Kandivali police have arrested a doctor couple— 62-year-old Shivraj Pataria and his wife Nita— that runs Shivam Hospital at Charkop for allegedly supplying ‘unutilized’ or ‘leftover’ vials of Covid-19 vaccines for unauthorized camps organized at Hiranandani Heritage housing society in Kandivali and other places.

So far 10 people have been arrested in the Kandivali vaccination scam case. It has come to light about the supply of vaccine doses from Shivam Hospital, in which 2 people of the hospital have been arrested. Till Thursday, FIRs against 7 people were registered. The investigation has revealed the involvement of the same racket in organizing all the 9 camps of vaccination. Nevertheless, there is no evidence with the police about whether the vaccine given is adulterated or not.

Mumbai Police in its investigation found out that Shivam hospital got vials from BMC before 30th April as the hospital had the vaccination permission only till April 2021 not beyond that. According to the Kandivali police officers, during the vaccination camp, the hospital saved some of the allotted vials. The remaining dose was then stored separately. Some had the vaccine in it and some were empty. And these vials were given by Shivam hospital to the accused who later administered these vials to Hiranandani housing society residents.

Before this, by Thursday afternoon, Bhoiwada police made two arrests. Accused Seema and Shrikant allegedly helped Mahindra Pratap Singh to conduct an unauthorized vaccination camp at Poddar Education Institute where 207 people were given the jab on 28th and 29th May.

Meanwhile, 12 lakh 40 thousand have been seized from the accused. And the accounts of the main accused were sealed.

SIT has been constituted to investigate the fraud case in the name of vaccination under the observation of DCP Vishal Thakur. Mumbai Police have, for the first time, charged members of the bogus vaccination camp group with a section of an attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the Bhoiwada police FIR. According to the statement of a witness so far, saline water can be there.

390 people in the society took the jab and later found out that around 120 of them were given fake certificates and the rest didn’t get even those. Since then, Mumbai police have filed 7 FIRs, made 10 arrests, and are looking for two accused.

The scam surfaced more than 10 days ago when the residents of Kandivali’s posh housing society, Hiranandani society approached the cops and alleged that they were cheated in the name of inoculation.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna- Urban (PMAY-U) under which several people of the country are promised houses, ‘succumbs’ to data manipulation. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) held many meetings with the states where PMAY-U is implemented, and in its 54th meeting, CSMC snapped several States on their failure. PMAY-U has several entities under which States first sent a huge number of beneficiaries to the Central government and then back out mentioning a different set of excuses— beneficiaries not interested, land not suitable or found, and so on.

Haryana government proposed before the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to surrender 1,30,879 houses and curtailment of 70,534 houses in 19 Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) projects. It is mentioned in the meeting report that Haryana has been unable to spend Rs 405 crore under PMAY-U. Moreover, in the last several years the Haryana government has been incompetent to start 82 sanctioned AHP and In-Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) projects.

The committee even found that the Haryana was unable in executing Beneficiary-Led Individual House Construction or enhancement (BLC) projects as well where they were released with funds to complete 47,116 houses but they completed only 4459 houses against 67411 houses under the BLC verticle.

Similarly, in Himachal Pradesh, the state has asked the committee to curtail 1987 houses out of 7,547 houses under 82 BLC projects as beneficiaries are found to have shifted to some other states. The Himachal government, hence, has been unable to spend Rs 42.72 Crore under PMAY-U and the utilisation certificate of Rs 30.05 Crore is still pending.

Bihar government has asked the committee for curtailment of 6740 houses under 31 BLC projects due to the non-availability of suitable land in the state. The Bihar state has an unspent budget of Rs 1034.83 Crore under PMAY-U.

Uttar Pradesh government told the committee that the prior submission of beneficiaries was never made by them so the committee shall cancel the housing projects— 58,099 houses under BLC were reportedly cancelled.

In Madhya Pradesh, 14,310 houses have been curtailed/surrendered under 114 BLC projects saying that the beneficiaries have migrated, or that the beneficiaries were wrongly attached. MP has an unspent budget of Rs 1905.04 Crore under PMAY-U.

Karnataka government has asked the committee to cancel 31293 houses under 49 AHP projects, 8728 houses under 10 AHP projects, 627 houses under 7 BLC projects, 5734 houses under 85 BLC projects giving the reason that the beneficiaries have migrated to some other states. Gujarat, similarly, canceled 17181 houses under 15 AHP projects and curtailed 1256 EWS houses under 5 AHP projects.

Sudip Roy Barman, believed to be close to Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy, visited Delhi and his visit paved a swarmroom for speculations, nevertheless, he did not meet the central leadership of the BJP. According to sources, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, J.P Nadda himself had a meeting with Barman on Wednesday. And as soon as Barman returned, buzz brewed that the cabinet of Biplob Dev is going to be expanded. According to sources, the expansion process will be completed by July 15.

