Maharashtra
Babus for Enforcing Loan Waiver
While the Opposition has slammed the state government’s “historic” farmers’ loan waiver calling it “half-baked”, it forgot to mention the health of the agency that will implement the decision. Last week during CM Devendra Fadnavis’ negotiations with employee unions, it was pointed out that the cooperatives department, which will implement the loan waiver, is severely understaffed. It was then decided that retired senior officials from the department who have been hired on contracts, will get the ball rolling.
Govt Turns to Grassroot Staff
Unable to control agitations in 49 villages in Nashik district whose farmers will lose land for the Mumbai Nagpur Expressway-Maharashtra Samriddhi Corridor, the state government will send talathis (grassroot-level employees of the Revenue Department who maintain land records) to give feedback on the ground situation. They will visit each house and speak to its head every day and report to their bosses. Earlier, the government had engaged NGOs, private agencies and the police to control the protests even as some villages threatened mass suicides.
Punjab
‘Soft’ DGP
The Captain has asked Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora to continue heading the state police, but many senior police officers are unhappy with the CM’s decision. They want his removal so that they can have a shot at becoming DGP. While they think Arora is soft in handling law and order, the DGP is clear that people should get justice and police personnel should be given proper welfare.
Pleasing the Captain
Congress MLAs are queing up outside Moti Bagh palalce and the chief minister’s office to please Patiala royal and CM Capt Amarinder Singh as his Cabinet reshuffle is slated any day and eight vacant slots will be filled. It is known that the Congress high command doesn’t interfere much in the Captain’s decisions. Amarinder is assessing his MLA’s performance.
Madhya Pradesh
BJP Not Ready to Rule MP
Efforts by the opposition Congress to project it is united in the state received a rude reality check recently. A day after a Congress rally in Lahar (Bhind), the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia, met Congress leaders and former Assembly Speaker Sriniwas Tiwari in Rewa. Tiwari praised Scindia for his struggle against the BJP government on the farmers unrest, but also told the former union minister that the party can’t replace BJP in the state.
IPS Husbands Want IPS Wives Posted Nearby
IPS officers married to IPS officers have been asking their seniors to post their wives in districts closer to them. Following this, an IPS wife has been posted near Bhopal, while another has been posted as an SP in a west MP district. The IPS husbands have also been trying to get their wives posted as commandants in Special Armed Force battalions in nearby districts instead of as SPs.
West Bengal
Mamata Aide Denies Grilling in Narada Scam
While CBI sleuths claimed to have questioned Mamata Banerjee’s aide and Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar at her residence in Madhyamgram about the Narada scam, the Trinamool Congress Mahila Morcha president denies it. Dastidar was seen accepting a bribe in the Narada sting footage which came to light in 2016. A notice was also sent to Mohamedan Sporting Football Club regarding TMC MLA Iqbal Ahmed accepting money from Narada TV CEO Matthew Samuel as ‘club donation’.
(With inputs from Abhijit Mulye, Harpreet Bajwa, Anuraag Singh and Aishik Chanda)