Revokes suspension of 5 NCP, 4 Congress MLAS WITH DIGITAL LOCKERS, MU TO VERIFY DOCUS ONLINE
Oppn questions logic, continues with Sangharsh Yatra
The Maharashtra legislative Assembly on Saturday revoked suspension of nine legislators out of the 19 legislators who had been suspended for nine months for unruly behaviour during budget presentation in the house.
The resolution for revoking suspension was passed by the ruling members — BJP and Shiv Sena — even as the Opposition was absent in the lower house. The Opposition has boycotted the proceedings protesting against the suspension and in support of the farm loan waiver. Currently, all Opposition legislators are busy with the ‘Sangharsh Yatra’ (struggle march) that is being held to demand waiving off loans for distressed farmers.
The nine legislators who were reprieved are Abdul Sattar, DP Sawant, Sangram Thopte, Amit Jhanak from Congress and Vaibhav Pichad, Dattatraya Bharne Avdhoot Tatkare, Deepak Chavan and Narhari Jhirwad from NCP.
Nineteen opposition legislators were suspended on March 22 for disrupting the proceedings and burning copies of the budget.
Demanding loan waiver for farmers, legislators from opposition parties had created ruckus inside the Assembly when the state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar was presenting the annual budget. Taking cognisance of their unruly behaviour, the government moved a motion to suspend 19 MLAS for nine months. Following this, Opposition leaders boycotted Assembly proceedings.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday hinted that the government may revoke the suspension of the MLAS.
Speaking in the legislative council, Fadnavis had said the government was ‘positive’ about revoking the suspension. “It is difficult to carry out work in the house if there is no opposition. We are positive about withdrawing the suspension, and will take a decision on Saturday,” the chief minister had said.
The opposition parties, however, have declared that they would not attend proceedings of the Assembly until suspension of all the MLAS is not revoked.
NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar questioned the logic of revoking suspension of just nine legislators. He also said that the Opposition was not on the roads protesting about suspension but about government’s complete apathy in granting loan waiver to farmers.
Students graduating from colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai (MU) will now get their mark sheets and degree certificates verified online.
The varsity has started providing digital lockers to all its students and alumni, allowing them to acquire various documents online and get them verified swiftly. The move is said to reign in fake mark sheets and degrees, while cutting down the time required for verification process by 80%.
With the lockers in place, the verification of degree, mark sheets and other documents will move to an application programming interface platform, allowing government agencies, foreign embassies and private companies to partner with the varsity.
MU students and alumni can create their digital lockers and scan and upload their documents in it. The staff will verify the documents and send the verification report through a secure link.
“There will be no physical verification of documents. It will minimise the anxiety among students. The verification will be completed in 20 days,” said MU vice chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh.