CM asks studentsforideas to solvemaha’scriticalproblems
Teams to suggest measures for Swachh Maharashtra, drought control, smart cities
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has invited college students to suggest policy interventions for critical matters such as drought control, smart cities, transportation, rural education and more. This comes after the chief minister began to involve youngsters in the functioning of the state government through fellowships.
Through ‘Transform Maharashtra,’ an initiative launched by Action for Collective Transformation (ACT) — an organisation started by young socio entrepreneurs and aided by the state government — Fadnavis is seeking ideas to solve 11 socio-economic challenges that Maharashtra faces. The ‘Transform Maharashtra’ inter-collegiate competition was launched on December 26 last year and has had 11,500 students participating in 2,588 teams. Each team comprises five to six students.
Nidhi Kamdar, officer on special duty to the chief minister, said, “The winners of the competition will present their ideas to the chief minister. The government will see how these suggestions can be implemented, and also involve the team members in the process.”
The teams have to suggest policy measures that can be implemented across several of the state’s focus areas such as Swachh Maharashtra, drought control, smart cities, promoting start-ups in the state, rural education, zero corruption, empowering urban poor, improving mobility in cities, harnessing technology, citizens’ engagement in governance and digitalisation.
So far, the highest number of entries has been on ‘drought-free Maharashtra,’ ‘Swachh Maharashtra’ and ‘reforming rural education’ themes.
While teams from over 50 colleges across the state have submitted their entries, the College of Engineering Pune (COEP), Pune’s Sinhagad College of Engineering, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Powai, have sent the maximum number of entries. Students from COEP have so far submitted 66 entries while there have been 55 entries from Sinhagad College and 54 from IIT, Powai.
Kamdar added, “The entries will be judged by a panel of experts as well as through online poll. Experts from various fields will be roped in to judge the entries and the winners will present their solutions to the chief minister on May 1.”
Three hundred students have been selected as ambassadors and 2,015 volunteers have been roped in to publicise the contest across the state and attract more participants. The last date for the submission of entries is March 19.
weeks after the Army paper leak scam came into light, the Thane police have seized three mobile phones which belongs to three of the 24 people arrested in the case.
A source from the police said that they have found substantial information from the three phones which belong to army clerks Nigamkumar Pandey, Dharam Singh and Ravindra Kumar. All the three accused are from Nagpur.
On February 26, the police conducted raids in Nagpur, Pune and Goa and arrested 21 people for leaking Army recruitment question papers. These three Army clerks were arrested three later. Initially they claimed that they had destroyed their phones but one of the accused helped the police trace the mobile phones.
“We have seized three phones and we have found a few chats related to the paper leak. The accused used to operate mostly through Whatsapp,” said a police official. He added, “We have sent the phones to forensic laboratories to get more information about the chat discussion among the accused’ groups.”
A team from the Thane crime branch is in constant touch with the Army headquarters in Delhi and are regularly sharing updates with them, claimed a police source.