of its employees had gone on strike.

After high court says it is 'illegal', MSRTC calls off five-day strike

<p>The Maharashtra government will roll out the first set of its&nbsp;farm loan&nbsp;waiving scheme&nbsp;on October 18.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The state government will&nbsp;provide&nbsp;loan waiver amount&nbsp;to the first one million farmers.</p>

<p>Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis&nbsp;announced that about 80 per cent of the farmers will receive their loans by 15 November.</p>

<p>Fadnavis had announced a farm loan waiver on 24 June after several days of protest by farmers.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The pressure was intensified after the Yogi Adityanath government announced Krishi Rin Mochan Yojana which aimed at waiving off the farmer&#39;s loan.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Maharashtra state government had previously allocated Rs 34,022 crore for waiving off farmers loan. However recent reports say that the chief minister was not sure about the real estimates as several amendments were introduced after the announcement of the scheme.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Over 10 million farmers in Maharashtra have enrolled themselves for this scheme.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The state government has also introduced an online system to curb manual manipulations.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The amount of the loan waiver will be deposited directly into the bank accounts of the farmers.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Recently the farmers of <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/up-farmer-gets-loan-waiver-of-1-paisa-had-borrowed-rs-155000-20377" target="_blank">Uttar Pradesh were in a state of shock and felt cheated after they received as low as Rs 10, Rs 1 and even 1 paisa as part of the Krishi Rin Mochan Yojana</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Also read :<a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/maharashtra-farmer-protest-turns-violent-first-strike-since-1933-16341" target="_blank">&nbsp;Maharashtra: Farmer protest turns violent, </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/maharashtra-farmer-protest-turns-violent-first-strike-since-1933-16341" target="_blank">first</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/maharashtra-farmer-protest-turns-violent-first-strike-since-1933-16341" target="_blank"> strike since 1933</a></p>

<p>Also read: <a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/maharashtra-announces-loan-waiver-for-farmers-but-conditions-apply-16697" target="_blank">Maharashtra announces loan waiver for farmers, but conditions apply</a></p>

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Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis?announced that about 80 per cent of the farmers will receive their loans by 15 November

The Maharashtra government will roll out the first set of its farm loan waiving scheme on October 18. The state government will provide loan waiver amount to the first one million farmers. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that about 80 per cent of the farmers will receive their loans by 15 November. Fadnavis had announced a farm loan waiver on 24 June after several days of protest by farmers. The pressure was intensified after the Yogi Adityanath government announced Krishi Rin Mochan Yojana which aimed at waiving off the farmer's loan. The Maharashtra state government had previously allocated Rs 34,022 crore for waiving off farmers loan. However recent reports say that the chief minister was not sure about the real estimates as several amendments were introduced after the announcement of the scheme. Over 10 million farmers in Maharashtra have enrolled themselves for this scheme. The state government has also introduced an online system to curb manual manipulations. The amount of the loan waiver will be deposited directly into the bank accounts of the farmers. Recently the farmers of Uttar Pradesh were in a state of shock and felt cheated after they received as low as Rs 10, Rs 1 and even 1 paisa as part of the Krishi Rin Mochan Yojana. Also read : Maharashtra: Farmer protest turns violent, first strike since 1933 Also read: Maharashtra announces loan waiver for farmers, but conditions apply

Maharashtra government rolls out farm loan waiver scheme today

<p>The Maharashtra government is all set to roll out its loan waiver scheme on Wednesday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will be providing loan waivers to the first set of farmers on October 18. The scheme was announced in June by the state government after days of protest by farmers. The state was hard hit by severe drought since 2012, adversely impacting the cultivators.</p>

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<p>Claiming it to be &ldquo;biggest in history&rdquo; the state government had allotted Rs 34,022 crore for the scheme. However, recent reports say that the chief minister is not sure about the real estimate diverted for the scheme as several amendments were introduced after its announcement.</p>

<p>The farmers will be getting the loan amount from the state government after five months of wait.The government, in order to curb manual manipulations, has devised an online application process. The money will be transferred to their bank accounts after strict regulation.</p>

<p>A similar farm loan waiver scheme was carried out by the Uttar Pradesh government recently. As part of his election promise to waive off farmers&rsquo; loan, the Uttar Pradesh government led by chief minister Yogi Adityanath had announced &ldquo;Krishi Rin Mochan Yojana&rdquo; in April.The state government had diverted Rs 36000 crores for the same.</p>

<p>The scheme aimed at waiving crop loan of small and marginal farmers up to Rs 100,000. The election promise had raised big hopes among the farmers of Uttar Pradesh and was launched in September.&nbsp;However, the implementation of the scheme has left many farmers shocked and infuriated. They feel cheated after receiving amounts as low as Rs 10, 12 or even 1 paisa, 10 paisa, 12 paisa.</p>

<p>Shambhi Nath, a farmer in Barabanki (UP) spent Rs 218 only to receive a loan waiver of Rs 12. In an interview to a Hindi daily, Adityanath said, &ldquo;Farmers of Uttar Pradesh are so self-reliant that they paid the loan all by themselves&rdquo;.</p>

<p>Shambhu Nath had taken a loan of Rs 28,812. Out of which he returned Rs 28, 800 by selling his bull. Therefore he received only the outstanding amount which figured out to Rs 12. A report stated that over 4,814 farmers got loan waivers amounting between Rs 1- 100. About 17,260 farmers received loan amounting Rs 1000 or less than it.</p>

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<h5>The ever-increasing farmers&rsquo; plight cannot be tackled just by introducing loan waivers scheme.</h5>
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<p>Clearing off the farmers&rsquo; outstanding loan amounting to 1 Rs, 10 Rs or few paisa will certainly not benefit any of these farmers.&nbsp;However, it will add up to the figures of beneficiaries from the Yogi government&rsquo;s flagship mission of waiving off farmer&rsquo;s loan.</p>

<p>The ever-increasing farmers&rsquo; plight cannot be tackled just by introducing loan waivers scheme. For a country which suffers from floods and droughts every year,&nbsp;writing off the loan amount is not the ultimate solution.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A well-organised plan is required to be implemented by the collective efforts of Central and State government to improve the root cause of the plight.&nbsp;</p>


The government of India needs to come up with a well-organised loan waivers scheme

The Maharashtra government is all set to roll out its loan waiver scheme on Wednesday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will be providing loan waivers to the first set of farmers on October 18. The scheme was announced in June by the state government after days of protest by farmers. The state was hard hit by severe drought since 2012, adversely impacting the cultivators. The government, in order to curb manual manipulations, has devised an online application process. The money will be transferred to their bank accounts after strict regulation. × Claiming it to be “biggest in history” the state government had allotted Rs 34,022 crore for the scheme. However, recent reports say that the chief minister is not sure about the real estimate diverted for the scheme as several amendments were introduced after its announcement. The farmers will be getting the loan amount from the state government after five months of wait.The government, in order to curb manual manipulations, has devised an online application process. The money will be transferred to their bank accounts after strict regulation. A similar farm loan waiver scheme was carried out by the Uttar Pradesh government recently. As part of his election promise to waive off farmers’ loan, the Uttar Pradesh government led by chief minister Yogi Adityanath had announced “Krishi Rin Mochan Yojana” in April.The state government had diverted Rs 36000 crores for the same. The scheme aimed at waiving crop loan of small and marginal farmers up to Rs 100,000. The election promise had raised big hopes among the farmers of Uttar Pradesh and was launched in September. However, the implementation of the scheme has left many farmers shocked and infuriated. They feel cheated after receiving amounts as low as Rs 10, 12 or even 1 paisa, 10 paisa, 12 paisa. Shambhi Nath, a farmer in Barabanki (UP) spent Rs 218 only to receive a loan waiver of Rs 12. In an interview to a Hindi daily, Adityanath said, “Farmers of Uttar Pradesh are so self-reliant that they paid the loan all by themselves”. Shambhu Nath had taken a loan of Rs 28,812. Out of which he returned Rs 28, 800 by selling his bull. Therefore he received only the outstanding amount which figured out to Rs 12. A report stated that over 4,814 farmers got loan waivers amounting between Rs 1- 100. About 17,260 farmers received loan amounting Rs 1000 or less than it. The ever-increasing farmers’ plight cannot be tackled just by introducing loan waivers scheme. × Clearing off the farmers’ outstanding loan amounting to 1 Rs, 10 Rs or few paisa will certainly not benefit any of these farmers. However, it will add up to the figures of beneficiaries from the Yogi government’s flagship mission of waiving off farmer’s loan. The ever-increasing farmers’ plight cannot be tackled just by introducing loan waivers scheme. For a country which suffers from floods and droughts every year, writing off the loan amount is not the ultimate solution. A well-organised plan is required to be implemented by the collective efforts of Central and State government to improve the root cause of the plight.

The inhuman treatment is given to the farmers in the name of loan write-offs

<p>What would Vishal do today, if he were alive? Perhaps the teenager would fly kites, or play with his friends. Maybe he&rsquo;d work with his father on the family&rsquo;s two-acre field or pick up an odd job for a daily wage as he occasionally did. He wanted new clothes, his parents remember. That&rsquo;s all he had asked for.</p>

<p>But Vishal Khule died last November, just 10 days after Diwali, by consuming a bottle of weedicide that his father had bought a few days earlier to spray on their crops. He was wearing a wrinkled white shirt and blue pants that day, the police report says. Vishal was not yet 16 years old.</p>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/02-imgp0670feature_image-jh-this_is_the_darkest%20period%20of%20life-20171017064128.jpg" />
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<p>In Akola&rsquo;s Dadham village: Vishal&#39;s father, Vishwanath Khule and his distraught mother Sheela (on the right); elder brother Vaibhav and their neighbour Jankiram Khule, Vishal&rsquo;s &lsquo;kaka&rsquo; (on the left) (Others)</p>
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<p>&ldquo;He collapsed here,&rdquo; said his father, Vishwanath Khule, pointing to a spot beneath the window of the two-room shanty where the family lives. &ldquo;His mother was in the adjoining kitchen, making chapatis. I was out there,&rdquo; he added, gesturing toward the front yard. When her son collapsed with a thump, Sheela Khule rushed out to find Vishal lying on the floor, &ldquo;a white fluid oozing out of his mouth.&rdquo; The can of weedicide lay by his side, empty. Vishal died before reaching the hospital.</p>

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<p>Part of the two-room home where Vishal consumed a bottle of weedicide (Others)</p>
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<p>&ldquo;This is the darkest period of our life,&rdquo; Vishwanath said.</p>

<p>Dadham, with a population of 1,500, is among the poorest villages in this region. It is about 25 kilometres from Akola, a major city in western Vidarbha, Maharashtra&rsquo;s cotton- and soybean-growing belt, which has been in the news since the mid-1990s for a continuing spell of farmers&rsquo; suicides. The region is reeling under successive years of drought and an agrarian crisis that has only gone from bad to worse.</p>

<p>While the unabated spell of farmers&rsquo; suicides in rural Vidarbha and Marathwada, Maharashtra&rsquo;s eastern and central regions, has been reported on and acknowledged by the government, a related tragedy has gone all but unnoticed: suicides by the young children of debt-ridden farmers. (Farmers&rsquo; children have taken their own lives in the past, but newspaper reports indicate that the incidence has spiked in the past two years.)</p>

