News Analysis India

Tag: Mumbai

  • Sinking of barge, tugboat: 52 bodies handed over to families, 27 yet unidentified

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Mumbai Police has handed over the bodies of 52 crew members who died after barge P305 and tugboat Varprada sank off the Mumbai coast during cyclone Tauktae while 27 bodies are yet to be identified, an official said on Wednesday.

    The Navy on Tuesday evening recovered another eight bodies near Alibag coast in neighbouring Raigad district, which were handed over to Mumbai Police and sent for autopsy, he said.

    Earlier, the Navy had handed over the bodies of 71 victims to the city police who has registered an Accidental Death Report and is probing what led to the tragedy.

    As many as 188 crew members from both the vessels were rescued by the Navy and Coast Guard.

    Of total 79 recovered bodies, 52 were identified and handed over by the police to the family members, while 27 bodies were yet to be identified, the official said.

    Police are taking help of forensic science laboratories to identify the bodies through DNA matching, he added.

    P305 and Varprada — both support vessels working for the state-run ONGC’s offshore oilfields near Mumbai — bore the brunt of cyclone Tauktae which made landfall on Gujarat coast on May 17.

    The chief engineer of the barge P305 had alleged in his statement to the police that its captain did not take the cyclone warning seriously.

    The police has so far recorded the statements of eight surviving crew members.

  • Kin seek temporary release of 16 jailed Elgar Parishad case accused in view of COVID-19 pandemic

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Friends and family members of the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case accused, who are lodged in jails in and around Mumbai, on Saturday sought their release on interim bail in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the prisons lacked medical facilities to deal with the virus.

    The friends and relatives of 16 accused, including Hany Babu, Stan Swamy and Sudha Bharadwaj, made the demand during a virtual press conference.

    While the male accused in the case are lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja jail, the women accused are kept in Bayculla prison of central Mumbai.

    Their kin said there was no planning or infrastructure in Taloja and Byculla jails to tackle the pandemic situation, which is why they should be granted interim bail.

    Jenny Rowena, wife of Hany Babu, said the situation in jails is verydangerous.

    “There is no plan in place. Even the jail staffers are getting infected with coronavirus. Jail hospitals don’t have doctors or trained staff to take care of the patients,” she said.

    “It seems there is no value to life if you are in a prison. A serious note should be taken and they (accused) should be temporarily released on bail,” she said.

    Rowena had earlier said that Hany Babu had acute eye infection and was not getting proper medical treatment at the jail.

    During the press conference, she reiterated that Babu cannot see properly and suffers from double vision in one eye.

    Swamy’s friend Father Joe Xavier said Swamy’s sample was taken for COVID-19 testing in October last year.

    But now, although he has cough and fever, the jail authorities are not getting him tested for the virus, he alleged.

    He said during their last telephonic conversation, Swamy had told him that he was “fragile” and feeling helpless.

    Maaysha, daughter of Sudha Bharadwaj, said her mother has co-morbidity.

    “Bharadwaj already had health issues prior to her arrest and she has developed a number of problems in prison, due to the unhygienic livingconditions there,” she said.

    She is “extremely vulnerable” to the virus, her daughter added.

    Minal Gadling, wife of Surendra Gadling, alleged that her husband has been denied new spectacles by jail authorities for months.

    On Wednesday, the family members of these accused sent a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray, seeking their release from prisons in view of the pandemic.

    The Elgar Parishad case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at a conclave held in Pune city on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district.

    Pune Police claimed that the conclave was backed by Maoists.

    The case was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

    Activist Varavara Rao, also an accused in the case, has been granted bail by Bombay High Court earlier.

  • COVID: Positivity, mortality rates rise as rural Maharashtra becomes a concern

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: Covid-19 positivity rate in Mumbai has come down from 17 to 9% while positive cases have been surging in rural Maharashtra with a high mortality rate, as per the state government’s weekly report.It said the Nandurbar tribal district has recorded the highest 2.93% mortality rate, in Hingoli it is 2.46 % and 2.33% in Sindhudurg. In Nanded, the mortality rate is 2.29% and 1.19% in Aurangabad.Maharashtra’s average mortality rate is 0.98% over the last week. There are 22 districts which are witnessing a surge in positive cases with a high mortality rate in the state.

