Council chairman prorogued House without national anthem: CM

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today criticised the Chairman of the Legislative Council Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar for proroguing the Upper House "without playing the national anthem".
Fadnavis said he would soon meet the state Governor to apprise him of the matter.
Addressing a press conference after the conclusion of the session here today, Fadnavis, without naming Nimbalkar, said, "The conduct of the Council Chairman was not as per the standards and practice. The House was prorogued by the Chairman without playing the national anthem."
"Later, the members were again called in and the anthem was played. This has happened for the first time," he added.

Fadanvis said he would meet the state Governor C Vidyasagar Rao in this regard and bring to his notice the "behaviour" of the Chairman as well as the disruptions in the Council.
The Chief Minister also said the Opposition was a "confused" lot, who caused six disruptions in the Upper House today.

"Congress and NCP had complete disregard for the democratic process. By virtue of simple majority in the House, Opposition disrupted the proceedings of the Council," he said.
Fadnavis said the Opposition alleged that there was a tur dal scam worth Rs 4,000 crore in the state. "But the total seizure of tur dal in Maharashtra was not more than Rs 100 crore. I do not know how they arrived at this figure," he said.

"All through the session, the Opposition tried to hurl baseless charges at the government and ministers but failed to furnish proofs. What was unfortunate was that they did not wait to hear to the replies by the government. It was virtually a hit and run," he said.
"Is it the way how a constructive Opposition should work?" he asked.
Fadnavis honoured 18 winners in 12 different
categories for their outstanding achievement in e-Governance.
Alex Paul Menon, District Collector of Balrampur in Chhattisgarh, the project-head of 'Chhattisgarh online school monitoring system (COSMOS)' won the gold award in the category of excellence in Government process-re-engineering.

Silver award was given to the Social Justice Department
of Madhya Pradesh for the project 'SAMAGRA Portal', an initiative to implement integrated social security programmes.
For its online tracking system for missing children (Track Child), West Bengal's Department of Women & Child Development won the gold award.
In the category of innovative use of technology in e-governance, Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) under Ministry of Labour and Employment, won gold for implementation of universal account number programme.
Delhi Police won the silver award for its lost report application.
Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre, Nagpur won gold award for innovative use of GIS Technology.

Other award categories include incremental innovation in existing projects, best district level initiatives in citizen centre service delivery through ICT, innovative use of mobile technology in e-governance.
Besides, sectoral awards in the fields like financial inclusion, innovative use of ICT by Central Government, PSU's, State Government were distributed.
The Universal Account Number (UAN) programme of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation under the Ministry of Labour & Employment bagged the gold in innovative use of technology in e-Governance.
IRCTC's next generation e-ticketing system bagged the gold in innovative use of ICT in central PSUs category.
Award in the category of use of ICT for development by non-government organisation went to Western Union, Mumbai for its collaboration with India Post for money transfer.

The paddy procurement automation system of Odisha, village profile planning atlas of Gujarat, Delhi traffic police mobile app, online hotel reservation system of Himachal Tourism were also among the winners.