Sandeep A Ashar

The men, forced to stay home due to the lockdown, also can be seen standing around, making a usually woman-only chore a crammed affair. “I have no other option, we do not have an independent water connection. If I don’t step out, we will go without water. Zaruri hai,” said a woman.

The loss in potential revenue could be as high as Rs 18,000 crore for the state's Goods and Services Tax, which is the state's highest revenue grosser.

Food and Civil Supplies Secretary Sanjay Khandare, however, said that cardholders will be permitted to lift April’s ration quota, under the public distribution system, from Wednesday onwards.

As India grapples with an unprecedented shutdown prompted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, mass closures have left Mumbai’s mathadi workers in a vulnerable position. The community that survives on daily wages has no money in hand to make ends meet.

Maharashtra, India's most industrialised state, has 17 lakh registered MSMEs. Of this, the manufacturing sector, among the worst hit, alone accounts for six lakh units. In terms of the work force, the MSMEs in Maharashtra provide direct and indirect employment to nearly 1.5 crore people.

Maharashtra government also starts mapping stranded migrant labourers after CM's from five states reach out to Thackeray

In an order issued by the Mumbai suburban collector's office on Thursday, the managing committees of housing societies in the suburbs have been asked to place collective orders for grain and vegetable purchases for all society members.

On Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who also heads the finance department, undertook a review of various measures that could be adopted to cushion the impact of the unprecedented restrictions on the labour force employed in vulnerable service industries.

The women, most of them with smartphones, many with earphones plugged in, say they are aware that the virus has spread in India. They said they know that they need to keep washing their hands to protect themselves but they find the thought of ‘social distancing’ laughable.

As the number of active coronavirus cases rose to 53 in Maharashtra on Friday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray intensified government’s lockdown measures, announcing closure of all workplaces and shops in urban belts, including in Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nagpur, till March 31.

For 2020-21, the government has budgeted for a total expenditure ofRs 4.34 lakh crore, which works out to be Rs 17,163 crore or 4 per cent higher than the expenditure of Rs 4.17 lakh crore incurred this fiscal.

With the Thackeray-led coalition set to complete 100 days in office on March 6, many would count its survival as among its biggest achievements. Over the past 3 months, while the coalition partners have often pulled in different directions, the government has so far held its ground.

While Delhi is also planning a similar reform, Chokalingam said Maharashtra is the first state to implement the reform.

Speaking to reporters in Kolhapur, Pawar said, “As per the Constitution, law and order is a state subject. It is wrong to take away the rights of the state."

The government’s action came a day after The Indian Express reported that the state’s home department, under the then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, had awarded the project for digitising Mumbai police’s official records to a private company in October.

Cong MLA-led mill first beneficiary

Documents accessed by The Indian Express show CrispQ first approached the government with the proposal on September 30, 2019. The model code of conduct for the Assembly polls, held on October 24, had come into force on September 21.

While a total of 10 centres were initially opened in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Mira Bhayander, Controller of Rationing and Director of Civil Supplies (Mumbai) Kailash Pagare said that 10 more places — six in Mumbai, one each in Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Ulhasnagar — were approved on Monday.

The land in question, measuring 51.33 hectares, and situated in Patharwala village in Jalna, was originally acquired by the state’s Agriculture department for a state seed farm.