The Bombay High Court will hear on Thursday a plea by Rutuja Ramesh Latke, the proposed candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction for the November 3 bypoll to the Andheri (East) Assembly constituency, seeking a direction to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to accept her resignation. (Twitter/@Rutuja_latke)Mumbai Live Updates: Bombay HC has asked the Mumbai civic body to accept the resignation of Rutuja Latke, proposed candidate of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction for Andheri East Assembly bypoll. The Bench directed the BMC to give a letter of acceptance of resignation to Latke by 11 am on Friday. Uddhav Thackeray welcomed the ruling, but lamented that “everything has to be taken to court in today’s time”.
Criminal cases have been registered against seven leaders from the Uddhav Thackeray camp of the Shiv Sena for allegedly making ‘offensive statements’ against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde during a rally. The cases were registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Vinayak Raut, Bhaskar Jadhav and Sushma Andhare among others, news agency PTI reported. The statements were allegedly made at Mahaprabhodan Yatra launched by ‘Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ at Thane on Sunday.
In other news, the Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) decision to allot two swords and shield symbol to the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has been touted by the party as a “repeat of historical events”, when the Sena used the symbol to contest the Thane Municipal Corporation polls and emerged as the winning party with the largest number of seats.
The plan will be available for sale from October 12 till the end of this month. (File Photo)
In a first step toward the restoration of Mahim fort, a grade I heritage structure, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Thursday began demolition of structures around the precinct.
This is for the first time since Independence that the fort’s restoration is being planned. The restoration is an extension of the BMC’s Mahim beach beautification project. Read more
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)' supporters celebrated after the Bombay High Court directed the Mumbai civic body to issue a letter of acceptance of the resignation to Rutuja Latke by Friday, 11 am.
The Maharashtra government will come out with a policy on the data centre business in a month's time, a senior official said.
The official said the state already has a comprehensive policy governing the information technology sector under which data centres currently operate, but given the very high growth in data centres and the policy lagging behind the industry, a need was felt to have a separate policy exclusively for the data centres business.
When asked about the timeline for the launch of such a policy, the official said the industries department under Uday Samant is taking the lead in the formulation of the policy and added that the document will come out in 30 days. (PTI)
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporate (MSRTC) on Thursday said it would run close to 1500 extra buses between October 21 and 31 to tide over the Diwali rush, PTI reported.
Of the 1,494 buses, 368 will be operated from MSRTC's Aurangabad division, followed by 358 from Pune, 274 from Nagpur, 228 from Mumbai, 195 from Nagpur and 71 from Amravati division.
Eight out of 11 major dams in Maharashtra's Marathwada region have now reached maximum water storage capacity, while the overall percentage of the 11 combined stood at 97.98 per cent, an official said.
Maximum storage capacity has been reached in Jayakwadi, Yeldari, Siddheshwar, Majalgaon, Penganga, Manar, Vishnupuri and Sina Kolegaon projects, while it is 75.05 per cent in Dudhna, 85.71 per cent in Manjara and 98.46 per cent in Nimna Terna. (PTI)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde inaugurated the four-day property exhibition at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) exhibition ground in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).
During the expo, Shinde asked the builders to construct more iconic buildings to maintain the city’s unique identity. Read more
A tiger that had killed 13 persons in three districts of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra over the past 10 months, was captured on Thursday by the forest department in Gadchiroli district of the state, an official said.
The tiger named ‘CT-1’ was moving in the Wadsa forest range in Gadchiroli and was becoming a threat to human lives, he said. Read more
Rutuja Latke has maintained that she will contest the bypoll on the Thackeray faction's 'mashaal' symbol. The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have pledged support to the 'Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray' party, making Latke the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate.
The last date for filing the nomination papers for the November 3 by-election is October 14. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Latke's husband and sitting MLA Ramesh Latke.
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During the hearing on Rutuja Latke's resignation from the BMC, the Bombay High Court told the BMC, "She (Latke) is your employee. You should be helping her out."
