'The familiar spectre of caste violence has once again reared its head in Kharda village of Jamkhed Taluka in western Maharashtra, where the same man who five years ago killed a Dalit minor for speaking to his Maratha classmate is now prime accused in the alleged murder of a 40-year-old from the Pardhi community over an alleged money dispute.
'On October 8, Amit Shah addressed a large gathering at Savargaon Ghat in Beed and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the dilution of Article 370. He said with the move, Modi had succeeded in integrating Jammu and Kashmir with India. The visual and aural symbolism at the rally was also all about Article 370. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader was welcomed with 370 cannon shots being fired in the air. At the same time, 370 flags were waved. While Marathwada is facing a severe drought, Shah chose not to speak about it.
'The BJP governments in both the states have followed a similar pattern—sideline laws and policy, and to open up buffer zones and allow construction activity... While climate strikes, green parties and green manifestos are gripping the world, environmental concerns are still not an issue in the Indian elections. Two Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states – Haryana and Maharashtra go to polls on October 21. The battle for the 90-member Haryana Assembly and the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is being fought amid serious environmental degradation in both the states.
'District election authorities on Thursday issued a notice to Maharashtra minister and BJP candidate Babanrao Lonikar over his controversial comments seen as an attempt to influence voters in an unethical way. Lonikar was caught on camera purportedly saying he faces no problem in winning the upcoming assembly polls since he has ‘distributed money’ in a hamlet here. Lonikar, who holds the water supply portfolio, is the BJP candidate from Partur in Jalna district of central Maharashtra. He has denied any wrongdoing...'
'Maharashtra BJP unit on Tuesday said it will ask the party-led NDA government at the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. In its election manifesto, released by BJP working president J.P. Nadda along with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state party president Chandrakant Patil and Mumbai unit head Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the state unit also sought the honour for social reformers Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule, a party leader told PTI...'
'The expulsion of six students of a Wardha-based university for organising a function without permission on campus and writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over contentious issues like mob-lynching and rape cases against political leaders was revoked on Sunday. The students, from Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (MGAHV), were expelled on October 9 after varsity officials accused them of violating the code of conduct which is in force throughout the state for the October 21 Assembly polls...'
'Only 2.2% of children under the age of two years in Maharashtra receive the minimum acceptable diet, according to the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) 2016-2018 that was published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare earlier this week. According to the survey, the proportion of children between 6 months and 2 years of age receiving the minimum acceptable diet across the country is shockingly low, at just 6.4%. However, this proportion varied greatly across various states.
'In yet another case of crackdown on dissent in academic institutions, six students of the Mahatma Gandhi Antarastriya Hindi Viswavidyalaya (MGAHV), Wardha (Maharashtra), have been reportedly been sent suspension letters for allegedly violating university orders. All the six belong to socially marginalised sections of the society, So, what was their crime and what order did they violate?
'Just weeks before the state assembly election, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will have to face a criminal trial for allegedly failing to furnish details of two pending criminal cases in his election affidavit in 2014...'
'...Noorjahan Mandal*, a 33-year-old domestic worker from Mumbai’s Reay Road area, sits listlessly among the crowd, clutching a huge pile of documents that she has meticulously assembled over the past nine years to help her prove her nationality. A matted ration card issued in early 2000 shows that she has been living in Mumbai for close to two decades. Her school-leaving certificate claims she has studied till Class Seven in a district-run school in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas. Her laminated Aadhaar card too declares her a Mumbai resident...