<p>While there is no specific data on suicides by children (under 18; or by youth under 20), in India as a result of agrarian distress, several studies and reports &ndash; from the 2005 door-to-door study commissioned by the Maharashtra government to subsequent studies on farm distress and suicides by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research &ndash; have pointed to the impact of debt and distress on children in peasant households. Many adolescent children of farmers inherit their parents&rsquo; debts and are forced to take on adult responsibilities, dropping out of school, tilling the fields, succumbing to depression, and for girls, being married off early so the family has one less mouth to feed.</p>

<p>Over the past decade, this writer has documented several such suicides, particularly in households where a suicide has already occurred. Sometimes farmers&rsquo; children commit suicide because they fear that if they don&rsquo;t, their parents will, a phenomenon is known as &lsquo;altruistic suicide&rsquo;. In one particularly poignant case in 2005, 19-year-old Neeta Bhopat hanged herself in Aasra village in Maharashtra.</p>

<p>In a neatly written suicide note in Marathi, she said: &ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t commit suicide, my father will [take his own life]; my family can&rsquo;t even earn a thousand rupees a month. I have two younger sisters. My parents can&rsquo;t bear the burden of our marriages when we don&rsquo;t have enough to eat. So I am taking my life.&rdquo; Nobody should be held responsible for her decision, she wrote. Committing suicide was the only way she could relieve her parents of some of their tension.</p>

<p><strong>Scarcity and struggle</strong></p>

<p>With a few months to go before the next kharif (monsoon) crops sprout, Dadham is still coming to terms with Vishal Khule&rsquo;s suicide. Severe water scarcity is already testing the villagers this summer. The entire vicinity is arid. Local newspaper reports suggest that the groundwater table has fallen alarmingly. Dadham has to wait for tankers to supply water every alternate day, or people must trek several kilometres to fetch drinking water. And as if this is not difficult enough, no work is available in the village.</p>

<p>&ldquo;This is the worst year&rdquo; of a three-season drought, said Akola district collector G. Sreekanth in his office earlier this year. &ldquo;We began preparing for the coming summer in September last [year],&rdquo; he added, even before the 2015 monsoon had officially ended.</p>

<p>Like many districts in the Marathwada, Vidarbha and western regions of Maharashtra last year, Akola district received only 60 per cent of its average annual rainfall of 692 mm. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s around 500 mm rains,&rdquo; said Sreekanth, &ldquo;which may not sound all that bad, but we got 400 mm of that in two days, on August 4 and 5.&rdquo; This meant the fields flooded and rainwater could not percolate into the ground.</p>

<p>Such a downpour and a long gap between rainy days is a new and alarming feature of the changing monsoon pattern, according to studies by the Indian Meteorological Department and Pune&rsquo;s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and other research institutions studying climatic aberrations. After August 5 last year, Akola didn&rsquo;t see another drop of rain for 41 days, a devastatingly long dry spell. &ldquo;Every crop failed: soybeans, cotton and tur,&rdquo; the collector added.</p>

<p>With no crops to sell, and domestic expenses and other exigencies to meet, the Khule family borrowed from moneylenders. According to their bank records, they also have unpaid bank loans of about Rs. 50,000 over the last five years.</p>

<p>The Khules, who belong to the close-knit tribal Andh clan, are marginal peasant farmers. They have long been living hand-to-mouth, and Vishal Khule&rsquo;s death has only made life more precarious. His mother barely speaks, recounts their neighbour, Jankinath Khule, who recently retired from the government service as a naib tehsildar (a minor-rank revenue official). Vishal&rsquo;s two sisters, both married, are taking turns to return to the home to be with their mother, he said. Vishal&rsquo;s elder brother, 18-year-old Vaibhav, has dropped out of school after Class 10 and has taken to working odd jobs.</p>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/04-imgp0671-jh-this_is_the_darkest_period_of_life-20171017064657.jpg" />
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<p>When her son collapsed with a thump, Sheela Khule rushed out of the kitchen to find Vishal lying on the floor (Others)</p>
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<p>According to Jankinath Khule, a village elder, Vishal&rsquo;s suicide was the culmination of his growing frustration with poverty, combined with a feeling of helplessness.</p>

<p>&ldquo;He would often talk with me about the village poverty and the difference between him and his schoolmates,&rdquo; said Khule, who Vishal affectionately called Khule kaka (uncle). &ldquo;[Vishal] spoke of his parents&rsquo; troubles, and was resigned to the fact that this situation would never end.&rdquo;</p>

<p>During the Diwali holidays in recent years, Vishal and Vaibhav would help their father in the fields. In 2015, the kharif crops &ndash; mainly soybean &ndash; had failed. Though the lentils they grew fetched a good price, inadequate rainfall had affected the yields. Vishal&rsquo;s father planted green gram in winter, thanks to the state government&rsquo;s distribution of free seeds to struggling farmers. But the relief measure did not work, villagers said, as there was no water or moisture in the soil to nurture the crop.</p>

<p>With no work in the fields, Vishwanath Khule said, the brothers went to Akola over the school break with friends to find a job that would pay a daily wage&nbsp;but came back empty-handed. Vishal was upset that he could not afford a pair of new clothes for himself, says Khule kaka, or help his father with the cash crunch.</p>

<p>Vishal&rsquo;s was not the only suicide of its kind. Last October, Latur district, about 400 kilometres from Akola, reported a suicide by the 17-year-old daughter of a farmer, a student in junior college.</p>

<p>In her note, Swati Pitale explained in some detail why she was committing suicide. She could no longer suffer the plight of her father, she wrote in Marathi and didn&rsquo;t want to be a burden on him. She would soon be of marriageable age&nbsp;and didn&rsquo;t want her father to incur additional expenses on her wedding. In the note, she made a plea to the banks and moneylenders her father owed. She asked them not to harass her father, for, she said, he would surely repay his debts once her elder sister was married.</p>

<p>Swati had stopped attending college for a while, as her monthly bus pass had run out and her parents did not have the money to renew it. Her mother borrowed Rs. 260 for the pass from a neighbour, but Swati had missed crucial classes and wasn&rsquo;t able to take the exam.</p>

<p>According to reports in the local newspapers, when Swati consumed pesticide in her family&rsquo;s fields in the village of Kingaon, her father had left home for Karnataka, in search of work.</p>

<p>Back in Dadham, Vaibhav looks nervous. He says he must work to keep the firewood burning. At 18, he is now his father&rsquo;s last hope &ndash; and perhaps his only support.</p>

<p>This <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/this-is-the-darkest-period-of-our-life/#" rel="nofollow" target="blank">article</a> was originally published on 07/ 05/2016 on the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">People&#39;s Archive of Rural India</a>.</p>

<p>Photo Credit: Jaideep Hardikar</p>


In the already distressed regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada, another tragedy has gone all but unnoticed: suicides by the children of debt-ridden farmers

What would Vishal do today, if he were alive? Perhaps the teenager would fly kites, or play with his friends. Maybe he’d work with his father on the family’s two-acre field or pick up an odd job for a daily wage as he occasionally did. He wanted new clothes, his parents remember. That’s all he had asked for. But Vishal Khule died last November, just 10 days after Diwali, by consuming a bottle of weedicide that his father had bought a few days earlier to spray on their crops. He was wearing a wrinkled white shirt and blue pants that day, the police report says. Vishal was not yet 16 years old. In Akola’s Dadham village: Vishal's father, Vishwanath Khule and his distraught mother Sheela (on the right); elder brother Vaibhav and their neighbour Jankiram Khule, Vishal’s ‘kaka’ (on the left) (Others) × “He collapsed here,” said his father, Vishwanath Khule, pointing to a spot beneath the window of the two-room shanty where the family lives. “His mother was in the adjoining kitchen, making chapatis. I was out there,” he added, gesturing toward the front yard. When her son collapsed with a thump, Sheela Khule rushed out to find Vishal lying on the floor, “a white fluid oozing out of his mouth.” The can of weedicide lay by his side, empty. Vishal died before reaching the hospital. Part of the two-room home where Vishal consumed a bottle of weedicide (Others) × “This is the darkest period of our life,” Vishwanath said. Dadham, with a population of 1,500, is among the poorest villages in this region. It is about 25 kilometres from Akola, a major city in western Vidarbha, Maharashtra’s cotton- and soybean-growing belt, which has been in the news since the mid-1990s for a continuing spell of farmers’ suicides. The region is reeling under successive years of drought and an agrarian crisis that has only gone from bad to worse. While the unabated spell of farmers’ suicides in rural Vidarbha and Marathwada, Maharashtra’s eastern and central regions, has been reported on and acknowledged by the government, a related tragedy has gone all but unnoticed: suicides by the young children of debt-ridden farmers. (Farmers’ children have taken their own lives in the past, but newspaper reports indicate that the incidence has spiked in the past two years.) While there is no specific data on suicides by children (under 18; or by youth under 20), in India as a result of agrarian distress, several studies and reports – from the 2005 door-to-door study commissioned by the Maharashtra government to subsequent studies on farm distress and suicides by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research – have pointed to the impact of debt and distress on children in peasant households. Many adolescent children of farmers inherit their parents’ debts and are forced to take on adult responsibilities, dropping out of school, tilling the fields, succumbing to depression, and for girls, being married off early so the family has one less mouth to feed. Over the past decade, this writer has documented several such suicides, particularly in households where a suicide has already occurred. Sometimes farmers’ children commit suicide because they fear that if they don’t, their parents will, a phenomenon is known as ‘altruistic suicide’. In one particularly poignant case in 2005, 19-year-old Neeta Bhopat hanged herself in Aasra village in Maharashtra. In a neatly written suicide note in Marathi, she said: “If I don’t commit suicide, my father will [take his own life]; my family can’t even earn a thousand rupees a month. I have two younger sisters. My parents can’t bear the burden of our marriages when we don’t have enough to eat. So I am taking my life.” Nobody should be held responsible for her decision, she wrote. Committing suicide was the only way she could relieve her parents of some of their tension. Scarcity and struggle With a few months to go before the next kharif (monsoon) crops sprout, Dadham is still coming to terms with Vishal Khule’s suicide. Severe water scarcity is already testing the villagers this summer. The entire vicinity is arid. Local newspaper reports suggest that the groundwater table has fallen alarmingly. Dadham has to wait for tankers to supply water every alternate day, or people must trek several kilometres to fetch drinking water. And as if this is not difficult enough, no work is available in the village. “This is the worst year” of a three-season drought, said Akola district collector G. Sreekanth in his office earlier this year. “We began preparing for the coming summer in September last [year],” he added, even before the 2015 monsoon had officially ended. Like many districts in the Marathwada, Vidarbha and western regions of Maharashtra last year, Akola district received only 60 per cent of its average annual rainfall of 692 mm. “That’s around 500 mm rains,” said Sreekanth, “which may not sound all that bad, but we got 400 mm of that in two days, on August 4 and 5.” This meant the fields flooded and rainwater could not percolate into the ground. Such a downpour and a long gap between rainy days is a new and alarming feature of the changing monsoon pattern, according to studies by the Indian Meteorological Department and Pune’s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and other research institutions studying climatic aberrations. After August 5 last year, Akola didn’t see another drop of rain for 41 days, a devastatingly long dry spell. “Every crop failed: soybeans, cotton and tur,” the collector added. With no crops to sell, and domestic expenses and other exigencies to meet, the Khule family borrowed from moneylenders. According to their bank records, they also have unpaid bank loans of about Rs. 50,000 over the last five years. The Khules, who belong to the close-knit tribal Andh clan, are marginal peasant farmers. They have long been living hand-to-mouth, and Vishal Khule’s death has only made life more precarious. His mother barely speaks, recounts their neighbour, Jankinath Khule, who recently retired from the government service as a naib tehsildar (a minor-rank revenue official). Vishal’s two sisters, both married, are taking turns to return to the home to be with their mother, he said. Vishal’s elder brother, 18-year-old Vaibhav, has dropped out of school after Class 10 and has taken to working odd jobs. When her son collapsed with a thump, Sheela Khule rushed out of the kitchen to find Vishal lying on the floor (Others) × According to Jankinath Khule, a village elder, Vishal’s suicide was the culmination of his growing frustration with poverty, combined with a feeling of helplessness. “He would often talk with me about the village poverty and the difference between him and his schoolmates,” said Khule, who Vishal affectionately called Khule kaka (uncle). “[Vishal] spoke of his parents’ troubles, and was resigned to the fact that this situation would never end.” During the Diwali holidays in recent years, Vishal and Vaibhav would help their father in the fields. In 2015, the kharif crops – mainly soybean – had failed. Though the lentils they grew fetched a good price, inadequate rainfall had affected the yields. Vishal’s father planted green gram in winter, thanks to the state government’s distribution of free seeds to struggling farmers. But the relief measure did not work, villagers said, as there was no water or moisture in the soil to nurture the crop. With no work in the fields, Vishwanath Khule said, the brothers went to Akola over the school break with friends to find a job that would pay a daily wage but came back empty-handed. Vishal was upset that he could not afford a pair of new clothes for himself, says Khule kaka, or help his father with the cash crunch. Vishal’s was not the only suicide of its kind. Last October, Latur district, about 400 kilometres from Akola, reported a suicide by the 17-year-old daughter of a farmer, a student in junior college. In her note, Swati Pitale explained in some detail why she was committing suicide. She could no longer suffer the plight of her father, she wrote in Marathi and didn’t want to be a burden on him. She would soon be of marriageable age and didn’t want her father to incur additional expenses on her wedding. In the note, she made a plea to the banks and moneylenders her father owed. She asked them not to harass her father, for, she said, he would surely repay his debts once her elder sister was married. Swati had stopped attending college for a while, as her monthly bus pass had run out and her parents did not have the money to renew it. Her mother borrowed Rs. 260 for the pass from a neighbour, but Swati had missed crucial classes and wasn’t able to take the exam. According to reports in the local newspapers, when Swati consumed pesticide in her family’s fields in the village of Kingaon, her father had left home for Karnataka, in search of work. Back in Dadham, Vaibhav looks nervous. He says he must work to keep the firewood burning. At 18, he is now his father’s last hope – and perhaps his only support. This article was originally published on 07/ 05/2016 on the People's Archive of Rural India. Photo Credit: Jaideep Hardikar

