1. No Pride March: ‘Solidarity Meet’ at Azad Maidan
A day after the Mumbai Police denied permission to the organisers of Mumbai Pride March to take out a rally along the August Kranti Maidan-Nana Chowk-Lamington Road-Opera House-Kennedy Bridge route, they have decided to hold a community “solidarity meet” at Azad Maidan on Saturday.
Over the past 11 years, the march, organised by Humsafar Trust and Queer Azaadi Mumbai, has been taking the same August Kranti Maidan route. However, they were denied permission this year on the grounds that participants may raise anti-government and anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) slogans.
Source: Hindustan Times
2. BJP Transferred Elgaar Parishad Case to Shield Someone in State: Anil Deshmukh
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday said the BJP had transferred the Elgaar Parishad case to the NIA because they wanted to protect someone very close to them. He also alluded to the role of state BJP leaders in the case, saying it was the BJP-led government at the Centre that had transferred the case to NIA to protect someone at the state level.
Source: The Indian Express
3. Coronavirus: Mumbai Pvt Hospitals Gear up With Quarantine Facility, as Govt Colleges Use Existing H1N1 Wards
While international protocol demands separate cubicles for housing suspected cases of novel coronavirus (nCoV), absence of such units has forced the state to use existing H1N1 wards in district hospitals and medical colleges as isolation wards so far. The state government is now trying to rope in private hospitals with specialised quarantine wards as reserve beds for suspected cases.
In Mumbai, talks are on with several private hospitals, including Bombay Hospital, Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, to reserve a few beds, sources said.
Source: The Indian Express
4. Demand for IIT-B to Take Back ‘Anti-National Activities’ Circular
Two days after the administration of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, (IIT-B) issued a circular asking its students not to participate in any “anti-national activities”, the student wing of Nationalist Congress Party has written to the administration asking them to take back the rules laid down in the circular.
On Thursday, Amol Matele, Mumbai president, Nationalist Students’ Congress, wrote to the institute’s dean of student affairs, saying that the institute’s administration is trying to derail the students’ movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Source: Hindustan Times
5. Schools ‘Rarely Report’ Child Sexual Abuse to Avoid Stigma, Says Mumbai Court
Observing that schools rarely report offences of child sexual abuse on students to avoid stigma and disrepute, a special court has sentenced a school van driver to 10 years in jail for raping a six-year-old student of a school in the city’s western suburbs in 2016.
The accused had earlier claimed innocence on a ground that the complaint in the case had been filed two days after the incident.
Source: The Indian Express
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