Amit Shah said that a committee of three ministers each from both states will be formed to discuss the controversial issues related to border dispute.Mumbai News Highlights: Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with Maharashtra and Karnataka Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Basavaraj Bommai respectively on the ongoing border dispute between the two states. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Shah said that both states have agreed to not stake claim on bordering areas until the Supreme court verdict in the case since the matter is before the judiciary.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh Wednesday withdrew a defamation suit filed against TV journalist Arnab Goswami and ARG Outlier Media which owns Republic TV. Singh had filed a defamation suit in 2021 against Goswami and the owners of Republic TV seeking damages of Rs 90,00,000 for allegedly defaming him.
Amid a row over the Maharashtra government’s decision to withdraw an award for the Marathi translation of alleged Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy’s memoir, three members of the award selection committee have resigned from the state Literature and Culture Board citing “insult of democratic procedures”.


Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with Maharashtra and Karnataka Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Basavaraj Bommai respectively on the ongoing border dispute between the two states. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Shah said that both states have agreed to not stake claim on bordering areas until the Supreme court verdict in the case since the matter is before the judiciary.
Shah also said that a committee of three ministers each from both states will be formed to discuss the controversial issues related to border dispute.
Shah appealed to Opposition to not politicise the issue. Fake Twitter accounts which fuelled the dispute between the two will be taken down and action will be taken.
A protest march organised by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on various issues, including remarks against Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, on December 17 in Mumbai will be a massive one, a Congress leader said.
Maharashtra Congress working president Naseem Khan told PTI the march will be taken out from near the JJ Hospital instead of Jijamata Udyan in Byculla in south Mumbai as scheduled earlier. He said the start point venue was changed to ensure Mumbaikars do not face any inconvenience.
Khan said lakhs of people will participate in the march, which will culminate at CSMT, a distance of 3.5 km from JJ Hospital. (PTI)
A man was arrested from Bihar for allegedly issuing death threats to Sharad Pawar because the NCP chief did not intervene after his wife eloped with an NCP worker in Pune, police said.
Narayan Soni (46) was on Wednesday brought to Mumbai and produced before a court, which remanded him in police custody for two days. Read more
A 73-year-old man from Mumbai looking for the customer care number of Tata Motors ended up losing Rs 4.06 lakh to cyber frauds after he dialled a fake number put up on the internet by the conmen.
An FIR was registered with the Gamdevi police station on Tuesday. The complainant told the police that he and his wife’s only source of income is his pension. Read more
The Maharashtra government will launch a distress helpline within the next 15 days for women in interfaith or intercaste marriages, Women and Child Development Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha said Wednesday.
“For women who are in distress, and who are in interfaith or intercaste marriages, can reach this helpline asking for any kind of help that is required, and the government will provide such help immediately,” Lodha said. Read more
A temporary employee with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s Pune office trusted with sensitive personal data of mobile users across the country has been arrested by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch (Unit VI) for allegedly selling it for as much as Rs 50000. Read more
Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh withdrew a defamation suit filed against TV journalist Arnab Goswami and ARG Outlier Media which owns Republic TV.
Additional sessions judge V D Kedar allowed the withdrawal but imposed a nominal cost of Rs 1,500 on Singh which will be paid to Goswami."It is not in dispute that due to filing of the suit the defendant has to engage an advocate. I feel cost needs to be imposed for withdrawal of the suit unconditionally," the judge said.
Singh had filed a defamation suit in 2021 against Goswami and the owners of Republic TV seeking damages of Rs 90,00,000 for allegedly defaming him. (PTI)
The Bombay High Court continued an interim stay till January 30 on orders issued by Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government on July 19 and 25 suspending development activities initiated during the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in rural areas, including that of the petitioner village panchayat.
The high court had ordered that pending hearing and final disposal of the writ plea, the operation, implementation and effect of the impugned orders by the state would be stayed till December 12.
