Will Ministers Listen To This?

Honking without any valid reasons and running blaring loud speaker at every possible opportunity are two of the favourite pastime for the politicians in India. The problem is more severe in Maharashtra. In this background, the news came as a fresh air.

In a bid to curb the menace of pollution, Environment Department of Maharashtra has recommended the ministers to cut down honking and avoid use of fire crackers in official programmes. Environment Minister Suresh Shetty informed the Legislative Council in Mumbai.

In Pune, the problem is especially seen during the rush hour. People seem to be in so hurry that every traffic signal is filled with noise of horns. The Department, at least on the paper, is trying to reduce noise and air pollution.

For a change, the debate on which Shetty gave above reply was started by Shiv Sena MLC Deepak Sawant who raised the issue of global warming and its impact on the environment.

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Gear Changing Politics of Maharashtra

The Congress leadership in Maharashtra have once again demonstrated why the party is able to rule the state even after so many failures on many fronts. The government has succeeded in creating a issue which was non-existent, lending a hand to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan backtracked from state government's decision of giving licenses only to those taxi drivers who know Marathi.  He said taxi drivers should know any local language including Hindi and Gujarati.

The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party government had decided yesterday to give new taxi licenses to only those well versed in Marathi and state resident the state for at least 15 years.

Yesterday's decision was seen as toeing the line of Raj Thackeray led MNS. That was sure to create harsh reactions, especially from media leading to the backtracking. Now, after CM's volte face, MNS adopted the aggressive posture. Raj Thackerey has threatened that no new taxi will be allowed to come on road if the license is given to non-Maharashtrians.

On the face of it, MNS and Congress will be biggest beneficiaries of the developments arising from this issue. The inherent politics seems push Shiv Sena to more marginalisation as Shiv Sena presents itself as the champion of the Marathi cause. Predictably, it has come with condemnation of CM saying that Chavan has degraded the post. In the days to come, more verbal duel will follow. 

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