'This is the darkest period of our life'

<p>The former senior Congress leader Narayan Rane has announced that he will be forming a new party.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&quot;I have decided to form a new party, it will be called Maharashtra Swabhimaan Paksh,&quot; Rane said on Sunday.&nbsp;</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">I have decided to form a new party, it will be called Maharashtra Swabhimaan Paksh: Narayan Rane, former senior congress leader <a href="https://t.co/GP1VwqfTwp">pic.twitter.com/GP1VwqfTwp</a></p>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/914399475417755648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p>Rane&#39;s new party is expected to support Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis&#39; government.&nbsp;</p>

<p>News reports said the arrangement was reportedly finalised after Rane&#39;s recent meeting with BJP President Amit Shah.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The reports added that the BJP has plumped for the indirect support route after the Shiv Sena threatened to walk out of the coalition should Rane be allowed into the BJP.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Rane was thrown out of the Sena in 2005 after he accused the then Sena chief Bal Thackeray of having &quot;blind love for his son&quot;.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Rane was talking about Uddhav Thackeray, who now heads the Sena.&nbsp;</p>


'I have decided to form a new party, it will be called Maharashtra Swabhimaan Paksh,' Rane said on Sunday

The former senior Congress leader Narayan Rane has announced that he will be forming a new party. "I have decided to form a new party, it will be called Maharashtra Swabhimaan Paksh," Rane said on Sunday. I have decided to form a new party, it will be called Maharashtra Swabhimaan Paksh: Narayan Rane, former senior congress leader pic.twitter.com/GP1VwqfTwp — ANI (@ANI) October 1, 2017 × Rane's new party is expected to support Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' government. News reports said the arrangement was reportedly finalised after Rane's recent meeting with BJP President Amit Shah. The reports added that the BJP has plumped for the indirect support route after the Shiv Sena threatened to walk out of the coalition should Rane be allowed into the BJP. Rane was thrown out of the Sena in 2005 after he accused the then Sena chief Bal Thackeray of having "blind love for his son". Rane was talking about Uddhav Thackeray, who now heads the Sena.

Maharashtra: Ex-Congressman Narayan Rane floats new party, expected to support BJP govt

<p>He is a strawberry farmer in his late 70s. The dug well on his three acres in old Mahabaleshwar is stone dry. His wife and he struggle to keep the farm going. They manage to, as there is still some water in their borewell. But even that little he shares, free of charge, with the temple bordering their land. The severe drought hurts his yield but not his generosity. His name is Yunus Ismail Nalaband &ndash; and he gives that water to the Krishnamai temple, the oldest symbol of the source of the Krishna river in Satara district, quite cheerfully.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Is it really my water?&rdquo; he asks. &ldquo;It all belongs to the uparwala [the Almighty], does it not?&rdquo; His wife, Roshan Nalaband, also in her 70s, nods approvingly. They&rsquo;re both packing their strawberries in little boxes. &ldquo;The traders will come by to pick them up,&rdquo; says Roshan. &ldquo;The prices are higher this year because of scarcity, but that is offset by a poorer yield and lesser quality of the crop.&rdquo; They speak, without pausing at work, of the way the water crisis is hurting them. Only Roshan breaks off for a minute to give us some water and offer us further refreshments.</p>

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<p>Yunus Nalaband and his wife Roshan Nalaband: Small farmers, growing mainly strawberries on their three acres. (Others)</p>
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<p>Completely dried-out well of Yunus Nalaband and his wife Roshan Nalaband. (Others)</p>
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<p>The kunda (temple tank) at the Krishnamai is empty except when it gets water from the Nalabands&rsquo; borewell. The tank went dry this season. The Krishnamai is just a few minutes&rsquo; walk from the more-visited Panchganga temple, also regarded as the symbolic source of the Krishna and four other rivers &ndash; Koyna, Venna, Savitri and Gayatri. Their actual sources are not too far from here. The Krishnamai itself is probably the oldest temple in the Wai-Mahabaleshwar region. A beautiful little one, seen by locals as the home of the river goddess.</p>

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<p>The Krishnamai temple in Old Mahabaleshwar: the little &lsquo;kunda&rsquo; in front of it is dry for the first time in living memory. (Others)</p>
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<p>My friend and colleague Jaideep Hardikar and I, together with other journalists in each of the districts we visited, went to the source &ndash; symbolic or actual &ndash; of several rivers in Maharashtra in the month of May. The idea was to journey downstream each river and talk to farmers, labourers and others living along these routes. To listen to them speak about how the mega water crisis &ndash; much larger than a meteorological drought &ndash; is affecting their lives.</p>

<p>While it is normal for some parts of rivers to run dry in summer, this is now happening even in their source regions, along stretches where they have never dried up. &ldquo;Maharashtra&rsquo;s once perennial rivers have significantly been converted into seasonal ones,&rdquo; says Prof. Madhav Gadgil, who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel. &ldquo;Amongst the reasons for this have been large-scale damming and a host of other activities along the course and basins of these rivers,&rdquo; says the leading ecologist and writer.</p>

<p>&ldquo;In six decades, I have not seen the kunda of the Krishnamai empty and dry,&rdquo; says Narayan Zade. That&rsquo;s in a region with an annual average rainfall of close to 2,000 mm. A retired tourist guide and migrant worker, Zade spends his days sitting around this temple. He is clear though that the drought isn&rsquo;t just about the rainfall. He says tourists and outsiders &ndash; &ldquo;you people&rdquo; &ndash; have much to answer for.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Of course there has been major deforestation,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But not by locals. If one of us here cuts a couple of branches, he goes to jail. But people from outside cut and take truckloads of timber &ndash; they get away with it.&rdquo; While Zade too has worked as a tour guide, he says unregulated tourism has done great damage: &ldquo;&hellip;all those resorts and places have come up&rdquo; causing further loss of green cover. Now, he prefers the quiet Krishnamai to the Panchganga temple bustling with tourists.</p>

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<p>Narayan Zade at the Krishnamai temple. He blames outsiders &ndash;&lsquo;you people&rsquo; &ndash; for deforestation, overcrowding and other activities that add to the water scarcity. (Others)</p>
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<p>The temple&rsquo;s front yard has a spectacular spot overlooking the Dhom Balkawadi dam. It still has some water, but much less than it should, even for this time of the year. Years of damming and major diversions of water along the river have had an impact. There is also the chaos of never-to-be-completed lift irrigation schemes. These are at the core of the state&rsquo;s &ldquo;irrigation scam&rdquo;.</p>

<p>Quite a few villages that were meant to gain from those insanely expensive schemes, but never did, are in the Khatav and Maan tehsils of Satara. The Ner dam and lake in that district are meant to supply water, both for drinking and irrigation, to a much larger number of villages, but the supply is mostly cornered by sugarcane cultivators in just 19 villages nearby. Ner is about 80 kilometres downstream from the Krishnamai.</p>

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<p>The Ner lake and dam in Satara district: even water meant for drinking is monopolised by sugarcane growers in just 19 nearby villages. (Others)</p>
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<p>Besides Maan and Khatav, 11 other very dry tehsils here are spread across three districts &ndash; Satara, Sangli and Solapur. People from these tehsils confer each year in what they call adushkaal parishad (drought council). &ldquo;They are demanding, among other things, a &lsquo;Maan desh&rsquo;, a separate &lsquo;drought district&rsquo; comprising these 13 tehsils ,&rdquo; says Dr. Maruti Ramakrishna Katkar, a retired district medical officer.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Their present districts give them little say in anything,&rdquo; says Katkar. But how would &lsquo;seceding&rsquo; to form a new district help them? The old districts would be glad to see them go and be even less answerable to them, surely? He puts one of the leaders of the new &lsquo;drought district&rsquo; movement, Prof. Krishna Ingole, on the phone with us. Ingole says the shared interests of the people in that region bind them together and districthood will enhance their bargaining power.</p>

