Mumbai News Highlights : MLC election test for Mahayuti today after Lok Sabha polls setback

Local trains on the Central Railway's Harbour line now take 2-3 minutes less to cover the distance between Tilak Nagar and Panvel stations as their top speed on this corridor has been increased to 95 kmph from 80 kmph, an official said on Wednesday.

The increase in the speed limit has resulted in “reduction in travelling time” and “improvement in punctuality”, CR said in a release.

CR's Harbour corridor gives suburban connectivity to Navi Mumbai and Western suburbs of Mumbai from South Mumbai. It is spread between CSMT-Goregaon and CSMT-Panvel. Local trains can attain the top speed limit of 95 kmph between Tilak Nagar and Panvel.

“This (increase in speed limit) has resulted in the reduction of travelling time by 2 to 3 minutes on the Tilaknagar-Panvel section with improvement of punctuality as well, which will be incorporated in the new timetable,” the release stated. (PTI)

No injustice will be done to the Other Backward Classes or any other community while giving reservation to the Marathas, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on the eve of the monsoon session of the state legislature on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference here, he also said the budget of the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP coalition government would benefit farmers, the youth and women.

"No injustice will be done to the OBCs or any other community while giving reservation to the Maratha community," Shinde said.

His government had earlier convened a special session to give 10 per cent reservation to the Marathas, he pointed out. (PTI)

The Thane police in Maharashtra have arrested three persons, including one from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, and seized from them charas worth Rs 18.90 lakh, an official said on Wednesday.

The Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Thane police's crime branch arrested the accused on different occasions beginning June 14, he said.

Addressing a press conference here, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shivraj Patil said, "On June 14, a police team had received a tip-off that a man carrying drugs would be coming to the Pipeline Road. During his search, the police found him to be carrying charas worth Rs 17.20 lakh." The accused, Anilkumar Srimukhlal Prajapati (42), hailed from Prayagraj. During his interrogation, he told the police that he had procured the drug from Arjunkumar Jokhulal Prajapati (38) from Prayagraj. Accordingly, a police team went to Prayagraj and arrested him on June 20, he said. (PTI)

NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil on Wednesday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents should stay away from naming a chief ministerial candidate ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections and instead focus on returning to power in the state.

He also said that no MVA ally should (unilaterally) declare the number of seats it is contesting as winnability will be the only criteria in the upcoming polls.

The MVA, an alliance of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress, was in power in the state from November 2019. However, it collapsed in June 2022 after the Shiv Sena split following a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde.

Of the three MVA allies, the NCP (SP) has clocked 80 per cent strike rate in the Lok Sabha elections by winning eight out of 10 seats it contested. (PTI)

A 46-year-old doctor and his teenage daughter have tested positive for Zika virus infection in Pune city of Maharashtra, but their health condition is stable, an official said on Wednesday.

The man recently developed symptoms like fever and rashes, following which he was admitted to a private hospital. The medical facility sent his blood samples to the city-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) for analysis. On June 21, his reports confirmed that he tested positive for Zika virus infection, a health official of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) said.

The doctor is a resident of Erandwane area of the city, he said.

The Zika virus disease is transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, which is also known to transmit infections like dengue and chikungunya. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947. (PTI)

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday concluded hearing and reserved its verdict on plea by Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi against an order of the Bhiwandi magistrate court that allowed a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary to “belatedly” produce certain documents in a criminal defamation complaint.

A single-judge bench of Justice Prithviraj K Chavan heard Gandhi's plea, which claimed that the issue had been covered by the September, 2021, order of another bench of the High Court that dismissed the plea by RSS functionary Rajesh Kunte seeking that the transcript of Rahul Gandhi’s 2014 speech in which he allegedly blamed the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, be admitted as evidence in a defamation case against him.

In his plea, Gandhi had argued that despite the said order, the magistrate court had allowed Kunte to show the same documents during the proceedings and same could not be permitted. The verdict will be passed in due course.

