AUGUST 9 this year marks 75 years of the Quit India movement and August 15 marks 70 years of Indian Independence. Recently a nostalgic and inspiring function that revived the glorious memories of the Satara parallel government during the freedom struggle was held at Shenoli village in Satara district and at Kundal village in Sangli district of Maharashtra.  In a programme that was full of symbolism and emotion, the few remaining valiant freedom fighters of the Satara parallel government were warmly felicitated by Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) conducted the Class 12 board examination for the 2016-17 academic session in February and declared the results in the last week of May. Out of 12.40 lakh students who took the intermediate examination, just 4.37 lakh (35.25%) students managed to qualify the test.On June 5, eight left student and youth organisations -- SFI, DYFI, AISF, AISA, AIDSO, AIDYO, AIYF, RYA -- held a meeting to discuss the declining standard of education in Bihar.

ON July 27, 2017, over eight hundred women enthusiastically marched from Mandi House to Parliament Street in New Delhi, demanding the passage of the long pending Women's Reservation Bill (WRB) in the monsoon session of parliament​. Several women’s organisations participated in this protest.Women came not only from Delhi but also from the rural areas of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Women marched shouting slogans, holding colourful banners, buntings and placards.

“BEML that has played an important part in defense production is being handed over to private parties at a paltry sum. The valuation of BEML at Rs 518.44 crores is ridiculously low, even less than the value of the land owned by the company. It is unimaginable that the government is selling a company of strategic importance that is running well and the one that had contributed to the exchequer to the extent of Rs 693.46 crores in 2016-17. Stop this privatization,” demanded A K Padmanabhan,  CPI(M)  Polit Bureau member and vice president of CITU.

THE coordination committee of farmers’ organisations had decided to organise large joint peasant conventions for mass awakening (janjaagran) in major districts all over the state from July 10-23. The report of the first few conventions was carried in these columns last week.A total of 15 massive joint conventions of farmers took place in all the five regions of Maharashtra – northern Maharashtra, Konkan, Vidarbha, Marathwada and Western Maharashtra – from July 10-23. Over 40,000 farmers took enthusiastic part in all these conventions despite the sowing season in the monsoons.