A layer of smog covers the Mumbai on Monday noon, as the AQI levels hover in the moderate category. (Express photo by Deepak Joshi)Mumbai News Highlights (November 6): The Bombay High Court ordered municipal authorities and police to ensure that firecrackers are only be burst between 7 and 10 pm till Diwali (November 12). Among other directions, the court directed strict implementation of the Mumbai air pollution mitigation plan. While posting a hearing of a suo motu PIL based on news reports, including The Indian Express’ Death by Breath series, for Friday, the court said it may pass an order banning transportation of construction material in and out of sites if improvement in air quality is not witnessed.
Meanwhile, Mumbai experienced a decline in its air quality on Monday morning, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching 193, approaching the ‘poor’ category. Based on data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), out of the total 23 monitoring stations, 12 have reported AQI levels ranging between 200 and 300, indicating poor air quality. The most severe AQI was recorded in Deonar at 278, followed by Mulund at 273, Chembur at 247, and Kandivali East and BKC where the AQI measured 238.
In other news, even as CM Eknath Shinde announced the decision to expand the scope of Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde committee to extend Kunbi (Other Backward Classes) certificate to Marathas from across the state senior OBC leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal Monday gave a call to the OBCs to not suffer by “keeping quiet” and spread “terror (dahshat)” so much to ensure to get things done. Bhujbal was speaking in the Jalna district in Marathwada on his way to Beed. He is a senior OBC leader in Maharashtra who has voiced opinions against giving reservations to Marathas in the OBC quota.
Cement handling, common to all construction, generates PM2.5 and PM10 that can deeply penetrate the respiratory system. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)
NCP chief Sharad Pawar met his party colleague and former Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse at Bombay Hospital, where the latter is undergoing treatment after suffering a heart attack.
Rohini Khadse, daughter of Eknath Khadse and the president of the women's wing of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, said her father was first admitted to a hospital in Jalgaon as he was not feeling well for the past three days. Khadse (71) was later shifted to the private hospital in Mumbai.
Villagers engaged in manual sand mining staged a protest against mechanised dredging in a creek in Maharashtra's Thane district.
Protestors took out 150 boats to the middle of the creek between Kasheli and Gaimukh, showed black flags and shouted slogans. According to the protestors, 20,000 to 25,000 people, including locals and tribal labourers, depend on manual sand mining, and they were afraid of losing their livelihood as mechanised dredgers were being permitted to extract sand.
The Thane Zilla Parishad has asked 431 gram panchayats in the district to limit the use of firecrackers in their areas during the upcoming Diwali festival celebration, an official said. This step to reduce noise and air pollution in villages of Maharashtra's Thane district has been taken as part of the ongoing 'Majhi Vasundhara' programme for the betterment of environment, Zilla Parishad's deputy chief executive officer Pramod Kale said.
The BMC is set to launch Mumbai’s first inclusive garden for the differently abled at Jogeshwari’s famed Matoshree Meenatai Thakre Garden, known popularly as Shilpagram. Slated to be inaugurated on Tuesday by the suburban Guardian Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the civic body has joined hands with NGO Project Mumbai and L&T’s Prayas Trust in its endeavour to convert a pocket of the garden into an inclusive play area for the differently abled.
Taking serious note of Mumbai’s deteriorating Air Quality Index (AQI), a team of officials from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFC) will visit Mumbai soon to take stock of the ground situation and cross-check the measures implemented by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to mitigate the issue.
Read more here
The Indian Express‘ ‘Death by Breath’ series found a mention in the Bombay High Court, which took cognisance of various news reports to decide the initiation of a suo motu PIL.
The state government breathed a sigh of relief as Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil ended his hunger strike after nine days and have a deadline of January 2 to implement concrete measures to fulfil the Maratha quota demand. However, the week saw violence in many parts of Maharashtra and more upheavals.
And more important news from Mumbai and Maharashtra this week
The bitterness between the leaders from the warring factions of the NCP is spilling out in open. Meanwhile, a verbal duel unfolded before the Chief Minister and his entire retinue of bureaucrats. Read the confidential news from this week here
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has collected penalty of Rs 4.7 lakh from several vehicles in the city over the past three days for flouting air pollution mitigation norms. The civic body also washed 54 kilometres of roads in the city on Sunday. Read more
In what could offer some relief from the worsening air quality in the city, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday said that there is a chance of wet spells during the Diwali week due to a low pressure that is likely to be formed between November 8 and 9. Diwali falls on November 12.
