Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. Express Photo by Amit ChakravartyMumbai News Live Updates: A day after the Maharashtra government announced reduction in VAT on petrol and diesel, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Monday termed it as “absolute cheating” and said the ruling dispensation in the state should immediately slash the fuel prices without “fooling the people” anymore. The reduction in price as claimed by the state government is a natural result of the Centre’s decision to cut down excise duty on fuel, Fadnavis said in a series of tweets.
On the weather front, Mumbai received light rains on Monday night, bringing in some relief from the heat. As per the 24 hours forecast, Mumbai is likely to witness generally cloudy skies today, with the possibility of light rain or drizzle in the evening or night. The city is also likely to record its first pre-monsoon showers of the season this week.
Meanwhile, in the wake of monkeypox cases reported from some countries, the Mumbai civic body has kept a 28-bed ward ready at the Kasturba Hospital here for the isolation of suspected patients, officials said on Monday. As on date, there has been no report of any suspected or confirmed case of Monkeypox in the city, an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) public health department said. In an advisory issued about the viral zoonotic disease, the BMC said airport authorities are screening passengers coming from the endemic and non-endemic countries showing outbreaks.
To improve the quality of roads, the BMC is focusing more on construction of cement concrete roads. (File)
As per the 24 hours forecast, Mumbai is likely to witness generally cloudy skies today, with the possibility of light rain or drizzle in the evening or night.
According to the seven-day forecast, Mumbai is likely to record its first pre-monsoon showers of the season this week. While cloudy skies are expected for most of the week, rain and thunderstorms are likely on May 28 and 29.
Mumbai received light rains on Monday night, bringing in some relief from the heat. According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Colaba observatory, 3.4 mm of rainfall, categorised as light rain, was recorded overnight. The city is likely to receive more light showers this week.
However, the humidity levels increase due to the light rains. At IMD’s Santacruz observatory (representative of the city), relative humidity on Tuesday morning was at 71 per cent. At Colaba, it was 87 per cent. The relative humidity is 90 and above during the monsoon season.
Male tiger Waghdoha, also one of the oldest inhabitants of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), was found dead on Monday morning.
Bandu Dhotre, honorary wildlife warden of TATR, said, “It was one of the oldest tigers of Tadoba. It spent its youth in the core area of TATR, then moved to buffer, then to territorial forest and finally, to a forest area belonging to Forest Development Corporation which was closer to Chandrapur. It was one of the best examples of how a tiger migrates as its strength wanes and conflicts with stronger tigers increase.”
Environemnt studies will no longer be just a subject in the civic schools of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC). Based on the concept of schools in the Netherlands, the NMMC has decided to develop green schools where structural and other changes will be implemented to teach environmental safety through example. The civic body aims to introduce an environment-friendly way of life to children through this initiative.
The NMMC will identify four schools where a pilot project will begin from the academic year commencing in June. Projects such as solar energy, composting, water harvesting and recycling of waste will be set up in these schools.
After the Congress’s recent three-day Chintan Shivir in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the state unit of the party is planning a two-day state-level camp beginning June 1. The decision was taken at a meeting at state party headquarters in Mumbai on Monday in the presence of AICC secretary in charge of the state, H K Patil, Pradesh Election Officer and former Union minister Pallam Raju, and under the chairmanship of state unit president Nana Patole.
Others in attendance were legislative party leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan, former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan, Women and Child Welfare Minister Yashomati Thakur, Fisheries Conservation Minister Aslam Sheikh, Tribal Development Minister K C Padvi, Minister of State Dr Vishwajit Kadam, and former state president Manikrao Thackeray.
In the wake of monkeypox cases reported from some countries, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has kept a separate 28-bed ward ready at the Kasturba Hospital for the isolation of suspected patients, officials said on Monday.To date, there has been no report of any suspected or confirmed case of the viral zoonotic disease in Mumbai, according to officials of the corporation’s public health department.
The World Health Organisation has recorded more than 90 monkeypox cases in a dozen countries including Britain, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the US and Australia.
The centralised admission process for the first year of junior college (FYJC) in Maharashtra will begin in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Amravati and Nagpur on May 30 with the online registration stage. From this day, students seeking FYJC (class 11) admissions will be able to begin their online registration process which is part-I of the form and part-II of the form will be opened after the declaration of class 10 results.
This will be to complete the FYJC admissions of the batch currently awaiting their class 10 results, for the academic year 2022-23.
The mock round of the process aimed at providing candidates with a practice finally began on Monday and will continue till May 29. Students can log on to 11thadmission.org.in and select the city where they seek admission. Read More
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya’s wife, Medha, has filed a defamation suit against Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut in the Bombay High Court, seeking damages of Rs 100 crore.
Medha, who is a professor of organic chemistry, has sought an unconditional apology and a permanent injunction against Raut, restraining him from publishing, circulating or printing material defamatory to her, in the future.
Her plea before the court states on April 12, she came across an article in Sena’s mouthpiece, newspaper ‘Saamna’ accusing the Somaiyas of a “toilet scam” in the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation. She said that the allegations in the article and other media after the publishing of the story in ‘Saamna’ are without proof and with an intention to malign her reputation. Read More
Senior Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi has claimed MNS chief Raj Thackeray deferred his Ayodhya visit as he got scared and that the latter would not go to the Uttar Pradesh city as he "does not have guts".
