Portfolios to be allocated to Maharashtra ministers soon, says Fadnavis
Nagpur (PTI): Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said portfolios would be allocated to the newly-appointed ministers in the state soon.
He also assured that the government would soon release the compensation for crop losses suffered by the state farmers due to heavy rains.
Talking to reporters at the airport here, Fadnavis congratulated Chandrashekhar Bawankule on his appointment as the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Maharashtra unit president.
"Portfolios will be allocated to the new ministers soon," he said in response to a query.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde expanded his two-member ministry on Tuesday, 41 days after taking oath as the CM. He inducted 18 ministers - nine each from his rebel Shiv Sena group and the BJP. With this, the strength of Maharashtra ministry has now gone up to 20, less than half the maximum allowed strength of 43. Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister on June 30, when Fadnavis took oath as deputy CM.
The deputy chief minister said the crop loss compensation announced by the government for farmers will be distributed soon and added that the area of crop damages is still increasing.
"The compensation will soon be released after calculating losses from all these affected areas," he said.
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to double the amount of compensation which the farmers affected by the excessive rains in July are entitled to get. "As per the current NDRF (National Disaster Response Fund) norms, a farmer receives Rs 6,800 per hectare as compensation. We have decided to double the amount," CM Shinde had told reporters after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Talking about Bawankule, Fadnavis said he has been a very staunch worker of the BJP, who rose from the lower rungs and went on to hold various important positions in the organisation.
"Bawankule performed very well in all the responsibilities given to him by the party," the deputy CM said.
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Our relationship with both India and Pakistan is 'good': US
New York/Washington (PTI): America’s relationship with both India and Pakistan is “good”, the US State Department has said, asserting that the diplomats are "committed to both nations".
Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that the US working with both nations is good news for the region and the world, and will promote a beneficial future.
“I would say that our relationship with both nations is as it has been, which is good. And that is the benefit of having a President who knows everyone, talks to everyone, and that is how we can bring differences together in this case. So it's clear that the diplomats here are committed to both nations,” Bruce said.
She was responding to a question on the possibility of increased US assistance to Islamabad in terms of arms sales following Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir’s meeting with Trump, and whether this was coming at the cost of Trump's relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Referring to the May conflict between India and Pakistan, Bruce added, “Obviously, we had an experience with Pakistan and India when there was a conflict, one that could have developed into something quite horrible.”
She said that there was "immediate concern and immediate movement" with Vice President J D Vance, President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in “addressing the nature of what was happening….we described the nature of the phone calls, the work that we did to stop the attacks and to then bring the parties together so we could have something that was enduring."
She also claimed that top leaders in the US were involved in “stopping that potential catastrophe.”
New Delhi has been maintaining that India and Pakistan halted their military actions following direct talks between their militaries without any mediation by the US.
Bruce added that the recent peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan “follows negotiated peace arrangements between Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo.”
Meanwhile, in an interview on Tuesday, Rubio said that “credit goes to” Trump for helping bring several conflicts around the world to an end.
Trump says he wants “to be the President of peace. And so any time we see a conflict where we think we can make a difference, we get involved, and we’ve had good success in that regard. India-Pakistan, Thailand-Cambodia, the peace deal with Azerbaijan and Armenia, just a few days ago,” he said in an interview with ‘Sid and Friends in the Morning’.
