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Opposition stages a brief walkout over replies on electricity thefts, less recovery of revenue

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Nagpur News: The Day-3 Question Hour of Winter Session of Maharashtra Legislature was devoted to the Ministries of Energy, Excise, Medical Education, Water Resources, Public Health and Family Welfare, Protocol, Sports and Youth Welfare, Environment and Culture, and others totaling 89 questions. The written questions put by the members were replied by the concerned Ministers in writing. The list of questions included:</div>
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<li style="background-image: url(http://www.nagpurtoday.in/wp-content/themes/newspapertimes-single-pro/images/arrow.png); background-position: 0px 11px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 4px 12px;">21 questions on entire State including Nagpur.</li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://www.nagpurtoday.in/wp-content/themes/newspapertimes-single-pro/images/arrow.png); background-position: 0px 11px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 4px 12px;"> 15 questions on Vidarbha excluding Nagpur.</li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://www.nagpurtoday.in/wp-content/themes/newspapertimes-single-pro/images/arrow.png); background-position: 0px 11px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 4px 12px;"> 7 questions on Nagpur District</li>
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The first question dwelt on losses to Mahavitaran on account of power thefts and less recovery of electricity revenue. The question was raised by Kalidas Kolambar, Vijay Wadettiwar, Amin Patel, Vijayrao Khadse, Ramesh Singh Thakur, Rajiv Satav, Vaijnath Shinde, Girish Mahajan, Gopal Shetty, Sambhaji Pawar, Sudhakar Bhalerao, Vijayrao Onti, Rashid Momin, Abu Azmi, Sharad Gavit, Ram Shinde, Wamanrao Kasawar, Prashant Thakur, Baliram Siraskar, Mangalprasad Lodha, Baba Siddique, Shivajirao Kardile, Subhash Desai, Mahadeo Babar, Prakash Sawant and Vinod Ghosalkar.</div>
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The Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also Energy Minister, initiating a discussion on the question, informed the House that a Committee, under the chairmanship of Rane, has been constituted to review power losses and utilization of electricity. The Rane Committee’s final meeting is on December 16, 2013. The Committee is likely to submit its final report State Cabinet and then only final strategy would be formulated.</div>
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The Energy Ministry’s Infra-1 scheme has been completed and work on Infra-2 is under way. The Infra-2 deals with load-shedding. If the load-shedding gets increased, the number of transformers would be hiked. The areas having one transformer and only 25 per cent consumers have been paying power bills and the remaining 75 consumers go defunct, in that case a technical way would be found and efforts would be made to supply electricity to the consumers paying the power bills on regular basis.</div>
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The Energy Minister further informed the House that the losses would be curbed with the help of automatic reading meters. A total of 3773 officials-employees have been penalized in accordance with their offences during 2011-2013 (three years). Some measures would be undertaken to reduce total loss (electricity). Pawar said, the electricity is generated in State in accordance with the demand. He appealed people of the State to install power meters and minimize their difficulties and pay the amounts according to meters.</div>
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The Minister of State for Energy Rajendra Mulak informed the members that a total of 1,80,640 consumers were caught for power theft and an amount of Rs 107 crore has been recovered from them during 2011-2013. Similarly, the outstanding amounts of power bills stand against mostly the agriculture motor pumps which totals to Rs 8,500 crore.</div>
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However, the combined Opposition did not satisfy with reply of the Energy Minister and staged a walkout but came to House after 5 minutes.</div>
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Opposition stages a brief walkout over replies on electricity thefts, less recovery of revenue

Nagpur News: The Day-3 Question Hour of Winter Session of Maharashtra Legislature was devoted to the Ministries of Energy, Excise, Medic...

BJP pushes Govt to the edge over vital health problems being faced in city’s major hospitals

