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PUNE, NOVEMBER 1, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com
TGS LIFE
BY MAHESH VIJAPURKAR
The message of the freshly sworn-in chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s cabinet is likely to be clear: “It’s us, none else”. Bharatiya Janata Party is asserting its primacy by not having any other person from any other party, including its smaller allies. Save one MLA from Rashtriya Swaraj Paksh, none were elected but all are aspiring for posts in the new ministry. Loksatta has it that those who migrated to the BJP from other parties, notably from the Nationalist Congress Party — but with some stain on their record — may not find a Devendra Fadnavis place, at least for now. They shifted loyalties because they needed a platform and the BJP needed winners. Their rewards will need to wait. The big question hanging over the ministry formation is whether the Shiv Sena forms a part of the government later or not. That they were kept out at Friday’s swearing-in is, thus, significant. More so, given the event being planned on the scale of a coronation. The Durbar Hall in the Raj Bhawan was inadequate for the pomp and show planned. Fadanavis on Friday took charge amid much fanfare as the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister of Maharashtra and got his briefings from the crucial departments on Thursday. (Two colleagues, Eknath Khadse and Vinod Tawde were with him during the meetings, implying they may be in the top tier of the new hierarchy.) This kind of alacrity is unusual. The usual practice is for MLAs to wait for ministerial slots, even lobby for them and then vanish to their
constituencies in order to be felicitated. Some ministers in the past rarely attended cabinet meetings in the initial weeks, slowing down the process of the changeover. The constituency has precedence; after, all the next set of votes comes from there. Devendra Fadnavis’ moves since Wednesday implies a change of approach he intends to bring with him. Some initial ideas, in broad brush strokes, have been shared with some senior officials. It is clear that he is pl a n n i n g to replicate the same governance system as Narendra Modi. Lokmat on Friday reported that he intends to form a Chief M i n ister ’s Office, on Narendra Modi the lines of the PMO which is the most important power and decisionmaking centre. Officials have been asked to study its contours for replicating it in Mumbai’s Mantralaya. In an interview to Pudhari, another Marathi daily, he has said minister’s kith and kin would be barred from posts in ministries, including as private assistants and officers on special duty. Those who worked with Congress-NCP ministers would be kept out too, with the antecedents of new appointees to be whetted with Intelligence inputs. At least for now, the BJP’s confidence is propped up by the Nationalist Congress Party’s outside support whose strategy is to abstain from voting in the legislature. However, this is a fraught strategy for pounds of flesh will be sought as return favours. How Devendra Fadanavis manages the contradictions will be interesting to see. (By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)
Riding dangerously P 16
How widespread is dengue? P3 RAHUL RAUT
Pune is safe for women P2
Dissing Sena, mini-Modi takes charge in state
SPORTS
CITY
“No child labour in Pune”
Says State Labour Commissionerate In the last 10 months, the State Labour Commissionerate found just three cases of child labour in Pune after conducting 27 raids and screening 374 children. What exactly is happening? See Spotlight P 7
Children working in eateries and tea stalls in the city is a common sight
Union Carbide ex-chief Warren Anderson is dead
WASHINGTON : Warren Anderson, who headed Union Carbide when a gas leak in its Bhopal pesticide plant killed thousands, is dead, the New York Times reported. Anderson died on September 29 at a nursing home in Vero Beach, Florida, aged 92, the Times said. His death, not announced by his family, was Warren Anderson confirmed from public records. Anderson flew to Bhopal four days after the world’s worst industrial disaster and was arrested. But after paying bail
RAHUL RAUT
RUN FOR UNITY RECEIVES ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE
he left India and never returned to face trial. Indian authorities made multiple requests to extradite him, and officially labelled him a fugitive. A judge declared him an “absconder”. Toxic gas leaked from the Bhopal Carbide plant on the night of December 2-3, 1984, killing over 3,000 people instantly and thousands over the years. The plant made insecticides. The disaster left many thousands injured and maimed, many suffering lung cancer, kidney failure, liver disease and serious eye disorders after coming into contact with methyl iso cyanate (MIC). In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million to the Indian government to settle litigation stemming from the
disaster. The settlement was denounced by rights activists as peanuts in view of the tragedy. Anderson at one point of time “ruled over an empire with 700 plants in more than three dozen countries”, the Times said. After the Bhopal horror, “for the first time in his life, Anderson couldn’t sleep; at one point he holed up for a week at a hotel... “He and his wife, Lillian, spent evenings reading newspaper articles about the tragedy to each other,” the daily said. When they went to restaurants, he was afraid to be seen laughing because people “might not think it was appropriate”. IANS
5-storey bldg collapses at Narhe-Ambegaon
Signposts India would’ve been different if Patel was PM: Naidu Urban development minister M.Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that if Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel had become the first prime minister of India, the fate of the “country would have been different”. Speaking at the function at Vijay Chowk to mark Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary as National Unity Day, Naidu said Sardar Patel was foremost among leaders who had made sacrifices for country’s freedom. Naidu said millions of people in the country have a feeling that history has not done justice to Sardar Patel, the first home minister of India. P10
Prez congratulates Pankaj Advani President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday congratulated cueist Pankaj Advani on winning his 12th world title in World Billiards Championship in Leeds, Britain. In his message, Mukherjee said: “I am extremely delighted to know that you have achieved your 12th World Title in Leeds, and become the first player to win the grand double thrice...Please accept my hearty congratulations and best wishes.” IANS
Oceans were always there on Earth BY TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly
A large number of Puneites participated early on Friday morning in Ekta Daud (unity run) organised by the government in the city. It began from Khandojibaba Chowk in Deccan and concluded at the Police Parade Ground, Shivajinagar
A five-storey building at Bhoomkarmala in Narhe Ambegaon area, off the Katraj bypass, collapsed during the wee hours, on Friday. No one was injured in the incident and one person was rescued from the debris. Rescue work is going on, the city fire brigade said. The Sitaram Society building, where work was left incomplete by its builder, had developed cracks and there were some suspicious crumbling noises, a few days ago. The residents were therefore aware of the impending danger and many had
vacated their flats before the building came crashing down. The fire brigade received the emergency call at 3.07 am on Friday and a rescue and relief team was sent immediately to the spot. One person, who was in the parking area of the building, was caught under the falling debris, and rescued unharmed. The Narhe Ambegaon belt is infamous for illegal constructions and several buildings have been constructed without proper permissions and without following the proper construction guidelines. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Debunking previous theories that water came late to Earth well after the planet had formed, researchers have significantly moved back the clock for the first evidence of water on Earth and in the inner solar system. “The answer to one of the basic questions is that our oceans were always here. We did not get them from a late process as was previously thought,” claimed lead scientist Adam Sarafian from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts. One school of thought is that planets originally formed dry due to the high-energy, high-impact process of planet formation. IANS