Maharashtra government’s road safety corpus is Rs 823 crore but actual spend just Rs 65 crore: Data
The Maharashtra government has raised Rs 823 crore corpus since 2016 till FY 23-end as Road Safety Fund but the actual spending on safety initiatives is just Rs 65 crore despite witnessing over 91,000 deaths in road accidents during 2016-22, as per the data.
As per the official documents, the RSF corpus has been mainly used for buying interceptor vehicles and some gadgets like breath analyzers and speed guns so far.
Acting on the directives of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on Road Safety, the state government announced to set up RSF to raise the corpus by levying a cess collected at the time of vehicle buying and a high-power committee for monitoring the fund in September 2016. (Read more)
Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, moved a special court here seeking day-to-day trial in the case, contending that the slow pace of proceedings has affected her right to work.
In her application, moved through advocate Ranjeet Sangle, she said that the inordinate delay in conducting the trial has deprived her of her fundamental right to work in the country of her nationality (England) and residence, as also the freedom to travel freely outside India.
Her plea said that the prosecution has been able to examine only 71 witnesses in the present matter since the commencement of the trial, which is almost equal to the period of her incarceration.
A one-member committee will conduct an inquiry into the rape and murder of an 18-year-old student inside her room at a government hostel in south Mumbai, the Maharashtra government said.
The woman, student of a polytechnic, was allegedly raped and murdered by a security guard at Savitribai Phule Working Women's Hostel in Charni Road area in the early hours of Tuesday. The accused subsequently committed suicide by jumping in front of a train, police said.
“Dr Nipun Vinayak, state project director, will head the one-member committee. State director of Higher Education and Divisional Joint Director from the Higher Education department will assist him. The inquiry report has to be filed at the earliest,” said the government order.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis laid the foundation stone for Lord Shri Venkateswara Temple at Ulwe in Navi Mumbai. The temple is being designed as a replica of the famous Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh with an aim to provide a local place of worship for devotees of Lord Venkateshwara in Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai. Read more
Local train services on the Central Railway's Harbour Line were disrupted due to a fire near tracks between Juinagar and Nerul stations in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday morning.Passengers took to social media to complain that services were running late by 30 to 45 minutes, during the morning peak hour resulting in crowds swelling on trains and at stations.
A special court on Tuesday granted bail to Sardar Khan–the 1993 serial blasts convict named an accused in a money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in which NCP leader Nawab Malik and several others are also an accused. The ED did not arrest Khan during its investigation of the money laundering case.
Khan recently filed a bail plea stating that since he was not arrested during the investigation and a chargesheet has been filed in the case, the court should consider him for bail as per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Read more.
Amid talks of leadership change in Maharashtra Congress, former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Tuesday held a meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi. Sources said the discussion was about the possibility of ‘reforms’ within the state unit of the party ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“Last week, he (Chavan) sought time from Kharge to discuss issues pertaining to Maharashtra and steps to be taken to improve the party’s performance in the upcoming 2024 general elections. Chavan will be in Delhi and is likely to return on Wednesday,” said a leader close to Chavan. Read more.
The Bangur Nagar police booked a woman for allegedly siphoning off Rs 94.54 lakh from her employer’s company accounts over a period of 11 years.
Police said the accused woman transferred money to her own account and that of her family members in the name of sending salaries to employees of the companies owned by the complainant.
According to police, complainant Tukaram Mahadev Suryavanshi retired as a subedar from the Indian Army in 1997. Read more.
A day after Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar demanded that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should be summoned for questioning before the Bhima Korgaon Commission, the latter termed it a diversionary tactic.
Fadnavis told mediapersons in Mumbai, “Several people have written letters in the past to the Bhima Koregaon Commission. Ambedkar’s letter to the commission seeking my deposition is another one.”
“The commission is doing its work and they know what to do and whom to call or not… Ambedkar is himself a learned lawyer. He knows the laws,” he added. “What he is doing now is just a diversionary tactic to take the matter in a certain direction,” he said. Read more.
The onset of monsoon in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra will be delayed by at least five days, due to several factors, including the formation of cyclone Biparjoy in the Arabian Sea, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
The official onset of monsoon in Mumbai is around June 10 and 11. Read more
Union minister Ramdas Athawale said the RPI (A) headed by him has demanded a ministerial berth in the Maharashtra cabinet whose expansion is on the anvil.
He said the Republican Party of India (Athawale) will also demand tickets to contest at least two Lok Sabha seats. Read more
Mumbai-based real estate developer Harresh Mehta, chairman of Rohan Developers (Rohan Lifescapes), has been granted bail by the special CBI sessions court of Thane Monday on personal bond.
Read here to know who is Harresh Mehta and what is the case against him
A toy train heading from Maharashtra’s popular Matheran hill station to Neral has derailed, but no passenger suffered any injury, railway officials said.
The incident took place at around 5.30 pm on Saturday when one of the wheels of the train’s engine derailed near Jumma Patti station, located some 95 km from Mumbai, they said. Read more
From captivating display of crocheted sculptures and embroidery to a heritage walk through Mumbai’s oldest marketplace Bhendi Bazaar, here are events to look forward to in Mumbai this week.
In light of the depression in the Arabian Sea, which is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm, the India Meteorological Department issued a warning to fishermen not to venture into areas that may be affected.
The weather department in a tweet said that squally winds of 45-55 kmph speed and gusting to 65 kmph is very likely over northeast Arabian Sea and off north Gujarat coast and warned fishermen not to venture into the sea. “As the cyclone moves further, it is likely to go north and that time, we will be able to see the impact that it can have on our coast,” said Sunil Kamble, the head of Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai told PTI.
