Mumbai City Latest Updates: BMC allows education boards to conduct exams in the city

After Muchhad Paanwala’s arrest in Mumbai and the seizure of 200 kg of drugs, NCP leader Nawab Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan has been called for questioning by the NCB. Sameer is the husband of NCP leader Nawab Malik’s daughter Nilofer. Reportedly, there is a Rs 20,000 transaction between Karan Sajnani and Sameer Khan, which NCB suspects was a payment for drugs procurement. Sameer has been called to verify the same.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has allowed state, national and international educational boards to conduct examinations physically as per their schedule in the city amid the pandemic. The Mumbai civic body has allowed these exams and appealed to the boards to follow all the necessary COVID-19 prevention guidelines. Earlier, citing fear of a second COVID-19 wave, the BMC had deferred the opening of schools and colleges in Mumbai till January 15. It has now decided to permit the boards to conduct their examinations, as not doing so could result in the loss of a year for students. Read the full story here

The Thane civic body’s proposed ‘Chhota Metro’ or MetroLite for the city and its surrounding areas will be an overlap between existing mass transit projects and will be a waste of resources, says Thane’s rail passenger body. Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh has written to the Union government, urging it to rethink the MetroLite and Metro Neo projects. Read the full story here

In the third firing incident in Thane district in 10 days, two men shot at and grievously injured a 38-year old homemaker after barging into her rented Bhiwandi residence on Tuesday. Police said the woman, Jayshree Dede, was alone at home at the time as her husband Shivraj (40) was at the transport company where he is employed. Her 17-year-old son was with a friend outside the building when the crime was committed. Read the full story here

Mumbai received over 1.39 lakh doses of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, from Serum Institute of India early Wednesday morning, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said. This first batch of doses will be delivered across the city at designated vaccination centers for the inoculation drive set to begin on January 16, the BMC said in a statement. The civic body said it received 1,39,500 doses of the Covishield vaccine from the SII around 5.30 am. "The vaccine doses are being stored at a facility in F-South ward office situated in Parel," it stated. The civic body has also created a centralised cold storage facility for vaccines in Kanjurmarg.

With 473 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the case tally of the financial capital of the country climbed to 2,99,796. According to the latest data provided by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), seven persons lost their lives to the virus in the past 24 hours. The death toll due to COVID-19 in Mumbai now stands at 11,202. Read more

The final post-mortem report of Jhanvi Kukreja (19) states there are no signs of sexual assault, but points to 48 severe injuries all over her body, including the grievous skull fracture that led to her death. The body of Kukreja, a psychology student, was found in a pool of blood on the ground floor of Bhagwati Heights building in Khar (west) where she had gone to attend a New Year’s Eve party along with Shree Jogdhankar (23) and her childhood friend Diya Padalkar (18). Jogdhankar and Padalkar have been named as accused in the case. Read the full story here

Amid the bird flu scare, as many as 55 complaints of bird deaths in Mumbai were reported on Tuesday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. Most of the complaints were about crow deaths while a few were about pigeon carcasses.

The first consignment of Covishield vaccines by Serum Institute of India arrived in Mumbai from Pune in the early hours on Wednesday. The vaccine was brought in a special vehicle of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corportaion (BMC). For the much-anticipated vaccination drives in Mumbai Circle, Mumbai city has got 72 centres, besides Thane (42), Palghar (8) and Raigad (7) in the MMR, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope had announced. At each vaccination centre, around 100 people shall be administered the life-saving vaccine as per the priority groups identified by the Centre and state health authorities.