Maharashtra
Prajatantra 2024: Building Blocks of Democracy
Mumbai : Prajatantra 2024: National Youth Festival was inaugurated today, marking the sixth edition of this annual celebration of democracy. Prajatantra offers Indian youth a distinctive platform to gain first-hand experience and understand how city governments operate. Participants take on the roles of fictional city government officials, such as Mayors, Chairpersons of Municipal Committees, and Councillors, to present their ideas, visions, and policies for effective governance.
This year, Prajatantra highlights the importance of Active Citizenship through the theme, ‘Citizen Participation: Building Blocks of Democracy’. Under this theme, participants are encouraged to envision how city governments can meaningfully involve citizens in local decision-making. They will propose policies on topics such as creating participatory budgets, integrating technology to make citizen engagement more accessible, developing civic engagement infrastructure, and actively involving marginalised communities, among other sub-themes.
Prajatantra 2024, is proud to host 418 teams, representing over 100 cities from 28 states and seven union territories, have registered for this event. These participants come from diverse educational and socio-economic backgrounds. Today, they gathered virtually for the Opening Ceremony. The event featured addresses by Ms Debolina Kundu, Director (Additional Charge) at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, Ms Parul Agarwala, Country Manager at UN Habitat, and Mr Nitai Mehta, Founder and Managing Trustee of Praja Foundation. They spoke on topics of governance and youth engagement.
“It is crucial for today’s youth to collaborate and engage with decision-makers like us to shape their future,” said Ms Agarwala in her opening remarks. “I am deeply committed to empowering young people, and through the mandate of UN-Habitat and all UN Agencies, we are dedicated to providing platforms and forums that amplify your voices on the global stage.” Ms Agarwala also praised the significant growth of Prajatantra over the years at the national level.
Mr Mehta shared, “Praja was established in 1997 with the mission to reform urban governance. It is vital that the three key stakeholders—elected representatives, the administration, and citizens—actively participate in dialogue to create solutions at the local level. Prajatantra brings young people together to develop these solutions. Every year, we witness remarkable ideas from youth across the country on urban governance.”
In her concluding remarks, Ms Kundu underscored the significance of urbanisation and the role of youth in this process. “Urbanisation is an inevitable trend, with an increasing number of citizens living in urban areas. The youth represent the largest demographic, and it is imperative that we harness their potential. How we can leverage this demographic dividend through employment and skill development is a key focus area for NIUA.”
Following the Opening Ceremony, Prajatantra participants will engage in competitive events throughout the weekend. The Qualifying Rounds will be followed by the Semi-Finals in September 2024. Finalists will convene in Lucknow in November for anin-person Grand Finale.
Maharashtra
Maharashtra: Abu Asim Azmi presents bill in the House against religious hatred and blasphemy, application of MCOCA and UAPA also included in the draft bill

Mumbai: Nagpur Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi presented a private bill in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly against those who spread blasphemy and religious hatred. The bill demands action against hate elements and calls for action under MCOCA and UAPA against those who spread religious hatred, in addition to ten years of imprisonment and a bail of Rs 2 lakh so that sectarians do not get bail and such cases of spreading religious hatred are banned. He told the House that there has been an increase in cases of blasphemy in the country and in such a situation, tension arises in the country. Action should be taken against such elements to maintain law and order. This will be possible only when action is taken against such sectarians who promote a hate agenda under the guise of freedom of expression. He said that the Supreme Court had also issued an order for strict action against hate elements and miscreants and has banned inflammatory and hate speech. In such a situation, Maharashtra The bill has been formally introduced in the House to take action against those who spread religious hatred and incite hatred against important people. The draft bill proposes to register a case against communalists under the section of the MCOCA UAPA, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years, so that such elements cannot be granted bail.
Maharashtra
Mumbai fuel theft gang busted, 13 accused arreste, The gang of thieves had attempted to steal fuel in November

Mumbai: Police claims to have busted a petrol theft gang. The accused were arrested for attempting to steal petrol from BPCL company on November 14 at around 3:30 am under the limits of RCF police station in Mumbai. A complaint was registered for attempting to steal fuel from the underground 18-inch Mumbai Manmade Multi-Product pipeline on Mumbai Gadkari Road. Vinod Devchand Pandit was arrested from Chembur on November 17 on the basis of technical investigation and information from an informant. His investigation revealed that the mastermind of this racket, Riaz Ahmed Ayub (59), Salim Mohammad Ali, Vinod Devchand Pandit had hatched a plan to steal fuel. 13 accused including Gopal Narayan, Mohammad Irfan, Vinay Shashikant, Ahmed Khan Juman Khan, Nishan Jagdish, Mustafa Manzoor, Nasir Shaukat, Imtiaz Asif have been arrested. All these accused have been arrested from various areas. Their arrests were made from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and surrounding areas. This operation was carried out by Additional Commissioner Mahesh Patil and DCP Sameer Sheikh on the instructions of Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti.
Maharashtra
Vasai-Virar Faces 50,000 Duplicate Entries In Voter Roll; Voters Asked To Choose Single Booth

Virar: More than 50,000 duplicate voters have been found in the Vasai-Virar city area. The Municipal Corporation has published a list of these voters on its website. The Corporation has appealed to those whose names appear in duplicate to visit and vote at any one polling center of their choice and inform the Corporation of their decision in advance.
More than 50,000 duplicate voters were found in the draft voter lists published by the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation. This large number of duplicate entries has created a major conundrum. To resolve this issue, the Election Commission has allowed voters with duplicate names to cast their vote at any single designated polling center.
Accordingly, the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation has published the list of 50,000 duplicate voters on the municipal website. Municipal Commissioner Manoj Kumar Suryawanshi has appealed to these voters to check their names, select one polling center, and vote there.
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