The total cases now stand at 22,27,506. (Express)Mumbai, Maharashtra Highlights: Maharashtra on Sunday reported 1,437 fresh Covid-19 cases and six deaths. Taking the state’s tally to 78,58,431. Mumbai logged 293 cases and two deaths. The total cases now stand at 22,27,506.
Mumbai recorded one death due to Covid-19 for the second consecutive day on Saturday. The state capital recorded a single death due to the infection on Friday after seeing zero Covid-19 deaths for three days in a row. The city saw 201 new cases on Saturday. Out of the 36,833 tests conducted, 201 were detected with Covid-19. The test positivity rate (TPR) — the number of positive cases out of the total tests conducted — stood at 0.54 per cent.
Meanwhile, after hitting Vehloli in Shahapur tehsil of Thane district, bird flu has now spread to Agashi and Vatar areas of Vasai Taluka in Palghar district, officials said. In other news, the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) on Saturday began the statutory inspection of the delayed Phase 1 of Mumbai Metro corridors 2A and 7 between Dahanukarwadi and Aarey, a stretch of 20 km in the western suburbs. Also, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planned construction of a link road connecting Dahisar and Bhayander in order to reduce the traffic at Dahisar check naka.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Saturday alleged that a director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made benami investments in a Rs 260-crore project in Palghar “being built by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya’s son”. Somaiya’s wife is a director in the project, he added. Raut further alleged that central investigative agency offices in Mumbai are being used for extortion and that the “Sena would expose the biggest scam of the ED” in the next week.
Navi Mumbai: People celebrate the 392nd birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Maharaja Chowk in Vashi, in Navi Mumbai, Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022. (PTI Photo)
Maharashtra on Sunday reported 1,437 fresh COVID-19 cases and six deaths due to the infection, taking the state's tally to 78,58,431 and the toll to 1,43,582, an official said.
The discharge of 3,375 people during the day took the recovery count in Maharashtra to 76,94,439, which is 97.91 per cent of the caseload, leaving the state with 16,422 active cases, he said.
With 1,02,856 samples being examined on Sunday, the number of tests in Maharashtra has gone up to 7,72 32,001, the official added. (PTI)
Maharashtra government’s Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department has decided to digitise 1,000 classrooms of 500 government Ashram Schools across the state and convert them into smart schools and classrooms.
The Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department is setting up a project to create technology-based facilities in the Ashram schools in order to impart quality education to students from underprivileged communities.
The Department is planning to explore providing solutions like ‘Robotics Kit’ and ‘TabLab’ solutions, a tablet based plug and play digital learning lab custom designed for government schools. Read more
NCP president Sharad Pawar on Sunday stressed the need for all like-minded parties to join hands to resolve various issues like hunger, poverty, unemployment and the agrarian crisis facing the country after Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao called on him at his residence here.
Pawar told reporters that Telangana had taken good steps for the welfare of farmers which were a model for the rest of the country.
Rao travelled to Silver Oak, the south Mumbai resident of Pawar, after meeting Shiv Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's official residence 'Varsha' in the afternoon. (PTI)
The Mumbai Police have arrested four persons, including three robbers who used to steal expensive mobile phones, laptops and other valuable items by targetting women and senior citizens living in housing societies in Kalina area, an official said on Sunday.
One of the four accused arrested by police is a mobile phone shop owner, identified as Dinesh Madhvi, who used to buy stolen phones from the gang and resale them by changing their IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers.
The other three arrested accused are identified as Sukhvinder Bhatia alias Raja, Jackysingh Bhakad alias Adu, and Akshay Bhatti. With their arrest, the police in Versova has solved at least two cases of robbery and recovered stolen mobile phones and a laptop, the official said. (PTI)
Change is the need of the hour, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray said after the two leaders met here on Sunday as part of efforts to bring together like-minded parties against the BJP at the national level.
After a two-hour meeting at 'Varsha', the official residence of Maharashtra CM, the two leaders addressed a press conference where Rao said this is a "good beginning" and that they will meet again after speaking to leaders of other regional and national parties.
