Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar Saturday said that there has been no proposal regarding an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). “As there is no proposal for an alliance before us, we would not like to discuss it,” Pawar told reporters in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Pawar’s comments come in the wake of the allegation by Prakash Ambedkar that he (Pawar) was still siding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). NCP had advised Ambedkar to adopt restraint and avoid making statements against the partners of Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Asked about the discussions that Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) had with VBA and the announcement of an alliance between them, Pawar said, “We are not aware of what is going on between the two parties. Since we were not part of the discussions, we would not like to talk about it. And therefore, there cannot be any discussion about the distribution of seats.” Read More
Meanwhile, terming the recent remarks of Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju against the Collegium system for appointment of judges as a “diatribe”, former Supreme Court judge Rohinton Fali Nariman said Friday that if the last bastion of independent judiciary falls, the country will enter the “abyss of a new dark age”. He also said that “sitting on names” recommended by the Collegium was “deadly against democracy”. Nariman, who was part of the Supreme Court Collegium before retiring from the apex court in August 2021, made these remarks while delivering the seventh “Chief Justice MC Chagla Memorial Lecture” in Mumbai on “A tale of two Constitutions — India and the United States: the long and short of it all”.
Adding 10 acres to the open green space of Mumbai city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to expand the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Vanaspati Udyan and Zoo, popularly known as the Byculla zoo.
The zoo is spread across about 53 acres, and the BMC will add another 10 acres—seven acres of the newly acquired pocket of the Mafatlal Compound and the rest in the Poddar area.
Exotic zone’
The expansion plan proposes to create a special “exotic zone” to serve as a safe haven for exotic animals such as giraffes, zebras, jaguars, white lions, wallabies and chimpanzees.
The expansion is part of phase III of the zoo revamp project initiated in 2015. As part of the first phase, Humboldt penguins were added to the zoo in 2017. Phase II, launched in 2017, saw the construction of 17 animal exhibits as well as an aviary, which today houses over 100 bird species. Ninety per cent of the work on phase II is complete, according to a senior zoo official.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday took on Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in the latter’s home turf for the “betrayal” he inflicted on the Sena, as well as Maharashtra, and asserted that the whole country knows they “sold out”, and for how much.
In his first visit to Thane since the Shiv Sena split last year, the former Maharashtra CM also paid tribute at the memorial of Anand Dighe, the late popular Sena leader who was considered Shinde’s mentor.
Thane was a stronghold of the united Sena for years, but with most supporters leaving with Shinde, this is seen as a move by Thackeray to rebuild the party in the district.