    The report reveals that Covid positive patients’ weekly growth rate is also higher in rural areas. The 3.18% growth rate in Ratnagiri, 2.83% in Budhana, 2.67 per cent in Parbhani, 2.64% in Beed, and 2.60% growth rate of positive cases in Sindhurgh. In Mumbai the growth rate is 0.51% while the doubling ratio is 130 days with 90% per cent recovery.

    The weekly positivity is the highest in Palghar at 40.85%, while it is 39.25% in Budhana and 39.02% in Ahmednagar, 34.87% in Hingoli, 34.37% in Satara and 32.77% in Parbhani, 31.96% in Beed. In Pune, the positivity rate is 29.15%, while it is 29.20% in Nasik and 26.45% in Thane over the last week.State Health minister Rajesh Tope says positive cases are plummeting in 15 districts, but there is a surge in the remaining 22 districts in the state. He said lockdown has helped in containing the spread of the virus, but in rural Maharashtra, positive cases are rising.

    “In the urban localities, people are following lockdown measures strictly, but in rural areas, people are still casual, resulted in the spike in positive cases. If required, more stringent measures will be imposed to contain the spread of the virus and bring down positivity and mortality rates,” Tope said. Latur, the rural district of Maharashtra, is witnessing a major surge in positive cases. The local authority has declared a six-day lockdown starting Saturday at 7 am. So far, 1,467 patients have lost their lives and 65,015 patients have recovered in the district while there are 11,608 active Covid cases in Latur.

  • Glimmer of hope in Mumbai, but four other Maharashtra cities seeing infection surge

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI:  While Mumbai has seen a slight dip in the number of new Covid-19 cases, four other major cities in Maharashtra are seeing a surge in the number of positive cases. Five major cities account for more than 50% of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra. They are: Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Nasik and Mumbai. 

    The state reported 62,919 new Covid-19 cases on Friday. According to Maharashtra’s health department, Pune has the highest share of active cases at 15.15%. Nagpur accounts for 11.19% of the state’s active cases. About 10.75% are in Thane and 10.20% in Mumbai. Nasik accounts for 7.59% of the state’s active cases.

    A medic takes swab sample from a man for Covid-19 testing by Navi MumbaiMunicipal Corporation at APMC Grain Market in Mumbai on Friday

    Between April 19 and 25, the Sindhudurg district in the Konkan region reported the highest mortality rate of 3.66%. Nanded in Marathwada recorded a 3.46% mortality rate. It was 2.46% in Osmanabad, 2.43% in Solapur, 2.14% in Amaravati. The average mortality rate in Maharashtra is 0.94%.

    Last week, the highest positivity rate was reported in Palghar 36.03%. Gadchiroli reported 35.25%, Nasik 35.17%, Nagpur 34.17 %, Oamanabad 35.43% in Oamanabad. The average positivity rate in Maharashtra was 25.59%.

    Mumbai, once the state’s corona hotspot has seen a dip in its positivity rate in the last few days. If on April 1, the positivity rate was 20.85%, by April 29, it has come down to 9.94%. More than 40,000 Covid tests are done every day in Mumbai. Out of them, between 4,000 and 5,000 tests return positive results.

  • Study shows rural Maharashtra suffering more in onslaught of COVID second wave

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: A weekly Maharashtra government report on the prevalence of Covid-19 has revealed that positivity and mortality rates are higher in the state’s rural districts than in big cities such as Mumbai and Pune. In Maharashtra, the highest weekly positivity rate of Covid-19 is in Osmanabad (39.25%) followed by Parbhani and Hingoli (36.78% and 36.70% respectively). Pune’s positivity rate is 30.43% while Nagpur’s positivity rate is 35.02%.

    The average positivity rate of Maharashtra was 25.17% from April 11 to 17. Most rural districts are included in the highest weekly positivity rates across the state. These include Jalna, Beed, Nandurbar, Nasik, Latur, Gondhia, Ahmednagar, Palghar, and Ratnagiri districts. The weekly report also revealed that the growth of Covid positive cases is more in the second wave than in the first wave. The first Covid wave in Mumbai saw 34,259 total active positive patients.

