Mumbai news live updates: BEST to deploy 136 special buses for Bhaubeej rush

The BEST undertaking, which has 3,278 buses on the roads now, witnessed a rise in daily ridership close to 28 lakh, an official said on Tuesday. BEST spokesperson Manoj Varade said, “We are deploying 136 special buses this Saturday for Bhaubeej. It will cater to the rush on that day.” Maximum buses will be from Wadala, Sion, Mumbai Central, Worli and Dharavi depots.

Expressing anguish that around 85 tribals in Thane district are being denied supplies under the public distribution system (PDS) for want of linking of their Aadhaar cards with the system, while “the fortunate” await Diwali in joyous anticipation, Bombay high court directed Murbad tehsildar and other authorities to distribute foodgrains to them by November 4. Read more

The railway police staff from Thane ensured a Nashik resident could celebrate his festival as they promptly retrieved his bag full of Diwali goodies left behind in a local train on Monday evening. Read more

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday claimed that IPS officer Param Bir Singh had not absconded, but was made to “move out of the country”, with the Centre’s help. The BJP has hit back, with party leader Ashish Shelar alleging that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) may have helped Singh flee and could be “preparing ground for him to seek political asylum” in a western country. Read more

With the addition of 131 new cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has gone up to 5,66,130, while six more fatalities pushed the death toll to 11,529, an official said on Wednesday.

Tribal students, belonging to small farming families from remote villages of Gadchiroli and Melghat in Maharashtra, have cleared the recently conducted National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) 2021 and are soon expected to start undergraduate degree courses in medicine.

Despite making a hefty budgetary provision, the state government has decided to go slow on procuring monoclonal antibodies. The antibody cocktail drug has been found effective in prevention of severe symptoms that could lead to hospitalisation and death in Covid-19 patients. Read more

Day 2 of resumption of daily local train tickets saw their sales touch nearly 3 lakh at the booking counters of both Western and Central railways. The number of tickets sold totalled over 2.8 lakh on Monday, 30% more than on Sunday, officials said.

The income tax department has provisionally attached properties worth over Rs 1,000 crore allegedly belonging to Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and his close relatives under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act. Read more

Ahead of BMC elections next year, there was a hue and cry at the civic standing committee meeting on Tuesday over water shortage. Corporators said lakes were full but no one knows where the water is going. Read more

A few hours after the post-midnight arrest of former state home minister Anil Deshmukh (72), the Enforcement Directorate produced him before a special holiday court on Tuesday, stating he was the key person in the Rs 100 crore money laundering case and the agency needed to investigate a “foreign angle” in the case apart from establishing the money trail. Read more

After a day of record lows, the state’s tally of Covid cases and deaths jumped on Tuesday. Read more

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has set November 30 as the deadline for all people to be vaccinated at least with a single dose. Read more

Environment minister Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday conducted the bhoomi poojan of three electric vehicle charging stations in South Mumbai. The charring stations will come up at Hutatma Chowk, Kalaghoda Chowk and Rampart Road in the A ward. Full story here

He is known as a fiery spokesperson and an ace editor, but with the Shiv Sena’s win in the Dadra & Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha byelections, Sanjay Raut is now one of Sena’s master poll strategists too. According to Sena insiders, it was Raut who scripted this win right from getting the Delkars into the Sena and planning the campaign. Full story here

Mumbai reported 228 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, and three fresh fatalities, taking the tally of Covid-19 cases to 7,56,442 and the death toll to 16,254. The city is left with 3,439 active Covid-19 cases after 474 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the number of recovered cases to 7,34,212.

While diesel price remained unchanged on Tuesday, petrol price was hiked at all pumps across Mumbai and rest of state. The price of petrol in Thane and Navi Mumbai has now touched an all time high of Rs 116 per litre while the diesel price remains unchanged at Rs 106.76 per litre. The price of petrol in Mumbai was revised to Rs 115.85 per litre on Tuesday. Full story here