Three labourers died and two were injured due to falling debris from the building being redeveloped in Virar area.
Anil Jaisinghani who was arrested in connection with the alleged blackmail and extortion of Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has claimed to have suffered a loss of Rs 1,000 crore in the past years.
Alleged bookie Jaisinghani made the claim in a chat with Amruta Fadnavis, saying the loss was because he was on the run for eight years in 17 cases registered against him. Read more
Financial capital Mumbai has been facing multiple environmental hazards for a while. To tackle some of these issues, the civic administration along with the state government has been allocating budgetary provisions for the past couple of years.
With the world celebrating Environment Day Monday (June 5), the Indian Express takes a look at some of the key environmental challenges that the city has been battling for a while now. Read more here
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis led BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government will complete a year on June 30. Next year, Shinde and Fadnavis have a daunting task to deliver the results in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
While drawing political strategies, stitching pre-poll alliances, evolving seat-sharing formula, rolling out campaigns, booth mobilisation, and public outreach are ongoing processes which have begun, there are in-house issues which have kept the two senior leaders on toes—Maharashtra cabinet expansion. Read the full report by Shubhangi Khapre here
The long-due second expansion of the Maharashtra cabinet is likely to place before June 19, the Foundation Day of the Shiv Sena. According to sources, apart from the state cabinet expansion, there is also a possibility of the induction of two Shinde-led Shiv Sena MPs into the Union cabinet.
The discussion about the state cabinet expansion took place during the meeting between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis in Delhi. Read more
An Andheri-based woman, who was trying to get a pending amount of Rs 200 credited to her UPI e-wallet, lost Rs 6.42 lakh after she contacted a “customer care number” found on the internet.
According to the police, the 32-year-old complainant works part time for a travel agency and she was to get Rs 200 from a client in her e-wallet. However, as the transaction appeared incomplete, she searched online for PayTM’s customer care number and found a “helpline” on June 3. Read the full story here
With rapid concretisation, Mumbai finds itself engaged in a perpetual battle for space. As World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5, The Indian Express takes a look at some of the largest remaining open spaces in the Maharashtra capital. Read more here
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is observed as World Environment Day, started a dedicated hotline to address citizens’ complaints related to waste management in the city.
Civic body officials said the hotline, 8169681697, will be available through BMC’s dedicated chatbot and citizens can lodge their complaints by attaching photos and locations of the spot from where they want to get the waste removed. Read more
The Bombay High Court on Monday granted interim relief to Serum Institute of India (SII) and its CEO Adar Poonawalla in their suit alleging defamation by two individuals and held that the latter’s statements were prima facie defamatory.
The court directed the two individuals to remove the posts in question against the effects of Covishield, a vaccine produced by SII to prevent the spread of Covid-19. It allowed an interim application filed by SII and Poonawalla and temporarily restrained the two defendants – social media influencers Yohan Tengra and Ambar Koiri – from publishing any content against SII or its employees. (Read more)
A 15-year-old girl was raped by her father for three years. Later she was disowned by her mother for revealing it to an anganwadi worker who informed police about the incident and took the girl to the police station in 2019. Police sent the girl back home after registering case when her mother thrashed her black and blue.
The anganwadi worker then took the girl to the OSC center at KEM Hospital with the help of an activist. “The mother even refused to accompany the child for medical examination. In such a situation, how could the police send her back to the chawl… When I asked the police to refer her to the OSC centre, they were even unaware of the existence of such a centre,” said the activist. (Read more)
MP Dr Shrikant Shinde, son of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, is at the Central Railway Mumbai division office in CSMT, Mumbai. He is taking a review of all railway projects from senior railway officials.
Several districts of Maharashtra's Vidarbha, Marathawada and North Maharashtra regions received pre-monsoon rain and hailstorm yesterday and today.
The districts which received pre-monsoon rain are Washim, Buldhana, and Amravati in Vidarbha, Parbhani, Aurangabad, and Nanded in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, and Nashik and Nandurbar in North Maharashtra.
Terror operative David Coleman Headley alias Dawood Gilani is back in the news. A US court has approved India’s request for extradition of his close aide Tahawwur Rana, the Pakistan-born Canadian who was convicted for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks of 2008.
Rana and Headley were arrested in the US in October 2009. Rana was convicted in Chicago in 2011 of providing material support to terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for the 26/11 attacks. And Headley, a US citizen born to an American mother and a Pakistani father, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his involvement in the 26/11 attacks.
Headley’s role, however, was not just limited to the Mumbai attacks. There is a Pune trail, too, that goes via the Indian Army’s Southern Command, Jewish Chabad House and the popular German Bakery. (Read more)
THE DIRECTORATE of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized more than 10kg of gold in two separate smuggling cases over the weekend.
In the first case, based on specific intelligence, two passengers who arrived from Sharjah by Air India Express flight were intercepted. During the examination of the passengers, eight gold bars of 24 carat each having foreign markings weighing 8 kg were found concealed inside their clothes around their waist. On further search, one more associate of the passengers was apprehended. The gold bar weighing 8 kg seized during examination was valued at Rs 4.94 crore. Three persons were arrested in this case. (Read more)
Days after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde inaugurated the refurbished Wonders Park at Nerul in Navi Mumbai, six people including a couple of children were injured after they fell from an umbrella-shaped joyride at the amusement park Saturday night.
The amusement park in Nerul was refurbished by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) at a cost of Rs 28 crore and was inaugurated by CM Shinde on May 30, and opened to the public on June 1.
NMMC Commissioner Rajesh Narvekar has ordered an inquiry into the mishap. (Read more)