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Shops will remain open despite LBT strike

It’s Sharad Pawar to the rescue as the agitation over LBT is suspended to Friday; Pawar has promised final solution.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

After a serious hit to business and several problems caused to consumers as shops – small and big – threatened to remain shut indefinitely in protest of the State Government’s decision to implement LBT (Local Body Tax), NCP chief Sharad Pawar has staved off the agitation for a while.

After a meeting held with representatives of various trading and retailer organisations at his residence at Yeoor today, Pawar has asked the traders to suspend their strike and meet him again on Friday, May 24, at his residence for a final meeting on the LBT issue. “He has assured us that the meeting will continue for as long as it takes to resolve the issue,” said Viren Shah (President of the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association) to The Metrognome, minutes after the meeting was completed with Pawar today. “We had a wonderful meeting with him and he has assured us of a solution to the issue,” Shah added. As of now, Shah clarified, “The strike continues but FRTWA has asked all individual shops to remain open.”

Pune and Thane have already suspended the strike. It is likely that Mumbai’s traders will also follow suit by tomorrow.

LBT (Local Body Tax) is the tax which will be imposed by municipal bodies on the entry of goods into a local area for consumption, use or sale. It relies on a self assessment or account-based method of paying local tax, where the trader himself declares his tax liability by submitting his records.

The representatives included Navi Mumbai Merchants’ director Amarshi Karia, APMC Director Kirti Rana, Siddhivinayak Chairman Subhash Mayekar, FRTWA’s Viren Shah and Navi Mumbai Merchant Chambers’ Girish Rana, among others.

On his part, it is learnt that Pawar has agreed that if octroi is payable on a good/commodity, then dealers are not required to undergo the registration for LBT. He is also said to have been convinced that shopkeepers need not register if there is no octroi or LBT payable by them, and that he realised that traders wished to pay tax without any harassment or extra paperwork. Pawar also requested traders to open for business without causing further problems to the public.

What happened in the meeting

The meeting opened with the representatives explaining that traders were on strike for the last 27 days, and retailers for six days. “I argued that shopkeepers, who have nothing to do with goods brought from outside the city, have nothing to do with LBT. So why do they need to take registration and file any returns?” Shah (in pic on right) said. Another point raised was that traders were willing to pay tax, but that they refused to go for “extra registration and extra assessment”.

As per the current framework of LBT as laid out by the Government, even the smallest shops with a daily turnover of Rs 822 and above would have to take a separate registration, to which Pawar was said to be shocked. The assembled group suggested that the Sales Tax Department should handle the administration of LBT and also the assessment, as against the idea of the local municipal body doing the same, since the latter are “not experienced enough to do the assessment”.

The representatives also pointed out several lacunae in the proposed LBT move. “For instance, officers ask for assessment proceedings along with details, which are impossible for dealers to produce,” explained Shah. “Hence, corruption is happening in Vasai and many have shifted to Gujarat. Again, in Navi Mumbai, those items for sale such as fruits and spices that are not liable for LBT are also charged LBT. This has led to a ‘double taxation’ in Navi Mumbai’s APMC market.”

(Pictures courtesy www.jaimaharashtranews.com, photogallery.indiatimes.com, www.topnews.in)

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State to get Olympic Bhavan

All-in-one facility for Olympics training will see sportspersons from each district representating their area;there will be competitions, meets at Balewadi.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Maharashtra State has produced such Olympians as swimmer Veerdhaval Khadye and ace hockey player Dhanraj Pillay, but for a State producing scores of talented sportspeople every year in all disciplines, there is still a paucity of proper training guidelines and facilities that can create more Olympians from the State.

In response to this, Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has decided to erect an all-in-one ‘Olympic Bhavan’ in Maharashtra, where all associations and activities affiliated to the Maharashtra Olympic Association (MOA) will come under one roof. The Bhavan will house administrative amenities related to sports, as well as provide for quality training facilities. Sports associations from all districts are to be equally represented to the MOA.

Meanwhile, Pawar, who also heads the MOA, has announced that sporting competitions, training camps and coaching camps can happen at Pune’s Balewadi Sports Complex at nominal rates.

(Pictures courtesy businessweek.com, zeenewsindia.com)

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Have you got counterfeit currency?

Mumbai Police bust major currency counterfeiting operation, but about Rs 1,25,000 in fake notes is already out in the market. If you have a fake note, do alert the cops.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The counterfeit currency racket in the country is still going strong, going by the latest arrests of four men from different parts of Mumbai, who were involved in printing and circulating fake notes of Rs 100 denomination. The police fear that at least Rs 1,25,000 worth of fake Rs 100 notes are currently in the market (see below for serial numbers). Interestingly, it was a group of vegetable vendors in Mankhurd who put the cops on to the track of the gang.

A few days days ago, a 19-year-old vegetable vendor at the PMGP colony, Zainab Sheikh, thought that the Rs 100 note that a customer had just given him in payment for one kilogram of chillies, looked suspicious. He asked a woman vendor next to him, from whom the same man had purchased other vegetables, to show him the money the man had paid. When the woman, Rajashree Bankur and Zainab compared the two Rs 100 notes, they found that their serial numbers were identical.

The two quickly asked other vendors at the market if the man had purchased vegetables from any of them, and all of them pulled out the money the man had paid them. Seeing that the man was still in the vicinity, they quickly grabbed him and after a heated altercation, marched him to the PMGP beat chowky.

Based on what the man, Birudev Salgar, told them, the police alerted other police stations about a gang involved in printing and distributing counterfeit currency notes. In a week, four others were rounded up from Vasai, Ghatkopar and Mumbra. One of them was found to have Rs 49,400 worth of fake notes at his residence.

