1. City BJP Floats Panel To Push For Rail Projects
At a time when the ruling BJP government is facing immense criticism for not taking adequate action to ensure widening of the Elphinstone Road-Parel Foot Over-Bridge (FOB), where 23 people died in a stampede on Friday, the party’s city unit has formed a four-member committee to pursue all pending railway jobs in Mumbai.
On Sunday, the state BJP leaders, including education minister Vinod Tawde and minister of state Vidya Thakur, attended a daylong meeting at their office. The committee was formed by Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar.
Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Shelar said, “A coordination committee meeting was held between BMC, police, GRP and Railways. Our committee will keep an eye on the delivery of results. We will give a feedback to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.”
Headed by Shelar, the committee will have legislator Bhai Girkar, former MLC Madhu Chavan and corporator Prabhakar Shinde.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
2. Mumbai Stampede: Police 'Recover' Victims' Missing Jewellery
A day after this paper reported about gold ornaments being taken from the bodies of the stampede victims at Elphinstone Road station, the Mumbai Police claim they have returned the valuables to the families. They said the gold was removed by KEM Hospital's ward boys prior to the post-mortem.
On Saturday, Mid-Day had reported on the outrage of the families of stampede victims Sumalata Shetty and Sujata Alwa, when they found gold jewellery missing from the bodies.
Sumalata's younger sister, Supriya Shetty, said "Four policemen from Dadar police station visited my sister's home in plain clothes on Saturday night and returned her wrist watch, earrings, bangles, anklet, and rings. They also returned Sujata Alva's earrings, ring and nose ring."
The family said that the mangalsutra and toe rings from both bodies were yet to be found. The cost of each mangalsutra is around Rs 95,000. When mid-day enquired with the police, they claimed that the said ornaments might have gone missing during the stampede. They added that the family can register an FIR with the local police.
"The police did not even inform us about the jewellery while handing over the body. They only handed over Sujata's cellphone to her relatives," said Sumalata's family friend, Ganesh Shetty, adding, "If we had not tweeted about it and the news had not been published, we might not have got our jewellery back."
(Source: Mid-Day)
3. Four-Year-Old Mumbai Boy Chokes To Death On Toy He Got Free With Packet Of Chips
A four-year-old boy in Kandivli died on Saturday night after he accidentally swallowed a toy that came free in a packet of chips. The boy’s parents said they could not reach the nearest hospital in time owing to the traffic jams cause by Durga procession in the area.
Forensic experts who investigated the case said the toy got stuck in Piyush Khushwaha’s windpipe, which obstructed airflow and resulted in asphyxiation. “We found the toy stuck inside the trachea (windpipe) of the child, with complete obstruction of the airflow to the lungs,” said the expert.
Piyush’s father Birju said his son would have turned five in December. “He had a lot of fun because we took him to local fairs and Durga Puja pandals. We were returning from one such fair on Saturday when he asked for a packet of chips,” said Birju.
He said Piyush was unattended only for ten minutes. “It was a spring toy, which went off and got stuck inside his throat. He couldn’t speak at all. For five minutes, we tried everything we could to help him cough out the toy. However, we rushed to the nursing home after our attempts failed,” Birju added.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. Iqbal Kaskar Arrest Effect: Mumbai Police Scramble To Clean Up Their Streets
Left pink-faced (if not red) with the arrest of Iqbal Kaskar by the Thane police, the Mumbai police have launched a special drive to curb organised crime in the city. Its officers have made a list of active and non-active gangsters in the city to keep a tab on their activities. Of these, 32 are said to be absconding.
Kaskar, brother of Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested 10 days ago. He was accused of trying to extort money from a builder in Thane. This arrest appears to have caused embarrassment to the Mumbai Police, as it sent a message that the force was not keeping tabs on gangsters living within its city limits. To avoid such incidents in the future, the department has come up with the new plan.
"A list of 212 gangsters has been made, which includes present and former gangsters, TADA accused, and those acquitted. Thirty-two of the gangsters in the list have been proclaimed as absconders; so, cops have been asked to keep a closer eye on the remaining 180," said a highly-placed source in the police department.
"A sub-inspector level officer, from the local police station or crime branch, will be assigned to watch a gangster," the officer added. "We ran this operation in South Mumbai and it gave us good results. It not only gave us a clear picture of the scenario in the Underworld, but also helped curb its activities."
(Source: Mid-Day)
5. Cops Unearth Naxal Link To Cannabis Trafficking Cartel
The Mumbai police is believed to have identified a Naxal link to a well-entrenched marijuana trafficking operation in the city. Officers in the Mumbai Police claim that they have identified a Naxal “levy manager” who uses the proceeds from the sale of marijuana to fund Naxal activities in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The manager, identified as Narayan Sahu, is still at large, but the Anti Narcotics Cell arrested his compatriots -- Indrapradhan Laddukishor, Prashant Jena, Kalia Prakash and Narayan Dhanurjay – from Kalyan on September 23 and seized 28 kg of marijuana in their possession.
The police said that Sahu, along with Indrapradhan, was in charge of collection of funds, mostly from cities such as Mumbai. He directed the movement of marijuana from the Naxal-controlled districts of Malkangiri, Ganjam and Gajapati, in southern Odisha, into Mumbai. Indrapradhan, in turn, arranged for the necessary “human resource requirements” at the delivery end. “Both Indrapradhan and Sahu ensured the supply chain links remained intact until the consignments reached designated targets,” said a police officer.
Cops are working out leads to establish if Sahu is related to an active Naxal who is part of the “unofficial administration” responsible for collection and levying of “taxes” on the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
6. Sena To Forge Alliance With Cong And NCP Against Rane
Shiv Sena is considering to forge an alliance with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to ensure that former chief minister and founder of Maharashtra Swabhimani Party (MSP) Narayan Rane is denied re-entry into the Legislative Council. It is also opposing Rane’s entry into the National Democratic Alliance.
Rane, who quit the Congress and resigned as MLC on September 21, announced formation of the new party on October 1.
The issue of Rane seeking re-election to the Legislative Council was discussed in a meeting called by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at his residence, Matoshree, on Monday morning. The meeting was attended by party’s Rajya Sabha MPs Anil Desai and Sanjay Raut, MLC Anil Parab and industry minister Subhash Desai.
It was decided that Sena will oppose Rane’s entry into National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The possibility of putting up a joint candidate, along with Congress and NCP, against Rane was also explored if the latter’s decides to contest election for MLC’s post.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
7. Mumbai Monorail Phase II Trials From October 10
After continuous delays, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will finally begin the trial runs for the Phase II of the Mumbai Monorail this month. According to officials, the trials for the Wadala-Jacob Circle stretch is set to begin from October 10. “Ten days after the trials begin, we will hand over the systems to the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS),” said Sanjay Khandare, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA.
The trial runs were earlier delayed due to a shortage of rakes. While the Monorail had 10 rakes, only four were functional and being used to operate the Chembur-Wadala corridor. They required four more rakes to conduct the trial runs. “The four rakes will now be made available for testing,” added Khandare.
While the MMRDA has already missed several deadlines since 2014, it proposes to open the Phase II to public by the end of this year.
(Source: Indian Express)
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