On the eve of the Budget Session, Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was as elusive and brief as he has been since he took over the reins of the state. Forced to speak on issues such as his role in the selection of CVC P.J. Thomas, on the Jaitapur issue and the slow progress made in the Adarsh Housing Society scam probe, all that the CM said was if needed, he would give explanation on the floor of the House.
After the customary tea party, Mr Chavan said, “In a democracy, all the issues should be sorted out by way of dialogue and discussions, but the Opposition has yet again lost the chance to put across its viewpoints by boycotting the tea party.” The CM, however, expressed hope that the Opposition will cooperate in passing the seven pending bills, one bill before the Joint Assembly Committee, five proposed bills, 11 ordinances and the budget that will be tabled by his deputy Ajit Pawar on March 23.
Speaking about the Opposition wanting to pull him down over the CVC issue, the CM said that the matter was before the Lok Sabha and he has already given adequate explanation. “The letter by the Kerala government was sent to the Parliament, and not to the Maharashtra government. Hence it should only be discussed in the Parliament. But if the question is raised in the state Assembly, I will see what to do,” Mr Chavan said.
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Radical releases ‘original’ Sikh calendar
age correspondent
chandigarh
March 13: Amidst sharp differences over what they view as Hinduism-influenced amendments to the Nanakshahi calendar, the Dal Khalsa on Sunday released a separate version which they claimed was the “original, unaltered” Sikh almanac.
Publicly rejecting the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee’s version “because it is more in sync with the Bikrami Calendar and concurrent Hindu religious events,” Dal Khalsa activists distributed copies of the “original Nanakshahi calendar.”
The group also sought to press home their long standing demand for the construction of a Sikh Memorial within Amritsar’s Golden Temple Complex by presenting the first copy of their calendar to the son of a slain militant in view of hundreds of devotees outside the Akal Takht this morning.