Union Minister Narayan Rane resumes Jan Ashirwad Yatra on Friday. (Express)Mumbai News Today highlights, Mumbai Weather and Coronavirus Latest Updates highlights: Recording over 300 Covid cases for the three consecutive day,Ā Mumbai on Friday reported 364 fresh infections and five fatalities. The city however witnessed a marginal dipĀ in both the figures as compared to Thursday, when it had recorded 397 cases, this month’s highest, and seven deaths.
According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Covid tally climbed to 7,42,765, while the death toll jumped to 15,968 with today’s additions.
Union minister Narayan Rane reached Ratnagiri Friday morning to resume BJP’s Janaashirvaad Yatra. The Yatra was suspended in Ratnagiri on August 24 after for his ‘slap Uddhav’ remark.
Rane reached Ratnagiri on Friday morning and resumed his Yatra by garlanding the statue of Maratha warrior king Chatrapati Shivaji at Maruti Mandir Chowk in Ratnagiri. Heavy police bandobast has been deployed in Ratnagiri.
On Thursday, the city recorded 397 new Covid-19 infections and an increase in its positivity rate to 0.9 per cent. In the last 24 hours, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation conducted 41,628 tests in the city.
In a first, the Mumbai civic body has deployed drones for fumigation to combat the menace of malaria and dengue-spreading mosquitoes in the city. The drones are used for fumigation in the G South ward which has many mill compounds, Railway workshops, slum pockets and are inaccessible and abandoned in some cases. The ward is spread across Prabhadevi, Lower Parel and Mahalaxmi.
At least 22 people, a majority of them children and teenagers, tested Covid-19 positive at St Joseph Orphanage and School in Agripada at Byculla.
Recording over 300 Covid cases for the three consecutive day, Mumbai on Friday reported 364 fresh infections and five fatalities. The city however witnessed a marginal dip in both the figures as compared to Thursday, when it had recorded 397 cases, this month’s highest, and seven deaths.
According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Covid tally climbed to 7,42,765, while the death toll jumped to 15,968 with today’s additions.
A 16-year-old who had withdrawn Rs 10 lakh from his parents’ bank account to get an ID for PUBG game and was scared they would find out about it fled home after leaving behind a note earlier this week, police said.
After his parents complained to the police, a team from crime branch (Unit X) tracked him and reunited him with his family.
A crime branch officer said that after the parents found the note from their son at their residence on Wednesday, saying that he was leaving home and would never return, they approached the local police. The local police alerted the crime branch and the Muskan unit that looks for missing children. Read more
There is no need to submit an affidavit while lodging a complaint about missing articles or documents, Mumbai Police said on Friday. The practice of demanding an affidavit before registering a complaint or issuing certificate about a missing article is illegal, as per a circular issued by police commissioner Hemant Nagrale. The commissioner had noticed that often police demand affidavit when someone visits a police station to lodge complaint about missing valuables or documents like passports and cheque books, an official said. --PTI
The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a plea by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking to cancel the bail granted by the Bombay High Court to a Kalyan man accused of travelling to Iraq and Syria to join terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS).A bench of Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice A S Bopanna, which was hearing a special leave petition filed by NIA argued through Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, refused to interfere in the HC order, stating that stringent conditions were already imposed by the High Court while granting bail to the accused, Areeb Majeed.
Majeed, who appeared in person before the Bombay High Court to argue his case, was granted bail on February 23.Noting that the right to fair and speedy trial was recognised under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution, the high court had held that the same was applicable to Majeed given that "there was no likelihood of the trial being completed within a reasonable time".The High Court had upheld the bail granted by the Special NIA Court on March 17, 2020, “on the ground of the accused having already undergone incarceration for more than six years" and the likelihood of the trial being delayed. Read more
-- Omkar Gokhale reports
State health minister Rajesh Tope suggested that the elections to the local bodies should be postponed in view of the possible third wave of Covid-19.
The issue was discussed in the state cabinet Thursday. “Since the state election commission is an autonomous body, we will express our recommendation seeking postponement of the elections but the final decision will rest be with the commission,” Tope said.
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 5.73 crore of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse, his wife Mandakini Khadse and son-in-law Girish Chaudhri in connection with a money laundering case.
