Mumbai: A breakdown in the 900 mm valve of the Vaitarna water pipeline system at Tarali, Thane district, has led to a water cut in Mumbai. This disruption has resulted in a 5 to 10 per cent reduction in water supply to the Bhandup Water Treatment Plant, prompting the BMC to implement up to 10 per cent water cut for next 48 hours staring from this morning (Thursday October 17 to Friday October 18).

The daily water supply to Mumbai primarily comes from the Vaitarna Dam. A malfunction in the pipeline at Tarali, which carries water from the dam, has necessitated immediate repairs by the hydraulic engineering department, requiring a partial shutdown of the water conveyance system.

The repair work is expected to take around 48 hours, due to which the citizens will have to face a 5 to 10 % water cut. The BMC has appealed to the citizens to store sufficient water and use it judiciously.

Meanwhile, after adequate rainfall this monsoon, the water levels in seven reservoirs supplying drinking water to Mumbai has crossed 97 per cent. As of October 17, the seven dams supplying water to Mumbai hold 1,409,761 million litres of water. On the same day last year, water levels were 96.02 per cent.

The seven dams supplying water to Mumbai are: Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Tansa, Bhatsa, Tulsi, Vihar and Modak Sagar.

Mumbai: The election commission of India announced the polling schedule for Maharashtra assembly elections on Tuesday. The voting for all 288 assembly constituencies will be held on November 20 and the results will be declared on November 23. The state as of Tuesday has 9.63 crore registered voters who will pick the new government. However, the state election commission (SEC) of Wednesday said that the eligible voters who still have not registered themselves, have time till 12 am of October 19 to do so.

The SEC said that the citizens can fill the form at the election commission’s office in the respective assemblies or can visit the website https://voters.eci.gov.in/ for online voter registration. The citizens can also call toll free helpline no. 1950 for any information. New voter registration can also be done at ‘Voter helpline App’ and can also check the registered list.

The EC has been encouraging first-time voters, that is citizens who have just completed the age of 18 to register themselves with the election commission and exercise their right to vote. As of September 28, Maharashtra had 19.48 lakh first-time voters, which is expected to increase by October 19.

Meanwhile, the SEC has informed that voters can file complaints regarding code of conduct violations with the help of the ‘Cvigil app’ and the complaints made on this app are resolved within 100 minutes.

While, voters can gather information about the candidates on ‘KYC App’.

Apart from the helping number 1950, the residents of Mumbai can also contact the Collector Mumbai Suburban Office- Toll-Free No. 18002682910, Office of Collector Mumbai City- Control Room No- 022-2082 2781, Election Control Room – 7977363304 and can visit the state election commission’s website for any election-related information or help.

Mumbai: An unexpected and serious situation has situation has arisen in India aviation history as 12 Indian aircrafts, including Air India, IndiGo, Akasa Air and SpiceJet have received hoax bomb threats in the last three days. The threats leading to emergency situations and flight diversion have left flyers panicked and puzzled. The threats are not only creating significant disruptions, left hundreds of passengers stranded but raised grave questions over security measures and safety of passengers.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee met at 11 am on Wednesday over the issue preceded by a meeting called by Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu with Civil Aviation Ministry and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials. Some culprits have been identified and the dark web is also being monitored. While a 17-year-old minor is being questioned in an Air India bomb threat call case.

On Wednesday afternoon, a Delhi-Bengaluru Akasa Air flight carrying 184 individuals returned to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on after a bomb threat prompted the airline to declare an emergency. Minutes after taking off from Delhi the flight was urgently diverted back. This became the 12th such aircraft in the last 72 hours which received an bomb scare.

Meanwhile, IndiGo’s Mumbai-Delhi flight was redirected to Ahmedabad. The aircraft was isolated, and all passengers were safely disembarked, an IndiGo Spokesperson said.

On Wednesday morning, Canadian Air Force aircraft safely transported 191 stranded passengers from Iqaluit Airport to Chicago, after an 18-hour delay due to a bomb scare on an Air India flight.

On Monday, three international flights that took off from Mumbai were diverted or delayed after an X (formerly Twitter) handle posted threats. While on Tuesday, seven flights, including the two Air India planes, were affected by the threats issued by another X handle which has now been suspended. Screenshots of some of the posts show the user had tagged the airline and local police and mentioned the flight number.

Notably, fo the delay in international flights, the agencies of the concerned countries also get involved in the investigations. The trend of issuing threats online had increased lately, raising serious questions over usage of social media, dark web, fake users as well as safety and security.