Latest news with #Sarode
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Pune advocate Asim Sarode cites SC ruling in Telangana MLAs' defection case, predicts ‘major political upheaval' in Maharashtra
Pune advocate Asim Sarode, who is known for his proximity to the Shiv Sena (UBT), claimed on Tuesday that Maharashtra would witness 'a major political upheaval' in September, when the Supreme Court is expected to rule in the Shiv Sena name and symbol case as well as on the party MLAs' disqualification matter. 'There are indications, including the one relating to the Supreme Court ruling in the Telangana MLAs' case, that Maharashtra is all set to witness a major political upheaval in September. The political scenario is going to turn upside down,' Sarode said. The Supreme Court has asked the Speaker of the Telangana Assembly to decide petitions seeking the disqualification of 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLAs who had defected to the ruling Congress expeditiously and not later than three months. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut concurred. 'There will be a major political upheaval, not just in Maharashtra, but in the country as well,' he said. 'The apex court has urged Parliament to reconsider whether the Assembly Speaker should be allowed to decide on the disqualification petition. The Supreme Court also asked Parliament to reconsider whether the authority given to Speaker to decide disqualification petitions was conducive to curbing political defections,' he said. Sarode also pointed out that the Supreme Court had pointed out that the Speaker delayed issuing notice on the petitions seeking disqualification for almost seven months. 'This is exactly what happened in the case of Maharashtra. Because of the delayed decision in the case, the defected MLAs reaped the benefits so much so that the term of the Assembly got over and the MLAs escaped unscathed,' he added. In 2022, a faction led by Eknath Shinde had split from the Shiv Sena after revolting against Thackeray. The rebellion had led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, paving the way for the BJP to form the government with the Shinde Sena. 'The apex court has said either we should take the Tenth Schedule [of the Constitution] seriously or it should be reconsidered if we do not want to follow it. The Supreme Court will have to keep the same view in the Maharashtra case as well. If it does, then [Eknath] Shinde's claim will fail,' he said. Claiming that Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar was not 'eligible to decide the matter', Sarode pointed out that Chief Justice of India Bhushan Gavai had said that he would not take up any government post after retirement. 'This is significant as judges always look for some posting from the government after retirement. This means the CJI will not leave before delivering an unprecedented verdict,' he said. Sarode also alleged that there was a visible panic in the Shinde camp. 'The number of trips he is making to Delhi reveals a lot,' he said, adding that the BJP does not seem to be in favour of Shinde now. Sarode said the final hearing was likely after September 23. 'But if the Supreme Court decides to refer the matter to a larger bench, there will be a delay again,' he said. Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
Indian Express
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Adv Asim Sarode opposes reusing assembly voter lists in local polls
Written by Shubham Kurale Advocates Asim Sarode and Shriya Awale have raised concerns about the state government's plan to reuse voter lists from last year's legislative assembly elections for the upcoming local body elections, calling the decision a continuation of 'corrupt electoral practices'. The concern was raised when the State Election Commission (SEC) requested to use the same voter lists that were employed during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections. 'These lists have already been questioned in multiple court cases, with documentary evidence suggesting irregularities. Using the same voter lists would be repeating a corrupt experiment that relies on bogus voter information,' said Sarode. 'While the SEC handles the local body elections, they are required by law to use the final electoral roll prepared by the Central Election Commission. The scale of legal challenges to last year's state assembly election is unprecedented. Out of 288 assembly constituencies, around 100 seats have had their results challenged in the High Court through election petitions,' added Sarode. Moreover, a discrepancy in voter registration numbers was alleged during the press conference. 'The state had 9.73 crore registered voters in the 2024 legislative assembly elections, while the voter registration that followed was 9.80 crore. So if the old list is used, as many as 7 lakh new voters will be deprived of exercising their right to vote,' said Awale. The advocates alleged that the election officials were instructed to bypass the legally mandated procedures mentioned under the Voters Registration Rules of 1960 about adding or removing names from voter lists, compromising the transparency. 'Maintaining the same voter lists in the upcoming local body elections in which they were changed or prepared in such an opaque manner is a fraud on honest citizens in broad daylight. It would be a betrayal of the Constitution,' added Sarode. (The author is an intern at The Indian Express)
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Rs2,300 Crore in Pending Bills Stall Key Projects Across Nagpur Circle
Nagpur: Several key undertaken by the (PWD) in the Nagpur circle have come to a standstill due to the non-clearance of bills amounting to Rs2,300 crore. The has claimed that the state government has not cleared bills for the last two years, pushing contractors into severe financial distress."Currently, the stand at around Rs2,325 crore in the Nagpur circle, comprising Nagpur, Gondia, and Bhandara districts. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Contractors are suffering, as many have taken huge loans to complete these projects. With funds not being released, their debt continues to mount," Subodh Sarode, president of the Nagpur Contractors' Association, told to data shared by the association, Nagpur district alone has pending bills amounting to Rs1,525 crore, including Rs1,174 crore related to works on roads, bridges, and road-over-bridges (RoBs) under various categories. Gondia district has a pendency of Rs501 crore, while Bhandara district's dues stand at Rs298 February this year, contractors went on a statewide strike over pending payments, following which the government released some funds in March. However, the association claims the release was inadequate. "The government released only about 8% to 10% of the total pending dues, and some contractors haven't received a single rupee. Although we have put the protest on hold, the situation remains grim," Sarode said."Contractors are only working on projects that would suffer further losses if delayed by the rains. While the government continues to approve new projects, it must first clear the old dues. Otherwise, new contractors will also get caught in the same debt trap," he attempted to reach PWD's superintending engineer Janardhan Bhanuse, for comment, but he was unavailable. However, several senior PWD officials confirmed that pending bills have affected many projects."The situation is serious. The government must clear the backlog to ensure the timely completion of projects. It should also consider pausing new project approvals until the existing pendency is resolved," said a senior PWD official, adding that even banks involved in the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) projects are now exposed to financial risk.