<p>&ldquo;These tehsils are about 1,000 feet above sea level and in a rain shadow zone,&rdquo; Katkar says. &ldquo;We have less than 30 rainy days annually. All our areas have seen major migrations. There are gold and jewellery workers among the migrants who send back remittances that keep the local economy going.&rdquo;</p>

<p>The water crisis is not a problem of the last year or two. Nor of a single big drought. It has built over the decades, driven largely by human hand. Why, asks retired irrigation engineer Sharad Mande in Pune, are there no long-term measures to deal with it? He answers his own question: &ldquo;The life of dams is 80-90 years. The life of pipelines is 35-40 years. That of water treatment plants &ndash; about 25-30 years. Of pumping machinery, 15 years. But the life of a chief minister is five years. There is no credit for the long-term action. Only for what you do immediately.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Between 2000 and 2010, official data show, the state&rsquo;s irrigation potential increased by just 0.1 per cent. That, after spending Rs. 70,000 crores on irrigation during the same decade. Over half of that, going by the findings of the Chitale Committee that probed the irrigation scam, may have been siphoned off on dud schemes.</p>

<p>In Maharashtra, official and Right to Information-accessed data show, the cost of a dam can increase by 500 per cent within a month after a contract for it is awarded. Or by nearly 1,000 per cent within six months. As many as 77 projects have been &ldquo;under execution&rdquo; for over 30 years. Cost overruns are bigger than the budgets of some small Indian states put together.</p>

<p>Groundwater is also running low in Maharashtra, where 65 per cent of the net irrigation is based on this resource. The state&rsquo;s ban in April 2016 on the sinking of borewells below 200 feet comes three decades too late.</p>

<p>Even the drinking water problem is far greater than it ought to be in regions along the Krishna river&rsquo;s course. A lot of water gets diverted to construction activity. There are rural to urban transfers, and agriculture to industry diversions.</p>

<p>Within agriculture, most of the water is monopolised by sugarcane. Even Ner lake water intended for drinking gets diverted to that crop. Two-thirds of Maharashtra&rsquo;s cane is grown in drought-prone regions. As for the sugar factories, &ldquo;Please don&rsquo;t call them that,&rdquo; Mande grumbles. &ldquo;They are MLA factories &ndash; that&rsquo;s what they produce.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Each acre of sugarcane uses up to 180 acre-inches of water in a year &ndash; that is, almost 18 million litres &ndash; apart from normal rainfall. An acre of irrigated hybrid jowar requires barely 10 per cent of that. A lot of people are not attacking sugarcane per se. Just grow it in regions that have the water for it, they say. Not in zones of scarcity. Cane is cultivated on 4 per cent of the land, but consumes 70 per cent of irrigation water in Maharashtra.</p>

<p>&ldquo;This dugwell of ours has never been dry in six decades,&rdquo; says Yunus Nalaband, back in Mahabaleshwar. He and Roshan continue packing their strawberries. Mahabaleshwar accounts for close to 80 per cent of the country&rsquo;s strawberry production. The two gift us a few strawberries and even some black mulberry fruit.</p>

<p>Barely a hundred yards in front of us is the Krishnamai temple that they supply free water too. Behind us are the three acres they still cultivate. But with water running out, these may not be, unlike in the nostalgic Beatles song, &lsquo;Strawberry Fields Forever&rsquo;.</p>

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<p>Yunus and Roshan struggle to cultivate in the drought period but share the little water they get from their borewell with the Kirshnamai temple. (Others)</p>
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<p>This<a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/no-life-should-end-in-the-gutter/">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/source-of-the-rivers-scams-of-the-rulers/">article</a><a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/no-life-should-end-in-the-gutter/">&nbsp;</a>was originally published on 25/ 05/2016&nbsp;on the&nbsp;<a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/">People&#39;s Archive of Rural India.</a></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Photo Credit: P. Sainath</p>


Why rivers run dry while money floods the system in Maharashtra. A journey downstream the Krishna river

He is a strawberry farmer in his late 70s. The dug well on his three acres in old Mahabaleshwar is stone dry. His wife and he struggle to keep the farm going. They manage to, as there is still some water in their borewell. But even that little he shares, free of charge, with the temple bordering their land. The severe drought hurts his yield but not his generosity. His name is Yunus Ismail Nalaband – and he gives that water to the Krishnamai temple, the oldest symbol of the source of the Krishna river in Satara district, quite cheerfully. “Is it really my water?” he asks. “It all belongs to the uparwala [the Almighty], does it not?” His wife, Roshan Nalaband, also in her 70s, nods approvingly. They’re both packing their strawberries in little boxes. “The traders will come by to pick them up,” says Roshan. “The prices are higher this year because of scarcity, but that is offset by a poorer yield and lesser quality of the crop.” They speak, without pausing at work, of the way the water crisis is hurting them. Only Roshan breaks off for a minute to give us some water and offer us further refreshments. Yunus Nalaband and his wife Roshan Nalaband: Small farmers, growing mainly strawberries on their three acres. (Others) × Completely dried-out well of Yunus Nalaband and his wife Roshan Nalaband. (Others) × The kunda (temple tank) at the Krishnamai is empty except when it gets water from the Nalabands’ borewell. The tank went dry this season. The Krishnamai is just a few minutes’ walk from the more-visited Panchganga temple, also regarded as the symbolic source of the Krishna and four other rivers – Koyna, Venna, Savitri and Gayatri. Their actual sources are not too far from here. The Krishnamai itself is probably the oldest temple in the Wai-Mahabaleshwar region. A beautiful little one, seen by locals as the home of the river goddess. The Krishnamai temple in Old Mahabaleshwar: the little ‘kunda’ in front of it is dry for the first time in living memory. (Others) × My friend and colleague Jaideep Hardikar and I, together with other journalists in each of the districts we visited, went to the source – symbolic or actual – of several rivers in Maharashtra in the month of May. The idea was to journey downstream each river and talk to farmers, labourers and others living along these routes. To listen to them speak about how the mega water crisis – much larger than a meteorological drought – is affecting their lives. While it is normal for some parts of rivers to run dry in summer, this is now happening even in their source regions, along stretches where they have never dried up. “Maharashtra’s once perennial rivers have significantly been converted into seasonal ones,” says Prof. Madhav Gadgil, who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel. “Amongst the reasons for this have been large-scale damming and a host of other activities along the course and basins of these rivers,” says the leading ecologist and writer. “In six decades, I have not seen the kunda of the Krishnamai empty and dry,” says Narayan Zade. That’s in a region with an annual average rainfall of close to 2,000 mm. A retired tourist guide and migrant worker, Zade spends his days sitting around this temple. He is clear though that the drought isn’t just about the rainfall. He says tourists and outsiders – “you people” – have much to answer for. “Of course there has been major deforestation,” he says. “But not by locals. If one of us here cuts a couple of branches, he goes to jail. But people from outside cut and take truckloads of timber – they get away with it.” While Zade too has worked as a tour guide, he says unregulated tourism has done great damage: “…all those resorts and places have come up” causing further loss of green cover. Now, he prefers the quiet Krishnamai to the Panchganga temple bustling with tourists. Narayan Zade at the Krishnamai temple. He blames outsiders –‘you people’ – for deforestation, overcrowding and other activities that add to the water scarcity. (Others) × The temple’s front yard has a spectacular spot overlooking the Dhom Balkawadi dam. It still has some water, but much less than it should, even for this time of the year. Years of damming and major diversions of water along the river have had an impact. There is also the chaos of never-to-be-completed lift irrigation schemes. These are at the core of the state’s “irrigation scam”. Quite a few villages that were meant to gain from those insanely expensive schemes, but never did, are in the Khatav and Maan tehsils of Satara. The Ner dam and lake in that district are meant to supply water, both for drinking and irrigation, to a much larger number of villages, but the supply is mostly cornered by sugarcane cultivators in just 19 villages nearby. Ner is about 80 kilometres downstream from the Krishnamai. The Ner lake and dam in Satara district: even water meant for drinking is monopolised by sugarcane growers in just 19 nearby villages. (Others) × Besides Maan and Khatav, 11 other very dry tehsils here are spread across three districts – Satara, Sangli and Solapur. People from these tehsils confer each year in what they call adushkaal parishad (drought council). “They are demanding, among other things, a ‘Maan desh’, a separate ‘drought district’ comprising these 13 tehsils ,” says Dr. Maruti Ramakrishna Katkar, a retired district medical officer. “Their present districts give them little say in anything,” says Katkar. But how would ‘seceding’ to form a new district help them? The old districts would be glad to see them go and be even less answerable to them, surely? He puts one of the leaders of the new ‘drought district’ movement, Prof. Krishna Ingole, on the phone with us. Ingole says the shared interests of the people in that region bind them together and districthood will enhance their bargaining power. “These tehsils are about 1,000 feet above sea level and in a rain shadow zone,” Katkar says. “We have less than 30 rainy days annually. All our areas have seen major migrations. There are gold and jewellery workers among the migrants who send back remittances that keep the local economy going.” The water crisis is not a problem of the last year or two. Nor of a single big drought. It has built over the decades, driven largely by human hand. Why, asks retired irrigation engineer Sharad Mande in Pune, are there no long-term measures to deal with it? He answers his own question: “The life of dams is 80-90 years. The life of pipelines is 35-40 years. That of water treatment plants – about 25-30 years. Of pumping machinery, 15 years. But the life of a chief minister is five years. There is no credit for the long-term action. Only for what you do immediately.” Between 2000 and 2010, official data show, the state’s irrigation potential increased by just 0.1 per cent. That, after spending Rs. 70,000 crores on irrigation during the same decade. Over half of that, going by the findings of the Chitale Committee that probed the irrigation scam, may have been siphoned off on dud schemes. In Maharashtra, official and Right to Information-accessed data show, the cost of a dam can increase by 500 per cent within a month after a contract for it is awarded. Or by nearly 1,000 per cent within six months. As many as 77 projects have been “under execution” for over 30 years. Cost overruns are bigger than the budgets of some small Indian states put together. Groundwater is also running low in Maharashtra, where 65 per cent of the net irrigation is based on this resource. The state’s ban in April 2016 on the sinking of borewells below 200 feet comes three decades too late. Even the drinking water problem is far greater than it ought to be in regions along the Krishna river’s course. A lot of water gets diverted to construction activity. There are rural to urban transfers, and agriculture to industry diversions. Within agriculture, most of the water is monopolised by sugarcane. Even Ner lake water intended for drinking gets diverted to that crop. Two-thirds of Maharashtra’s cane is grown in drought-prone regions. As for the sugar factories, “Please don’t call them that,” Mande grumbles. “They are MLA factories – that’s what they produce.” Each acre of sugarcane uses up to 180 acre-inches of water in a year – that is, almost 18 million litres – apart from normal rainfall. An acre of irrigated hybrid jowar requires barely 10 per cent of that. A lot of people are not attacking sugarcane per se. Just grow it in regions that have the water for it, they say. Not in zones of scarcity. Cane is cultivated on 4 per cent of the land, but consumes 70 per cent of irrigation water in Maharashtra. “This dugwell of ours has never been dry in six decades,” says Yunus Nalaband, back in Mahabaleshwar. He and Roshan continue packing their strawberries. Mahabaleshwar accounts for close to 80 per cent of the country’s strawberry production. The two gift us a few strawberries and even some black mulberry fruit. Barely a hundred yards in front of us is the Krishnamai temple that they supply free water too. Behind us are the three acres they still cultivate. But with water running out, these may not be, unlike in the nostalgic Beatles song, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Yunus and Roshan struggle to cultivate in the drought period but share the little water they get from their borewell with the Kirshnamai temple. (Others) × This article was originally published on 25/ 05/2016 on the People's Archive of Rural India. Photo Credit: P. Sainath