The activities which were suspended by the government included those for which tenders were issued from April 1, 2021, but work orders were not given and also those wherein work orders were issued but the actual work had not begun. (Read More)
Amid a row over the Maharashtra government's decision to withdraw an award for the Marathi translation of alleged Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy's memoir, three members of the award selection committee have resigned from the state Literature and Culture Board citing "insult of democratic procedures".
The three authors - Dr Pradnya Daya Pawar, Neeraja and Heramb Kulkarni - were also members of the committee that selected the Marathi translation of Ghandy's book "Fractured Freedom: A Prison Memoir" for the Late Yashwantrao Chavan Literature Award 2021. However, the government not only withdrew the award, but also scrapped the award selection committee.
On December 6, the government's Marathi Language department had announced the award to Anagha Lele for her translation of Ghandy's book. But the decision came in for criticism on social media because of Ghandy's alleged Maoist links. (PTI)
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has prepared a pool of more than 100 personnel to man additional security counters expected to be handed over to it for easing the ongoing congestion at large airports of Delhi and Mumbai, official sources said Wednesday.
A senior CISF officer told PTI that the force has brought on board more than 100 personnel "over and above" its sanctioned strength at around 4,500 personnel at the Delhi and Mumbai airports each.
We can add a similar strength of more men and women personnel at other airports witnessing heavy footfall, he said. This move will continue till the upcoming holiday season due to Christmas and New Year celebrations, he said. (PTI)
The state Cabinet on Tuesday cleared the decision to implement Jalyukta Shivar 2.0.
As announced in the first Cabinet meeting of Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government, the pet project of Fadnavis has made a comeback. In October, The Indian Express had reported on the scheme.
Th 2.0 version will cater to around 5,000 villages, where technical works of water conservation, such as deepening and widening of water bodies, construction of small earthen dams and digging of farm ponds, will take place. The other component will deal with over 22,000 villages where water conservation works were carried out during 2014-19. (Read More)
Maharashtra has set up a panel on intercaste and interfaith marriages and leading it is Women and Child Development Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who was recently in the spot for triggering a political firestorm over comments on Shivaji.
The committee will gather detailed information about couples in such marriages and oversee district-level initiatives for women in such marriages who may be estranged from their maternal families so that assistance can be provided, if needed.
Lodha is a firebrand and is also known to be a quiet man who prefers to operate silently behind the scenes. A former Mumbai BJP chief, he was at the centre of a controversy when he compared Shivaji’s escape from Agra with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s move to break away from the Shiv Sena. He withdrew his remarks following an Opposition backlash. (Read More)
The Maharashtra government on Tuesday decided to restart the Chief Minister’s Fellowship programme, which was launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra in 2015, but discontinued by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in 2019. The programme will be restarted from the year 2023-24.
In a meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ office gave a presentation regarding the fellowship. A detailed programme regarding the implementation of the fellowship will be announced soon, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office said on Tuesday.
The fellowship will be a one-year programme, and renowned educational institutions will also participate in it, as per the statement. (Read More)
India Women vs Australia Women 3rd T20I (N) will take place at Brabourne stadium, Mumbai at 7 PM. India had defeated Australia in Super Over of their second T20I at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Sunday, levelling the five-match series 1-1.
Squads:
India Women Squad: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Radha Yadav, Anjali Sarvani, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sabbhineni Meghana, Harleen Deol, Yastika Bhatia
Australia Women Squad: Alyssa Healy(w/c), Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Phoebe Litchfield, Annabel Sutherland, Heather Graham, Alana King, Kim Garth, Megan Schutt, Grace Harris, Nicola Carey, Darcie Brown
The first meeting of the Development Working Group (DWG) under India’s G20 Presidency is currently underway in Mumbai. Members, Guest countries and invited International Organizations are attending the meeting in person. The three-day Development Working Group meeting will focus on G20 collective actions for accelerating progress on the SDGs, and support to developing countries in dealing with immediate concerns relating to food, fuel and fertiliser security.
