Tripura court sends Bangladeshi woman, Indian lover to 14-day judicial custody

Mumbai, June 30 (IANS) Senior IAS officer Rajesh Kumar Meena, on Monday, took over as the 46th Chief Secretary (CS) of Maharashtra from the outgoing Chief Secretary Sujata Saunik, who retired on Monday.

Several department secretaries greeted him on the occasion. Rajesh Kumar Meena, an IAS officer from the 1988 batch, will get a tenure of months as he retires in August.

Before becoming the Chief Secretary, Rajesh Kumar Meena was the additional chief secretary of the revenue department, and he had also held the posts of additional chief secretary of the cooperation department, additional chief secretary of rural development and industry, energy and labour departments. He also worked as the principal secretary of water supply and cleanliness, commissioner of the Integrated Child Development Scheme and tribal development.

He had also worked as the municipal commissioner of the Solapur civic body and Osmanabad district collector.

Meena thanked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar and the entire cabinet for giving him the responsibility of the chief secretary of Maharashtra. “I will work with all department secretaries as a team to take Maharashtra ahead in every sector, scale up progress and improve efficiency. This will be done through good governance and modern technologies for achieving the mission of Viksit Maharashtra,” he said.

The outgoing Chief Secretary Sujata Saunik said, “For Karmayogi, there is no retirement. I was doing one type of work, and in the future I will do something else. I am fully satisfied with my role as the CS. Work never ends as it goes on, and therefore, we do the handing over and taking over of charge. My successor will take forward the work which I was doing as the CS.”

To a question on what will be a new responsibility from the state government that she will get, Sujata Saunik said, “I am indebted to the government. Let us think of the future later.”

Rajesh Kumar Meena’s appointment comes at a time when the MahaYuti government is in the process of implementing the Supreme Court order on holding the civic and local body elections in the state. The State Election Commission has already asked the civic bodies to complete the work relating to the chalking out of wards.

Meena has taken over when the government is pursuing its ambitious target of Maharashtra becoming a one trillion dollar economy by 2027 and Viksit Maharashtra by 2047. Further, as a chief secretary, Rajesh Kumar Meena will have to coordinate various departments and district collectors to implement the Rs 86,300 crore Shaktipeeth Mahamarg, especially when farmers and opposition parties are stepping up their protest against it.

Even though the state government has scrapped two government resolutions on the introduction of Hindi as a third language along with Marathi and English from grade one, the new chief secretary will have to keep an eye on the functioning of the high level committee headed by former Planning Commission member Dr Narendra Jadhav on the implementation of trilingual formula in the state.

–IANS

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New Delhi, Jan 23 (IANS) India’s domestic air passenger traffic rose by 6.12 per cent to 16.13 crore in 2024 from 15.2 crore in the previous year, according to the latest data compiled by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The country’s commercial airlines also flew more than 1.49 crore passengers on domestic routes in December 2024, which represents an increase of 8.19 per cent compared to the corresponding figure of 1.38 crore for December 2023.

In December, the market share of IndiGo stood at 64.4 per cent while that of Air India touched 26.4 per cent. Akasa Air and SpiceJet had a share of 4.6 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively.

According to the DGCA data, IndiGo’s share in the domestic air passenger traffic increased from 60.5 per cent in 2023 to 61.9 per cent in 2024 with the airline flying 9.99 crore domestic passengers during the year. In the same period, the share of SpiceJet decreased from 5.5 per cent to 3.7 per cent. The budget carrier carried 60 lakh air passengers within India in 2024.

Figures for the on-time Performance (OTP) in December show that IndiGo had the highest OTP of 73.4 per cent, followed by Air India (67.6 per cent), Akasa Air (62.7 per cent), SpiceJet (61.5 per cent) and Alliance Air (55.6 per cent).

The overall flight cancellation rate of the scheduled domestic carriers stood at 1.07 per cent in December. Flight cancellations hit 67,622 passengers and airlines had to shell out Rs 1.26 crore for compensation and facilities. The data also showed that 2.8 lakh passengers were impacted due to flight delays and airlines paid Rs 3.78 crore towards facilitation in December.

During the month, 2,147 passengers were denied boarding for which airlines spent Rs 1.76 crore as compensation and facilities.

Meanwhile, airlines are expanding their fleet as well as networks to meet the rising air travel demand in the country, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing civil aviation markets.

The Air India Group currently operates a fleet of about 300 commercial planes. The Group expects its size to grow to about 400 commercial planes in the next three years.

–IANS

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Mumbai, Jan 30 (IANS) Maharasthra Congress leader Hussain Dalwai on Thursday made a distasteful remark on the new dress code in the famed Shree Siddhivinayak Ganpati temple and equated it with the ‘Talibani practice’. The remarks, bound to incite strong feelings and reactions, comes days after his controversial remarks on the Maha Kumbh received backlash from the devotees.

Husain Dalwai, speaking to IANS said that the new dress code at Shree Siddhivinayak Temple was uncalled for and this looks more like a ‘step towards Talibani rule.’

The Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust on Thursday issued a notice asking the devotees to wear decent clothing, Indian attire to be in particular and barred those wearing short skirts, jeans, or revealing clothes. It stated that those who fail to comply will be denied entry. The temple administration maintains that the rule has been introduced to preserve decorum and respect at the city’s most revered temple.

Dalwai, however, dismissed the imposition of a dress code as unnecessary and questioned why attire was being policed.

“People visit the temple with faith; what is the point of deciding who wears what? It seems like a Talibani rule that is slowly being adopted here,” he told IANS.

He further argued that temple-goers already dress appropriately, making such restrictions redundant.

“Whoever goes to a temple, they dress accordingly. What is there to impose? How do saints and seers dress? Is the government fine with how they dress?” he questioned.

Expressing concern over gender-specific rules, he remarked, “Why are they only focused on what women wear? Why are these rules always imposed on women? Why are they always suppressed? This Taliban rule is not acceptable.”

The temple trust brought in the new dress, apparently after receiving complaints about inappropriate dressing by some visitors. Signboards will be placed at the entrance, and awareness will be spread through social media and news platforms to inform visitors about the guidelines.

Dalwai also took a swipe at Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane’s recent letter to Education Minister Dada Bhuse, in which he demanded a ban on burqas during the 10th and 12th board exams.

“The women are progressing, they are moving forward. But some people always try to hold them back, whether they are Hindu or Muslim,” he said.

He added that societal change takes time and that forcing decisions on women is not the way forward.

“If a woman wears a burqa today, maybe in the future, she will decide not to. Maybe her daughter will choose differently. Saudi Arabia has already embraced change, and we will do so soon.”

–IANS

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