1. 100 Locals Cancelled In Four Days Thanks To Guards’ Protest
Refusal of guards to work ‘over time’ has resulted in the cancellation of over a hundred local trains on Western Railway in the past four days, inconveniencing lakhs of commuters. However, the impression of weary and exhausted train guards working long hours takes a beating when one takes a quick look at the average number of hours these guards put in and how this ‘over time’ is calculated.
In 2017, the average daily duty hours a guard worked stood at just six and a half hours, well below the Indian Railway-mandated rule of eight hours. But the way the ‘over time’ rules are drafted, many of these guards still managed to claim over time. For example, if a guard is supposed to man three trains in a day, according to the duty schedule, any train he mans above that will qualify him to earn ‘over time’, even though the hours he worked may well fall below eight hours.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
2. 17 Students Fall Ill After Having Midday Meal
Seventeen students and a teacher’s helper suffered from food poisoning allegedly after consuming the midday meal served at BMC-aided Sahyadri Vidyamandir in Bhandup on Thursday.
Twelve girls and five boys, all students of Class VII, complained of stomach ache and vomiting around 11 am, half-an-hour after they ate rice and dal served as part of the midday meal, said Narayan Sawant, trustee of the school in Bhandup West. A helper teacher (employees who assists teachers with administrative tasks), who had tasted the food before it was served to the children, too, fell sick.
(Source: Indian Express)
3. As Parents And Vets Watch, India’s First Penguin Takes Birth On I-day
As a team of vets watched the live footage from a closed-circuit camera, around 6 pm on Wednesday, the egg began to crack. In a matter of two hours, on the 40th day of incubation, at precisely 8.02 pm, the first-ever penguin to be born in India popped its head out as proud parents Flipper and Mr Molt looked on closely.
“Throughout the incubation period, the parents were with their egg continuously, taking turns to incubate it. In the initial period, the mother would spend long hours sitting on the egg. Around 10 days back, she sat on the egg for 48 hours at a stretch. But as they began sensing movement inside the egg, they took turns, sometimes even shifting guard every hour,” said Dr Sanjay Tripathi, director of Byculla Zoo, or Veermata Jijabai Udyan.
(Source: Indian Express)
4. 3 Months On, Nature Park’s Fate Hangs Fire
Three months after calling for suggestions and objections from citizens on the plan to include Mahim’s 41-acre Maharashtra Nature Park(MNP) in the Dharavi redevelopment project (DRP), the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority seems to have junked the objections
Neither has a single objection been heard so far, nor has the agency formally scrapped the plan to include the green zone in the slum redevelopment project.
Activists who had filed their objections are now fuming, asking the agency to either hear them out or announce that the proposal has been scrapped. DRP officials said there was no instruction from the government on scrapping the plan.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
5. Children Get Fresh Lease Of Life In BMC-run Bone Marrow Transplant Centre
Vihan Dhepe was six months old when a local doctor in Virar diagnosed him with thalassemia. The boy, now aged five, had to undergo a painful process of blood transfusion every month until June this year, when he underwent an operation in the first civic-run exclusive centre for bone marrow transplant in city for children.
Run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in Borivali and funded by private donors and the chief minister’s relief fund, the bone marrow transplant — a life-saving procedure that replaces damaged bone marrow with healthy one, costing Rs 15 lakh or more — has become accessible for the economically disadvantaged.
(Source: Indian Express)
6. Aarey Objects To BMC Toilets In Slums
The authorities of Aarey Colony have objected to the BMC’s decision to install toilets for over 300 women in the slums at Aarey Colony, Goregaon.
Mirror had reported on June 26 this year that women from Siddharth Rahivasi Sangh and Bhimshakti Seva Society were being forced to defecate in the open due to a lack of toilets.
The women in the area use small plots barricaded by saris as makeshift toilets. They say they face a daily struggle, because residents and workers from neighbouring apartment towers allegedly throw stones at them, and even film them.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
7. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Mumbai Link: From BJP’s Birth To His Retirement
Mumbai has always played a significant role in the political journey of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“Andhera chhatega, suraj niklega, kamal khilega (the darkness will go away, sun will rise, lotus will bloom)” — these lines spoken by Vajpayee at a public rally at the Bandra Reclamation Ground in Mumbai on April 6, 1980, had marked the birth of the BJP when the party was formally created after it came out of the Jan Sangh’s shadow.
(Source: Indian Express)
8. Boy Rescued Within Hours Of Kidnap Plaint
The Sakinaka police on Thursday rescued a five-year-old boy and nabbed his kidnapper within hours of a complaint being filed by the boy’s father.
Police said the accused, Akram Khan, lived near the victim’s house in Sakinaka’s Jarimari area and was friends with his father, Shakir Shaikh. Police are also on the lookout for Khan’s girlfriend who, investigators feel, may have had a hand in the kidnapping.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)