Source of the rivers, scams of the rulers

<p>District officials in Buldhana, Maharashtra have admitted to a flaw in an electronic voting machine (EVM) used in recent zila parishad (district panchayat) elections.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The DNA newspaper reported on Sunday that votes given to an independent candidate were &quot;occasionally&quot; recorded by the EVM as having been given to the BJP candidate.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The newspaper added that RTI activist Anil Galgali had filed a query with the Buldhana district collectorate asking for information about the complaint filed by independent candidate Ashatai Arun Zore and details of the inquiry report submitted by the returning officer (RO).</p>

<p>The newspaper said a report signed by Ramnarayan Sawant, the official in charge of the polling centre, and election officer Manikrao Bazad stated that a complaint made by a voter at around 10 am was found to be without substance.&nbsp;</p>

<p>However, a similar complaint was made again at 1.30 pm band was found to be correct.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This was brought to the notice of the assistant returning officer, who visited the centre and verified the complaint.</p>

<p>On February 16, when elections to the Buldhana zila parishad were held, Zore and her representatives had objected to the LED light flashing for the BJP candidate when votes were cast for Zore on an EVM unit in Sultanpur.&nbsp;</p>

<p>That meant that when votes were polled for Zore, they were instead tallied in favour of the BJP candidate.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A number of similar charges have been made by other parties in the recent past.&nbsp;</p>


A number of similar charges have been made by other parties in the recent past

District officials in Buldhana, Maharashtra have admitted to a flaw in an electronic voting machine (EVM) used in recent zila parishad (district panchayat) elections. The DNA newspaper reported on Sunday that votes given to an independent candidate were "occasionally" recorded by the EVM as having been given to the BJP candidate. The newspaper added that RTI activist Anil Galgali had filed a query with the Buldhana district collectorate asking for information about the complaint filed by independent candidate Ashatai Arun Zore and details of the inquiry report submitted by the returning officer (RO). The newspaper said a report signed by Ramnarayan Sawant, the official in charge of the polling centre, and election officer Manikrao Bazad stated that a complaint made by a voter at around 10 am was found to be without substance. However, a similar complaint was made again at 1.30 pm band was found to be correct. This was brought to the notice of the assistant returning officer, who visited the centre and verified the complaint. On February 16, when elections to the Buldhana zila parishad were held, Zore and her representatives had objected to the LED light flashing for the BJP candidate when votes were cast for Zore on an EVM unit in Sultanpur. That meant that when votes were polled for Zore, they were instead tallied in favour of the BJP candidate. A number of similar charges have been made by other parties in the recent past.

Faulty EVM voted 'occasionally' for BJP candidate in Buldhana, Maharashtra

<p>By Naziya Alvi Rahman</p>

<p>It&#39;s traumatic for any woman to learn that her husband is gay. And when the husband in question is from Pakistan and the wife from India, it&#39;s a story that goes beyond personal anguish to get enmeshed in the complicated tangle that the two countries are forever caught in.</p>

<p>Ask Salma, whose marriage lasted just a year and who has been fighting a lone battle for her 11-year-old daughter&#39;s nationality. The resident from Mumbra was married to Karachi-based Salman in 2005. She was from a lower-middle-class family who had managed to complete her masters in economics, and he a rich brat who claimed to be an engineer but was actually a school dropout.</p>

<p>&quot;There was no means to cross-check. And we believed them as they were related to us distantly,&quot; says 40-year-old Salma, regretting every day that her daughter was born in Pakistan. &quot;If only if she was not born there... I got her here when she was 2.5 months old and applied for her nationality within the first year of moving back. Eleven years later, she is still a Pakistani.&quot; With that comes worries about her school, college and other admissions.</p>

<p>Salma is not alone. Given the fractious, yet symbiotic, relationship between the two countries and the large number of divided families, there are many such Salmas across India. &quot;In Maharashtra alone, there are hundreds of pending cases,&quot; says an official on the condition of anonymity.</p>

<p>The Home department&#39;s foreign section is flooded with such cases &ndash; Indian women married to Pakistanis, divorced and back in India with &#39;Pakistani&#39; children. Officials who deal with these cases claim that one of every 10 cases that comes for citizenship is of children born of such marriages.</p>

<p>In some cases, like that of 29-year-old Saira, a resident of Sewri Cross Road, divorce resulted in the children being divided. She managed to bring three children back but her eldest, a boy, remained with the father.</p>

<p>&quot;She would come to us every second month to seek a visa to go to Pakistan to meet her eldest son. We understand a mother&#39;s plight but we can&#39;t move her file seeking a Pakistan visa so frequently. We have so many such cases,&quot; says a Home department official.</p>

<p>&quot;I have no means to raise these three kids. It&#39;s not easy for me to leave behind my son. I want to go back and seek alimony from my in-laws. I will fight for my children&#39;s rights,&quot; Saira says determinedly.</p>

<p>Officials believe there are several reasons behind the failure of these marriages. &quot;It&#39;s like any NRI marriage where you only know the truth after you get married,&quot; says an official.</p>

<p>Salma&#39;s is a classic such case. That he was gay was known in Pakistan but she realised it only much later. &quot;He left within two days of our wedding without establishing any physical relations with me&hellip; It was only a month later when I reached Pakistan that I learnt about his sexual preference.&quot;</p>

<p>She says she was tortured by her in-laws and came back to India after three months. Told the full story, her parents supported her decision to stay back but relatives persuaded them to give him one more chance. Her father-in-law himself came over to India with the boy.</p>

<p>&quot;It was during this encounter that I conceived my daughter. We believed that everything would be fine now and I went back to stay with him,&quot; says Salma.</p>

<p>When Salma gave birth to a girl child, the family lost interest in her and she was sent back to India. &quot;Since that day, they have never looked back at me or my daughter. For how many more years will I have to continue to run from pillar to post to get her an Indian nationality?&quot;</p>

<p>Salma, who supports a family of four with the Rs 25,000 she gets as an executive in a private firm, got married again but lost her second husband in a road accident.</p>

<p>Officials claim her case is now in the final stages. But the process can only be completed after she surrenders her daughter&#39;s Pakistani passport to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.</p>

<p>She doesn&#39;t have the money to travel to Delhi and stay in a hotel. &quot;The department officials did request them to consider my case as an exemption&hellip; but on December 16, 2016, my file came back with a rejection,&quot; Salma says.</p>

<p>And the wait continues.</p>

<p>(This report first appeared on DNA)</p>


Hundreds of such citizenship cases are pending in India's western state of Maharashtra

By Naziya Alvi Rahman It's traumatic for any woman to learn that her husband is gay. And when the husband in question is from Pakistan and the wife from India, it's a story that goes beyond personal anguish to get enmeshed in the complicated tangle that the two countries are forever caught in. Ask Salma, whose marriage lasted just a year and who has been fighting a lone battle for her 11-year-old daughter's nationality. The resident from Mumbra was married to Karachi-based Salman in 2005. She was from a lower-middle-class family who had managed to complete her masters in economics, and he a rich brat who claimed to be an engineer but was actually a school dropout. "There was no means to cross-check. And we believed them as they were related to us distantly," says 40-year-old Salma, regretting every day that her daughter was born in Pakistan. "If only if she was not born there... I got her here when she was 2.5 months old and applied for her nationality within the first year of moving back. Eleven years later, she is still a Pakistani." With that comes worries about her school, college and other admissions. Salma is not alone. Given the fractious, yet symbiotic, relationship between the two countries and the large number of divided families, there are many such Salmas across India. "In Maharashtra alone, there are hundreds of pending cases," says an official on the condition of anonymity. The Home department's foreign section is flooded with such cases – Indian women married to Pakistanis, divorced and back in India with 'Pakistani' children. Officials who deal with these cases claim that one of every 10 cases that comes for citizenship is of children born of such marriages. In some cases, like that of 29-year-old Saira, a resident of Sewri Cross Road, divorce resulted in the children being divided. She managed to bring three children back but her eldest, a boy, remained with the father. "She would come to us every second month to seek a visa to go to Pakistan to meet her eldest son. We understand a mother's plight but we can't move her file seeking a Pakistan visa so frequently. We have so many such cases," says a Home department official. "I have no means to raise these three kids. It's not easy for me to leave behind my son. I want to go back and seek alimony from my in-laws. I will fight for my children's rights," Saira says determinedly. Officials believe there are several reasons behind the failure of these marriages. "It's like any NRI marriage where you only know the truth after you get married," says an official. Salma's is a classic such case. That he was gay was known in Pakistan but she realised it only much later. "He left within two days of our wedding without establishing any physical relations with me… It was only a month later when I reached Pakistan that I learnt about his sexual preference." She says she was tortured by her in-laws and came back to India after three months. Told the full story, her parents supported her decision to stay back but relatives persuaded them to give him one more chance. Her father-in-law himself came over to India with the boy. "It was during this encounter that I conceived my daughter. We believed that everything would be fine now and I went back to stay with him," says Salma. When Salma gave birth to a girl child, the family lost interest in her and she was sent back to India. "Since that day, they have never looked back at me or my daughter. For how many more years will I have to continue to run from pillar to post to get her an Indian nationality?" Salma, who supports a family of four with the Rs 25,000 she gets as an executive in a private firm, got married again but lost her second husband in a road accident. Officials claim her case is now in the final stages. But the process can only be completed after she surrenders her daughter's Pakistani passport to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. She doesn't have the money to travel to Delhi and stay in a hotel. "The department officials did request them to consider my case as an exemption… but on December 16, 2016, my file came back with a rejection," Salma says. And the wait continues. (This report first appeared on DNA)

Citizens of nowhere: Children born to Indian mothers & Pakistani fathers caught in India-Pak tangle

<p>Nine people from the Bhawandi town of Maharashtra have been booked for &#39;cheating&#39; when they misused funds granted to them for building toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Bhawandi division police said Wednesday.</p>

<p>The nine accused have been charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), said Sukhada Narkar, the thana police PRO.</p>

<p>Quoting a complaint by a Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation official, police said that the nine had applied for benefits under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan subsidy to build toilets in 2015, but the toilets were never constructed and the money was misappropriated.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Each of them was supposed to get INR 17,000 as subsidy, of which 6,000 had been granted as first installment.</p>

<p>The Swachh&nbsp;Bharat Abhiyan grants subsidy of at least INR15,000 (with each state government adding an&nbsp;amount as they deem right) to every registered household provided it falls under the below poverty line (BPL), SC/ST households above poverty line or differently abled and women headed households, and recognised by a committee comprising of Block Development Officer and the village panchayat President.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan grants subsidy for BPL and SC/ST families to build toilets in their homes

Nine people from the Bhawandi town of Maharashtra have been booked for 'cheating' when they misused funds granted to them for building toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Bhawandi division police said Wednesday. The nine accused have been charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), said Sukhada Narkar, the thana police PRO. Quoting a complaint by a Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation official, police said that the nine had applied for benefits under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan subsidy to build toilets in 2015, but the toilets were never constructed and the money was misappropriated. Each of them was supposed to get INR 17,000 as subsidy, of which 6,000 had been granted as first installment. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan grants subsidy of at least INR15,000 (with each state government adding an amount as they deem right) to every registered household provided it falls under the below poverty line (BPL), SC/ST households above poverty line or differently abled and women headed households, and recognised by a committee comprising of Block Development Officer and the village panchayat President.