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar Tuesday met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to discuss the Dr B R Ambedkar memorial project at Indu Mills in Mumbai.
Work on the B R Ambedkar memorial has already started, but Prakash Ambedkar has stressed the construction of an international study centre as part of the project along with a statue and an open park at the same venue in Dadar. He is the grandson of B R Ambedkar. (Read More)
Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena leader and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Shewale met President Droupadi Murmu and requested her to take cognisance of the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute.
The policeman who got injured while trying to extinguish the fire that broke out in the storeroom of Kherwadi police station in the Bandra area yesterday has succumbed to his injuries.
The Supreme Court was apprised by the Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena faction that it will seek reference of cases related to the Maharashtra political crisis to a seven-judge bench to have a relook of a 2016 judgment on powers of assembly speakers to deal with disqualification pleas.
In 2016, a five-judge constitution bench, while deciding the Nabam Rebia case, had held that the assembly speaker cannot proceed with a plea for disqualification of MLAs if a prior notice seeking removal of the speaker is pending decision in the House.
This decision had come to the rescue of rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, now the chief minister of Maharashtra, in the apex court on the ground of pendency of a notice for removal of assembly deputy speaker Narhari Sitaram Zariwal.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, while hearing a batch of pleas related to the Maharashtra political crisis triggered by the Shiv Sena's division, was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Thackeray faction, that he will be seeking reference of matters to a seven-judge bench to have a relook of the 2016 judgment in the Nabam Rebia case.
The Mumbai Police has registered a case in the death of a 59-year-old man, who allegedly threw himself in front of a moving bus in Andheri West.
The entire incident was recorded in a video that initially showed that the rear wheels of the bus ran over his leg. The video of the incident that apparently took place on December 6 made rounds of the Internet before it came to the police's notice.
The police has identified the deceased as Abdul Gaffar Ismail Sayyed, 59, who killed himself under the limits of DN Nagar Police Station in Andheri West. His body has been handed over to the family, the police said.
The Mumbai police have announced traffic restrictions in order to facilitate smooth traffic flow while making arrangements for participants of the G20 summit during their stay in the Grand Hyatt hotel in Kalina, Santacruz (east).
There will be parking restrictions on and no entry to certain roads and alternative routes have been provided as given below. These restrictions will be in place from Monday 12 am till Friday 4pm.
Read the full list of restrictions here
THE MAHARASTHRA Police on Monday said they will be providing an online link to their website for third gender persons to apply for police recruitment for the unarmed police posts of constables and constable drivers in the state police force from Tuesday. Read more
The 26th edition of the Techfest (December 16-18) – the annual science and technology festival of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay – is all set to be back offline after a gap of two years.
The festival, which is known to put on display a host of technological innovations, will also have a separate line-up of prototypes of innovations designed by school-going kids this year. Titled ‘The Young Innovators’ – this segment of the fest is being organised in collaboration with the NITI Aayog. Read more
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused an urgent hearing on a plea by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former minister Nawab Malik, who has challenged the November 30 special court order rejecting his bail plea.
Malik was arrested in February by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case registered over a property called Goawala compound in Kurla, linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Read more
At the Town Hall hosted by The Indian Express, Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking General Manager Lokesh Chandra speaks about his plans for augmenting the BEST bus fleet in Mumbai and steps to improve passenger comfort.
Read the full interview here
Two months after Irfan Bilakhya, a businessman from south Mumbai, was arrested for allegedly crashing his Creta car on the Bandra Worli sea link that killed five persons and injured nine others, the Worli police have submitted a 175-page chargesheet against him at Bhoiwada court. Police said the forensic department has handed them Bilakhya’s blood report and that at the time of accident, he was not driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Police added that they have charged Bilakhya with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and have dropped the less serious section of negligence. Read more
The Mumbai unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Tuesday said it has registered over one lakh new members in the last one month as part of its membership drive.