    In the second wave so far, the number stands at a staggering 85,221 — 249% growth. In Jalna, this growth is 345%. Beed, Latur and Parbhani witnessed 347%, 398% and 798% growth respectively from the first wave. “The cases suddenly started rising in the Vidarbha and Marathwada region and later spread across Maharashtra. No one had gauged the seriousness of the situation in the second wave. It caught everyone, including health experts, off guard. In April, it turned out to be a Covid tsunami,” said a government official.

    He said in February and March, people did not follow the Covid 19 norms and started attending weddings and other social and cultural functions in large numbers. “The virus spread rapidly in a short period and now we have a shortage of beds, Remdesivir doses and oxygen,” said the official.

    NCP minister Nawab Malik said for the last 10 days, the state’s positive cases have hovered between 60,000 and 67,000 while in other states, there is a steep rise. “We are confident of the Covid curve flattening soon in Maharashtra. We hope by April-end, things will be much better with more vaccinations and better health infrastructure,” he said.

  • Mumbai-based Haffkine institute gets permission to produce COVID-19 vaccines

    By Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The Mumbai-based Haffkine institute received permission from the central government on Thursday to produce the Covaxin vaccines. 

    Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking approval to start production of vaccine at Haffkine institute in view of rising Covid cases.

    The central government’s Science and Technology department secretary Renu Swarup wrote to  Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte informing that the centre has decided to grant the permission for Haffkine institute to produce the vaccines. It is one of the oldest institute in India.

    The central government has given the permission for one year for the purpose of production of vaccines. 

    Thackeray asked the chief secretary to ensure appointment of senior govt officer for monitoring and production of vaccine on schedule. He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his quick positive response in fight against Covid.

    Maharashtra on Thursday reported 61,695 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the tally to 36,39,855, while 349 new fatalities pushed the toll to 59,153, the state health department said The COVID-19 case tally is the second highest single-day count so far after 63,294 infections were reported in the state on April 11.

    Also, 53,335 patients were discharged during the day, taking the number of recovered cases to 29,59,056, the department said. Maharashtra is now left with 6,20,060 active cases, the department said in a release.

    The Mumbai division, including Mumbai city and its satellite towns, recorded 16,906 cases and 82 deaths during the day, taking the count of cases to 11,50,776 and the fatalities to 21,416.

    (With PTI inputs)

  • Mumbai reports 7898 COVID-19 cases, 26 deaths; 11,263 recover

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Mumbai on Tuesday reported 7,898 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 5,35,017, while 26 more patients succumbed to the infection, the city civic body said. The fresh cases were nearly 1,000 higher than Monday when 6,905 infections were reported.

    Also, 11,263 people were discharged from hospitals during the day, pushing the number of recovered cases to 4,34,941, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

    With this, the number of active cases stood at 86,866 in the financial capital, it said. The BMC said 26 fresh deaths took the toll to 12,086.

    With 49,320 more tests conducted to detect coronavirus, the number of samples examined so far rose to 46,99,507, the civic body said.

    The COVID-19 recovery rate in the city was 81 per cent, while growth rate of cases between April 6 and 12 stood at 1.79 per cent, it said. There are 89 active containment zones in Mumbai, where 970 buildings have been sealed, the BMC added.

  • Special train from Mumbai reaches Ranchi with only 30 passengers

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: Much to the disappointment of district and Railway officials, the very first special train, arranged to meet the rush of migrants queuing up at railway stations to reach their homes to avoid chaos like the previous lockdown in 2020, reached Ranchi station with only 30 passengers.

    Interestingly, according to official records, at least 184 passengers were supposed to arrive here, but 154 disappeared in between Mumbai and Ranchi Stations.

    Sources in the railways told that the train was stopped at Nimiyaghat Station near Gomoh Junction for around 40 minutes where those passengers might have got down from the train to avoid testing for COVID-19. Officials, however, could not explain where those 154 passengers disappeared even though they had booked their tickets for Ranchi.