Do you have fake money in your possession?

Based on the gang’s confession, the police suspect that despite the haul they have already apprehended, about Rs 1,25,000 in fake currency is afloat in the market. If you think you have a fake note or if a note(s) in your possession bears the serial number(s) listed below, do contact the nearest police station. The fake notes bear these serial numbers:

3GB 629121    7HA 008134    9QH 920124    3 FM 592462    7RH 025509     JEL 559238    0AL 090801    3QR 078477    1SC 348244    4LL 042058    4LL 042681

3KQ 562018    6DF 017545    JBE 847389      4LL 207150     3FF 786329      5GH 415791    0LL 744211     3GP 283156

(Picture courtesy  Reuters. Image used for representational purpose only)

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Missing children to get ‘kidnapped’ case status

Maharashtra State Government orders police stations to register a case of kidnap whenever a child below 14 years of age goes missing.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

At a time when crimes against children are on the rise, where incidents of little children are being lured away from their play areas by preying paedophiles, or minors are being picked up and made away with to settle personal scores with the child’s parents are being heard of almost daily, it is time for prompt and strict police action. Hearteningly, the Maharashtra State Government is taking steps to ensure better police handling of missing children’s cases.

As per a Government Resolution (GR) issued by the State’s Home Department last week, all reported cases of children under the age of 14 missing from their homes are not to be entered under a Missing Persons complaint, but are to be treated and registered as a case of kidnap.

“As per the writ petition number 75/2012 Bachpan Bachao Andolan v/s The Government of India and others, and as per the directions issued by the Supreme Court of India on January 17, 2013, it is being conveyed that in the event of an official complaint filed by the parents/guardian of a child below 14 years of age that is missing, the said complaint is not to be entered in the Missing Persons complaint book but is to be treated and recorded as a case of kidnap and a First Information Report (FIR) is to be filed in the matter immediately,” the GR says.

After the kidnap case is registered, the police will be required to investigate the case at once and not accord the usual, unofficial ’24-hour window’ that most police personnel allow for the child to return, or to hear of the child’s whereabouts before starting the investigation.

(Picture courtesy openthemagazine.com)

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Golibar agitation hots up

Activist Medha Patkar goes on indefinite hunger strike, while affected citizens demand urgent action from the State Government and MHADA.

It happens all the time, but in a city teeming with millions, news of the poor losing their homes always slips through the cracks.

Inaction and lack of media coverage notwithstanding, the people of Golibar Maidan are up in arms against the Government and the builder lobby to protest against the demolition of their homes. They allege that the demolitions are illegal, and are knocking on the doors of the Government for justice.” Agitated at the lack of response by the State, activist Medha Patkar started an indefinite hunger strike four days ago, while hundreds ghearoed the office of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority yesterday and demanded a joint interaction with the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Housing), Joint Commissioner of Police, CEO of SRA, Chairman of MHADA, Additional Collector and other concerned officials,” said an activist. He added that “hundreds of urban poor from various bastis are constantly joining the agitation.”

The agitation has been launched also to protest the “injustices and atrocities being meted out in the name of ‘slum rehabilitation’, the anger against the ruling establishment that is hand-in-glove with the profit mongering builders.”

The agitation, which triggered off due to the demolition of 48 houses at Golibar and also many houses at Chandivali, “reflects the sentiments of thousands of poor across the city, who clean, run and build Mumbai, but still have to wage a war for their basic right to shelter, food, education and other civic amenities.” The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), which is spearheading the agitation, alleges that not just at Golibar, corruption to the tune of hundreds of crores is rampant across Mumbai in various projects in the garb of ‘slum rehabilitation’. “Land and resource grab is the only motive with which the builders operate, aided actively by the State machinery. The demolitions at Golibar, despite the ongoing inquiry against Shivalik Ventures (which is set to undertake the Golibar SRA project) only goes on to prove the high-handedness of the builder lobby in the state,” Patkar said yesterday.

(Pictures courtesy thealternative.in, thehindu.com)

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Governor receives 60 representations on Sanjay Dutt pardon

Individuals and organisations have written to the Maharashtra State Governor for or against a pardon for convicted actor Sanjay Dutt. 25 petitions oppose pardon.

While there’s been a bit of a brouhaha over whether actor Sanjay Dutt should be pardoned for his role in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Bombay, even as his jail stint of a little over three years comes up as decreed by the Supreme Court, the Governor of Maharashtra’s received and sent representations in the matter to the State Government for review.

As per a press release issued by the Raj Bhavan, the Governor K Sankaranarayanan’s official residence in Mumbai, the Governor has received and now sent 60 representations and petitions received by him from various individuals and organisations both seeking and opposing clemency for Sanjay Dutt. The petitions and representations have been sent for review to the State Home Department.

In a letter dated April 4, 2013 addressed to the Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra, Home Department, the Secretary to the Governor Vikas Chandra Rastogi has sent copies of all the representations received by the Governor during the last few days to the State Government.

The Governor had received representations on this issue from citizens and organisations from all parts of the country. These include those sent by Justice (retd) Markandeya Katju, Chairman, Press Council of India, and others. Earlier the Governor had sent the petition received from politicians Amar Singh and Jaya Prada, MP, to the State Home Department on March 28, 2013.

Interestingly, at least 25 individuals and organisations from out of the 60 petitioners have opposed pardon for Sanjay Dutt.

What’s your opinion on the matter? Do you think Sanjay Dutt deserves a pardon?

 (Picture courtesy timesofindia.com)

 

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