Also, Thackeray's comment about his surgery scheduled soon was only an excuse to defer the Ayodhya visit, Azmi, who is the Maharashtra SP chief, told reporters in Pune on Sunday.
He said Thackeray's party had in the past allegedly staged violent protests against north Indians in Maharashtra and the "hatred sown by him was being answered with hatred". (PTI)
The Maharashtra Congress held a meeting with its extended executive committee on Monday at the Tilak Bhav in Dadar in the presence of state in-charge H K Patil and under the chairmanship of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Nana Patole.
The centralised admission process for the first year of junior college (FYJC) in Maharashtra will begin in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Amravati and Nagpur from May 30 with the online registration stage. From this day, students seeking FYJC (class 11) admissions will be able to begin their online registration process which is part I of the form and part II of the form will be opened after the declaration of class 10 results.
This will be to complete FYJC admissions of the batch currently awaiting their class 10 results for the academic year 2022-23.
The mock round of the process aimed at providing candidates with a practice finally began on Monday and will continue till May 29. Students can log on to 11thadmission.org.in and select the city where they seek admission. Read more
The Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) will meet Monday afternoon to discuss strategy related to Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati’s candidature for the sixth Rajya Sabha seat as an independent candidate from the state.
Though MKM does not have any representation in state assembly, with Marathas constituting 30 per cent of the state population, it influences Maratha politics in Maharashtra. The MKM wants all political parties, including Shiv Sena, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and BJP, to support Sambhajiraje’s candidature.
“Shiv Sena’s move to pressurise Sambhajiraje to join their party if he wants support for Rajya Sabha seat has not gone well with MKM. It is being perceived as blackmail,” an MKM coordinator said. Read more
Parts of the island city and eastern suburb will face water supply cut from May 24 to May 27.
According to an official from Hydraulic Engineering (HE) department, due to maintenance work scheduled at Pise Panjarapur Water Complex, areas like Fort, Colaba, Dongari, Byculla, Parel, and Sion in Mumbai, and Kurla, Govandi, Mankhurd, Chembur, Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulund in the eastern suburbs will face 5 per cent water supply cut from 11 am to 3 pm between Tuesday to Friday.
Light rain/drizzle is forecast for Mumbai.
In the last 24 hours trace rainfall was recorded in the suburbs. While cloudy skies are forecast for most of the week, rain and thunderstorms are likely in the city over the weekend.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Monday said there is no possibility of a fourth wave of Covid-19 looking at the current situation. Talking to reporters, Tope said nearly 200 to 250 cases were being reported in the state everyday and there was not much increase in these numbers.
"The Covid-19 recovery rate is very good and Maharashtra has seen very good vaccination results. Hence, I feel that in the present situation, there is no possibility of a fourth wave (of the viral infection)," the minister said.
On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 326 Covid-19 cases, taking the state's tally to 78,82,802, while the death toll stood at 1,47,856 as no fresh fatality was recorded. (PTI)
With no land for Metro car shed, delay in the civil and electric work and no sign of commencement of trial run soon, the Mumbaikars will have to wait at least 2024 for the first underground Metro line 3 Colaba-SEEPZ-Bandra corridor.
The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), which is executing the much-delayed Metro 3 line, said they are now aiming to complete the work of the first phase of Metro corridor on Bandra-SEEPZ by January 2024 and it will take six more months to start Phase-1, that too only if the Metro car shed land issue is sorted out within three months.
The initial deadline for completion of the work was 2021. However, it seems that it’s not just the issue of car shed that is delaying the work, but other work have also been delayed and the first underground Metro will be ready for the public only after 2024. Read more
Even after 10 months of retirement, Dr Shashikala Vanjari, former Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the SNDT University is struggling to obtain her pension. Caught in red tape, Dr Vanjari, who headed the prestigious women’s university for five years currently finds herself coordinating with offices to complete her pension approval process.
“In July, it will be a full year since my retirement. But I am still waiting for my pension to start. Financial loss is one thing, but the amount of mental stress and humiliation it has caused me is unimaginable. This delay is unexpected and showcases the importance given to a VC of a women’s university,” said Dr Vanjari who has been coordinating with the Joint Director (JD) offices of Mumbai and Nagpur along with the registrar office at the SNDT university to complete her pension approval process. Read more
Mohd Tarique, founder and director of Koshish, a field action project started by Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a member of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee for the shelters for urban homeless talks to The Indian Express on the need to do away with the draconian Beggary Act and the need to create shelter homes for homeless in the state of Maharashtra. Read the interview here
Public libraries in Maharashtra have been in dire straits for a while now and the staff working there a first-hand witness to their decline. In 2012, Maharashtra had 12,861 registered public libraries. Over the last decade, more than 712 of these libraries have shut down due to various reasons, including lack of funding and resources.
Under such circumstances, the state government’s recent announcement of setting up a “Village of Books” in each district has left many asking how the authorities plan to go about their motive to “nurture reading culture in today’s time” when little is being done to bring several already existing libraries back from the verge of closure. Read more
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates from Mumbai, Maharashtra.