Hubballi railway station blast: Cops probe Kolhapur explosion link
Kolhapur, Oct 22: A day after a blast occurred at Hubballi railway station in Karnataka, police in Kolhapur in Maharashtra are investigating how the name of local Shiv Sena MLA appeared on a corrugated sheet stuck to the exploded bucket.
Police are also probing if the Hubballi incident had any common link with the Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway blast in Kolhapur last week in which one person was killed.
A senior police officer here said a cardboard was found stuck on the bucket with the name "Prakash Abitkar" written on it.
Abitkar is the sitting MLA of Shiv Sena from Radhanagari in the western Maharashtra district. He is seeking re-election to the state assembly, elections for which were held on Monday.
"Prima facie, some low-grade explosive was kept inside the bucket that was left unattended at the Hubballi railway station," he said.
When asked whether "Prakash Abitkar" mentioned on the cardboard was the same MLA, he replied in affirmative.
The cardboard on the bucket read: "Prakash Abitkar, Gargoti taluka, Bhudargarh."
"We are probing the matter in two directions. We will investigate how Abitkar's name came to be written on the cardboard on the bucket. We will also probe if the Hubballi incident has had any links with the Ujalaiwadi incident in Kolhapur," said district SP Abhinav Deshmukh.
He was referring to the October 18 explosion on Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway near Kolhapur in which a 45-year-old truck driver was killed.
Police are investigating whether the blast occurred after the driver picked up an object containing the explosive.
Police didn't rule out the possibility that the explosive was kept by the road to kill pigs or other animals.
Meanwhile, a team of Kolhapur Police was sent to Hubballi for further investigation, the SP added.
Karnataka Police had said the minor blast on the railway station occurred when a man picked up an unclaimed parcel. One person was injured in the incident.
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Unreserved vacancies for candidates with disabilities open for all categories: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday said "unreserved" vacancies for Persons with Disabilities (PWD) are an open pool where merit remains the decisive factor and that eligible candidates belonging to any social or special category can be employed.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh set aside a judgement of the Calcutta High Court, saying the "unreserved" category is not a separate "social category" but an open field for all.
It held that a more meritorious PWD candidate belonging to a reserved category like OBC, SC, or ST cannot be barred from an unreserved PWD post simply because a candidate from the "General" category is also available.
"In reservation law, it is well settled that the Unreserved/Open category does not refer to any social/communal category like SCs, STs or OBC. In other words, any post falling under the Unreserved or Open category does not pertain to any particular social category, it provides an open field or pool meant for the world at large, in the sense that it is open to all candidates, irrespective of whether one belongs to any social or special category or not," Justice Singh, who authored the verdict, said.
The court said if an unreserved or open post is meant for the special category of Persons with Disabilities, it means that the said post will be open to all candidates of all vertical social categories, whether Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) or Other Backward Classes (OBC), provided such candidates are also PWD.
"Thus, all candidates, whether SC, ST or OBC, but who are Persons with Disabilities, are equally entitled to compete for the post meant for Persons with Disabilities falling under the Unreserved category, the rationale being that all those who are similarly situated must be treated equally," it said.
The case arose from a recruitment drive of the West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (WBSETCL) for the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) Grade-II.
The notification included one post specifically earmarked for Unreserved (Persons with Disabilities -- Low Vision).
The controversy involved two candidates, an unreserved category candidate with low vision who scored 55.667 marks and an OBC candidate, also with low vision, who scored 66.667 marks.
The WBSETCL appointed the OBC candidate to the post based on his higher merit.
This was challenged by the general category candidate who said since he was a "qualified unreserved candidate", the vacancy should have gone to him and that reserved category candidates should only be considered if no unreserved PWD candidate is available.
While a single-judge bench of the high court dismissed the plea, a division bench reversed that decision, directing the employer to appoint the less-meritorious unreserved candidate.
The WBSETCL had then appealed to the Supreme Court.