ON JULY 1 this year, when Thane resident Ali Nawaz received a phone call about his electricity bill payment pending, he was confused as he had already made the payment. However, since the caller said that his electricity supply would be disconnected, he tried making the payment and lost Rs 4,500. That is when he realised he had been duped.
Nawaz then tried the cyber crime website cybercrime.gov.in but gave up after he found the process too complicated, immediately after the harrowing experience.
Read the full story on how lodging cyber crime complaints remains an uphill task
the Bombay High Court directed the strict implementation of the Mumbai air pollution mitigation plan released by the BMC in March in its its true letter and spirit. "To ensure compliance of said plan, we direct that it shall be the personal responsibility of Assistant Municipal Corporation of each and every ward for the implementation of the said plan," the HC said.
The Bombay High Court directed municipal authorities and police administration to ensure that bursting of firecrackers takes place between 7 pm to 10 pm till the Diwali festival.
'We have to make a choice...Either we have a disease-free environment or burn firecrackers and celebrate the festival. The entire city is affected in this manner. It is impossible for everyone to walk. We cannot completely depend on nature and we have to implement (these measures). We are living on this earth. We have created this situation,' a division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Girish S Kulkarni remarked.
The Bombay High Court directed the authorities to ensure that all construction material taken in and out of sites, including those of infrastructure projects, is transported to the construction site in wholly covered trucks or the mixer plants. It said that if the air quality is does not until Friday when it'll hear the suo Motu PIL and other pleas raising concerns over deteriorating air quality, the court may pass an order banning transportation of construction material in and out of sites.
The Mumbai Police has sent a proposal to double the number of telephone lines for the 1930 cyber helpline number for the city, after an Indian Express story revealed that reaching out to the authorities on these helplines is of no avail.
The proposal to the government seeks increasing the total number of lines to 22.
State Food and Civil Supply Minister and senior OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal took on the state government over its handling of the Maratha reservation issue questioning its molly coddling of Maratha activists and stating that Other Backward Classes could not expect justice from the government and ministers who were kowtowing before Maratha cactivist Manoj Jarange Patil.
"The reservations for OBCs are under danger. There is a conspiracy to end OBC reservation. Lot of people including those in the top echelons of Mantralaya to people on the ground are conspiring to end reservations.....There is a need to speak up. So much terror has been created so far that no one is willing to speak," State Food and Civil Supply Minister and senior OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal said on Monday.
He also questioned the mollycoddling of Maratha activists who had assaulted police personnel during the reservation agitation and said that this kid glove treatment would affect law and order and hurt the morale of the police personnel.
Express photo by Amit Chakravarty
A new Foot Over Bridge (FOB) has been constructed and opened at the Kalyan end of the Kurla station.
Maharashtra Chief Minister, speaking on the Gram Panchayat elections in the state, said that the results have shown the opposition the right place, adding that it was a befitting reply.
Several Samajwadi Party leaders were detained in Mumbai during a cycle rally demanding reservation for the Muslim community in the city, news agency PTI reported.
According to the most recent data, the BJP has secured victories in 301 Gram Panchayats, followed by the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) at 216, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) at 151, Congress at 93, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) at 65, and Shiv Sena (UBT) at 59.
The current status across 723 Gram Panchayats illustrates the BJP in the lead with 210, followed by NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) at 121, Congress at 65, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) at 51, and Shiv Sena (UBT) at 34.
Preliminary trends for a total of 2359 Gram Panchayats suggest the BJP is in the lead, with Ajit Pawar's faction of the NCP following closely behind. The Shiv Sena (UBT) under Uddhav Thackeray is trailing, but these findings are based on the results obtained from 723 Gram Panchayats thus far.
Even as Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced the decision to expand the scope of Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde committee to extend Kunbi (Other Backward Classes) certificate to Marathas from across the state senior OBC leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal Monday gave a call to the OBCs to not suffer by “keeping quiet” and spread “terror (dahshat)” so much to ensure to get things done.
