Mumbai Notes

Labour lawyers boycott courtsJudicial proceedings in nine labour courts and eight industrial courts came to a standstill today as 600 law...

Labour lawyers boycott courts

Judicial proceedings in nine labour courts and eight industrial courts came to a standstill today as 600 lawyers abstained from work in protest against the government8217;s apathy towards dilapidated and precarious condition of the building where the courts are located. These courts hear matter ranging from compensation to workers, termination of service, strike, lockouts, closure of establishments, union recognition and unfair labour practices. An emergency meeting of Labour Lawyers Practitioners8217; Association decided to boycott the courts indefinitely until the government fulfilled its promise of shifting these courts to administrative building in Bandra.

Auction of rare paintings

Sotheby8217;s will conduct an auction of contemporary Indian paintings at a charity auction in aid of the National Association for the Blind titled Windows to the Soul8217; on September 26. The works span Raja Ravi Varma8217;s Ahilya and Rabindranath Tagore8217;s Portrait, both havingbeen nominated as national art treasures, to Anjolie Ela Menon8217;s Crows, Francis Newton Souza8217;s Reclining Nude and Ganesh Pyne8217;s The King.

Indian Express staffer retires

Janardhan Tupe, senior baller with the Indian Express, retired on September 14 after 34 years of service. He joined the newspaper in 1964. He was presented a gold ring, shawl, flowers and shrifal by his colleagues.

quot;No support for elderly AIDS-hitquot;

Though around 11 per cent of the aged population suffer from AIDS, there is no proper support system for them in the country, according to Major General S S Sandhu, director of HelpAge India. Speaking at a workshop on Impact of HIV-AIDS on Older People8217; today, the general remarked that even in the case of a family member being affected by AIDS, the elderly were likely to suffer the most. For instance, the responsibility of looking after grandchildren, to take care of their economical and emotional needs, fell on the elderly when their childrenwere found to be infected with AIDS, he explained.

Rains, rail rokos delay CR services

Central Railway locals ran 15 minutes late from 10 am on Monday morning following heavy rains in Thane district coupled with a rail roko by Samajwadi Party activists at Kurla station.

Speed curbs were imposed on CR locals in the morning and they were running to an orange signal instead of the usual green and 21 main line and 18 harbour line locals were cancelled. A CR spokesperson attributed the delay to heavy rainfall between Thane, Kalyan and Diva.

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SP activists staged a brief rail roko at Kurla station between 12.55 and 1.10 pm demanding that the railways resume electricity supply to the nearby locality of Sawali Nagar. Demonstrators were arrested by Railway Police and later let off, but the disruption caused a further delay in trains. In a third incident, a goods train which was moving very slowly due to heavy grass growth on the track led to the bunching of six trains, leading to anotherdelay.