The agency has frozen a bank account with a deposit of Rs 86 lakh and attached properties, including a bungalow in Lonavala and three land parcels in Jalgaon in Maharashtra, belonging to Khadse’s family.
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In a first, the Mumbai civic body has deployed drones for fumigation to combat the menace of malaria and dengue-spreading mosquitoes in the city.
The drones are used for fumigation in the G South ward which has many mill compounds, Railway workshops, slum pockets and are inaccessible and abandoned in some cases. The ward is spread across Prabhadevi, Lower Parel and Mahalaxmi. The ward office is now using drones to spray anti-larval oil over the inaccessible spots.
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Police constable Jitendra Shinde, who was assigned the responsibility of being Amitabh Bachchan’s bodyguard, was transferred to DB Marg Police Station on Thursday by Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale after reports emerged that he was earning Rs 1.5 crore a year.
According to the police officials, Shinde was working as a bodyguard to Amitabh Bachchan since 2015. The actor is given X-category security, which means that there are four police constables appointed to guard him — two constables each during day and night, of which one was Shinde.
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Union minister Narayan Rane Friday met with mango and cashew producers at Vijay Desai factory in the Golav area of Ratnagiri. Rane assured the producers that his ministry will provide help to them and has accepted their memorandum.
"I will sincerely try to use my ministerial post for Konkan. Horticulture farmers will benefit from the government scheme, not a single farmer will commit suicide," he said, adding that within a month he would revisit with experts to solve their issues.
"Even though I have become Cabinet minister of the country now, I have gone there from Kokan only and I will try to resolve issues and will give relief to the mango and cashew producers,"he said.
The Bombay High Court recently directed the Maharashtra government to respond to a plea filed by CICSE and CBSE-affiliated schools challenging the August 12 Government Resolution (GR) directing private schools to reduce fees for the academic year 2021-22 by 15 per cent.
The Court also directed the state government to not take any coercive steps against the petitioner schools for not implementing the GR till further hearing for four weeks.
A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and R I Chagla, on August 25, was hearing a writ petition by the Association of Indian Schools (which runs CICSE and CBSE-affiliated private unaided schools) challenging the validity of the GR on various grounds.
Union minister Narayan Rane reached Ratnagiri Friday morning to resume BJP’s Janaashirvaad Yatra. The Yatra was suspended in Ratnagiri on August 24 after Rane got arrested for his alleged ‘slap Uddhav’ remark.
Rane reached Ratnagiri on Friday morning and resumed his Yatra by garlanding the statue of Maratha warrior king Chatrapati Shivaji at Maruti Mandir Chowk in Ratnagiri. Heavy police bandobast has been deployed in Ratnagiri.
An 11-member committee, set up by the state government in January to study leopard-human conflict, has re-stated the importance of co-existence with the big cats and focus on engagement with locals.
The committee has rejected suggestions of capturing or trans-locating leopards from the conflict zone besides suggesting a “Living with Leopards” (LwL) programme.
The committee, which recently submitted its proposal to the government, has suggested ways to create conditions where animals and humans share spaces.
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The Union Environment Ministry has sought a response from the state environment department over the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s proposal to landfill parts of Powai lake to create a cycle track. Environmentalists had earlier raised concerns over the project.
Parts of Powai lake were reclaimed earlier for widening the Jogeshwari Vikhroli link road. The BMC has now proposed a cycling track around the lake as part of its plan to have cycling tracks around the city.
On August 19, environmentalist D Stalin of NGO Vanashakti wrote a letter to the Union environment department raising concerns about the project.
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Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a veiled reference to Union Minister Narayan Rane said that “some old viruses” had made a return and that he was determined to fix them.
“In today’s situation I am taking cautious steps. The threat of corona is not completely over. However, some old viruses have cropped up and for no reason are causing side effects. I am determined to fix both of them,” Thackeray said while delivering his keynote address at the two-day industry conclave hosted by The Indian Express Group’s Marathi daily Loksatta.
The statement was seen as a swipe at Union Minister and BJP Rajya Sabha member Narayan Rane, who was arrested by Maharashtra Police on Tuesday for threatening to “slap” the CM. He was granted bail the same day.