Those present in the meeting included Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, party's spokesperson Arvind Sawant, state ministers Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai and Additional Chief Secretary in the CM's office Ashish Kumar Singh. Uddhav Thackeray's younger son Tejas Thackeray was also seen in pictures released by the Chief Minister's Office. (PTI)
Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao along with the delegation called on Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's official residence Varsha in Mumbai.
The first garden for the disabled in India has been constructed at Thane Naupada with the funds of Thane BJP MP Vinayak Sahastrabuddhe. The garden was inaugurated by Maharashtra Opposition Leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday.
Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya appeared before the Mumbai Police on Sunday in connection with an FIR registered against him for alleged violation of COVID-19 norms, an official said. The FIR was registered at suburban Santacruz police station in September last year under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), and the police had issued summons to the BJP leader on Monday to appear before them within 15 days.
On Sunday, Somaiya reached the Santacruz police station where a copy of the FIR was provided to him. He was asked to file his response within 14 days, the police official said. Somaiya has been targeting some leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA-comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) in Maharashtra and has accused them of wrongdoings. The police had registered the FIR against Somaiya last year after he visited state minister Chhagan Bhujbal's bungalow in Hasnabad lane of Santacruz (West).
Somaiya had on Thursday tweeted the summons copy and said the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government/police had registered one more case against him for visiting Bhujbal's 'benami' property in Santacruz. (PTI)
The Gadchiroli police have busted a supply chain of material used by Naxals to make explosives and arrested four supporters of the ultras here in Maharashtra, police said on Sunday. Based on inputs, an anti-Naxal operation was carried out on Saturday during which a gang of Naxal supporters transporting such material was intercepted in Bhangarampetha village under Damrancha police limits, they said.
The police recovered 10 bundles of cordex wire measuring 3,500 metre in length and nabbed four suspects, while another person managed to escape, the Gadchiroli police said in a release. The gang was transporting the wire bundles from Telangana to Chhattisgarh, it said, adding that such material is widely used by Naxals in making barrel grenade launchers, hand grenades and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
According to police, Naxals were planning an extensive use of explosives during their forthcoming tactical counter-offensive campaign (TCOC), which the rebels hold every year when they contact locals, recruit youth, provide them training and launch attacks on security forces. Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police Ankit Goyal lauded the personnel involved in busting the Naxal supply chain. (PTI)
A naval museum will be set up near the Durgadi Fort in Kalyan town of Maharashtra's Thane district with an aim to attract tourists, officials said on Sunday. It will be the state's first naval museum, a spokesperson of the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) claimed in a release.
The museum will in the shape of a ship and will showcase the naval history, from the period of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and development thereafter, the civic body said. The foundation for the mega project under the Smart City development programme was laid by state Tourism and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray during a function on Thursday.
According to the release, the KDMC also plans to develop the Ulhas river front from the Durgadi Fort to Gandhari village for recreational activities and the project is scheduled to be completed within three years. The project includes development of a jogging track, cycle track, walkway/pathway and a promenade, it added. (PTI)
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning to connect an under construction Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) Road with the Mumbai-Pune Expressway to reduce the travel time between Mumbai and Pune.
The authority is now seeking a consultant, who will prepare a detailed project report of it and will decide on the suitable linkage for it. The plan was almost a decade old, however, it could not get implemented due to the delay in the MTHL. Read more
The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) on Saturday began the statutory inspection of the delayed Phase 1 of Mumbai Metro corridors 2A and 7 between Dahanukarwadi and Aarey, a stretch of 20 km in the western suburbs. The CMRS team arrived in the city on Friday to start the inspection, which is a routine procedure before the metro line can be started. A mandatory and necessary clearance of the CMRS is needed to begin commercial operation of the service. Read more
Thane police have registered an FIR against Narcotics Control Bureau's former Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede for alleged forgery in connection with a licence which he had procured for a bar and hotel owned by him in Navi Mumbai, an official said on Sunday. District Collector Rajesh Narvekar had recently cancelled the licence, claiming it was obtained by misrepresentation and fraud.