“We must speak up if we are facing anything. But if we are facing injustice or having some trouble and we decide to keep quiet, then we will not get a remedy for it. Therefore, now it is time to spread terror (evdhi dahshat majvaychi) and get things done,” said Bhujbal, the food and civil supplies minister who belongs to the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction.
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar’s influence remains dominant as his panel secures victories in all seven gram panchayats in his home turf of Baramati. This election marked the initial electoral contest following the division within the NCP.
The outcomes for 424 gram panchayats, a fraction of the total 2359 where voting took place, are as follows: BJP – 106, Ajit Pawar’s faction of NCP – 92, Shiv Sena (led by Shinde) – 68, Congress – 37, Thackeray’s faction of Shiv Sena – 24, Sharad Pawar’s NCP – 30.
After multiple reports highlighting authorities’ disregard for health advisories during worsening air quality in Mumbai and intervention by the High Court, the Maharashtra health department has initiated a “Health Action Plan”, under which a district-level task force will monitor air pollution-related illnesses and ensure prompt treatment throughout the state.
An order issued by the state health department Sunday also instructed to implement sentinel surveillance for acute air pollution-related illnesses in 17 cities, tracking respiratory and coronary cases at city hospitals, and comparing them to daily AQI levels.
“Maintain statistics on air pollution-linked illnesses, compile data from healthcare facilities and cities for sharing with the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health program division of NCDC. Identify AQI hotspots and high-density vulnerable population areas, ensuring access to essential healthcare services,” it reads.
Read on
Mumbai experienced a decline in its air quality on Monday morning, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching 193, approaching the ‘poor’ category. Based on data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), out of the total 23 monitoring stations, 12 have reported AQI levels ranging between 200 and 300, indicating poor air quality. The most severe AQI was recorded in Deonar at 278, followed by Mulund at 273, Chembur at 247, and Kandivali East and BKC where the AQI measured 238.
The Mumbai police have arrested three people, including two women, for their alleged involvement in broadcasting live porn shows through a mobile app. According to the police, they have registered a case against the app’s owner in this regard.
The Versova police said they received reliable information about a mobile application called Pihu Official App on the Google Play Store and that its users are being charged from Rs 1,000 to 10,000 for watching live sex on the platform.
Read more
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has announced that Munawale village in his home district of Satara will be turned into a world-class tourist centre. The village is 30 km from the CM’s native village of Dare and is also close to the Kaas Plateau Reserved Forest as well as the Koyna Reserve Forest.
“A modern tourist spot at par with international standards and all the facilities will be constructed in the Munawale village of Jawali taluka in Satara district,” Shinde said during a visit to his native village.
Read more
Former Maharashtra minister and NCP member of legislative council Eknath Khadse suffered a heart attack and is undergoing treatment, said party leader and MP Supriya Sule on Sunday.
In a post on X, Sule said she is in touch with Rohini Khadse, daughter of Eknath Khadse and the president of the women's wing of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
In a post earlier in the day, Rohini Khadse said her father was admitted to a hospital in Jalgaon as he was not feeling well for the past two days.
He is being moved to a hospital in Mumbai to exercise caution and his condition is stable, she said. “No reason to worry,” she added.
Khadse was a senior Maharashtra BJP leader who quit the party to join the NCP in 2020. He was elected to the state legislative council in 2022. (PTI)
A 22-year-old woman and her father have been arrested for allegedly abetting her husband's suicide in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Sunday.
A case under section 306 (suicide abetment) of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015, has been registered at Badlapur police station against seven members of a family, an official said.
As per case details, Yash Gaikwad (22) allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan at his house on October 28, he said.
The deceased left behind a suicide note blaming his wife Ankita Pujari and six of her family members for driving him to take the extreme step, the official said. (PTI)
The Maharashtra government is trying to provide reservation in jobs and education to Marathas at the cost of the quota for Other Backward Classes but the move won't be tolerated by the OBCs, said former MP Haribhau Rathod on Sunday.
Following protests spearheaded by activist Manoj Jarange, the Eknath Shinde government is working towards giving Kunbi certificates to Marathas, said Rathod, an OBC leader, at a news conference here.
