Union Minister Athawale says NCB’s Wankhede has not done anything wrong, slams Nawab Malik for targeting him
The Hindu
“The state government should ensure there is no threat to Wankhede’s life,” said the Union Minister.
Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Sunday termed the allegations levelled by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik against Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede as “baseless” and “mischievous”, and defended the officer saying he has not done anything wrong.
Mr. Athawale also said the state government should ensure that Mr. Wankhede is not harmed and that there is no threat to his life.
Mr. Malik, a leader of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has been repeatedly targeting the NCB and Mr. Wankhede, who had supervised the raid on a cruise liner off the Mumbai coast earlier this month that led to the alleged recovery of drugs and the arrest of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.