Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray pays tribute to Balasaheb Thackeray on his death anniversary, at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. (PTI Photo)Mumbai News Highlights: The Mumbai police have registered an offence against 60 unidentified persons in connection with the clash that occurred between supporters of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray at Shivaji Park, reported PTI. Workers of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Shiv Sena (UBT) shouted slogans against each other at the memorial of party founder late Bal Thackeray in the Shivaji Park area of central Mumbai, on the eve of his death anniversary on Thursday night.
In other news, the Navi Mumbai’s first Metro line — the 11 km-long elevated stretch connecting Belapur and Pendhar — was thrown open for public today. The Metro services commenced without any official programme to make it operational at the earliest for Navi Mumbai residents, CM Eknath Shinde said. The state government had received flak for not inaugurating the Metro line despite getting regulatory clearances in June. The first service on the Navi Mumbai Metro line, which has 11 stations, commenced at 3 pm on Friday.
Meanwhile, a fire broke out at a ground-plus-21-storey building at Grant Road in Mumbai Friday morning. No casualties or injuries were reported in the fire as the fire personnel rescued several people stranded in the building. The level II fire was reported on the 11th and the 12th floor of the Dhavalgiri building near Grant Road’s H&M Mall around 9.35 am and reportedly doused by 11.10 am. Data from senior civic officials state the fire was confined to electric wiring, installation, furniture and household objects on the eighth and 12th floors of the establishment.
Even as the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), which is nearing completion, is likely to be open for public soon, questions are being raised over its efficacy in the absence of adequate systems to ensure smooth traffic flow from the bridge.
The 21.8-kilometre six-lane access controlled bridge from Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle in Navi Mumbai has three interchanges. One interchange is at Sewri in South Mumbai, connecting MTHL to Eastern Freeway (Mumbai Side), second at Shivaji Nagar in Ulwe connecting MTHL to Navi Mumbai Coastal Road Project and the third at Chirle interchange — where one arm will connect the State Highway-54 and the second arm will connect NH4 Mumbai Pune Highway.
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Amid speculations of discontent within the three allies of ruling Maharashtra government, Lok Sabha MP and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar group’s state president Sunil Tatkare on Friday claimed there was no miscommunication between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.
Tatkare, when asked about the provocative speech by his party colleague and senior OBC minister Chhagan Bhujbal, went on the defensive saying that Bhujbal had attended the public rally in Jalna district as an OBC leader only.
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The state economic advisory council on Friday made a presentation of 341 recommendations before the Maharashtra cabinet to take its economy to $1 trillion.
The council, headed by Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, was formed in December 2022 and had submitted its report in July 2023 to the state government.
According to the presentation made by CEO of Maharashtra Institution for Transformation (MITRA) – a state’s think tank formed on the lines of Niti Aayog – the recommendations to take the state’s economy to $1 trillion include raising Maharashtra’s GDP to 17%.
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Leading a counter mobilisation of Other Backward Classes against the Maratha reservation agitation, Minister and senior OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal warned the BJP of the wrath of the OBC community and said granting reservations to Marathas in the state would lead to a face-off between the Marathas on one side and OBCs, SCs, STs and Muslims on the other side. He also said a caste census was the need of the hour in the country.
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The Mumbai police have registered an offence against 60 unidentified persons in connection with the clash that occurred between supporters of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray at Shivaji Park here, an official said on Friday.
Workers of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Shiv Sena (UBT) shouted slogans against each other at the memorial of party founder late Bal Thackeray in the Shivaji Park area of central Mumbai, on the eve of his death anniversary on Thursday night. (PTI)
The Maharashtra government has appointed IAS officer Dr Indurani Jakhar as the new municipal commissioner of the Kalyan Dombivili Municipal Corporation in Thane district, an official said on Friday.
Dr Jakhar replaces IAS officer Dr Bhausaheb Dangade, who has been appointed as the managing director of the Maharashtra Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd, Mumbai, he said. (PTI)
The Mumbai Police on Friday registered a case of rioting and illegal assembly against 50 odd people after the activists of the two factions of Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray clashed in Shivaji Park area in central Mumbai.
According to the police, the incident took place late on Thursday near the memorial of late party founder Bal Thackeray after people belonging to both the factions arrived to pay tribute on Thackeray’s 11th death anniversary.
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Several candidates resort to malpractices in medical examinations and this reminds of "Munnabhai MBBS" movie, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court said while refusing relief to a person who was not permitted to appear for the NEET exam as he did not have a required document.