When the new Assembly in Tripura was formed, nine ministers from the BJP-IPFT alliance went to the cabinet. And at present, there are 6 ministers in the council. In mid-2019, Health Minister Sudip Roy Barman was removed from the cabinet. So, several questions arise, as to whether Sudip Roy Barman would be bequeathed with the ministry again, or, is this expansion policy of the BJP just to please the agitated camp?

According to sources, BJP’s all-India general secretary BL Santosh came to Tripura and asked Biplob Dev to expand the cabinet. He demanded a full cabinet to deliver services to the people on time. He also said that it is being heard that MLA Sudip Roy Barman should be included in the cabinet again. But, it is not known how much Biplob Dev has agreed to this.

Meanwhile, Barman arrived in Delhi on Wednesday after visiting Assam. Although Barman told the media that this was a family excursion, sources close to him revealed that he met BJP president JP Nadda too. Tripura in-charge Binod Sonkar was also present at the time, the sources said. Four IPFT delegates also reached Tripura on Wednesday. They reportedly spoke with Nadda for 45 minutes.

It is heard that they are also looking for another minister in the cabinet. So there is a lot of speculation about this new expansion. Much of the political equation depends on whether Barman or someone from the IPFT will be included in the cabinet, and whether that would tantamount to keeping the protesters in the party? Not only that, a four-member delegation of the BJP’s ally IPFT in Tripura also had a private meeting with Nadda on Wednesday, sources said. This could be the reason why BJP national president Nadda has decided to go to Tripura soon.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted a search operation at the house of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the money laundering case. The raids took place at Deshmukh’s home in Nagpur, Mumbai and few more places connected to him. Deshmukh’s personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde were also called at the ED office in Mumbai for questioning. 

Sources say that ED has tracked the whole money trail of how Deshmukh collected money from Mumbai bars. The agency found money trail of Rs 4 crore from a dozen of bar owners. This money was collected by arrested and suspended Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze. Later this money was diverted to several shell companies that would finally reach Deshmukh. These companies located outside Maharashtra belonged to relatives of Deshmukh. 

Meanwhile, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said, “We are not threatened by ED action on Anil Deshmukh. They have started a new trend to threaten with agencies like CBI & ED.” 

Earlier in April, the CBI had conducted raids at four premises of Deshmukh after registering an FIR against him in connection with the case. An FIR was filed based on section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) and criminal conspiracy (IPC 120 B).

During the searches, the CBI recovered incriminating documents and digital devices, sources confirmed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir has brought delimitation and the much-awaited Assembly elections in the Union Territory back in focus. Elections in J&K have been due since 2018 when the BJP pulled out of the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government. Subsequent events further delayed the exercise. And now delimitation is a stumbling block. While delimitation refers to the redrawing of boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha constituency, the term has become controversial in Jammu and Kashmir because it is related to representation of Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated Jammu province in the Assembly. No delimitation has been conducted in J&K since 1995 when it was done under President’s rule. Then CM Farooq Abdullah, in 2002, froze the exercise till 2026.

Political parties like BJP have been fighting for greater representation for the Jammu region claiming that the freeze enforced in 2002 has done injustice to the region.

The current Delimitation Commission headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai was set up by the government in 2020. While it was supposed to complete its work by 5 March this year, the Covid-19 pandemic hampered the work. It has now been given an extension for one year.

The meetings conducted by the Commission so far were boycotted by the National Conference MPs Farooq Abdullah, Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone over abrogation of Article 370. But the recent statements from the National Conference top brass indicate that they have become flexible now and may attend the future meetings.

Kashmir-based political parties are apprehensive that the BJP government at the Centre may influence the working of the Commission, which otherwise is supposed to be an independent body.

Two main political parties from J&K, NC and PDP, are expecting the delimitation to be a fair exercise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will review the ongoing development work in Ayodhya on Saturday. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will also participate from Lucknow in this virtual review meeting. The CM will present future vision of Ayodhya’s development including modernisation, roads, infrastructure, railway station, airport, pending projects to PM Modi in the meet. 

In this virtual meeting, along with PM Modi, CM Adityanath will inform the district magistrate, municipal commissioner and top officials of development authority and housing development council, along with tourism officials, about the plan to make Ayodhya tourist-friendly and pollution-free.

Former bureaucrat Nripendra Mishra, chairman of the construction committee of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, prepared the progress report of the temple construction and development work of Ayodhya after visiting the city. His report has also reached the Prime Minister. 

In view of PM Modi’s review of the development work done so far, including the Vision Document of Global Development of Ayodhya, the district administration along with the officials of the government and all the agencies involved in the work have made their preparations for the progress made so far. Projects ranging from the Ram temple to beautification of Saryu Ghat and statue of Lord Ram will also be discussed. 

There is a plan to develop Ayodhya as a pilgrimage city, Heritage City, Solar City, Samras Ayodhya, Smart Ayodhya along with Vedic City. Apart from this, according to the faith and Sanatan tradition, it will be developed as a spiritual centre and global tourist destination.

“UP government’s proposal for an international airport in Ayodhya has been approved by the Centre. About Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated to the district administration by the state government. The Central government has disbursed Rs 250 crore,” the Chief Minister was recently quoted as saying.