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah called up Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane for an account of the developments leading to his arrest and bail following the “slap” remark against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
BJP MLA Nitesh Rane confirmed that the telephonic conversation between Shah and Rane took place on Thursday.
Nitesh, minister Rane’s younger son, said, “The home minister sought to know from Rane the exact details leading to his arrest and how it was carried out.”
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Amboli police on Wednesday registered a case against a deputy commissioner of police and two police inspectors for allegedly conspiring, intimidating and extorting money from a 50-year-old property dealer.
The police officers named in the FIR are Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan and two inspectors – Chimaji Aadav and Sunil Mane. Pathan was named as one of the accused in the extortion case registered at the Marine Drive police station in July in which former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh is a co-accused.
Mane is in jail for allegedly playing a crucial role in placing a gelatine-laden Scorpio car outside Antilia, the official residence of businessman Mukesh Ambani, and murdering Mansukh Hiren.
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The Union Railway Ministry has given its nod to an additional 63 special trains for Konkan region in Maharashtra during the ten days of Ganesh Chaturthi.
The Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve Thursday said, “We have decided to provide an additional 63 special trains to accommodate the demand from people during the festival.”
Earlier, the railway ministry had already announced plans to deploy 112 special trains between Mumbai and Konkan.
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On Thursday, the city recorded 397 new Covid-19 infections and an increase in its positivity rate to 0.9 per cent. In the last 24 hours, BMC conducted 41,628 tests in the city. On Tuesday, the number of cases stood at 343. In the last five days, the daily positivity rate has shown a marginal increase from 0.7 per cent to 0.9 per cent.
Mumbai’s daily caseload had crossed 300 first time this month on August 20, when 318 people tested positive for Covid-19. On August 20, the civic body had also conducted the highest number of tests in a single day — 56,566 with the daily positivity rate at 0.5 per cent. The highest daily positivity rate was recorded on Tuesday at 0.94 per cent. Since July 30 this year, the positivity rate has been below 1 per cent.
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The Bombay High Court Thursday sought a response from the Maharashtra Animal Welfare Board on illegal pet shops selling endangered species across the state. The HC, while issuing notice to the Board, sought information on the number of pet shops with valid permits.
The division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice G S Kulkarni was hearing a Public Interest Litigation on pet shops running without valid licences and violations of rules by them.
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The Mumbai police's crime branch has arrested a couple for allegedly possessing and attempting to sell the horns of a sambar deer, an official said on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off, the unit-4 of the crime branch along with forest officials laid a trap near an Ayurvedic hospital in the central suburb of Sion (east) on Wednesday evening, the official said. The police intercepted the couple who arrived in an autorickshaw with a white carry bag, and found two horns of a sambar deer in their possession, he said. The duo was taken into custody and an FIR under relevant sections of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 was registered, the official said. The police are investigating from where the couple had sourced the horns of the protected animal and to whom they were planning to sell the same, he added. --PTI
The BMC on Thursday sealed St. Joseph boarding school in Agripada after 22 tested positive for Covid 19. Off the 22, four children are below 12 years of age and are admitted to pediatric ward of Nair hospital in Bombay Central. 11 students are between 12 and 18 years while seven adults are shifted to Richardson and Cruddas Covid care centre.
The CBI had sought certified copies of a letter by senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla addressed to the Maharashtra director general of police in August 2020 on transfers and postings, its annexures, digital devices and a panchnama.
The Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court on Thursday that it would provide CBI with documents including a letter or report by senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla regarding alleged corruption in transfers and postings of police officers by August 31. This is in connection with the central agency’s investigation into allegations of corruption against former home minister Anil Deshmukh.
A division bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice N J Jamadar was hearing an application filed by the CBI stating that the state government was not cooperating in handing over documents. The government had opposed the CBI’s request by stating that it amounted to a ‘roving enquiry and a fishing exercise’ about documents that were not in the scope of the CBI’s probe. The government had also said that it amounted to interference in its probe being conducted in an FIR filed by cyber police under the Official Secrets Act in connection with the alleged leak of documents on call interceptions. Read more
In the wake of Union minister Narayan Rane's controversial remarks against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the NCP, which shares power in the state, on Thursday accused the BJP of threatening the ministers and leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. Talking to reporters, NCP spokesperson and state minister Nawab Malik said the BJP can misuse the power of the central government, but no leader from Maharashtra was afraid of the party's "shallow threats". --PTI
In the last 20 months that the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition has been in power in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has made a conspicuous effort to project himself as a sober leader and the Shiv Sena as an outfit that has evolved from its street-fighting days to take on the mantle of a party of government.