Maharashtra: Nine booked under IPC 406, 420 for misusing Swachh Bharat funds

<p>The result for Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination or class 12 of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) will be declared today (May 30) at 1 pm.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
To know your Maharashtra HSC Class 12 Result, you can log on to <a href="http://mahresult.nic.in/" target="_blank">mahresult</a><a href="http://mahresult.nic.in/" target="_blank">.nic.in</a>.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The HSC Class 12 board exams were conducted from February 28 to March 25, 2017.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
It saw participation from 9,143 junior colleges and was conducted at 2,710 exam centres across Maharashtra.</p>

<p>(WION)</p>


The HSC Class 12 board exams were conducted from February 28 to March 25, 2017

The result for Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination or class 12 of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) will be declared today (May 30) at 1 pm. To know your Maharashtra HSC Class 12 Result, you can log on to mahresult.nic.in. The HSC Class 12 board exams were conducted from February 28 to March 25, 2017. It saw participation from 9,143 junior colleges and was conducted at 2,710 exam centres across Maharashtra. (WION)

Maharashtra HSC Class 12 Results to be announced shortly, check on mahresult.nic.in

<p>The Bombay High Court granted bail Tuesday to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who is accused of plotting the September 2008 bomb blasts in Malegaon, Maharashtra.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Seven people died in the blasts, and over a 100 injured. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Lt Colonel Shrikant Purohit, also accused in the case, was denied bail.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The duo have been in jail for over eight years now.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Sadhvi Pragya and Purohit were arrested in a little after the blasts and accused of plotting the blasts as part of a Hindu militant group, Abhinav Bharat.</p>

<p>(WION)</p>


The duo have been in jail for over eight years now

The Bombay High Court granted bail Tuesday to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who is accused of plotting the September 2008 bomb blasts in Malegaon, Maharashtra. Seven people died in the blasts, and over a 100 injured. Lt Colonel Shrikant Purohit, also accused in the case, was denied bail. The duo have been in jail for over eight years now. Sadhvi Pragya and Purohit were arrested in a little after the blasts and accused of plotting the blasts as part of a Hindu militant group, Abhinav Bharat. (WION)

Malegaon blasts case: Sadhvi Pragya gets bail, Col Purohit does not

<p>The Shiv Sena has given a shutdown call in Maharashtra&#39;s Osmanabad in support of MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who had assaulted an Air India employee on flight.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena is likely to bring privilege motion in the Parliament today over the issue of Gaikwad being put in &#39;no fly list&#39; of all airlines.</p>

<p>Air India and six private airlines banned the 56-year-old MP from flying as he refused to apologise for the incident that triggered nationwide outrage.</p>

<p>The MP from Osmanabad in Maharashtra had earlier downplayed reports suggesting that Air India is considering banning him from boarding its flights.</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Maharashtra: Shiv Sena gives a shutdown call in Osmanabad in support of Ravindra Gaikwad. He had assaulted an Air India employee on flight. <a href="https://t.co/nwQau7vRHn">pic.twitter.com/nwQau7vRHn</a></p>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI_news) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI_news/status/846203346532782080">March 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">All airlines banning him (Ravindra Gaikwad) is not right, will raise it in both houses and in zero hour too: Anandrao Adsul, Shiv Sena <a href="https://t.co/Kk6CA1wOUS">pic.twitter.com/Kk6CA1wOUS</a></p>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI_news) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI_news/status/846223562235105283">March 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p>&quot;I have the tickets, they can&#39;t blacklist me. I will board the Delhi-Pune Air India flight this evening. How can they not allow me?&quot; he said.</p>

<p>&quot;I will not apologise. It was not my fault, it was his fault. He should apologise. First ask him to apologise then we will see,&quot; Gaikwad told the media.</p>

<p>Sukumar, who was assaulted by Gaikwad, asserted that the elected representatives need to behave in a decent manner.</p>

<p>&quot;I am not scared at all, either with Gaikwad or with the Shiv Sena. I have been serving public and have also faced many who get irritated on such issues. It&#39;s a common thing for me,&quot; he added.</p>

<p>Earlier, the Centre also took cognizance of the incident and assured a thorough probe into the matter. &nbsp;</p>

<p>(ANI)</p>


Osmanabad is Ravindra Gaikwad's constituency

The Shiv Sena has given a shutdown call in Maharashtra's Osmanabad in support of MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who had assaulted an Air India employee on flight. Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena is likely to bring privilege motion in the Parliament today over the issue of Gaikwad being put in 'no fly list' of all airlines. Air India and six private airlines banned the 56-year-old MP from flying as he refused to apologise for the incident that triggered nationwide outrage. The MP from Osmanabad in Maharashtra had earlier downplayed reports suggesting that Air India is considering banning him from boarding its flights. Maharashtra: Shiv Sena gives a shutdown call in Osmanabad in support of Ravindra Gaikwad. He had assaulted an Air India employee on flight. pic.twitter.com/nwQau7vRHn — ANI (@ANI_news) March 27, 2017 × All airlines banning him (Ravindra Gaikwad) is not right, will raise it in both houses and in zero hour too: Anandrao Adsul, Shiv Sena pic.twitter.com/Kk6CA1wOUS — ANI (@ANI_news) March 27, 2017 × "I have the tickets, they can't blacklist me. I will board the Delhi-Pune Air India flight this evening. How can they not allow me?" he said. "I will not apologise. It was not my fault, it was his fault. He should apologise. First ask him to apologise then we will see," Gaikwad told the media. Sukumar, who was assaulted by Gaikwad, asserted that the elected representatives need to behave in a decent manner. "I am not scared at all, either with Gaikwad or with the Shiv Sena. I have been serving public and have also faced many who get irritated on such issues. It's a common thing for me," he added. Earlier, the Centre also took cognizance of the incident and assured a thorough probe into the matter. (ANI)

In support of MP who beat AI staffer, Shiv Sena shuts down Osmanabad

<p>By Kanchan Srivastava</p>

<p>Two days after Tamil Nadu promulgated an ordinance making the Supreme Court ban on &quot;bull fight&quot; (Jallikattu) ineffective, Maharashtra has also taken a stand to revive its &ldquo;bullock cart race&rdquo; banned by the apex court two years ago.</p>

<p>Maharashtra&rsquo;s Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Department Mahadeo Jankar on Tuesday said the ban on the &lsquo;traditional&rsquo; bullock cart race must be revoked. &ldquo;I respect the judiciary. However, considering the Jallikattu case of Tamil Nadu, I feel the apex court must consider the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra as well. We would take a legal recourse in the matter,&rdquo; Jankar said.</p>

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<h5>The Shiv Sena is also seeking a reversal of the ban on the grounds that bullock cart racing holds the same significance for Maharashtrians as Jallikattu does for Tamils</h5>
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<p>&ldquo;My department has appointed Fali Nariman and CP Rao four months back to fight our case in the SC,&rdquo; claimed Jankar.</p>

<p>When asked why doesn&rsquo;t the government follow the Tamil Nadu example and seek an ordinance from the Centre, Jankar says, &ldquo;It can&rsquo;t be done as the review petition is already pending in the Supreme Court.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Interestingly, politicians along with the farmers associations and bullock-cart association had already filed review petition in the Apex Court which was clubbed with Jallikattu petitions. The verdict is still pending.</p>

<p>Farmer leader Jankar belongs to Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, an ally of the ruling coalition in the state, and was inducted in the government during last year&rsquo;s cabinet expansion.</p>

<p>Law and Judiciary Department, whose opinion is mandatory for the government before taking any legal recourse or stand on any issue, was unaware of Jankar&rsquo;s move though. &ldquo;No proposal to permit the bullock cart racing has come to us. We are also unaware about the appointment of two lawyers in the case,&rdquo; says NJ Jamadar, Secretary of the Law and Judiciary Department.</p>

<p>When Jankar was probed further, he said, &ldquo;Some organisations had sought my help to fight the case in the apex court. So, I agreed to give them the best lawyers who usually take only big cases. The two appointments have been approved by my department three-four months ago. A proposal to the law and judiciary will be sent soon.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Shiv Sena is also seeking reversal of ban on the grounds that bullock cart racing holds the same significance for Maharashtrians as Jallikattu does for Tamils. Party led an agitation in Pune on Saturday and now plans to take it across Maharashtra.</p>

<p>Politicians in Maharashtra claim the race is associated with religious fair and it does not reflect on any provision of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act.</p>

<p>The animal activists say otherwise. &ldquo;Bulls involved in racing are physically and mentally tortured for human pleasure and enjoyment. This violates the provisions of the PCA Act particularly, Section 3, 11 (1) (a) and (m) of the Act,&rdquo; said a PETA activist.</p>

<p>(This report first appeared in DNA)</p>


Animal husbandry minister Mahadeo Jankar said the ban must be revoked, added 'apex court must consider the sentiments of the people'

By Kanchan Srivastava Two days after Tamil Nadu promulgated an ordinance making the Supreme Court ban on "bull fight" (Jallikattu) ineffective, Maharashtra has also taken a stand to revive its “bullock cart race” banned by the apex court two years ago. Maharashtra’s Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Department Mahadeo Jankar on Tuesday said the ban on the ‘traditional’ bullock cart race must be revoked. “I respect the judiciary. However, considering the Jallikattu case of Tamil Nadu, I feel the apex court must consider the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra as well. We would take a legal recourse in the matter,” Jankar said. The Shiv Sena is also seeking a reversal of the ban on the grounds that bullock cart racing holds the same significance for Maharashtrians as Jallikattu does for Tamils × “My department has appointed Fali Nariman and CP Rao four months back to fight our case in the SC,” claimed Jankar. When asked why doesn’t the government follow the Tamil Nadu example and seek an ordinance from the Centre, Jankar says, “It can’t be done as the review petition is already pending in the Supreme Court.” Interestingly, politicians along with the farmers associations and bullock-cart association had already filed review petition in the Apex Court which was clubbed with Jallikattu petitions. The verdict is still pending. Farmer leader Jankar belongs to Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, an ally of the ruling coalition in the state, and was inducted in the government during last year’s cabinet expansion. Law and Judiciary Department, whose opinion is mandatory for the government before taking any legal recourse or stand on any issue, was unaware of Jankar’s move though. “No proposal to permit the bullock cart racing has come to us. We are also unaware about the appointment of two lawyers in the case,” says NJ Jamadar, Secretary of the Law and Judiciary Department. When Jankar was probed further, he said, “Some organisations had sought my help to fight the case in the apex court. So, I agreed to give them the best lawyers who usually take only big cases. The two appointments have been approved by my department three-four months ago. A proposal to the law and judiciary will be sent soon.” Shiv Sena is also seeking reversal of ban on the grounds that bullock cart racing holds the same significance for Maharashtrians as Jallikattu does for Tamils. Party led an agitation in Pune on Saturday and now plans to take it across Maharashtra. Politicians in Maharashtra claim the race is associated with religious fair and it does not reflect on any provision of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act. The animal activists say otherwise. “Bulls involved in racing are physically and mentally tortured for human pleasure and enjoyment. This violates the provisions of the PCA Act particularly, Section 3, 11 (1) (a) and (m) of the Act,” said a PETA activist. (This report first appeared in DNA)