An FIR was registered against Wankhede on Saturday night at Kopri police station here for the offence of forgery following a complaint by state Excise officials, Thane Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone V) Dr Vinaykumar Rathod said. Notably, Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik in November last year claimed Wankhede owned a permit room and bar at Vashi in Navi Mumbai, the licence for which was obtained in 1997 when he was a minor, and that this was illegal.
Malik had also said that despite being in a government job, Wankhede held a licence to operate the permit room which was against service rules. Wankhede had then denied the minister's claims. The state Excise department had subsequently issued a notice to Wankhede in connection with the bar licence obtained by him. (PTI)
The traffic snarls at Dahisar check naka will soon be a thing of the past as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planned construction of the link road connecting Dahisar and Bhayander.
Additional Commissioner P Velrasu of the BMC said, “A week ago, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has agreed in principle to hand over the Dahisar stretch of the coastal road. This will connect the Dahisar with Bhayander and will be a bypass from the western express highway. We are doing a detailed project report now and will try to float the tender before the code of conduct for the civic polls is announced. This road is 5-km long and nearly 2-km of it will pass through the salt commissioner’s land. We will start the process of acquiring land soon.” Read more
Perched on the edge of Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, is a 37-acre sprawling forest park, the Maharashtra Nature Park. Highlighting the alarming shortage of green cover, the Maharashtra Nature Park is the only such space available in the congested and populated slum-settlement in Mumbai. After 12 years of effort, the biggest garbage dumping yard was turned into a gorgeous forest park with a large eco-system, and a blanket of nearly 14,000 trees, 300 varieties of plants and herbs in 1994. Read more
Two police officers have been arrested while another police inspector is wanted in an extortion and robbery case that was registered against them by the Additional Commissioner of Police Dilip Sawant (south region).
Police said that the three officers illegally detained some Angadia businessmen from the Bhuleshwar area in south Mumbai for four days and extorted money under the pretext of taking action against them as they also threatened to inform the Income Tax department about their business transactions. Read more
A two-storey building, with 111 toilet seats, shower rooms, washing machines, cold and hot water dispensers, sanitary napkin vending machines, and night-time facilities, the 6,000 sq ft ‘Suvidha Centre’ inaugurated by Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray in Dharavi on February 9 is being touted as one of the largest public toilet blocks in the country.
It’s not that what impresses Soni, but two other crucial features – that the toilet block is “well-lit” and “secure”. Born, raised and married in this Mumbai slum, and now in her 20s, Soni knows the value of both, having spent a lifetime queuing up outside community toilets every morning, mostly drawing water for use from large drums. Read more
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Saturday alleged that a director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made benami investments in a Rs 260-crore project in Palghar “being built by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya’s son”. Somaiya’s wife is a director in the project, he added. Raut further alleged that central investigative agency offices in Mumbai are being used for extortion and that the “Sena would expose the biggest scam of the ED” in the next week.
“In Palghar’s Vevoor, a big project worth Rs 260 crore is going on. It is going in the name of Kirit Somaiya’s son and Somaiya’s wife is a director in it. How much money in the Rs 260-crore project belongs to a joint director in ED? This is a benami property of an ED director. Where do they get such large sums of money? The central investigative agency offices in Mumbai have been converted into extortion centres. There is a criminal syndicate and the Sena will expose it,” said Raut while speaking to media persons. Read more
After hitting Vehloli in Shahapur tehsil of Thane district, bird flu has now spread to Agashi and Vatar areas of Vasai Taluka in Palghar district, officials said. The development was confirmed after results of samples sent to National Institute of High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal were received during the late night hours of Friday. The results of the samples of poultry, including turkey and quails, from Agashi and Vatar of Vasai Taluka were found positive for H5N1 strain. Read more
Taking cognisance of cases of tiger-human conflict in Chandrapur, the state forest department has begun work on translocating tigers from the conflict zone. A translocation plan will be ready by next week, said a forest department official. After a contractual worker of the Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station (CSTPS) was killed in a tiger attack earlier this week, locals and workers staged a protest demanding mitigation measures to be implemented.
The worker was attacked by the tiger when he was on his way home on a bicycle around 10:30 pm on Wednesday. Following the attack, the forest department intensified patrolling in the area and installed camera traps to identify the animal behind the attack. Read more