That careful image construction, still incomplete, was severely dented Tuesday when the state police arrested Union Minister Narayan Rane and the Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena was unleashed in response to his decidedly intemperate remarks against the chief minister. The brickbatting outside Rane’s Mumbai home, the multiple FIRs filed against him, and his theatrical arrest, were part of an unprecedented drama that spoke of outright abuse and misuse of state power to settle political scores.
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The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that it would share a report submitted by IPS officer Rashmi Shukla on alleged corruption in police transfers and postings with the CBI for its probe against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh.
Senior counsel Rafique Dada, appearing for the state government, told a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar that the documents would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by August 31.
The court was hearing an application filed by the CBI, claiming that the state government was not cooperating by refusing to hand over certain documents which the agency requires for its investigation against NCP leader Deshmukh over alleged corruption and misuse of official position.
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The Shiv Sena on Thursday claimed Union minister Narayan Rane undermined the pride and prestige of Maharashtra and action against him was taken as per the law over his controversial remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
An editorial in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ also claimed that “Rane’s days in the Union cabinet were numbered”.
Earlier this week, Rane sparked off a row over his remarks about slapping Thackeray for what he claimed as the latter’s ignorance of the year of India’s independence.
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A special court in Mumbai, while sentencing a man to five years in jail for sexually abusing a minor who was sleeping on the side of a road, said children sleeping on pavements are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and require protection.
On the intervening night of June 29 and 30, 2018, at around 1.45 am, the victim, who was sleeping next to her parents on a pavement at Grant Road, was picked up and molested by the accused. She began crying after which the accused left her and fled.
Special Judge Bharti Kale relied on CCTV footage to convict the man on charges of kidnapping and sexual harassment under the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
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The Vashi police has arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly duping a woman of RsRs 70,000 on the pretext of driving out ‘evil spirit’ black magic.
The accused Rajaram Shinde is suspected to have duped hundreds of people in the past five years, said police.
According to the police, the 36-year-old woman approached the cops after that the man allegedly took away Rs 70,000 from her under the pretext of solving issues faced by her after her husband’s death. Shinde told her that evil spirits were behind her and suggested a ritual to get rid of them. He also allegedly took Rs 70,000 from her for the rituals.
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Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi has filed a complain against BJP’s yatra coordinator Pramod Jatthar for equating Union minister Narayan Rane with Sambhajiraje.
Sambhajiraje was held captive in Sangameshwar by his rival Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.
Jatthar had said, “Even Sambhajiraje was arrested in Sangameshwar. The same place from where Rane was arrested.
Irked by the comparison, Salvi has lodged a complaint against Jatthar at a police station in Ratnagiri district.
However, Jatthar justified his remarks, arguing, “I was just stating facts.”
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will launch the website of Mumbai’s climate action plan on Friday. Officials from the civic body said that Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray will be launching the website.
Through the website, residents of Mumbai can give their feedback and suggestions on the first climate action plan which is currently under preparation. The website will be an information forum where citizens can view details about climate change, action plans of other cities and the steps required to fight the change.
Officials from BMC said that the Mumbai Climate Action Plan is expected to be ready in and around October. The plan is being made with the help of World Resources Institute (WRI) India.
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The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to two young men arrested in a raid at a villa in Igatpuri by the Nashik (rural) Police in June on charges of consuming and possessing cocaine, ganja and charas at a birthday party.
The HC said the duo needed one opportunity to reform, as young people experimenting with alcohol and drugs have become common and do not realise the consequences of the same. “The youth of today leads a lifestyle, where he/she believes in a cheerful present limiting to ‘now or never’, without thinking of consequences to follow… It is crucial to have an insight into how badly this problem would be eradicated…,” Justice Bharati H Dangre observed in the order.
