Mumbai News Live: City receives heavy rains with gusty winds, lightning; local train services affected

As very intense rains lashed Badlapur, Ambernath and neighbouring areas until the wee hours of Thursday, the Ulhas river in the town has now crossed the danger mark. According to information received from Barrage Headworks, the water treatment plant which is responsible for the water supply in the town and surrounding regions, the water level of the Ulhas river reached 17.80 metres as on Thursday, 4 am. Read story here

Due to point failure between Churchgate and Marine Lines on up slow & down fast line at 6.12 am on July 22, suburban services of Western Railway got affected and were being diverted on other lines. At 7.07 am point got clamped and at 7.26 am it got put right. Presently, all services are running normal.

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) vaccination centres will administer only the second dose of Covaxin on Thursday. The centres will operate between 9 am and 5 pm. The 18-44 age group and people aged 45 years and above are eligible to get the vaccine at General Hospitals in Vashi, Nerul and Airoli. The health care workers and frontline workers can also take their second jab. Beneficiaries who have taken the first Covaxin dose up to June 24 are eligible for the second dose of Covaxin, the civic body informed. Read story here

Heath minister Rajesh Tope, speaking to a TV channel in Mumbai, said there are increasing demands for allowing the fully vaccinated on local trains and the government is considering it. “There should be some relaxation and I hope that the CM and the Covid task force will take a proper decision,” the minister said, pointing out there are issues like whether the railways have adequate manpower to cross-check whether passengers are vaccinated. He pointed out that air travellers to the state with both doses of vaccine are now exempted from presenting a negative RT-PCR report. Read story here

The BMC will restart its Covid-19 vaccination drive only on Friday. The drive was cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday due to unavailability of vaccines from the state. “Vaccine stocks are scheduled to arrive in Mumbai late on Wednesday night, and distribution to vaccination centres will take place throughout Thursday,” said a civic official. The BMC will receive 61,200 doses—50,000 of Covishield and 11,200 of Covaxin. “The drive will begin on Friday as a result,” said the official. Read story here

The city’s high schools affiliated to national and international boards have seen robust admissions to Class XI this academic year. Blame it on the state government’s plan to conduct the post-Class X Common Entrance Test (CET) and to give preference to students who take it for admissions to junior colleges or the expected delay in starting the academic year, enrolment in other non-Maharashtra board institutes has increased, say educationists. Classes for Grade XI in ISC, CBSE, the IBDP programme and Cambridge AS levels in most schools have already begun or start in early August. Read story here

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday demanded by a judicial probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court into phone-tapping of leading politicians, bureaucrats and members of the judiciary with the use of the spyware Pegasus. “We are meeting Governor B S Koshyari today to press for our demand. In our opinion, it (tapping) is a direct attack on democracy and abuse of power by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government. My phone too was under observation during 2017-18,” Patole told TOI. Read story here

The MVA government is cranking up its efforts to secure a Maratha reservation, with attempts to raise the issue in both Houses of Parliament during the ongoing monsoon session and seeking to follow it up with PM Narendra Modi. Read story here

The body of a 24-year-old youth feared drowned on Sunday in the stream in Panvel taluka was found. The rescue teams spotted Deepak Thakur’s body on Tuesday.

The Shiv Sena on Wednesday blamed the Narendra Modi-led NDA government directly for the ‘Pegasus’ spyware controversy, saying that it was a case of spying on journalists, politicians, the judiciary and bureaucracy, who are the four pillars of democracy. The Sena, in its mouthpiece Saamna, alleged that spying with the use of the Pegasus spyware was “a cyber attack on select Indians,” was “an anti-national act” and “could not have been done without the Centre’s consent.” Read story here