Govt gives nod to rename North Maha University after poetess

The Maharashtra government today decided to recommend the promulgation of an ordinance to rename the Jalgaon-based North Maharashtra University after poetess Bahinabai Chaudhari.

The decision was taken by the state cabinet here at its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"The cabinet has decided to make a recommendation to the governor to promulgate an ordinance to rename the North Maharashtra University as 'Kaviyatri Bahinabai Chaudhari North Maharashtra University'," an official in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.

Earlier, during the state Assembly's budget session held in March, the chief minister had said the educational institution would be named after Bahinabai Chaudhari, the noted 19th century poetess.

The demand for renaming the university was then raised by Eknath Khadse, former minister and the BJP MLA from Muktainagar in Jalgaon.

Chaudhari, an illiterate cotton farmer from Jalgaon district, used to compose her songs verbally in a mixture of two dialects - Khandesi and Varhadi.

Meanwhile, in another decision, the cabinet approved a revised salary hike for the Bombay High Court desk officers, on par with the desk officers in the state secretariat.

The cabinet also gave a go ahead to facilitate the disbursal of pending scholarships to students belonging to the backward classes, for the academic year of 2017-18, the official in the CMO informed.