After Jallikattu, Maharashtra to try & revoke ban on bullock cart race

<p>As Soni Wadwi breastfed her one-year-old son, Sonu, outside her hut in Khoch village, western India, she recounted how he almost died from severe malnutrition four months ago.</p>

<p>The family left the village in the Palghar district of Maharashtra state last year for work for several months as many do. When they returned, Sonu was weak and admitted to hospital.&nbsp;</p>

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<h5>Locals refer to September as &#39;starvation month&#39;, when many people are unemployed and children&#39;s deaths peak.The end of the harvest in December again signals the end of the villagers&#39;&nbsp;home stay</h5>
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<p>Wadwi&#39;s son survived and made a full recovery but about 400 other children died from malnutrition-linked illnesses in Palghar between April and November 2016, a rising trend that campaigners put down to an annual pattern of migration for work.</p>

<p>In the last three years, malnutrition has claimed the lives of about 1,600 children in Palghar, a tribal region battling high unemployment and poverty, with national headlines over child deaths prompting government action to address the problem.</p>

<p>Khoch lies 150 km (93 miles) from India&#39;s commercial capital Mumbai and close to the border with Gujarat, one of the country&#39;s most prosperous states, but unemployment is forcing parents to move to cities to find work to feed their children.</p>

<p>&quot;Palghar&#39;s problem of malnutrition is shocking because of its proximity to Mumbai, but it is migration to Mumbai that is at the root of this problem,&quot; said Milind Thatte, founder of Vayam, a movement for tribal development.</p>

<p>&quot;People from Palghar migrate to Mumbai for work, but the cost of living there is very high. They don&#39;t eat to save money.&quot;</p>

<p>Villagers start leaving Palghar in December for the Mumbai satellite towns of Thane and Bhiwandi where they often work 12-hour shifts at construction sites or road building projects.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Once the monsoon season halts construction, workers return to villages in July for a jobless spell until October, when the start of the harvest provides daily work on farmland.</p>

<p>Locals refer to September as &quot;starvation month&quot;, when many people are unemployed and children&#39;s deaths peak.The end of the harvest in December again signals the end of the villagers&#39;&nbsp;home stay.</p>

<p>&quot;We have no work now, but we will leave soon. We are waiting for the &#39;seth&#39;&nbsp;the construction site contractor] to come and take us,&quot; Wadwi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p>

<p><strong>Bottom of the ladder</strong><br />
Namdev Savara, a member of the Kathkari tribe, has devoted an entire wall of his one-room hut in Khoch to colourful depictions of Indian gods and goddesses.</p>

<p>So when his son, Ishwar - which means the supreme lord in Hindi - died in September, he hung a black and white picture of the child on this wall of worship.</p>

<p>Savara said he will not leave Khoch in 2017 and he will work on a local road construction project with his wife. The couple will stay close to their two other children who go to school.</p>

<p>According to government data about 39 percent of Indian children suffer from chronic undernutrition and around 42.5 percent are underweight.</p>

<p>In Palghar, malnutrition most affects the Kathkari tribe, a one time forest community which is among the lowest in the pecking order of the Indian caste system.</p>

<p>&quot;Most children who died this year due to malnutrition-linked illnesses were from the Kathkari community,&quot; said Nidhi Chaudhari, who heads the Palghar local government office.</p>

<p>Vivek Pandit, an activist who has represented the area in the Maharashtra state assembly, said Kathkari people don&#39;t have land and are handpicked for their ability to do strenuous work.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&quot;They work at construction sites, break stones for road construction or at brick kilns,&quot; Pandit said.</p>

<p>Employers usually prefer to hire Kathkari couples as they coordinate better and are cheaper than two men, with men paid around 200 Indian rupees ($2.93) daily and women anywhere between 50 and 100 rupees.</p>

<p>The migrant workers survive on rice and the occasional dish of potato and onions, saving their money for the jobless months.</p>

<p><strong>Weak and vulnerable</strong><br />
Doctors said children suffer due to irregular feeding patterns when both parents work long hours.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&quot;The parents&#39;&nbsp;priority is not their child&#39;s health but to earn their daily wages,&quot; said Ramdas Marad, superintendent at the Palghar sub-district hospital that runs at twice its capacity in the monsoon months between June and September.</p>

<p>&quot;Children are more vulnerable to diseases such as pneumonia or respiratory infections during this time as they are weak and their immunities are compromised.&quot;</p>

<p>The government is drawing up a list of Kathkari tribe members to ensure they benefit from the government schemes for jobs and education, among the others that they are eligible for.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The government has even started a new road project in Khoch to attempt to slow migration, but only a handful of people who have bank accounts are so far eligible.</p>

<p>Savara is among them but his decision to stay in Khoch this year is an anomaly in the village where migration began last month.</p>

<p>Many, such as Wadwi, even committed to leave in September, when a contractor visited families and bought promises of migration against an advance payment.</p>

<p>&quot;I know my child was malnourished when we migrated last year. But what will I feed him if I don&#39;t work?&quot; she said.</p>

<p>(Reuters)</p>


Parents are forced to migrate each year to find work, leaving children vulnerable to illnesses caused by malnutrition

As Soni Wadwi breastfed her one-year-old son, Sonu, outside her hut in Khoch village, western India, she recounted how he almost died from severe malnutrition four months ago. The family left the village in the Palghar district of Maharashtra state last year for work for several months as many do. When they returned, Sonu was weak and admitted to hospital. Locals refer to September as 'starvation month', when many people are unemployed and children's deaths peak.The end of the harvest in December again signals the end of the villagers' home stay × Wadwi's son survived and made a full recovery but about 400 other children died from malnutrition-linked illnesses in Palghar between April and November 2016, a rising trend that campaigners put down to an annual pattern of migration for work. In the last three years, malnutrition has claimed the lives of about 1,600 children in Palghar, a tribal region battling high unemployment and poverty, with national headlines over child deaths prompting government action to address the problem. Khoch lies 150 km (93 miles) from India's commercial capital Mumbai and close to the border with Gujarat, one of the country's most prosperous states, but unemployment is forcing parents to move to cities to find work to feed their children. "Palghar's problem of malnutrition is shocking because of its proximity to Mumbai, but it is migration to Mumbai that is at the root of this problem," said Milind Thatte, founder of Vayam, a movement for tribal development. "People from Palghar migrate to Mumbai for work, but the cost of living there is very high. They don't eat to save money." Villagers start leaving Palghar in December for the Mumbai satellite towns of Thane and Bhiwandi where they often work 12-hour shifts at construction sites or road building projects. Once the monsoon season halts construction, workers return to villages in July for a jobless spell until October, when the start of the harvest provides daily work on farmland. Locals refer to September as "starvation month", when many people are unemployed and children's deaths peak.The end of the harvest in December again signals the end of the villagers' home stay. "We have no work now, but we will leave soon. We are waiting for the 'seth' the construction site contractor] to come and take us," Wadwi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Bottom of the ladder Namdev Savara, a member of the Kathkari tribe, has devoted an entire wall of his one-room hut in Khoch to colourful depictions of Indian gods and goddesses. So when his son, Ishwar - which means the supreme lord in Hindi - died in September, he hung a black and white picture of the child on this wall of worship. Savara said he will not leave Khoch in 2017 and he will work on a local road construction project with his wife. The couple will stay close to their two other children who go to school. According to government data about 39 percent of Indian children suffer from chronic undernutrition and around 42.5 percent are underweight. In Palghar, malnutrition most affects the Kathkari tribe, a one time forest community which is among the lowest in the pecking order of the Indian caste system. "Most children who died this year due to malnutrition-linked illnesses were from the Kathkari community," said Nidhi Chaudhari, who heads the Palghar local government office. Vivek Pandit, an activist who has represented the area in the Maharashtra state assembly, said Kathkari people don't have land and are handpicked for their ability to do strenuous work. "They work at construction sites, break stones for road construction or at brick kilns," Pandit said. Employers usually prefer to hire Kathkari couples as they coordinate better and are cheaper than two men, with men paid around 200 Indian rupees ($2.93) daily and women anywhere between 50 and 100 rupees. The migrant workers survive on rice and the occasional dish of potato and onions, saving their money for the jobless months. Weak and vulnerable Doctors said children suffer due to irregular feeding patterns when both parents work long hours. "The parents' priority is not their child's health but to earn their daily wages," said Ramdas Marad, superintendent at the Palghar sub-district hospital that runs at twice its capacity in the monsoon months between June and September. "Children are more vulnerable to diseases such as pneumonia or respiratory infections during this time as they are weak and their immunities are compromised." The government is drawing up a list of Kathkari tribe members to ensure they benefit from the government schemes for jobs and education, among the others that they are eligible for. The government has even started a new road project in Khoch to attempt to slow migration, but only a handful of people who have bank accounts are so far eligible. Savara is among them but his decision to stay in Khoch this year is an anomaly in the village where migration began last month. Many, such as Wadwi, even committed to leave in September, when a contractor visited families and bought promises of migration against an advance payment. "I know my child was malnourished when we migrated last year. But what will I feed him if I don't work?" she said. (Reuters)

Migration is killing babies in this Indian village

<p>At least five coaches of the Kurla-Ambernath local train derailed between Kalyan-Vitthalwadi at around 5:53 a.m. today.</p>

<p>No injuries have been reported so far.</p>

<p>The services on Kalyan-Karjat route have been temporarily suspended.</p>

<p>The Central Railways has requested local Municipal Corporation to run extra buses between Kalyan and Ambernath to reduce the inconvenience caused to the daily passengers.</p>

<p>Several trains have been diverted and cancelled in the wake of the accident.22105 CST-Pune Indrayani Express has been diverted through Diva-Panvel-Karjat, while CST-Pune Deccan Queen and CST-Pune Intercity Express have been cancelled.</p>

<p>This comes a day after coaches of the 12987 Sealdah-Ajmer Express went off track when the train was crossing a bridge over a dry canal, nearly 70 km from Kanpur.</p>