While granting bail, the court warned that if they were found with drugs again, the same would be cancelled.
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It seems apt that the entertainment industry tried to send out an emphatic message about returning to its regular ways, after the scares and insecurities experienced during the second Covid-19 wave, with a grand promotional event for a new web show with the Gateway of India as the backdrop.
On Wednesday evening, streaming platform Amazon Prime Video organised a show called ‘Sahas Ko Salam’ at the historic venue in the run-up to the release of Mumbai Diaries 26/11 on September 9. Apart from making it clear that the entertainment industry is now eager to embrace normalcy, the event was a celebration of Mumbai’s spirit.
Sahas Ko Salam is a tribute to frontline warriors, who have shown “exemplary courage” in the face of “insurmountable odds”. Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is a fictional medical drama that unfolds against the backdrop of the terror attacks in 2008 in Mumbai. This is created by Nikkhil Advani, who has also directed the show along with Nikhil Gonsalves.
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Of the 1,288 applications received from organisers of Ganesh festival this year, the BMC has approved 304 requests to erect a pandal or set up a stage on roads and footpaths.
While 141 of the remaining comprised same organisations submitting multiple applications, 86 requests have been rejected by the BMC and 757 are in process.
According to Bombay High Court guidelines of 2015, the BMC follows a single-window system for granting clearances to pandals ahead of the festival, including permission from ward offices and Mumbai Police.
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The Mumbai Police have closed the probe into the death of Disha Salian, who was briefly handling publicity for actor Sushant Singh Rajput, and died by suicide on June 8, 2020, a week before the actor’s death.
Police sources said the probe was closed earlier this year as no evidence of foul play had been found in the case. The police also did not find evidence to support several allegations that were made last year on social media linking Salian’s death with that of Rajput, and claims that they were both murdered. Rajput, 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of a room in his Bandra flat on June 14, 2020.
In a press conference on Wednesday, a day after his arrest and subsequent bail for remarks on Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Union Minister Narayan Rane once again raked up Salian’s death and said he would get “justice” for her and ensure “the guilty are punished”.
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The State Election Commission (SEC) on Wednesday issued directions to 18 municipal corporations including Mumbai’s BMC to start the process of delimitation of electoral ward boundaries in view of the impending civic polls.
These corporations have been asked to start preparation for the exercise from August 27, Friday.
The term of the present elected body of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will end on March 7, 2022 in light of which elections have to be held for the civic body by February. Terms of 17 other corporations, including Thane, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur, will also end next year.
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Energy Minister Nitin Raut on Tuesday directed Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) to provide power connection at domestic rate to slum dwellers on the Appapada forest land in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).
However, a court on May 7, 1997, had ordered the slum dwellers in SGNP to be removed from the forest land as most of them are encroachers. SGNP Director G Mallikarjun did not comment on the issue.
Raut held a meeting in this regard in Mantrlaya on Tuesday with Dindoshi MLA Sunil Prabhu, Maharashtra State Transmission Company Director Satish Chavan and other stakeholders. The minister said the move will benefit 26,000 residents in 5,000 houses.
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Bandra East MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui has been appointed as the Mumbai Youth Congress president. Siddiqui is the son of former minister and ex-Bandra West MLA Baba Siddiqui.
As the results of the election to the Mumbai Youth Congress president’s post, which held last year, were not declared in time, Siddiqui had blamed city Congress chief Bhai Jagtap for the delay as he backed Siddiqui’s rival Suraj Singh Thakur.
Thakur has been appointed as the working president of the Mumbai Youth Congress.
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A 42-year-old daily wage worker was allegedly stabbed and robbed of cash and valuables by three assailants near LTT station early on Tuesday. Police have arrested two accused in the case.
Senior Inspector Chandrashekar Bhabal of the Nehru Nagar police station said complainant Umesh Manmohan Mishra, a Bihar native, who used to work in Mumbai, moved to Gujarat during the lockdown.
The two arrested accused – Adnan Akhil Ahmed Ansari (23) and Yogesh Ganesh Diple (21) – are residents of Jagruti Nagar in Kurla. The police said they were produced in court and remanded in police custody.
