Sameer Wankhede in New Delhi (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)Mumbai Live news: The Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who was accused of forging his caste certificate by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, visited the memorial of Dr. B R Ambedkar in Mumbai. Later, speaking to a news channel, Malik, without naming Wankhede, implied it is the impact of the fight he put up that “some people” have started coming to the ‘Chaityabhoomi’, the place where Ambedkar was cremated.
With Omicron making its presence felt in Maharashtra, the state government has asked districts to procure the S-gene test, which enables quick detection of the variant. However, apart from Mumbai and Pune, no other district in the state has these test kits. The test detects the absence of the S-gene, which is an indicator of the presence of this variant in a Covid positive patient. Formally known as the S-gene Target Failure (SGTF) test, this proxy test can be used for early detection. Maharashtra currently has eight cases of the Omicron variant.
In other news, actor Jacqueline Fernandez was on Sunday stopped from leaving the country by immigration officials at the international airport in Mumbai as there was a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued by the Enforcement Directorate against her. The LOC was issued in connection with the Sukesh Chandrashekhar extortion and money laundering case. Fernandez wanted to go to Dubai for a show when she was stopped at the Mumbai airport.
Crowd at Marine Drive in Mumbai (Express photo/Ganesh Shirsekar)
Employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) continued their strike for the 40th day on Monday, even as the bus operations resumed in 78 out of total 250 depots across the state, officials said. On Sunday, the corporation operated the highest 1,700 buses, out of its fleet of nearly 16,000 vehicles, since the strike intensified after the Diwali festival last month, a spokesperson of the MSRTC said.
A large number of the MSRTC employees have refused to relent, and are firm on their demand for the merger of the loss-making corporation with the state government. They went on the strike from October 28, and intensified it last month. Since most of the bus depots are shut, passengers have been facing a touch time. "The bus operations have resumed so far in 78 out of 250 depots," the MSRTC spokesperson said.
The Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who was accused of forging his caste certificate by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, visited the memorial of Dr B R Ambedkar here on Monday on the latter's death anniversary. Later, speaking to a news channel, Malik, without naming Wankhede, implied it is the impact of the fight he put up that "some people" have started coming to the 'Chaityabhoomi', the place where Ambedkar was cremated. Wankhede in October this year led a raid on a cruise ship and drugs were claimed to have been seized onboard. Actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and some other people are accused in the cruise drugs case.
President Ramnath Kovind will begin his four-day tour of Maharashtra with a visit to the historic Raigad Fort on Monday.
From December 3 to December 7, Raigad Fort, the ropeway, and its surrounding areas have also been closed for tourists.
Security has been tightened in the Raigad district in the backdrop of the visit and thousands of policemen including National Security Force commandos, State Reserve Force, Rapid Action Force personnel have been deployed in the region.
Kovind will be the second President of India to visit the fort after 1985.
NCP president Sharad Pawar on Sunday said Vinayak Damodar Savarkar held a scientific approach to Hinduism and was one of the earliest to promote temple entry reforms for Dalits.
“It was Savarkar who advocated the utility of cow meat and milk for human consumption. He was a rationalist. He approached the issue scientifically, which cannot be undermined.” Pawar said in his address on the concluding day of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Nashik.
His remarks came a day after Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP would not have anything to do with the sammelan as there was no mention of Savarkar in the programme.
Mumbai on Sunday reported 213 fresh coronavirus positive cases and one fatality, taking the tally to 7,63,835 and the toll to 16,349, the city civic body said. A total of 210 people were discharged during the day, which raised the cumulative number of recoveries in Mumbai to 7,43,115, the civic body said in a statement.
With 38,923 new tests, the number of samples tested so far in the financial capital went up to 1,26,15,225, it said. Mumbai's case recovery rate is 97 per cent. The case doubling rate is 3,055 days. In the last 24 hours, 1,469 high-risk contacts were traced in the metropolis. The number of such contacts in the COVID care centres is 531. The number of buildings sealed due to the prevalence of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai stands at 17.