The state informed the Bombay High Court that sufficient manpower, along with material and other facilities required for research and digitisation of works, will be outsourced as per requirement. (File photo)The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court Thursday that it will publish Dr B R Ambedkar’s MSc thesis. The High Court was hearing a suo motu PIL regarding a project, which was halted, to publish Ambedkar’s works.
The state government informed the bench that the UK Senate library had granted it permission to publish Ambedkar’s thesis ‘Decentralisation of Provincial Imperial Finance in British India’. The court appreciated the progress by the committee constituted to oversee the publication of Ambedkar’s writings and speeches.
Additional Government Pleader Purnima H Kantharia for the state government submitted minutes of a September 20 meeting chaired by Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, which also consisted of the principal secretary of the department, the member secretary of the committee constituted to publish Ambedkar’s works and 10 non-government members of the panel.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the honorarium to the member secretary has been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000. The government has also decided to provide residential accommodation to the member secretary either in the MLA guest house or any other flat in Malad.
Amicus curiae advocate Swaraj Jadhav told the bench that provision for accommodation and travel expenses cannot be given just to the member secretary, and the members of the panel who come to Mumbai from across the state for the meeting should also get relief.
Kantharia submitted that the state will bear the expenses for members’ travel from their place of accommodation to the place of meeting and they can also avail accommodation given to the member secretary.
The bench then said the decision to provide honorarium to other members should also be considered in the next meeting
The state informed the bench that sufficient manpower, along with material and other facilities required for research and digitisation of works, will be outsourced as per requirement. The court also noted that as per the minutes of meeting, a proposal will be submitted to Mumbai University to provide the panel sufficient space to do its work.
The court directed the committee to conduct its next meeting as early as possible, preferably within six weeks, and adjourned the PIL.