Unknown 0 News, Top 09:56

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Nagpur News: The South-West Nagpur MLA Devendra Fadnavis pushed the Government on the edge over the modernization of Mayo Hospital which is being sidelined for the past 10 years.</div>
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The BJP member, raising the issue in Vidhan Sabha, said, “The proposal of modernization of Mayo Hospital is licking the dust in Chief Minister office since past two years. Similarly, despite announcing Rs 1 crore for changing “Radiation Source” in the Cancer Department of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), nothing is done. It is a serious matter,” Fadnavis said.</div>
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The Health Minister Vijay Kumar Gavit, replying to the question raised by Devendra Fadnavis, informed the House that a meeting, presided by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, was held on August 8, 2013. The meeting decided to hand over modernization work of Mayo Hospital to Public Works Department (PWD). The modernization work has been sanctioned by the Government. Apart from modernization of Mayo Hospital, efforts are being made for availablility of funds for construction of three buildings in the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital.</div>
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The three buildings include boys hostel, casualty and OPD. The Minister further said that Rs 1.40 crore will be sanctioned for changing “Radiation Source” at Cancer Department in GMCH. At present, the “Radiation Source” at GMCH is balance for one year. Therefore, the patients will not suffer. In the second stage, an assessment has been carried out for a 500-bed hospital with estimated cost of Rs 295 crore.</div>
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However, Devendra Fadnavis expressed his dissatisfaction over the reply of the Minister to the Speaker Dilip Walse Patil and sought the Chief Minister’s firm reply on the matter. But the Speaker said that a meeting will be held under his chairmanship and a firm decision will be taken in this connection.</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">EYE TESTING AND EYE OPERATIONS IN GOVERNMENT HOSPITALS:</b></div>
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The issue of falling short in completing the target of eye testing and eye operations in GMCH and Mayo Hospital was raised by members Sudhir Parve, Devendra Fadnavis, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Vijay Ghodmare, and Yogesh Sagar in Vidhan Sabha. In the written questions to Health Ministry, the members asked the Government why the facilities were not provided to the people and the beneficiaries.</div>
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The Health Minister Vijay Kumar Gavit, in written replies to the questions, informed the members that the eye testing of 36,612 patients was done and eye operations of 1830 patients were performed in GMCH from January 2013 to November 2013. Similarly, 578 cataract operations and 275 other eye operations were performed in Mayo Hospital. Apart from this, eye camps are also being organized for awareness among the people.</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">UNSPENT FUNDS IN GMCH:</b></div>
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The questions on unspent funds in GMCH were raised by members Sudhakar Deshmukh, Devendra Fadnavis, Vikas Kumbhare, and Krishna Khopde, all MLAs of Nagpur. The questions pointed out that the GMCH received Rs 40 crore in 2010 in the first stage out of which only Rs 31 crore were spent. The GMCH should be developed on the line of Delhi’s AIIMS as hundreds of patients from Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh come to Nagpur for better treatment but they are denied of an excellent treatment. A committee should be formed for speedy development of hospitals, the members said.</div>
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The Health Minister Vijay Kumar Gavit said that under Prime Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme, Rs 150 crore were sanctioned. The share of Central Government was Rs 125 crore and Maharashtra Government’s contribution is Rs 25 crore. In the first stage, Rs 40 crore were received on February 24 2011 for purchasing machineries. The machineries have been purchased at the cost of Rs 36.14 crore and the process for remaining purchase is going on.</div>
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BJP pushes Govt to the edge over vital health problems being faced in city’s major hospitals

“The proposal of modernization of Mayo Hospital is licking the dust in Chief Minister office since past two years. Similarly, despite annou...

After Shreesurya & Wasankar, now Satvik defaults on payment; Dhake clarifies stand

Unknown 0 News, Top 09:50

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Nagpur News.</div>
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As the dubious estate of ponzi schemes running with the lure of handing out high returns started to collapse, the investors have become wary of parking their funds into every other organization, especially those promising them high returns. After Shreesurya Scam and Wasankar Wealth Management defaulting hugely on payment, city’s another firm Satvik Financial Services Private Limited running its office from Bharat Nagar has come under the clouds for not paying to his customers as per the promise he made in his promissory note. The company has been operating its deposit schemes under its arm Satvik Investment.</div>
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“Forget the monthly interest, we are now running from pillar to post to get our principle amount and now he has even stopped responding to my calls,” lamented an investor who had parked Rs 5 lakh into his scheme on April 26, 2013. He was promised the monthly return of Rs 25,000 beginning 30 days after the execution of the promissory note. However, till date neither he received any interest nor his principle amount. The concerned investor who practices in Australia as a pediatrician and currently on sabbatical has been going through the tough time following up the company’s Chairman Amol Dhake who reportedly floated the amount into other avenues. He also provided the post dated cheque (dated July 26, 2013) as the guarantee against the deposit. However the cheque has bounced twice for the lack of sufficient funds in the account.</div>
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<img alt="02" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42000" height="300" src="http://www.nagpurtoday.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/02.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px;" width="600" />“Dhake had been pestering for the investment through one of his mediators for a long time. Seeing that my relatives had also put their hard earned money into Satvik Investment, I also shelled out Rs 5 lakh for which I had to earn Rs 8 lakh as there is a 40% deduction on the earnings in Australia. When I came to Nagpur I was given the promissory note and the guarantee cheque. He had promised the amount of Rs 25,000 till the maturity of the amount. However till this date, I have not received a single rupee from his side. He has even stopped responding to my calls now, nor he is giving any word as to when he would return my money.”</div>
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<img alt="03" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42002" height="300" src="http://www.nagpurtoday.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/03.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px;" width="600" />One of these investors had even sent him the lawyer’s notice but he did not receive the notice.</div>
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Another relative of him has invested Rs 2 lakh and facing the similar trouble. Then there is a builder who had invested more than one crore rupees.</div>
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Dhake in his promissory note, a copy of which is in possession of Nagpur Today, has stated that he has taken the money as unsecured loan and is not abided by SEBI, RBI, NBFC and any other government bodies’ rules and regulations.</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When Nagpur Today contacted Amol Dhake</b>, he said, “There has been a trend in Nagpur to give money on the basis of trust. I do not have many such investors who have handed out the money to me for investing on this basis. There were some revenue restrictions due to the dollar pressure due to which there is some delay but I will pay all of them in the next 2-3 months.”</div>
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When told that he was not responding to any of the investors’ call, he denied doing so adding that the investors could have come to me if there was any problem. “I am very much accessible,” he said. Upon the payment default, he said, “The avenue in which I have invested the money for the concerned investor might have reported loss due to which I could not pay money on time but it is not that I will not pay. I will certainly pay them back.”</div>
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When asked if he was authorized to collect such a huge deposit without any authorization from SEBI or RBI, he clarified that the mode of investment which he had invited does not fall under the norms of both the governing bodies as it was done purely on trust.</div>
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<img alt="04_02" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42007" height="717" src="http://www.nagpurtoday.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/04_021.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px;" width="494" />Meanwhile, the investors were not willing to buy Dhake’s theory and hit the panic button. “Similar assurances have been given in the past too but no substantial results have come across. Now we are considering approaching Economic Offences Wing for help,” said one of the investors.</div>
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After Shreesurya & Wasankar, now Satvik defaults on payment; Dhake clarifies stand

