1. Line of No Control
In November 2017, when Mumbai Mirror had reported the BMC’s move to draw demarcation lines outside railway stations to ensure hawkers adhered to the high court order of staying outside the 150-mt radius of the stations, Dadabhai Jadhav, who sold clothes near Dadar station, told this newspaper that he’d like to see “how long the drive lasts”.
Like most Mumbaikars, Dadabhai knew rules would eventually be bent and broken, never mind the fact that the high court order came in the wake of one of Mumbai’s worst railway tragedies in which 23 people lost their lives during a stampede on a foot overbridge at Elphinstone Road station on September 29 last year.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
2. 11 New Stations Set to Monitor Air Quality in Mumbai From May
The project is a year behind schedule, but 11 air quality monitoring stations will start functioning from May. The centres will provide real-time air updates to citizens about the quality of air in their localities.
HT had first reported on November 10, 2016, about the plan to construct these real-time air pollution monitoring stations across the city, eastern and western suburbs by April 2017, but the state pollution control board failed to acquire all amenities and begin construction on time.
Source: Hindustan Times
3. Plastic Ban: Will BJP-Sena Bickering Make Ban Toothless?
The plastic ban may become the latest casualty in the BJP and the Shiv Sena’s constant warring. Merely days after the state government enforced the ban and laid down a one-month compliance period, the policy is already suspected to have begun losing steam.
The CM allegedly wants the compliance window to be extended to three months and sources say the environment department has been asked to toe this line.
The suspected deferment has sparked fears among politicos as well as environmental activists of the plastic ban policy’s dilution.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
4. AI Delays Payment of March Salaries
Disinvestment-bound Air India has delayed the payment of salaries for the month of March and is yet to intimate the employees about reasons for the delay, sources said.
The debt-laden carrier has over 21,000 employees, including more than 11,000 on permanent rolls.
Generally, salaries are paid by the 30th or 31st of every month, and in case of bank holidays around these dates, the payments are made in advance.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
5. CR Gives Green Light to East-West Corridor
The MMRDA’s Rs 155.70-crore elevated corridor project connecting the western suburbs with the east just cleared a major hurdle: the Central Railway has granted permission to construction over its harbour and central corridor.
MMRDA commissioner UPS Madan said, “We recently received a clearance from the Railways to construct on the railway lines. We will complete this (the work) soon. The target is to throw the bridge open by December-end.”
Source: Mumbai Mirror
6. Digital India? Incentive on Use of Smart Cards at Atvms Cut to 3%
The Centre may be pushing cashless transactions in a big way, but it does not seem to reward people who opt for it. The latest example is the reduction in the percentage of incentive being provided to those using smart card at Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) at the suburban railway network stations.
The smart card users until now enjoyed an incentive of five per cent. For example if someone opted for an ATVM using the smart card instead of the ticket booking counter, he or she could book a ticket worth Rs 105 by paying just Rs 100. This incentive of five per cent has now been reduced to three per cent, according to a railway circular. Similarly, the bonus paid to facilitators (persons who print the ticket for you) has also been reduced.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
7. Pregnant Woman Falls Into 800-Feet Deep Gorge in Matheran Near Mumbai, Rescued
A 25-year-old woman, who was six months pregnant, fell into an 800-feet deep gorge while walking on the railway tracks in Matheran on Sunday afternoon.
She got stuck in the foliage around 80 feet below, and was later rescued by a local rescue team and was admitted to a hospital nearby. She was later shifted to JJ Hospital in Mumbai and is said to be out of danger now. The police said that they are trying to find out if her husband was behind the incident.
Source: Hindustan Times
8. Power Deal Will Inflate Tariff in City: Nirupam
Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam has alleged that Gautam Adani-led Adani Transmission bought Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Infrastructure’s (RInfra) power business in Mumbai for highly inflated price and this will result in the tariff of Mumbai consumers increasing exorbitantly.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Nirupam said, “As per valuation done by the reputed chartered accountancy firm SSPA & Co in 2016, the total value of RInfra’s generation, transmission and distribution (GTD) business was Rs 5,575 crore. But in December 2017 when Adani Transmission announced it was acquiring the business, it said it was paying Rs 18,000 crore for it. How can the value of the business increase threefold in just one-and-a-half years?” he said.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
9. Mumbai Residents to Get Say on Modifications in Development Plan
Citizens of Mumbai will get one more chance to have a say in the finalisation of the new masterplan for the commercial capital’s development over the next two decades.
With major modifications proposed to Mumbai’s draft new development plan (DP 2034) and the development control (DC) regulations formulated for implementing the new plan, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has decided not to approve these without gauging public opinion.
Source: The Indian Express
10. 9-Year-Old Girl Playing on Stairs Electrocuted to Death in Thane, Mseb Wireman Booked
A nine-year-old girl from Thane was electrocuted to death while sitting on an iron staircase on Monday.
The police have booked a Maharashtra State Electricity Board ( MSEB ) wireman, Datta Patil.
The victim, Siddhi Gupta, a resident of Lokmanya Nagar, was sitting on the staircase, when she suddenly screamed. When her neighbours heard her, they ran out and saw her trying to stand up, but she was not able to. The locals then tried to pull her out using wooden sticks and slippers. By the time they pulled her out she was unconscious," said a police officer from Vartak Nagar police station.
Source: Hindustan Times
11. India’s Top 100 Institutes: IIT Bombay Ranks No. 3
The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) has been ranked third overall among the top 100 educational institutes and universities in India in the ranking list by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), released by Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday.
Other Mumbai institutes to make it to the top 100 overall list were those that were recently granted autonomous status, namely Homi Bhabha National Institute, Institute of Chemical Technology, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.
In the university category, Mumbai University figures among the top 200.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
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