A division bench of Justices R V Ghuge and Y G Khobragade in its October 31 judgment dismissed the petition filed by a 49-year-old doctor Shyamsundar Patil seeking a direction to the National Board of Examinations to hold the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test for Super Specialty 2023 exam for him. (PTI)
The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) headquartered in Mumbai has changed its admissions procedure. Instead of its own National Entrance Test (NET), popularly known as TISSNET; this renowned institute of social science will now admit students through the Central University Entrance Test – Postgraduate (CUET-PG). The changes will be applicable to the admissions for the 2024-25 academic year.
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MP Rajan Vichare has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanking him for starting the Belapur-Pendhar metro rail line without any formal function and urged him to commission the Digha Gaon railway station.
People living within the limits of the 11 stations on the route were held to ransom due to the inordinate delay in the inauguration of the railway line, Vichare said in its letter. (PTI)
The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Friday accused the Maharashtra government of delaying the commissioning of the Navi Mumbai metro rail line for publicity.
The 11.10 kilometre Belapur-Pendhar line number 1 was thrown open to the public during the day.
Planning authority City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), in a statement on Thursday, had said the line was being open "without an official programme" on the directions of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. (PTI)
Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray with party leader Sanjay Raut during an event to pay tribute to Balasaheb Thackeray on his death anniversary, at Shivaji Park.
(PTI Photos)
The Maharashtra cabinet on Friday approved guidelines for the formation of cluster universities by educational institutes in the state.
It will help create a strong chain of educational institutions and benefit students, said a statement from the Chief Minister's Office.
Cluster universities will be public universities and the Maharashtra Governor, as chancellor of the universities, will appoint their vice chancellors, it said.
At present there are three cluster universities in the state, namely, Dr Homi Bhabha State University and Hyderabad Sindh National Collegiate University in Mumbai, and Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil University in Satara. (PTI)
Maharashtra will require cumulative investment of USD 1.53 trillion over the next six years to become a USD one trillion economy, a vision statement prepared by the Maharashtra Institution of Transformation (MITRA) said.
A presentation of the vision statement was made on Friday to the state cabinet, which accepted 341 recommendations.
MITRA is Maharashtra's economic advisory council and was set up in December 2022 to prepare the state's economic development vision.
The vision statement spoke about achieving 17 per cent GSDP growth as well as creation of 15 million jobs over the next six years.
Asserting that Maharashtra was the powerhouse of the Indian economy, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he wanted the state's GSDP to touch USD one trillion by 2028. (PTI)
The Bombay High Court has refused to stay the release of the web series "The Railway Men — The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984", citing that the details of the event were already available in the public domain.
A vacation bench of Justice Arif Doctor on November 15 dismissed the petitions filed by two erstwhile employees of Union Carbide India Limited, who claimed that the series' depiction of the events leading to the tragedy and its cause may cause prejudice to them.
One of the petitioners was in charge of the MIC plant as production manager, and the other was in charge of the pesticides factory of the UCIL. (PTI)
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Friday dubbed the face-off between the workers of his party and the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at Sena founder Bal Thackeray's memorial here as a "trailer", and said it shows what lies ahead in 2024 in the run up to the national and Maharashtra elections.
Addressing a press conference, Raut said the clash at Shivaji Park was between Sena loyalists and "slaves" of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). (PTI)
Tribunals in a progressive state like Maharashtra cannot remain primitive in embracing technology, the Bombay High Court said, while rapping the Maharashtra government for dragging its feet on the creation of an official website for the state sales tax tribunal.
A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain, in its order of October 12, said it should not take so long to create and make the website functional.
“In the present era, the courts and tribunals, which cater to the demands of the consumers of justice, cannot be expected to function without the basic requirement of an official website, to say the least,” the court said. (PTI)
A fire broke out at a ground-plus-21-storey building at Grant Road in Mumbai Friday morning. No casualties or injuries were reported in the fire as the fire personnel rescued several people stranded in the building.
The level II fire was reported on the 11th and the 12th floor of the Dhavalgiri building near Grant Road’s H&M Mall around 9.35 am and reportedly doused by 11.10 am.
Data from senior civic officials state the fire was confined to electric wiring, installation, furniture and household objects on the eighth and 12th floors of the establishment.
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OBC leaders from various political parties gathered in Maharashtra's Ambad in Jalna district of Marathwada today to participate in the OBC Maha Elgar Rally. The attendees included Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal from the Ajit Pawar group in the NCP, Congress' Vijay Wadettiwar, who is the leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra, BJP's former MLA Ashish Deshmukh, and former minister and Dhangar community leader Mahadev Jankar.
