Sandeep A Ashar

Delays in the implementation of the project and the Maharashtra government’s decision to increase the statue’s height and modify the overall design has led to the cost escalation, said sources.

Acting on a recent Bombay High Court order, the state has issued directives asking officials to take up the settlement of such claims on a war footing.

Maharashtra has huge dumps of bauxite, iron and manganese.

According to officials, the full meal would include two chapatis, a vegetable bowl, rice and dal. The centres would operate between 12 pm and 2 pm and have arrangements to seat 25 people at a time.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar returned as Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister a little over a month after he had broken ranks to ally with the BJP. Many of the 14 NCP ministers sworn-in on Monday are seen as close aides of Ajit Pawar.

Though there has been speculation in the media about Chavan succeeding Vijay (Balasaheb) Thorat as state Congress president, senior party sources said the party leadership was not inclined to such a proposal as of now.

This list of beneficiaries was described as a “green” list, as it was cleared after multi-layer screenings and application of several filters, as well as a ground-level verification.

The new Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government under Uddhav Thackeray has stayed the move for now.

Sources said Thackeray had to articulate the party’s change of stand after the Congress, a partner in the Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra, expressed strong displeasure over Shiv Sena’s support to the Bill during the Lok Sabha debate on Monday.

On September 9, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Cabinet had approved a proposal exempting the foundation from payment of stamp duty and registration charges for a property transaction.

Official documents accessed by The Indian Express reveal that a senior Maharashtra bureaucrat had raised a red-flag citing major irregularities in its allotment.

In September 2018, however, the office of the Principal Accountant General raised an audit objection, alleging that “excess expenditure had been paid to the firm”. In May this year, the state’s planning department red-flagged the project, questioning the move to release the VGF.

Mehta had to cut short his trip and board a chartered plane after he was informed about the oath-taking around 10.30 pm on November 23. Mehta landed in Mumbai after midnight, and was in Raj Bhavan for most of the next day.

After Aarey car shed, Uddhav orders a look into all major policy decisions, contracts approved just before polls

Even Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray seemed a little surprised that he and his two new-found allies, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), had managed to achieve what they had.

On Friday, a day after Uddhav was sworn in as the chief minister, a fresh disagreement broke out between the allies over the post of the deputy CM.

Many Maharashtra Congress leaders accept, rather grudgingly, that Pawar’s enthusiastic campaign helped them in many seats.

Running out of options and facing defeat in the trust vote after NCP leader Ajit Pawar resigned as Deputy Chief Minister following the Supreme Court order, Fadnavis too threw in the towel, saying he no longer had majority — the shortest tenure of a government in Maharashtra.

The BJP, the single largest party with 105 MLAs, requires the support of 40 more MLAs to get to a simple majority of 145 in the 288-member state Assembly.