Mumbai, June 30: Shiv Sena(UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the Hindi language cannot be forced upon people now as the power of the Marathi people has compelled the state government to withdraw two of its resolutions on introducing Hindi along with Marathi and English for Classes 1 to 5.

Thackeray, who attended the Monsoon Session of the state legislature on its first day, said, “We will announce in two to three days what exactly the victory rally or victory march will be like and where on July 5 it will be held (as the joint morcha has been cancelled due to the government’s decision). We are also talking to everyone about that. The Marathi traitors raise their heads as soon as they realise that we are a little scattered. Yesterday, we crushed this head. If we don’t want them to come back, then we should maintain this unity instead of waiting for another crisis. We will not stop until we create a vision of this unity on July 5. We will definitely celebrate the victory. Everyone forgot their party differences and came together with us during the movement. We need to show the same unity in the victory march.”

“Love for the mother language should be beyond the party, the government has made a lot of efforts. Still, I thank them. A new committee has been appointed under the chairmanship of Narendra Jadhav (former Planning Commission member). I am telling the government that this is a matter of education, and you have appointed a committee of an economist. Whatever the committee, the issue of compulsion is over now. Even if a committee is formed now, Hindi cannot be forced on us; the power of the Marathi people has shown this yesterday,” said Thackeray at the press conference.

Thackeray said that the slogan of ‘Jai Maharashtra’ has once again been raised in every village and corner of Maharashtra.

“Shiv Sena and Shiv Sainiks were at the forefront in raising this slogan of Maharashtra. But along with that, I sincerely thank all the political parties and Marathi-speaking people who forgot their party differences and participated. We will know in the coming days whether the government has shown wisdom or not. But they immediately cancelled the government resolution on making Hindi compulsory. It was achieved due to the unity of the Marathi people. If they had not cancelled it, many Marathi lovers from the BJP, Shinde group and Ajit Pawar group would have participated in the July 5 morcha, which now will become a victory rally,” he added.

Thackeray on Sunday said the government’s power faced defeat before the power of Marathi Manoos on the contentious issue of the introduction of Hindi as a third language after Marathi and English for Classes 1 to 5. “Now this unity of Marathi people should continue,” asserted Thackeray.

“The BJP’s hidden agenda was to divide the Marathi people and attract the non-Marathi voters by raking up the Marathi vs Non-Marathi issue. But the good news is that the Marathi people took a sensible stance. They are not against the Hindi language, but against coercion. Since there was a movement against coercion, there was no division. The government thought that the division of the Marathi people would be beneficial to it,” claimed Thackeray.

New Delhi, June 30: The CBI has booked a former manager of the State Bank of India branch in Assam for possessing allegedly illegal assets worth over Rs 80 lakh, an official said on Monday.

Pinku Kumar, former Branch Manager, SBI, Ramkrishnanagar Branch, Karimganj, is also facing a separate investigation over his alleged collusion in a multi-crore scam involving sanction of loans using forged documents, the official said.

CBI’s Shillong-based Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) registered the latest Disproportionate Assets case against Pinku Kumar on June 27 after receiving a complaint from a preliminary investigator.

The complaint alleged commission of criminal misconduct by Pinku Kumar while intentionally enriching himself illicitly, during the check period from April 1, 2019 to March 27, 2025.

During this period, he was found in possession of pecuniary resources/property, disproportionate to his known sources of income which he cannot satisfactorily account for, to the tune of Rs 99.20 lakh -(81.84 per cent DA), said the CBI FIR filed against the former bank manager.

Taking note of the preliminary probe conducted in the matter of criminal misconduct, the CBI’s FIR said, “The facts mentioned in the aforesaid complaint, prima facie, reveal commission of congnizable offences, punishable under Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended 2018) on the part of Pinku Kumar.”

Section 13 of the Act defines various forms of criminal misconduct by public servants. These include actions like abusing their position, misappropriating property, or possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Earlier in March, the CBI booked Pinku Kumar twice in separate corruption cases naming two brokers Sumen Paul and Jadab Paul, along with the former, in each of the cases.

Raids conducted by the federal agency in these two cases led to seizure of 481 grams of gold, 11.11 gram of diamond-studded jewellery and 1,092 gram silver.

The CBI investigation showed that the former bank manager conspired with the two brokers and allegedly approved loans base on forged papers, leading to a loss of crores of rupees to the SBI.

Mumbai, June 30: Maharashtra Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday presented supplementary demands worth Rs 57,509.71 crore for the financial year 2025-26 on the first day of the Monsoon Session of the Legislature.

This comes amid reported constraints over the availability of adequate funds due to the ballooning fiscal and revenue deficits and mounting public debt.

Of the Rs 57,509.71 crore, the allocation of Rs 19,183.85 crore has been made for committed expenditure and the balance is to provide funds for various government programmes and also towards the state government’s contribution in the implementation of Central government schemes.

DyCM Pawar, during the budget session held in March this year, had tabled the supplementary demands worth Rs 6,480.20 crore.

A whopping Rs 15,465.13 crore has been allocated to the urban development department headed by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ahead of the upcoming elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other 28 civic bodies to carry out various civic and development works.

Further, Rs 11,042.76 crore has been earmarked for various grants as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission. The government has made an allocation of Rs 9,068.49 crore for the public works department to clear the pending dues of Rs 80,000 crore of various contractors for carrying out road and bridge works.

The government has earmarked Rs 3,228.38 crore for the refund of stamp duty cess being collected for metro projects and also for other development works by the municipal corporations, municipalities, municipal councils and zilla parishads.

The Fadnavis government has allocated: Rs 2,240.82 crore towards state government’s contribution for tunnel construction for metro and other transport infrastructure projects, Rs 2,182.82 crore for share capital to cooperative sugar factories for margin money loan to be drawn from the National Cooperative Development Corporation, Rs 2,150 crore for taking benefit under central government’s 50 year long term loan, Rs 2,096.58 crore to various corporations to complete incomplete and long pending irrigation projects, Rs 2,000 crore district roads and bridges, Rs 4,733.11 crore to rural development department, Rs 3,798.93 crore to social justice department to implement ongoing schemes for backward classes and payment of scholarship to eligible students and Rs 2,835.02 crore for cooperation, marketing and textile department.

The state government has earmarked Rs 1,300 crore for the Department of Other Backward Classes to pay scholarships to eligible students.

For the Department of Women and Child Development, the government has allocated Rs 2,665.76 crore. This is to ensure the timely payment of monthly instalments to the eligible women beneficiaries under the Ladki Bahin Yojana and other schemes.

Further, an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked for carrying out various development works for the Kumbh Mela in Nashik next year.