Maharashtra decision on reserved candidate may offend EC

MUMBAI July 8: The Maharashtra government has decided to vest in itself the power to disqualify any candidate found elected from a reserved ...

MUMBAI July 8: The Maharashtra government has decided to vest in itself the power to disqualify any candidate found elected from a reserved constituency using fake caste certificate.

The decision could turnout to be controversial since the move would be an encroachment on what comes generally under Elections Commision jurisdiction or that of the competent judicial authority. Annoucing the decision after the weekly cabinet meeting Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said the decision was taken following a request made by the EC.

He said that the government would give a hearing to the accused who was found elected using a fake certificate. But once the decision was annouced the candidate would cease to be member of the muncipal corporation or council. However, the candidate would be free move court, he added. Joshi said the government planed to carry out necessary amendments to implement this decision which he said was constitutionaly valid.

Story continues below this ad

In another decsion the state cabinet approved a Rs 2.5 crore proposalto set up a setellite link in the Warnanagar area of Kolhapur district for dessiminating information about scientific farming and agriculture in the villages. This would be the first such information network in Asia, the chief minister claimed.

He said the scheme was the part of the recently announced programme of the National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development. Elaborating, Joshi said that 70 villages in Warnanagar would be wired to the world through a settelite link.

The first benificiaries of the scheme were expected bo be the Sugar factories and milk processing units in the area. Besides the farmers in the region would be able to avail knowhow of scientific method of crop planning, he said.

The chief minister said 50 per cent of the project cost would be undertaken by the Centre, forty per cent by the State and ten per cent by the Warna division education board. The project is expected to be completed within six months.

Story continues below this ad

Its implementation would be overseen by theNational Informatics Centre and Pune based C-DAC on behalf of the Centre, while the State portion would be the supervised by the district collector and the Warna Division Education Board, he added.