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday clarified that any decision on inducting leaders from the rival NCP led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will be taken on a case by case basis and it will not be a sweeping call.

Responding to a question at an event about speculation that many leaders from the ruling NCP want to join his party ahead of the state assembly polls, Sharad Pawar maintained there was no issue in welcoming people whose entry will benefit the opposition outfit and boost the morale of workers.

However, induction in the NCP (SP) will come with riders, asserted the former Union minister. (PTI)

As part of their probe into an online share trading fraud case, the Navi Mumbai police busted a fake call centre being operated from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and arrested a 27-year-old man, an official said on Tuesday.

With this, the police have so far arrested a total of nine persons in connection with the case, he said.

The arrest was made by the officials of the Electronic Monitoring Cell (EMC) of the Panvel police's cyber cell.

"The police had earlier busted a call centre and arrested eight persons. This is the ninth person to be arrested," Inspector Deepali Patil of the EMC cyber cell said.

A case of cheating was registered at the Kamothe police station. (PTI)

A sessions court here on Tuesday rejected gangster Abu Salem's application against his planned transfer from the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai to another jail in Maharashtra.

Salem, sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, claimed that the decision to shift him out of the Taloja prison was a "conspiracy to kill him" as he was likely to be released in a few months.

The current prison was very safe for him and he could be attacked by members of rival gangs in other jails in the state, his plea said.

The jail administration told the court that his current cell was needed to be rebuilt, and there was no other safe cell for him at Taloja.

Judge B D Shelke, after hearing both the sides, rejected Salem's plea. (PTI)

The oath-taking of newly elected members of the 18th Lok Sabha resumed on Tuesday, the second day of the first session of the Lower House of Parliament.

Among the prominent members to be sworn in were former Union minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane, Supriya Sule of the NCP, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Shrikant Shinde of the Shiv Sena.

After taking the oath, Sule touched pro-tem speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab's feet and sought blessings from BJP MP and Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

At the outset, the pro-tem speaker said that 262 newly elected members of the Lok Sabha took the oath on Monday and the rest will be sworn in on Tuesday.

Most of the members who were sworn in in the first hour of the day hail from Maharashtra and took the oath in Marathi while a few did it in English and Hindi. (PTI)

Cabinet minister in Maharashtra government and Mumbai's Guardian minister, Mangal Prabhat Lodha on Tuesday said that an FIR has been lodged against one of the contractors who is carrying out desilting works in Mumbai, after the contractor damaged one of the steps of Banganga Tank - a heritage structure in Mumbai's Walkeshwar, while desilting the tank.

"I have spoken with Mumbai Police commissioner and have lodged an FIR against the contractor. The government is working towards restoring the Banganga Tank which is a heritage structure," Lodha said..

Sunetra Pawar takes oath as Rajya Sabha MP in Delhi. The seat had fallen vacant due after NCP leader Praful Patel had resigned two years into his tenure. Pawar will have a four-year term as MP. After facing a setback in the Lok Sabha election in Baramati against her relative Supriya Sule, Pawar was nominated for the Rajya Sabha election from Maharashtra.

Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has requested the Election Commission of India to withdraw or exclude certain symbols which it claimed are "deceptively similar" to the "man playing turha" symbol officially allotted to it.

The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) argued that allocating phonetically similar symbols, such as "Trumpet/Tutari," to Independent candidates has put the party at a significant disadvantage and goes against the principle of creating a level playing field.

It refuted that allocating the "Trumpet" symbol to Independent candidates was appropriate and cited instances in the recently-held Lok Sabha polls wherein similar symbols confused voters, affecting the party's electoral performance in certain constituencies.

The party cited the example of Independent nominee Sanjay Gade who contested from the Satara seat on the Trumpet symbol and garnered 37,062 votes, which led to the defeat of NCP (SP) candidate Shashikant Shinde by a narrow margin of 32,771 votes. (PTI)