Nagpur News. As the dubious estate of ponzi schemes running with the lure of handing out high returns started to collapse, the investo...

LGBT community in city disheartened over SC decision; plans to take their fight to parliament

Unknown 0 News, Top 09:16

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Nagpur News.</div>
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All the hopes of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenders (LGBT) were shattered as the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that consensual sex between adults of the same gender is an offence. While the decision shocked the specific community, it also sent the message straight to the larger masses about the uniformity of law.</div>
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Setting aside the Delhi High Court verdict of 2009, the apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhayay said that there was no constitutional room for change in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 377 of IPC holds that sexual relationship against the order of the nature is an offence.</div>
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In Nagpur too there are several organizations working for the health and welfare of the LGBT community. NGO Sarthi Trust has two projects which work for the health and identity of the LGBT community members. While the project involving health for the members includes 1580 people and the second project Pehchan has 1345 members association with it. Another two organizations have 1700 members and additional 265 members in rural Nagpur.</div>
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Nagpur Today dug deeper into concerns of the members of gay community in the light of the latest SC ruling and also interacted with some other people to air their views in this regard.</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Anand Chandrani who runs Sarthi Trust</b> working for the human and health issues of LGBT community said, “Though we respect the Supreme Court’s decision, we would continue our fight against discrimination. We have to lobby parliament people now and put a demand to frame a law in favour of our rights.” He added, “As an individual I fell the constitution has provided the equality for everyone and given opportunity to lead equal life. But after the decision of the Supreme Court I feel my personal life is encroached upon and now anybody can raid my bedroom and call me criminal. This is totally against the article 15 and 21 which provides me the freedom to lead my life the way I want. But now this article is more applicable to me.”</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Social worker Gargi Dhoke</b> said the ruling disheartened her and she will protest the same and continue to fight till resolution is attained. “Nobody can distinguish anyone on the grounds of sexuality. This is truly unfair.”</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rahul, a member of gay community</b> said, “I am unhappy and equally shocked over the court’s ruling. We are in 21<sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">st</sup> century and talk about moving ahead but by this decision it seems we are again going backwards. There are other matters in which court can lay down stringent norms for those who commit rape, murder and even desert their age old parents. Why such a harsh stricture for the community which does not harm anyone. What others have to do about what two individuals are consensually doing in their private time. We are also independent and free to do whatever we want. This decision indicates that we are still not free.”</div>
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He asked, “Why judge a person from his sexuality and not by his capability and talent. If homosexuality is not a crime then how come the activity is crime? If we are not given our rights in our own country then where will we go for seeking pleasure? The authorities pronouncing the verdict are educated. We trust them for every decision but now we should we go now. Till this decision came, the society was gradually developing acceptance towards us. We even let our sexuality known to most of the people but now same people will treat us differently.”</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rahul</b> added that when we do not ask anyone why you are attracted to only woman and not any man then who is anyone to question us and object our choice of sexuality. He said that such things have existed in the past. “Even Alexander was a gay”, he claimed. This decision has broken many hearts and it will have long repercussions on us.</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kabir Khan, another gay</b> said, “This is not justice. Recently a spiritual guru objected our sexuality and look what he did.” He revealed, “Even there are many in the society who willingly slept with me even as they led married life. I must say that I have slept only with straight men. More people have such feelings. They enjoy but do not accept. We are not doing any kind of crime.” He said, “I should say that Justice has been denied.”</div>
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