Latke's counsel Vishwajeet Sawant had told the court that she is a clerk and has no pending dues or enquiries.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Rutuja Latke said she will file the nomination as an Andheri East bypoll candidate as soon as she gets the resignation aceptance letter from the BMC, which has a deadline of Friday, 11 am for the same.
"I didn't want to go in the court and was expecting cooperation from the BMC. But with no option left, I had go to to court. I had faith in the judiciary and I have got justice and relief. I will contest election from the Shiv Sena only," she said.
Following the Bombay High Court direction to BMC to give a letter of resignation acceptance to Rutuja Latke, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Anil Parab said it was "unfotunate that they had to approach the court in the matter.
"All the procedures were followed by Latke while resigning. all the documents were clear and there was no pending inquiry against her. But the BMC still did not accept the resignation. It is unfortunate that we had to approach the HC to get a relief in this issue," he said.
Parab also said that Latke will file the nomination for the Andheri East bypoll on Friday and also appealed BJP to let the election take place unopposed. "There has been a tradition of Maharashtra that if any legislator dies, then the opposition doesn't field its candidate there and the family member of the legislator gets elected from the constituency unopposed. I still feel that the BJP should not field it's candidate for bypoll and should continue the tradition," he said.
Speaking at a function held on the occasion of Chhagan Bhujbal's birthday, NCP leader ajit Pawar said, "Some miscreants wanted to create hurdles in Dussehra rally but court granted Shivaji Park. And today again, the court has directed the BMC to accept the resignation and let the candidate (Rutuja Latke) contest election."
Arguing on behalf of Rutuja Latke, her lawyer cited the example of Hemangi Worlikar's resignation in 2012.
"In 2012, BMC had permitted one of their employees, Hemangi Worlikar, to resign without completing the full one-month notice period and contest the municipal election, by accepting her notice pay. There was no reasoned order unlike what BMC lawyer is saying now. No special reason was given then and it was accepted in shorter duration. The BMC conduct is evidence of malafide and perversity. They are not supposed to be parisan and they are not assisting political drama happening outside and they should not take political sides," Advocate Sawant said.
Days after the Election Commission allotted new names and symbols to the Shiv Sena factions led by CM Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray, the latter alleged bias in a letter to the EC.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), in its letter to EC, stated, "Several communications and actions of the EC have given rise to a serious apprehension of bias in the mind of the respondent (Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray)."
The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police this month arrested Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit and Arif Shaikh alias Arif Bhaijaan, both brothers-in-law of fugitive gangster Chhota Shakeel.
Who are Arif Bhaijaan and Salim Fruit? Why have they been placed under arrest in multiple cases by various agencies? What has their interrogation revealed about D-Company operations in Mumbai? Read here
While many in the city are hoping for a respite from rains, the city has till October 11 received 117 millimetres (mm) of rain as compared to the average of 89 mm rain that Mumbai gets for the entire month.
Unlike the past few years, Mumbai has seen high-intensity rainfall this October.
Read the full story here
In 1997, a 58-year-old woman was found murdered in her house at Sion and the investigation hit a dead end with no clues.
Sixteen years later, the Mumbai police solved the case after they came to know that one of the killers had made a statue of the victim and was conducting rituals on the advice of a priest as he was having sleepless nights. Read more
After monsoon-related ailments like dengue and malaria, the cases of conjunctivitis have surged drastically in the last two weeks. The doctors attribute it to the changing weather.
The patients with pink and watery eyes are flocking to the OPDs of hospitals. Read more
ONLY ABOUT 30 per cent of the calls to the Mumbai Fire Brigade are related to fire incidents in the city, said Hemant Parab, Chief Fire Officer.
While about 40 per cent are calls for rescue, such as in the case of a drowning incidents, during floods, tree collapses, and bird and animal rescue, 2-3 per cent of the calls are house collapse calls each year, the remainder calls are in case of various incidents, such as, in case of road and rail incidents, oil spillages, chemical spillages, and natural disasters, such as cyclones. Read more
THE MUMBAI Metro Line 2A (Dahisar to DN Nagar) and Line 7 (Dahisar East to Andheri East) have cleared the RDSO (Research Designs and Standards Organisation) testing and will now undergo testing for signalling, according to an MMRDA official. Read more