Good Samaritan fights demons of demonetisation

PUNE: In his Mann Ki Baat broadcast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi showered praise on Muralidhar Raut, who owns a small hotel in Balapur tehsil in drought prone Akola district in the Vidarbha region.
A day after Modi banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, common man was at the receiving end, particularly in rural parts of the state, as hotel owners, traders and businessmen refused to accept old currency notes.
Those travelling, were the worst affected, as they could not exchange their old notes. Alarmed by the plight of people, Raut put up a notice board on his hotel, saying, do not worry , eat whatever you like, if you do not have money , pay the bills later whenever you are passing from here. Raut's rare gesture garnered pleasant response. Almost for a week, quite a large number of customers did not pay the bills that ranged between Rs 100 to Rs 1,500 and in some case, it was more than Rs 2,000. A few customers suggested Raut to maintain a register.
After a week, Raut found many customers, who had not paid, visited his hotel to settle the bills. Raut says, most of the customers have paid their outstanding bills and he is least concerned about the defaulters, otherwise also he has been facing problem from wilful defaulters.
In his brief speech, Modi observed that people like Raut reflect the power of the country, his sacrifice and honesty will go a long way in enlightening the people on ill-effects of black money .
Back with a bang!
Former chief minister and state Congress presi and state Congress president Ashok Chavan has emerged more powerful than ever before after the crucial elections to the legislative council.
The elections were crucial to both Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Congress, since it was for the first time that that the Congress and NCP were contesting the elections against each other.Ever since the elections were declared, efforts were made for a Mahesh Benkar patch up between both the parties at the high command level too, but Chavan took a firm stand, saying, under no circumstances, Congress will join hands with NCP.
NCP leaders Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel had taken personal interest to ensure that maximum NCP nominees are elected. In fact, in Nanded, all parties, including Shiv Sena and NCP had supported retired bureaucrat Shyamsundar Shinde to ensure defeat of Congress nominee Amar Rajurkar, a trusted aide of Chavan.
The opposition strategy did not work as Rajurkar won the polls by a comfortable margin. In Sangli-Satara, the stronghold of NCP leader Jayant Patil, Congress nominee Mohan Kadam, brother of senior Congress leader Patangrao Kadam was elected. In Bhandara, hometown of Praful Patel, NCP nominee Rajendra Jain, his close associate lost to Parinay Fuke, a trusted aide of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Says a senior Congress leader, notwithstanding his involvement in a biggest ever controversy , Chavan appears to be on a comeback trail.
Political detour
For high profile BJP leader and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, it was a different kind of whistle stop tour.
Gadkari visited Gover nor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray .Since Matoshree was his first stop, media had gat hered outside Uddhav Thackeray's residence.
Coincidently , on that day he (Uddhav) had come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the manner in which the NDA government had declared the demonetisation plan.
Since Shiv Sena had been the electoral partner of the BJP for well over two and half decades, BJP never expected that Uddhav Thackeray will openly oppose PM's decision of currency ban.
After a brief meeting with Thackeray , Gadkari came out to a volley of questions on his discussion with the Shiv Sena leader.
Known for his sense of humour, Gadkari said no politics was discussed at all as he had come to invite Uddhav for the wedding of his daughter Ketki in Nagpur on December 6. Significantly, ever since BJP joined hands with Shiv Sena for the elections, Gadkari had played a crucial role in resolving the disputes between the two political parties.