    The officials, however, said that those passengers might have got down on the stations even before reaching Ranchi Station to reach their respective destinations on time.

    “The train reached here at 1:50 pm. The train which was to cover only one trip from Mumbai-Ranchi-Mumbai had 30 passengers on it. All those who reached here were screened properly and were allowed to go home only after giving samples,” said Ranchi Division CPRO Neeraj Kumar. All arrangement was done here for testing of every passenger reaching here, he added.

    Meanwhile, fearing the chances of lockdown which might be put in place with COVID-19 cases going out of control in Maharashtra, most of the migrant workers are opting to return back to their native places to avoid chaos like the previous lockdown in 2020.

    “If I had stayed there for some time more, I might have landed in trouble. Already, most of the business activities have been closed down; therefore, it is impossible to manage the living expenses in a city like Mumbai,” said a migrant Afroz, who works in Mumbai as a daily wage labourer. He did not wanted to facesimilar situation what he had to face last year due to sudden announcement of lockdown, he added.

    Afroz told that that the train was fully packed when it departed from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, but he could also not explain where and why they got down even before reaching Ranchi Station.

  • Ambani bomb scare case: Former cop Pradeep Sharma quizzed by NIA for over nine hours

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Former police officer Pradeep Sharma on Thursday appeared before the NIA for the second day in connection with the case of an explosives-laden SUV found near industrialist’s Mukesh Ambani residence and the death of businessman Mansukh Hiran, an official said.

    The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had summoned the “encounter specialist” cop to record his statement.

    Sharma reached the NIA office in south Mumbai around 1 pm, the official said.

    “He was questioned for more than nine hours. He left the NIA office around 10. 15 pm,” he added.

    Sources said that Sharma is likely to be confronted with suspended police officer Sachin Waze and two other persons, who were earlier arrested by the NIA in connection with its probe into the case.

    On Wednesday, Sharma was questioned by the NIA for over seven hours.

    Sharma used to be a trusted officer of former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh when the latter headed the Thane police.

    Before taking voluntary retirement, Sharma had headed the anti-extortion cell of the Thane crime branch.

    He unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Assembly election from Nalasopara in Palghar district of Maharashtra.

    An SUV laden with explosives was found parked near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence here on February 25.

    Businessman Mansukh Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV, was found dead in a creek in neighbouring Thane district on March 5.

  • CBI to quiz former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, suspended cop Sachin Waze

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI will question former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and suspended police officer Sachin Waze in connection with its preliminary enquiry into alleged corruption by former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, officials said.

    The agency had on Tuesday registered a preliminary enquiry into allegations of bribery against Deshmukh on the orders of the Bombay High Court, they said.

    A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers from Delhi have gone to Mumbai to carry out probe into the matter, they said.

    Waze was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the case related to the recovery of an SUV with explosives near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house on March 25 and subsequent murder of its owner Mansukh Hiran.

    The central probe agency has taken necessary permissions to question Waze and will also meet Singh to get more specific details about his allegations against Deshmukh who had resigned on Monday after the Bombay High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter, they said.

    Singh was transferred from commissioner’s post following the arrest of Waze by the NIA.

    After his transfer from coveted Mumbai Police Commissioner’s post, Singh has alleged that Deshmukh had asked police officers, including Waze, to extort Rs 100 crore from bars and restaurants.

    Singh had approached the Bombay High Court through a Public Interest Litigation seeking a CBI probe into allegations of corruption against Deshmukh.

     A criminal writ petition was also filed by Mumbai-based lawyer Jayshree Patil on which the High Court ordered CBI probe and disposed other petitions in the matter.

    The High Court, on Monday, had given 15 days to the CBI to conduct preliminary enquiry into the allegations, officials said.

    A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni on Monday had said this was an “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” case that warranted an independent inquiry.

    In its 52-page judgement, the bench said Singh’s allegations against Deshmukh had put at stake the citizen’s faith in the state police.

    Such allegations, made by a serving police officer, against the state home minister could not be left unattended, and were required to be probed into, if prima facie, they made a case of a cognisable offence, the HC had said.