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Maharashtra BJP on Wednesday demanded a CBI probe against Shiv Sena Minister Anil Parab for “misusing” his power to get Union Minister Narayan Rane arrested during the Jan Ashirwad Yatra in Konkan on Monday.
BJP legislator and former minister Ashish Shelar said, “A video clip shows Shiv Sena’s Transport and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab issuing orders to the police and the local administration to act against Rane.”
Parab, the Guardian Minister of Ratnagiri, was in a press conference on Tuesday when broke off to speak twice on the phone. He was audible as he was sitting before open microphones on the table.
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The state Election Commission (EC) Wednesday directed 18 municipal corporations, including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), to undertake delimitation process to decide the boundaries for each of the single member electoral panels, based on population and geographical condition, for the 2022 civic polls. In doing so, the EC ended speculation on whether the forthcoming civic polls would be held in single or multi-member electoral panel.
The EC issued an order to the municipal commissioners of 18 civic bodies, which will go to polls in 2022 as per the provisions of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act. These include municipal corporations of Brihanmumbai, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Panvel, Mira-Bhayander, Solapur, Nasik, Malegaon, Parbhani, Nanded-Waghala, Latur, Amravati, Akola, Nagpur and Chandrapur.
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Standing Committee held back a proposal on cost escalation in construction of a bridge that it was supposed to discuss on Wednesday after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) complained about delay in distribution of the agenda of the meeting.
BJP leader Bhalchandra Shirsat wrote a letter to Municipal Secretary and Standing Committee chairman complaining that a proposal was given to the members at 12.30am on Wednesday because of which they did not get time to study it.
“As per the municipal corporation rule, the agenda should have been distributed three days prior to the meeting. But the three proposals were sent at 12.30am. There was no time to study (them),” said Shirsat.
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After corporators opposed to property tax collection from tenants living in municipal properties, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) administration decided to defer the proposal.
In July, Opposition Leader Ravi Raja had raised the issue of the civic body’s decision of property tax collection from municipal properties for civic staffers.
The BMC in December 2020 issued a circular, stating that the property tax will be collected from tenants from municipal buildings retrospectively from April 2017. Raja had slammed the corporation and said the BMC is already collecting rent from these tenants and now property tax collection will be injustice.
An inquiry commission headed by retired Justice KU Chandiwal, imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh for not appearing before it.
This is the third time that the committee has imposed costs on Singh for seeking adjournment in the hearing. The committee will now hear the matter on Monday.
In his plea seeking adjournment, advocate Anukul Seth submitted on behalf of Singh that the Bombay High Court was hearing a plea filed by Singh challenging the scope of the committee and its right to send him the summons.
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Stepping up his attack on the Shiv Sena a day after he was released on bail following his arrest over remarks in which he threatened to slap Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Union Minister Narayan Rane claimed that Sena leaders, including Thackeray, had made similar remarks in the past, and that no action was taken against them.
On Wednesday, addressing the press, Rane said: “What is it that I have said that has made them so angry? I am not going to repeat here what I said earlier. If some event has occurred in the past and I have just spoken about it, how does it qualify as being a crime… I want to ask if Shiv Sena leaders never ever spoke such words in the past.”
He then narrated three incidents in which he claimed that Thackeray had used similar language. “The CM in August said that anyone who speaks aggressively about Shiv Sena Bhavan, his face should be smashed. He directly ordered people to attack. Is that not a crime?” Rane said.
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A DAY after the arrest of Union minister and BJP Rajya Sabha member Narayan Rane for his controversial “slap” remark on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena said had anyone made similar comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he/she would have been put behind bars with sedition charges slapped against him/her.
In the latest editorial titled “Balloon with Holes” in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Rane has been highly criticised for his action.
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The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that no coercive action will be taken till September 17 against Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Rane in the FIR filed by the Nashik Cyber Police over his remark against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Rane, who was arrested on Tuesday and later granted bail by the Mahad magistrate court, formally filed a petition on Wednesday morning before the high court seeking to quash the FIRs.
His plea in the HC stated that the Nashik Police Commissioner was working under pressure from the Shiv Sena, the ruling party in the state, and that multiple FIRs were lodged against him with the only intention to “harass him by launching a false prosecution.”
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