Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Rallies by members of rival political parties — on recruitment on contract in government departments — at the Kranti Chowk crossroad on Saturday prompted the police to take action against both sides.The Kranti Chowk police booked the members of BJP as well as MVA as both their rallies did not have prior police permission.BJPs protest was part of the partys statewide agitation asking the Congress and NCP leaderships to seek apology from the masses for introducing the contractual recruitment system in state government offices. Meanwhile, the Congress-led protest of the MVA parties was against BJP for making attempts of contractual recruitment in police, revenue and district administrations.Senior police inspector Santosh Patil told TOI, We have booked eight identified and some unidentified political workers on the charge of holding protests without prior police permission.The agitations, which started with sloganeering, soon turned into a direct confrontation between the members of both sides. The police were forced to intervene and temporarily take them into preventive detention.State BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis have aggressively taken on the Congress and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), blaming them for introducing the concept of contractual recruitment in Maharashtra. They also accused the Uddhav Thackeray camp for further promoting it during the MVA tenure.The BJP leadership, while holding the protests across the state, cited government resolutions passed by the Congress-NCP government in 2003, when the process to hire contractual staff and fill posts in government departments was started.Former CM Ashok Chavan said the Congress-NCP alliance never supported or allowed filling of executive posts on contractual basis. The BJP government attempted to fill police and other executive postings on contractual basis, he said.We also published the following articles recentlyThane: MVA allies support MNS toll waiver agitationThe Maha Vikas Aghadi allies have joined the MNS agitation for toll waiver in Thane. They are demanding that tolls be waived for vehicles with MH-04 and MH-05 passes. The allies also highlighted issues such as badly managed city roads, dividers installed where unnecessary, hawkers occupying roads, and unauthorized buildings causing traffic congestion. They criticize the government for lack of proper planning, failure to construct alternative roads, and expansions.Jagdish Shettar, Ramesh Jarkiholi meet, trigger talk of BJP toppling Congress government in KarnatakaA meeting between former chief minister Jagdish Shettar and senior BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi has sparked speculation that the BJP is attempting to overthrow the government. Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar claims to have knowledge of BJP members approaching Congress MLAs and offering incentives. However, industries minister MB Patil dismissed the idea of a threat to the government, stating that the BJP would need 65 MLAs to topple the current government, which he doubts they can achieve. Patil also suggested that Jarkiholi may have met Shettar to discuss re-joining the Congress party.Congress says pollution rising in Mumbai; demands implementation of MVA action plan, audit of MMR projects costsMumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad has raised concerns about the deteriorating air quality in the city, stating that the air quality index has surpassed dangerous levels. She has urged the Maharashtra government to implement the previous MVA regimes climate action plan, which includes measures such as regulating construction hours and implementing pollution rules at construction sites. Gaikwad has also demanded an audit of expenses for projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and criticized the significant increase in their costs. She claims that these projects are necessary for relieving traffic congestion and that the government should be accountable to the people of Mumbai.

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