Need to fight forces creating communal divide: Sharad Pawar
Karad (PTI): Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said there was a need to fight forces creating communal divide in Maharashtra and the country.
Addressing NCP workers and supporters in Karad a day after Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in the party to become the deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-led government, Sharad Pawar also said "some of our people fell prey to BJP's tactics to break other parties."
"Attempts are being made to create communal divide in Maharashtra and the country. We need to fight forces that create fear among peace-loving citizens," he said.
"We need to protect democracy in the country," he added.
Sharad Pawar visited the memorial of his mentor and Maharashtra's first chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan in Karad and paid floral tributes to him.
The 82-year-old leader's visit to late Chavan's memorial 'Pritisangam' on the occasion of Guru Purnima is being seen as a show of strength by him, a day after his nephew Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in the NCP.
Sharad Pawar left from Pune for Karad on Monday morning and stopped along the way to meet supporters who lined up on roadsides to greet him and extend support to him.
In Karad, he was welcomed by thousands of supporters and local NCP MLA Balasaheb Patil.
Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, who hails from Karad, was also present.
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SC to hear pleas for reviewing wages of priests, temple staff
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review the wages and other benefits given to priests, 'sevadars' and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta is likely to hear the PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, seeks directions to the Centre and states to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review the remuneration and other benefits given to the priests and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
"Petitioner also seeks a declaration that priests and temple staff are employee' under Section 2(k) of the Code on Wages, 2019. Petitioner submits that once the State assumes the administrative, economic and financial control over temples, an employer-employee relationship arises and denial of dignified wages to priests and temple staff violates the right to livelihood guaranteed under Article 21," it said.
Upadhyay said the cause of action accrued on April 4, when he went to Varanasi to attend a public programme and after performing 'Rudrabhishek' in the Kashi Vishwanath temple, which is controlled by the state, he came to know that even the minimum wages to live with dignity are not given to the priests and temple staff.
"Recently, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, priests and temple staff organised a large-scale protest demanding the minimum wages. Priests and temple staff are not getting even the minimum wage prescribed by the State for unskilled and semi-skilled workers. This is a systemic exploitation. State is acting as a model employer through the endowments department, but violating the minimum wages Act and the directive principles of state policy (Article 43)," it said.
The plea further said the continued refusal to meet the minimum wages with the 2026 inflation-adjusted cost of living index has forced the petitioner to seek judicial intervention to prevent the further marginalisation of priests and temple staff.
Upadhyay further said the precarious nature of livelihood was starkly exposed on February 7, 2025, when a Tamil Nadu department issued a circular at the 'Dandayuthapani Swami Temple' in Madurai, strictly prohibiting priests from accepting 'dakshina' in 'aarti plates'.
"It is necessary to state that priests in such temples often receive no formal salary from the State and rely entirely on 'Dakshina'; the State's administrative order directly threatened them with starvation. Although withdrawn due to public outrage, the incident highlights the State's arbitrary power over the survival of the priests. This is also a bitter truth that States are controlling lakhs of temples but not a single mosque or church," the PIL claimed.
The petition, alternatively, sought direction to the Centre and states to take appropriate steps for the welfare of priests, sevadars and other temple staff in the spirit of the Allahabad High Court's earlier judgments.
