Mumbai Beat

The details of the development boards were sorted out at a meeting early this week, said Govindbhai Parmar, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Congress. The meeting was the result of a sustained agitation by the union that culminated with nearly 50,000 workers laying siege on the assembly while the session was on at Nagpur on December 23 last year. Social Welfare Minister Babanrao Gholap had addressed the meeting and accepted two of their main demands.

The formation of the Safai Karmachari Welfare Board will ensure that the sweepers employed in the various cooperative societies will be recruited through the board. The employer, in this case, will have todeposit a certain amount with the welfare board towards the wages of the worker. The rest of the salary will be paid by the government. The safai karmacharis will be given their due bonuses and pensions through the board, said Parmar.

BMC hospitals slash drug price

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has cut down the price of some of the medicines supplied to the civic hospitals by nearly 10 per cent.

Chairperson of the BMC health committee Sardar Tara Singh said that he spoke to the dealers of 23 companies and managed to bring down the expense on medicines by around Rs 50 lakh. He added that the reduction in the approved tenders help reduce the staggering BMC deficit.

3 gangsters arrested

Three members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang were arrested by the Sir J J Marg police at Ahmedabad recently.

The arrested trio, Nadeem Abdul Razak (27), Arif Dawood Memon alias Arif Toofani (28) and Ashok alias Aslam Kotian Tihayan (30), were involved in many serious offences like murder, attempt tomurder and extortion.

They had fled to Ahmedabad nearly four years ago though the trial relating to their cases were in progress in the sessions as well as in the metropolitan magistrate’s courts. Last week, the J J Marg police received information that Toofani was seen selling flowers near a mosque at Ahmedabad. A police team was dispatched to Ahmedabad and nabbed Toofani near the mosque at Shah Alam fort. Later, Razak and Aslam, who were staying with him, were also nabbed.

Smuggling forex, 1 arrested

The officers of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs arrested an African national allegedly for smuggling assorted foreign currency worth Rs 14.29 lakh in the Indian market.

According to AIU officials, Akbardi Karimdjee Mahmood, who holds a passport of the Republic of Madagascar, was intercepted while he was about to board an Air-India flight to Singapore. Search of his bags yielded US $ 34,150, Singapore dollars 250 and 700 French Francs.

Mahmood was produced before Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate Usha Iyer who remanded him to judicial custody till January 29.