<p>Two coaches toppled off the bridge and fell into the canal bed.</p>

<p>(ANI)&nbsp;</p>


This is the fourth derailment in recent months

At least five coaches of the Kurla-Ambernath local train derailed between Kalyan-Vitthalwadi at around 5:53 a.m. today. No injuries have been reported so far. The services on Kalyan-Karjat route have been temporarily suspended. The Central Railways has requested local Municipal Corporation to run extra buses between Kalyan and Ambernath to reduce the inconvenience caused to the daily passengers. Several trains have been diverted and cancelled in the wake of the accident.22105 CST-Pune Indrayani Express has been diverted through Diva-Panvel-Karjat, while CST-Pune Deccan Queen and CST-Pune Intercity Express have been cancelled. This comes a day after coaches of the 12987 Sealdah-Ajmer Express went off track when the train was crossing a bridge over a dry canal, nearly 70 km from Kanpur. Two coaches toppled off the bridge and fell into the canal bed. (ANI)

Mumbai: Five coaches of local train derail, no injuries reported

<p>Twelve people were injured, after a car allegedly being driven by a drunk driver, rammed into a queue outside an ATM in Solapur district today.</p>

<p>The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital, where the condition of three people is stated to be serious, police said.</p>

<p>The incident happened around 11 AM at Atarnagar on the Solapur-Bijapur road.</p>

<p>&quot;We have registered a case against the driver under relevant sections of IPC and he has been arrested. Bijapur Road police is investigating the matter,&quot; Solapur SP Ravindra Sengaonkar, told PTI.</p>

<p>The car driver, who was allegedly in an inebriated state, was beaten up by the crowd and handed over to police.</p>

<p>(PTI)</p>


All are injured, 3 seriously. Locals beat up the supposdely inebriated driver and handed him to police

Twelve people were injured, after a car allegedly being driven by a drunk driver, rammed into a queue outside an ATM in Solapur district today. The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital, where the condition of three people is stated to be serious, police said. The incident happened around 11 AM at Atarnagar on the Solapur-Bijapur road. "We have registered a case against the driver under relevant sections of IPC and he has been arrested. Bijapur Road police is investigating the matter," Solapur SP Ravindra Sengaonkar, told PTI. The car driver, who was allegedly in an inebriated state, was beaten up by the crowd and handed over to police. (PTI)

Alleged drunk driver rams 12 in ATM queue

India&#39;s Supreme Court today, while hearing the Mumbai dance bars case, allowed dance bars having a valid licence to continue business even without CCTV cameras.<br />
<br />
The court observed that installing CCTV cameras would mean violation of privacy of patrons visiting these bars.<br />
<br />
Bar owners in the coastal city of India had challenged the strict laws imposed by the state government&nbsp;on the functioning of bars.<br />
<br />
The Maharashtra government had imposed these rules in a bid to ensure safety of the women working in the dance bars.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
On August 30, the apex court had asked the state government to make a new law for grant of a dance bar license and had asked the government to reply within six months.<br />
<br />
The Dance Bar Regulation Bill forbids serving alcohol in an area where a performance takes place and heavy penalties are imposed on violation of rules. It also mandates that such establishments must be closed by 11:30 pm.<br />
<br />
Dance bar owners felt that the restrictions imposed are unreasonable, some of which include: maintaining a distance of 1 km from religious or educational buildings and closing bars before 11:30 pm.<br />
<br />
They say maintaining the distance is impossible in a big city, where space is a constraint and closing the bar early is discriminatory as commercial bars are not forced to do the same.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
The government&#39;s counsel,&nbsp;Shekhar Nafade,&nbsp;defended the restrictions stating that the government had the right to make laws which protect its citizens.<br />
<br />
(WION with inputs from ANI)

Bar owners in Mumbai had challenged the strict laws imposed by the state government?on the functioning of bars

India's Supreme Court today, while hearing the Mumbai dance bars case, allowed dance bars having a valid licence to continue business even without CCTV cameras. The court observed that installing CCTV cameras would mean violation of privacy of patrons visiting these bars. Bar owners in the coastal city of India had challenged the strict laws imposed by the state government on the functioning of bars. The Maharashtra government had imposed these rules in a bid to ensure safety of the women working in the dance bars. On August 30, the apex court had asked the state government to make a new law for grant of a dance bar license and had asked the government to reply within six months. The Dance Bar Regulation Bill forbids serving alcohol in an area where a performance takes place and heavy penalties are imposed on violation of rules. It also mandates that such establishments must be closed by 11:30 pm. Dance bar owners felt that the restrictions imposed are unreasonable, some of which include: maintaining a distance of 1 km from religious or educational buildings and closing bars before 11:30 pm. They say maintaining the distance is impossible in a big city, where space is a constraint and closing the bar early is discriminatory as commercial bars are not forced to do the same. The government's counsel, Shekhar Nafade, defended the restrictions stating that the government had the right to make laws which protect its citizens. (WION with inputs from ANI)

India's Supreme Court allows dance bars to function without CCTV cameras

India&#39;s western state of Maharashtra witnessed a&nbsp;major development in its four-year-old irrigation scam as the state cabinet today cancelled 95 irrigation projects commissioned by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance that ruled the state up to October 2014.<br />
<br />
The projects, running into billions of dollars, were mostly sanctioned during&nbsp;the tenure of former state irrigation minister Ajit Pawar.<br />
<br />
Pawar has been accused of corruption on several occasions by the ruling government in<br />
the recent past.<br />
<br />
(WION)

The projects, running into billions, were commissioned by the Congress-NCP alliance ruling the state up to October 2014

India's western state of Maharashtra witnessed a major development in its four-year-old irrigation scam as the state cabinet today cancelled 95 irrigation projects commissioned by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance that ruled the state up to October 2014. The projects, running into billions of dollars, were mostly sanctioned during the tenure of former state irrigation minister Ajit Pawar. Pawar has been accused of corruption on several occasions by the ruling government in the recent past. (WION)

India: Maharashtra state cabinet cancels 95 irrigation projects

At least two persons drowned and 20 others went missing as two buses were swept away in the swollen Savitri River after a British-era bridge collapsed on the Mumbai-Goa Highway near Mahad in westeren Indian state Maharashtra&#39;s Raigad district late last night.<br />
<br />
Rescuers fished out the bodies of two men from the river, and an intense search is on to trace those missing, Raigad district collector Sheetal Ugale said at the mishap spot, 170 kilometres from Mumbai.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Teams of disaster management forces have joined the coast guard and other agencies engaged in rescue and relief operations.<br />
<br />
Two state transport buses with 18 passengers and four crew members had gone missing in the Mahad tragedy, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a tweet.<br />
<br />
<strong>&#39;Flooding triggered collapse&#39;</strong><br />
<br />
Fadnavis, who is monitoring the situation, said, &quot;There were two parallel bridges; one is a new bridge and one constructed during the British era. The old one collapsed.&quot;<br />
<br />
&quot;The primary reason seems to be the high pressure caused due to flooding of river Savitri due to heavy rains in catchment of Mahabaleshwar,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Spoke to Raigad SP and Collector about bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa Highway. Administration has rushed to spot for rescue and immediate measures,&quot; Fadnavis said.<br />
<br />
&quot;Traffic on highway is stopped. Administration is ascertaining strength and stability of new bridge,&quot; he tweeted.<br />
<br />
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Fadnavis and was briefed about the bridge collapse. &quot;The PM offered all help in rescue and relief operations,&quot; Fadnavis said.<br />
<br />
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are already activated, he tweeted.&nbsp;The Coast Guard has deployed a Chetak helicopter to carry out search for people who were swept away from the bridge.&nbsp;Soon after the incident, Raigad superintendent of police (SP) Suvez Haque and Collector visited the spot where the bridge once stood.&nbsp;Darkness had hampered operations, which resumed this morning.<br />
<br />
According to a defence spokesperson, the coast guard deployed a Chetak helicopter at about 8:15 am to carry out a search for people, while a&nbsp;Seaking 42B helicopter on another mission was also diverted to help search the area. In addition, the navy launched a&nbsp;Seaking 42C all-weather aircraft with a diving team.<br />
<br />
<strong>Govenor expresses concern&nbsp;</strong><br />
<br />
Maharashtra governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao has expressed grief over the loss of life caused by the bridge collapse.&nbsp;The governor expressed concern over the fate of the missing persons, who boarded the state transport buses and other vehicles that have gone missing in the flood.<br />
<br />
&quot;My heart goes out to the persons who were on board the two buses and other vehicles that have gone missing in the Savitri river in Mahad. I offer my condolences to the kin of those who lost their lives and pray for the safe rescue of those who are missing,&quot; he said in a message. &nbsp;<br />
<br />
(PTI)&nbsp;

Two buses on the Mumbai-Goa Highway bridge were swept away in the Savitri River. Rescue teams frantically search for survivors

At least two persons drowned and 20 others went missing as two buses were swept away in the swollen Savitri River after a British-era bridge collapsed on the Mumbai-Goa Highway near Mahad in westeren Indian state Maharashtra's Raigad district late last night. Rescuers fished out the bodies of two men from the river, and an intense search is on to trace those missing, Raigad district collector Sheetal Ugale said at the mishap spot, 170 kilometres from Mumbai. Teams of disaster management forces have joined the coast guard and other agencies engaged in rescue and relief operations. Two state transport buses with 18 passengers and four crew members had gone missing in the Mahad tragedy, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a tweet. 'Flooding triggered collapse' Fadnavis, who is monitoring the situation, said, "There were two parallel bridges; one is a new bridge and one constructed during the British era. The old one collapsed." "The primary reason seems to be the high pressure caused due to flooding of river Savitri due to heavy rains in catchment of Mahabaleshwar," he said. "Spoke to Raigad SP and Collector about bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa Highway. Administration has rushed to spot for rescue and immediate measures," Fadnavis said. "Traffic on highway is stopped. Administration is ascertaining strength and stability of new bridge," he tweeted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Fadnavis and was briefed about the bridge collapse. "The PM offered all help in rescue and relief operations," Fadnavis said. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are already activated, he tweeted. The Coast Guard has deployed a Chetak helicopter to carry out search for people who were swept away from the bridge. Soon after the incident, Raigad superintendent of police (SP) Suvez Haque and Collector visited the spot where the bridge once stood. Darkness had hampered operations, which resumed this morning. According to a defence spokesperson, the coast guard deployed a Chetak helicopter at about 8:15 am to carry out a search for people, while a Seaking 42B helicopter on another mission was also diverted to help search the area. In addition, the navy launched a Seaking 42C all-weather aircraft with a diving team. Govenor expresses concern Maharashtra governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao has expressed grief over the loss of life caused by the bridge collapse. The governor expressed concern over the fate of the missing persons, who boarded the state transport buses and other vehicles that have gone missing in the flood. "My heart goes out to the persons who were on board the two buses and other vehicles that have gone missing in the Savitri river in Mahad. I offer my condolences to the kin of those who lost their lives and pray for the safe rescue of those who are missing," he said in a message. (PTI)

Two drown, 20 missing as British-era bridge on Indian highway collapses?

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