Notably, ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections early next year, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has launched an enrolment drive to shore up its support base in the Maharashtra capital. The membership drive is called ‘Mumbai Mein Bhi Kejriwal’. Read more
he Maharashtra government has withdrawn an award given to a Marathi translation of the memoir of alleged Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy.
On December 6, the government's Marathi Language department announced the Late Yashwantrao Chavan Literature Award 2021 for Anagha Lele for her translation of Ghandy's "Fractured Freedom: A Prison Memoir." The decision came in for criticism on social media because of Ghandy's alleged Maoist links.
A Government Resolution (order) issued on Monday stated that the decision of the selection committee had been reversed for "administrative reasons", and the award, which included cash prize of Rs one lakh, has been withdrawn.
The committee too has been scrapped, the GR added. (PTI)
Express Photos by Amit Chakravarty
An unidentified person called up NCP President Sharad Pawar's residence at Silver Oak & threatened to kill him. A case has been registered against an unidentified person. Police registered a case under section 294,506(2) of IPC and started further investigation said Mumbai Police.
Satish Raut, Secretary to Sharad Pawar has written to Mumbai police commissioner about abusive calls to Pawar's residence. The person Narayan Soni has been calling for many days and in the past complaint has also been registered. Upon tracing Soni, it was found that the person has lost his mental balance.
However, Raut has now requested Mumbai CP to take action on Soni as calls continue to harass staff at Pawar's residence.
The Bombay High Court on Monday issued notice to National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking its response to the regular bail plea filed by Elgaar Parishad accused Gautam Navlakha.
Navlakha had last month approached the High Court with an appeal challenging a special NIA court’s order that rejected his bail application in September this year. He was arrested on April 14, 2020 after he surrendered in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case.
A division bench of Justice Ajey S Gadkari and Justice Prakash D Naik issued notice to the NIA and said that the plea will be heard in due course. (Read More)
A DAY ahead of the first meeting of the Development Working Group (DWG) during India’s G20 Presidency to be held in Mumbai, India Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Monday raised concerns over the city’s poor air quality index (AQI) and stressed upon the need to have long-term measures to improve it.
Over the past week, Mumbai had been recording AQI over 300. On Monday the city recorded an AQI of 225, which falls under the poor category.
Addressing a press conference before the first DWG meeting to be held in the city from December 13 -16, Kant said the poor air quality of Mumbai is on account of emissions from oil refineries and the issue has been discussed with the secretary of Union petroleum ministry. (Read More)
TWO CO-OPERATIVE sugar mills, each controlled by a Maharashtra minister and a BJP MLA, will get Rs 16.13 crore and Rs 17.93 crore respectively from the state’s cooperation department to increase their crushing capacity from 1250 MT per day to 2,500 MR per day.
Loknete Balasaheb Desai cooperative sugar mill at Patan in Satara district, controlled by Excise Minister and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde loyalist Shambhuraj Desai, and Shetkari cooperative sugar mill from Ausa in Latur district, which presently is controlled by BJP MLA Abhimanyu Pawar, are two beneficiaries for which the state government will collectively provide share capital worth Rs 34.06 crore. The Latur mill is presently 0non-functional and according to Pawar, the government share capital will be made available for capacity increase once the mill starts running. The government order in this regard was issued on December 9. (Read More)
FOLLOWING THE subsequent poor air quality days in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday issued a set of guidelines to mitigate dust pollution level in air ahead of the G-20 Summit to be held on December 13-16.
The guidelines issued to all the assistant municipal commissioners of 24 municipal wards has called for halting all construction and waste disposal works for the next 10 days. Instructions has been issued to all the ward officers to clean dust from the roads regularly on a war-footing.
Besides this, in several areas across Mumbai where the ir-Quality Index (AQI) readings are persistently stayed in the ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ category, the civic officials have been instructed to spray water at the traffic junctions and on the roads that record heavy traffic movement. (Read More)
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