One of the demands of Jarange is that Marathas be given Kunbi caste certificates. The agrarian Kunbi community already gets quota benefits in the OBC category.
“This means there will be gross injustice to the OBCs,” he said, adding that they will not tolerate if the government starts providing Kumbi certificates to crores of Marathas.
OBCs will take to the streets, he said. (PTI)
At least 165 model teachers and 11 educational institutions in Maharashtra's Konkan region were presented awards for their service at an event held here on Sunday.
Speaking at the event, state Minister Ravindra Chavan urged teachers to keep caste aside and inculcate nationalism in students.
The function was organised by MLC Niranjan Davkhare in memory of his father, former deputy chairman of the state legislative council late Vasant Davkhare, to honour the best teachers and educational institutions in Konkan.
At least 165 teachers and heads of 11 educational institutions were awarded at the event.
A visionary political personality like Prime Minister Narendra Modi was created by teachers, Chavan said. (PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aircraft made a brief touchdown at the new Birsi Airport in Gondia in Maharashtra on Sunday morning en route to Dongargarh in poll-bound Chhattisgarh.
PM Modi landed at Birsi airport at 9:15am and left in a helicopter for Dongargarh, a popular pilgrimage spot, in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandagon district where he met Jain seer Acharya Vidyasagar Maharaj.
The PM also offered prayers at Maa Bamleshwari Temple, located on the foot of a hill in Dongargarh in the poll-bound state.
Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel, of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, told PTI he had briefed the PM about the development of Birsi airport and plans to restart passenger flight operations from December 1.
IndiGo is scheduled to launch its daily service from Gondia to Hyderabad from December 1, an AAI official had earlier said.
Daily flights on the Indore-Gondia-Hyderabad route were flagged off on March 13 as part of the Centre's UDAN scheme. (PTI)
The administration in Thane district has set up a special cell as per the directions of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to verify caste records for issuing Kunbi caste certificates to eligible persons from the Maratha community, an official said on Sunday.
District Collector Ashok Shingare will monitor the work of the cell, which was set up on Saturday, and report the progress to the state authorities, a release stated.
The cell has been set up on the lines of the one in the Marathwada region and will verify the caste records based on which Kunbi caste certificates can be issued to eligible Marathas, it said.
Additional collector Manisha Jaibhaye-Dhule, SDOs and tehsildars are also working on war footing to complete the task in the district, the release said. (PTI)
A team from the Central government took stock of the projects under the Jalshakti Abhiyan in Maharashtra's Thane district and expressed satisfaction over the ongoing works, an official said on Sunday.
A team, including Niti Ayog member Jagriti Singla and Vaishnavi Parihar, a scientist with the Central ground water board department, visited villages in the district on November 2 and 3 and held discussions with sarpanchs and other stakeholders, he said.
As per a release, the team met collector Ashok Shingare and the Zilla Parishad CEO Manuj Jindal, who briefed them about the ongoing works under the Jalshakti Abhiyan.
The team visited Bhiwandi taluka on Friday to inspect works under the initiative and expressed satisfaction with the water levels in the lakes. (PTI)
In a bid to eliminate congestion and waiting time at traffic signals, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning an “access road” project to build an array of underground tunnels and horizontal roads to separate traffic in two levels at nine key junctions of the Western Express Highway (WEH) and the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) at an estimated cost of Rs 2,900 crore.
Speaking to The Indian Express, senior civic officials said the project aims to implement “grade separation” mechanism at heavily congested junctions of the WEH and the EEH, by introducing underground lanes enabling reduction of wait time at traffic signals and ease traffic. As part of the project, the civic body will construct underground tunnels, subways and horizontal roads akin to an underpass to enable vehicles to cross roads and take U-turns, beneath the ground, officials said. Read more
NCP MP Supriya Sule told ANI, "...It's very alarming & I very concerned about the air pollution...I am not against any development, but the way it has to progress it has to have a scientific method to do it...The government needs to act on it...Government is about administration. It's their moral duty...Governance is not only about being in power and sitting in a helicopter, in a private plane and running to Delhi every 15 days...This entire triple-engine government has forgotten to serve the state..."
Layer of haze engulfed Mumbai today morning as seen in a video shared by news agency ANI.
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