The rally, organised by OBC organisations of all castes and communities, aims to oppose the demand to give Kunbi (OBC) status to Marathas. The venue of today's OBC rally is approximately 20 kilometers away from Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil's home in Antarwali-Sarati, where he had staged a fast unto death demanding Kunbi status for Marathas.
After the speech by BJP leader Ashish Deshmukh, who praised PM Narendra Modi, CM Eknath Shinde, and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, the organisers warned the speakers not to use the platform to push a political agenda. They announced that no glorification of any political leader would be allowed, emphasising that speakers should focus on comments related to OBCs and the issue of reservation, rather than engaging in political speeches.
(Express Photos by Deepak Joshi)
In Mumbai, Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of Shiv Sena (UBT) and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, along with other leaders including Aaditya Thackeray and Rashmi Thackeray, paid tribute to Balasaheb Thackeray’s memorial.
A leopard was spotted on a CCTV camera at a village in Maharashtra's Thane district, prompting forest officials to launch a search for the big cat, an official said on Friday.
The wild animal was captured by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera on the premises of a private power company at Kamba-Varap village on the Kalyan-Murbad road on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, he said.
The presence of the leopard triggered a search by forest officials which went on till 6 am on Thursday but the big cat could not be traced, he said. (PTI)
A 41-year-old woman has lodged a complaint with the Bhoiwada police alleging that her newborn was interchanged by the medical staff at Wadia hospital. The police said that the woman submitted a complaint application recently after there was a mismatch in the DNA test which the woman had privately conducted.
According to police, the case was registered under section 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code on Tuesday.
Police said that the complainant is a resident of Prabhadevi and her husband is employed with a garment manufacturing company.
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A ruckus erupted at the memorial of Bal Thackeray at Shivaji Park in Mumbai Thursday evening as hundreds of workers of both the of Sena factions came face to face when Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the site to pay homage to the late Sena founder.
Shinde, along with leaders from his party, had reached the site on on the eve of Bal Thackeray’s death anniversary and left the site after paying floral tribute.
However, sources said, some of the Shinde Sena workers including MLA Sada Sarvankar remained there and some leaders and workers from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena also gathered at the site claiming that they had come to look after the preparation for the death anniversary.
This led to heated arguments and scuffle between workers from both the Sena factions.
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? The Navi Mumbai’s first Metro line — the 11 km-long elevated stretch connecting Belapur and Pendhar — will be thrown open for public on Friday.
? The Metro services will commence without any official programme to make the Metro services operational at the earliest for Navi Mumbai residents, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said. The state government had received flak for not inaugurating the Metro line despite getting regulatory clearances in June.
? The first service on the Navi Mumbai Metro line, which will have 11 stations, will commence at 3 pm on Friday.
? From November 18, services will run from 6 am to 10 pm, with a 15-minute interval between each service.
? CIDCO, which is the project implementing authority, plans to deploy a total of eight sets of three-coach rakes for services.
? According to a release by CIDCO, the fares for Metro services are Rs 10 for 0 to 2 km distance, Rs 15 for 2 to 4 km, Rs 20 for 4 to 6 km, Rs 25 for 6 to 8 km, Rs 30 for 8 to 10 km and Rs 40 for distances beyond 10 km.
? This metro line has a maintenance depot at Taloja and two traction substations at Panchanand and Kharghar.
? This elevated Metro line has been in the making for the past 13 years. The foundation stone was laid in 2011 but the project was delayed facing challenges related to contractors and technical obstacles.
? According to CIDCO, the Navi Mumbai Metro features state-of-the-art air-conditioned coaches, entry and exit arrangements on both north and south sides of the Metro stations, parking spaces, ramps for disabled passengers, footpaths, areas for auto rickshaws, diesel generators with UPS for continuous power supply, passenger announcement systems, CCTV surveillance, specially designed toilets for disabled persons at concourse levels, and commercial shops in the concourse area.
? The total post of the project was Rs 3063 crore. CIDCO has appointed Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha Metro) for running services on Line 1 of the project for a period of 10 years. CIDCO will pay Rs 500 crore to Maha Metro for running metro rail services.
In the wake of Mumbai’s worsening air quality, the buses of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking is set to get air purifiers mounted on their roofs to curb air pollution.
About the Project
The buses will act as mobile air purifiers by having filtration units affixed on top of the vehicles. These filters will suck in the polluted air and clean the suspended particulate matter from the air, thus channelling out a better quality of air.
How will the filters work?
According to officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) environment department, High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters will be mounted on the rooftop of the buses. These filters will be able to clean up to 15,000 cubic metres of air per hour and will be able to capture 12-15 grams of suspended particulate matter. These filters will operate on velocity and will not require any additional power source, they said.
Click here to read about the benefits and the scale of this project
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