Amid prevalent chaos and uncertainty over access to the essential services and commodities during the lockdown, we bring you the latest updates from your city.
*Indian Railways to restart passenger train operations with special trains from New Delhi connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi from tomorrow
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* Update at 9.32am: Death toll due to Covid-19 rises to 2,206; cases climb to 67,152 in India, reports PTI quoting Union health ministry
* Mumbaikars help dying mom travel to see her kids
Citizens loosened their purse strings on Sunday to help Atul Srivastav (45) take his ailing wife Bandna (35) home in Bihar, to see their two children.
On May 10, TOI reported the financial constraints holding the Srivastavs in Mumbai. Bandna suffers from kidney cancer. The couple came to Mumbai March 9 for her treatment at KEM Hospital, and were stuck since lockdown. Doctors told Atul she did not have long to live, but with only Rs 3,000 left, the journey seemed impossible.
* Liquor retailers may tie up with e-commerce cos for home delivery
State officials said e-commerce companies including Zomato had approached the excise ministry to explore the possibility of tie-ups with retailers for door-delivery of liquor.
Use of technology to avert crowding has already begun with the launch of an e-token system on Sunday in Nashik and Pune. The system is based on an app developed by an association of wholesalers in Pune and Nashik region. Shoppers can download it and place an order from a nearby shop, upon which they will get a time-slot to go fetch it, said an excise official, pointing to an enthusiastic response to the system.
Retailers in Mumbai under the banner of Association of Progressive Liquor Vendors have welcomed the home delivery move but have evinced no interest in tying up with e-commerce chains. They said they can handle home deliveries on their own. "Why do we need a third party to deliver our stock? We have been selling for years and have earned the faith of customers and administration by ensuring quality service," said a representative.
* Stripped of their livelihood and desperate to return home, at least 2,000 kaali peeli taxis and autorickshaws have left Mumbai for other states, Mumbai Taximen’s Union leader A L Quadros claimed on Sunday.
“The cabbies have been without earnings for more than a month and they left in their vehicles along with those leaving in trucks from Mumbai during the weekend,” he said, adding the kaali peeli taxi does not have a permit to ply beyond the Mumbai Metropolitan region, but the cabbies were travelling illegally, trying to cross the Maharashtra border to reach their hometowns.
* Mumbai’s Covid-19 toll too crossed the 500-mark with 19 new deaths. The city has lost 508 lives to the novel virus in the last 2 months.
On Sunday, the city also saw its highest single-day spike in cases with 875 detections. Mumbai now has 13,739 cumulative cases of Covid-19, all added within a span of 61 days and accounting for 62% of the state’s burden. BMC officials said nearly 200 of the fresh cases were from May 7 and May 8.
*Indian Railways to restart passenger train operations with special trains from New Delhi connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi from tomorrow
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Update at 9.54am
: Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla writes to chief secretaries of all the states to cooperate in receiving Shramik special trains and to facilitate the movement of stranded migrant workers * Update at 9.32am: Death toll due to Covid-19 rises to 2,206; cases climb to 67,152 in India, reports PTI quoting Union health ministry
* Mumbaikars help dying mom travel to see her kids
Citizens loosened their purse strings on Sunday to help Atul Srivastav (45) take his ailing wife Bandna (35) home in Bihar, to see their two children.
On May 10, TOI reported the financial constraints holding the Srivastavs in Mumbai. Bandna suffers from kidney cancer. The couple came to Mumbai March 9 for her treatment at KEM Hospital, and were stuck since lockdown. Doctors told Atul she did not have long to live, but with only Rs 3,000 left, the journey seemed impossible.
* Liquor retailers may tie up with e-commerce cos for home delivery
State officials said e-commerce companies including Zomato had approached the excise ministry to explore the possibility of tie-ups with retailers for door-delivery of liquor.
Use of technology to avert crowding has already begun with the launch of an e-token system on Sunday in Nashik and Pune. The system is based on an app developed by an association of wholesalers in Pune and Nashik region. Shoppers can download it and place an order from a nearby shop, upon which they will get a time-slot to go fetch it, said an excise official, pointing to an enthusiastic response to the system.
Retailers in Mumbai under the banner of Association of Progressive Liquor Vendors have welcomed the home delivery move but have evinced no interest in tying up with e-commerce chains. They said they can handle home deliveries on their own. "Why do we need a third party to deliver our stock? We have been selling for years and have earned the faith of customers and administration by ensuring quality service," said a representative.
* Stripped of their livelihood and desperate to return home, at least 2,000 kaali peeli taxis and autorickshaws have left Mumbai for other states, Mumbai Taximen’s Union leader A L Quadros claimed on Sunday.
“The cabbies have been without earnings for more than a month and they left in their vehicles along with those leaving in trucks from Mumbai during the weekend,” he said, adding the kaali peeli taxi does not have a permit to ply beyond the Mumbai Metropolitan region, but the cabbies were travelling illegally, trying to cross the Maharashtra border to reach their hometowns.
* Mumbai’s Covid-19 toll too crossed the 500-mark with 19 new deaths. The city has lost 508 lives to the novel virus in the last 2 months.
On Sunday, the city also saw its highest single-day spike in cases with 875 detections. Mumbai now has 13,739 cumulative cases of Covid-19, all added within a span of 61 days and accounting for 62% of the state’s burden. BMC officials said nearly 200 of the fresh cases were from May 7 and May 8.
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