Nitin Gadkari retains road transport ministry
New Delhi (PTI): Senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari, popularly referred to as the 'Highway Man of India', has been appointed the Road Transport and Highways Minister for the third consecutive term in the newly formed Union Cabinet of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, an official statement said on Friday.
The 67-year-old leader from Nagpur in Maharashtra has been the longest serving road transport & highways minister.
Gadkari is credited with the construction of more than 54,858 km of national highways in the country in the last 10 years.
Under his leadership, the road ministry aims to complete the construction of 1,386-km Delhi-Mumbai Express by December this year.
The former BJP president -- closely associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- has won three consecutive times from the Nagpur seat, which houses the RSS headquarters.
On Sunday, he was inducted into the NDA government as a cabinet minister.
Gadkari's foray into national politics happened in 2009 when he was appointed the BJP president.
Since 2014, when Gadkari made his debut in the Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur and became a minister at the Centre, he has handled several portfolios like the micro, small and medium enterprises, shipping, water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, rural development and panchayati raj.
He served as a member of the Maharashtra legislative council from the Nagpur Graduates' constituency from 1989 to 2014.
He became a state minister for the first time in 1995 and held charge of the Public Works Department (PWD).
During the period, he worked for getting all-weather roads constructed in the state and containing the problem of malnutrition in the Melghat area of Vidarbha region.
The Mumbai-Pune Expressway and 54 flyovers in the Maharashtra capital were constructed during his tenure as a state minister.
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link was also conceived during Gadkari's tenure as the PWD minister.
The greenfield expressway projects under the Bharatmala Pariyojana phase 1 in the country are under various phases of completion.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Allahabad HC sets aside maintenance order in favour of earning wife, says she didn't tell truth
Prayagraj (PTI): The Allahabad High Court has set aside a lower court order mandating a man to pay maintenance to his estranged wife, observing that she earns her living and did not reveal the true salary in her affidavit.
Justice Madan Pal Singh also allowed a criminal revision petition filed by the man, Ankit Saha.
"A perusal of the impugned judgment indicates that in the affidavit filed before the trial court, the opposite party herself admitted that she is a post-graduate and a web designer by qualification. She is working as a senior sales coordinator in a company and getting a salary of Rs 34,000 per month," the court said in the December 3 order.
"But in her cross-examination, she has admitted that she was earning Rs 36,000 per month. Such an amount for a wife who has no other liability cannot be said to be meagre; whereas the man has the responsibility of maintaining his aged parents and other social obligations," it observed.
The high court observed that the woman was not entitled to get any maintenance from her husband "as she is an earning lady and able to maintain herself".
The man's counsel argued in court that the estranged wife did not reveal the whole truth in the affidavit.
"She claimed herself to be an illiterate and unemployed woman. When the document filed by the man was shown to her before the trial court, she admitted her income during cross-examination. Thus, it is clear that she did not come before the trial court with clean hands," the counsel submitted.
The court, in its order, said, "Cases of those litigants who have no regard for the truth and those who indulge in suppressing material facts need to be thrown out of the court."
It impugned the lower court's February 17 judgment and order, passed by the principal judge of a family court in Gautam Buddh Nagar and allowed the criminal revision petition filed by the man.
