An Air India Express Flight IX 1202, carrying 183 Indians evacuated from Ukraine, landed in Mumbai around 5.30 am. (Twitter/PIBMumbai)Mumbai News Live: A flight from Bucharest carrying 183 Indians, including an infant, stranded in Ukraine landed in Mumbai Thursday, an official said. Union minister Raosaheb Danve welcomed passengers of the third evacuation flight from Bucharest to Mumbai, as soon as the Air India Express Flight IX 1202 landed around 5.30 am. This was the second evacuation flight operated to Mumbai from Bucharest to bring back Indians from war-ravaged Ukraine since February 27.
Yash Pal, 20-year-old medical student from Thane, was to leave Kyiv for India on February 24 but was stuck at the airport as Russia invaded Ukraine the next day. After reaching India on Tuesday morning, Pal told The Indian Express that he had to travel 600 kilometres, which included walking alone from the Kyiv airport to the Indian embassy in the city, to get out of war-hit Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Mumbai on Wednesday reported 100 Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 10,56,649, while the death toll remained unchanged at 16,691 for the sixth consecutive day. An official said the caseload doubling time was 5,405 days, adding that the city currently did not have any containment zone or sealed building.
Amid sloganeering by the Opposition, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari left the state legislature's central hall without completing his address to the joint session of both Houses.
Raj Bhavan sources told The Indian Express said that Governor's speech covered 72 points and he could just speak on the first two points and the last one. Sources said that he was to speak for 30 minutes and had to wind up in around two minutes.
Ahead of the Budget session, BJP legislators also staged a protest on steps of the Vidhan Bhavan against the state government's decision not to remove minister Nawab Malik from his post. Last week, the Enforcement Directorate arrested state Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file within March 7 its reply to the habeas corpus plea by NCP leader and state cabinet minister Nawab Malik, who was held in connection with a case of alleged money laundering and “active involvement in terror funding” linked to a land deal in 1999 with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister. Malik challenged his arrest and sought his immediate release.
The court in its order noted, “Any subsequent remand if granted, the same shall be without prejudice to rights and contentions of both parties.” Read more
Akanksha Singh, a fourth-year medical student at Ternopil National Medical University, who returned from Mumbai via the evacuation flight, said that the government should have acted to first evacuate students from the most-affected places like Kyiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.
"The advisory to Indians to leave by 6 pm came suddenly. We were in places which were safer and could've been evacuated later, we could've gone to the border ourselves too. But in those cities, there was no facilities for them to reach the border. A lot of Indian students are still stuck there," Singh told The Indian Express.
She further said there was lack of crowd control measures at the border crossing, which led to a some being injured when things got out of control. "Some even suffered from hypothermia, some fainted. But, all the difficulties were till the border. From there it was like moving from hell to heaven. We made it and the happiness was incomparable," she added.
Himantika, a student of the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University in Ukraine, was one of the Indians who reached Mumbai on Thursday following evacuation from the war-torn country.
"We took a bus on February 26 and undertook a journey for 4-5 days. The toughest part was to cross the border amid the panic. Polish people were really helpful, but at the border, the Russians were stopping us. They were the worst five days of my life. Temperature was minus 2 degrees at night and it took me 14-15 hours to cross the border. There were no camps. Only coffee was available and we were sleeping on the floor," she recounts.
Himantika further saud the situation was not organised on border, because of which one of her friends was left behind.
Dispensaries operated by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are set to get a major upgrade in April, with addition of in-house diagnostic centres, tele-medicine facilities and visits from super specialists from major hospitals.
The transformation of these civic-run dispensaries, which are presently lying in a neglected state, is part of the BMC’s plan to establish nearly 100 polyclinics and diagnostic centres. As part of a pilot initiative, 10 upgraded dispensaries will be functional by April. Read more
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was handed over the probe into the Cordelia drug raid case is likely to file a chargesheet in the case by the end of this month. In the chargesheet, it will be clear if the central agency will charge all the 20 people arrested in the case, including Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan
An NCB officer said that with the first arrests in the case made on October 2, last year, the six-month period that the agency has for filing the chargesheet will be over by March end. Read more
The Bombay High Court expressed displeasure over a Maharashtra government decision to continue to bar unvaccinated and partially vaccinated passengers from public transport, and lamented that the government did not “respect” the sentiments expressed by the court when it had first heard petitions challenging the vaccine mandates for local trains, malls and workplaces in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
“It is very unfortunate. You are insisting everyone should get vaccinated. There is no question of personal choice available? You create a situation where the public have to take vaccines, or otherwise they are deprived of these facilities,” said Chief Justice Dipankar Datta. Read more
Rajlaxmi Prajapati, a Class III student from Ashokwan civic school in Dahisar bit her tongue after realising that she had missed a line in the national pledge during the morning assembly at her school. Whereas Rohan Jain, a Class V student of CNM School in Vileparle, was most excited about being able to play at the school playground with his friends.
As schools in the city resumed normalcy from Wednesday, the old hustle-bustle was back with a full day timetable, including recess-break, sports and other activities. Read more
The Maharashtra government has further eased Covid-19 restrictions, allowing shopping complexes, restaurants, cinema and theatre halls in 14 districts, including Mumbai, to operate at 100% capacity. However, the state government said unvaccinated persons will still not be allowed to use public modes of transport like trains and buses.
For those fully vaccinated against Covid-19, there will be no restrictions for inter-state and intra-state movement. However, if someone is not fully vaccinated, the person has to get a negative Covid (RT-PCR) report of a test taken in a 72-hour span before inter-state travel. Read more