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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Shinde dilutes demand

Likely to be content with Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai Mumbai: In a decisive shift that redraws the power dynamics of Maharashtra’s urban politics, the standoff over the prestigious Mumbai Mayor’s post has ended with a strategic compromise. Following days of resort politics and intense backroom negotiations, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has reportedly diluted its demand for the top job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), settling instead for the Deputy Mayor’s post. This...

Shinde dilutes demand

Likely to be content with Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai Mumbai: In a decisive shift that redraws the power dynamics of Maharashtra’s urban politics, the standoff over the prestigious Mumbai Mayor’s post has ended with a strategic compromise. Following days of resort politics and intense backroom negotiations, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has reportedly diluted its demand for the top job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), settling instead for the Deputy Mayor’s post. This development, confirmed by high-ranking party insiders, follows the realization that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) effectively ceded its claims on the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to protect the alliance, facilitating a “Mumbai for BJP, Kalyan for Shinde” power-sharing formula. The compromise marks a complete role reversal between the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Both the political parties were in alliance with each other for over 25 years before 2017 civic polls. Back then the BJP used to get the post of Deputy Mayor while the Shiv Sena always enjoyed the mayor’s position. In 2017 a surging BJP (82 seats) had paused its aggression to support the undivided Shiv Sena (84 seats), preferring to be out of power in the Corporation to keep the saffron alliance intact. Today, the numbers dictate a different reality. In the recently concluded elections BJP emerged as the single largest party in Mumbai with 89 seats, while the Shinde faction secured 29. Although the Shinde faction acted as the “kingmaker”—pushing the alliance past the majority mark of 114—the sheer numerical gap made their claim to the mayor’s post untenable in the long run. KDMC Factor The catalyst for this truce lies 40 kilometers north of Mumbai in Kalyan-Dombivali, a region considered the impregnable fortress of Eknath Shinde and his son, MP Shrikant Shinde. While the BJP performed exceptionally well in KDMC, winning 50 seats compared to the Shinde faction’s 53, the lotter for the reservation of mayor’s post in KDMC turned the tables decisively in favor of Shiv Sena there. In the lottery, the KDMC mayor’ post went to be reserved for the Scheduled Tribe candidate. The BJP doesn’t have any such candidate among elected corporatros in KDMC. This cleared the way for Shiv Sena. Also, the Shiv Sena tied hands with the MNS in the corporation effectively weakening the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s alliance with them. Party insiders suggest that once it became clear the BJP would not pursue the KDMC Mayor’s chair—effectively acknowledging it as Shinde’s fiefdom—he agreed to scale down his demands in the capital. “We have practically no hope of installing a BJP Mayor in Kalyan-Dombivali without shattering the alliance locally,” a Mumbai BJP secretary admitted and added, “Letting the KDMC become Shinde’s home turf is the price for securing the Mumbai Mayor’s bungalow for a BJP corporator for the first time in history.” The formal elections for the Mayoral posts are scheduled for later this month. While the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—led by the Shiv Sena (UBT)—has vowed to field candidates, the arithmetic heavily favors the ruling alliance. For Eknath Shinde, accepting the Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai is a tactical retreat. It allows him to consolidate his power in the MMR belt (Thane and Kalyan) while remaining a partner in Mumbai’s governance. For the BJP, this is a crowning moment; after playing second fiddle in the BMC for decades, they are poised to finally install their own “First Citizen” of Mumbai.

Vermicomposting- 'Friends of Farmers' at our service!

Updated: Feb 24, 2025

Vermicomposting

“Worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, perforating and loosening the soil, rendering it pervious to rains and fibers of the plants by throwing up such infinite number of lumps of earth called worm casts which being their excrement is a fine manure for grain and grass”

-Charles Darwin (February 1809 - April 1882)


During rainy season, we came across many long, thin brown coloured animals wriggling around on wet surfaces. Take a closer look. You will instantly recognize them. Those wrigglers are the Earthworms. Of course, we cannot use those varieties of earthworms as they live mostly on the soil surface. We are more interested in those varieties of earthworms that live deep within the soil by digging their ‘burrows’ which are their own ‘houses’.


We have been learning since our childhood that the earthworms are friends of farmers as they help in increasing the soil fertility by adding highly nutritious manure naturally. Earthworms usually feed on dead and decaying organic which is mixed in the soil and give out excreta in the form of “vermicasts” that are rich in nitrates and minerals such as phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and potassium.


These are used as fertilizers and enhance soil quality. This ability of earthworms to ‘eat’ the soil, process it as it passes through their long, hollow, tubular ‘gut’ or the ‘digestive system’ and excrete or poop it out of the body in the form of little invisible chunks or ‘pellets’ rich in nutrients as mentioned above, has been tapped by humans since several decades to process and treat the green, biodegradable wet or kitchen waste so that it breaks down, eaten by the worms and you get a compost or manure of the best quality.


This scientific method of making compost, by using earthworms is known as Vermicomposting. This is different from bio composting which we learned through earlier articles, in that, here we are using the earthworms and in bio composting, we are using those microscopic bacteria.


Vermicomposting is highly recommended for biodegradation of the wet waste on a large scale such as for the housing societies and similar establishments. To set up one such vermicompost unit for a housing society, the following raw material is required.


Cow dung, Thatch Roof, Soil or Sand, Gunny bags, Earthworms, Weed biomass, A large bin (plastic or cemented tank), Dry straw and leaves collected from paddy fields, Biodegradable wastes collected from fields and kitchen.


Once you have all these items ready, you have to now prepare a suitable ‘bedding’ for the worms to settle in. Alternatively, you can construct a proper pit using bricks and cement. The size of the pit will depend upon the volume of biodegradable waste you want to process. More details about this will be provided in the next article. Meanwhile, Paryvaran Dakshata Mandal’s project called ‘Nisargayan’ near village Mamnoli on Kalyan -Ahilyanagar highway has a large manufacturing unit of vermicompost.


This compost is available at the Green Shopee of Paryavran Dakshata Mandal. For more details, please contact PDM Green Shopee at +91 9987334277.

See you next Saturday. Till then have a good weekend!

(The author is an environmentalist. Views personal.)

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