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Maharashtra

BMC cracks the whip, sacks 55 staffers for corruption, suspends 134 for graft, crimes

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Mumbai: In a massive clean-up operation before the upcoming civic elections, India’s biggest and richest civic body BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has booted out 55 employees for corruption and suspended another 134 for graft and other crimes, an official said here on Tuesday.

The 55 staffers at various levels have been found guilty after court proceedings in corruption and have accordingly been dismissed from service, as approved by BMC Commissioner I.S. Chahal.

Besides losing their jobs, these staffers will forfeit all other benefits like pension and gratuity, and worse – they are permanently debarred from applying from any government jobs in future, as dismissal is deemed as the most severe punishment.

Another 53 employees have cases of bribes lodged against them, while 81 staffers are facing other minor or severe criminal cases from the police.

Not sparing them either, the BMC has suspended these 134 staffers from their services for an undisclosed period – when they are barred from attending duties and face other repercussions.

The BMC said that a total of 200 civic staffers are embroiled in 142 cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and in 105 cases, the civic body has given its ‘pre-prosecution sanction’ to file the cases.

Of the remaining 37 complaints, 30 are under investigation by the departments and no approval has been sought from the BMC, but if they come up for sanction, the suitable action will be taken on priority.

From the remaining 7 cases, in 4 cases, sanction has been given to the ACB and it is in the process for the 3 other matters.

An official said that they had received 395 complaints against BMC employees under the Prevention of Corruption Act’s Section 17(a).

These complaints ranged from potholes to neglected wastes, poor garbage collection, bad condition of footpaths, water problems, improper spraying of insecticides, malpractices in public health services, etc,

Since these do not fall under the pre-prosecution sanction category, all these written complaints are being handled by various departments of the BMC for necessary action.

On the flip side, from 2018, the ACB had sought sanctions to investigate a total of 395 cases, but in 359 cases, after a thorough probe, it was found that those complaints were baseless.

In 18 cases, proceedings are currently on at the civic level, but in 14 cases, no prima facie evidence was found, and the remaining 4 are currently being acted upon by the departments concerned against the accused employees.

The sweeping action across departments comes just ahead of the BMC budget, to be tabled later this week and the much-anticipated civic elections, which are likely to be announced soon.

Maharashtra

Removing the Pakistani flag at Vile Parle station was costly, a case was registered against five people including a woman, police took action after the video went viral on social media

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Mumbai: The Juhu police has registered an FIR against six unidentified individuals, including a burqa-clad woman, for allegedly gathering unlawfully, verbally abusing, and physically assaulting people who opposed the removal of Pakistani flags near the west side of Vile Parle railway station.

According to the FIR, the incident took place on May 4, when the accused were seen removing Pakistani flags that had been pasted on the stair steps of the Vile Parle railway station as part of a protest against the April 22 massacre of Hindu tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.

The police have registered the case under Sections 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 190 (every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in pursuit of a common object), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The complainant, Santosh Salukhe, 49, a policeman, stated that he saw a video on Facebook, showing a veiled woman and four to five unidentified youths removing the Pakistani flags from the stair steps at Vile Parle railway station (West).

Salukhe immediately rushed to the location and learned that around 4 p.m. the same day, some unidentified individuals had pasted the Pakistani flags in front of the ticket counter at the station and on the steps as a symbolic protest against the recent terrorist attacks on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The flags carried the message “Step on it.” Those who pasted the flags left soon after.

Later, the veiled woman and her group arrived at the Vile Parle railway station and began removing the flags, which created a disturbance for commuters. When some people tried to stop them, the woman and her associates allegedly physically assaulted and verbally abused them, resulting in a brief period of tension at the station. Gurpreet Anand of Ankush Foundation had distributed free stickers of the Pakistani flag with the message “Step on it” printed at the bottom.

On Wednesday, he went to Juhu police station along with Parag Alavani MLA and others with a view to register an FIR. “However, the police did not register our FIR,” he told Media. But on Friday, a constable filed an FIR. Subsequently, the police registered a case. Juhu police officials said no arrests have been made yet, and no notices have been issued as they are in the process of identifying the accused.

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Maharashtra

Mumbai bus travel becomes more expensive, fares increase

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SOURCE: FREE PRESS JUORNAL

Mumbai : Mumbai citizens have been hit by inflation ahead of the BMC elections. The fare hike for BEST buses has been approved. An additional fare of twice the fare will be implemented from today, which will now mean that BEST passengers will have to pay an additional fare, which will affect the pockets of the passengers. The BEST administration has decided to implement the new fare from May 9. The fare has been increased for distances of 5, 10, and 20 kilometers.

The fare for a distance of 5 kilometers has been doubled. The fare for a distance of 5 kilometers has been increased from Rs 6 to Rs 12. No concession has been given in the fare for a 12-year-old child. The daily pass was previously Rs 60, but now the new fare has been increased to Rs 75. The monthly pass is from Rs 900 to Rs 1,800. The facility of Chalo Bus Pass has been provided for children of the Municipal Corporation. The increase in bus fares and tickets in Mumbai has put a burden on the pockets of the citizens. Shared taxis and auto rickshaws are also operated in Mumbai city and its suburbs, but due to the fare, many passengers are unable to pay for these shared means of transport and travel by buses.

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Maharashtra

The verdict in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case will be announced on July 31

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Mumbai: The verdict in the September 29, 2008 bomb blast in Malegaon will be pronounced on July 31. BJP leader and former MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt. Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit, former Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Swami Dayanand Pandey, Ajay Rahirkar, and Sameer Kulkarni are accused of being involved in illegal activities. A bomb was planted in Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s scooter, after which the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 13 accused in the case and charged 7 accused. The hearing of the Malegaon bomb blast will be completed in April. The verdict was expected to be pronounced today, but the court gave the reason that more than one lakh pages are under study and therefore the matter has been adjourned till July 31.

A bomb blast in a scooter at Bhakko Chowk killed 7 people and injured 100. In this case, ATS Chief Hemant Karkare investigated and MCOCA was also applied to the accused, but this investigation was later handed over to the NIA in 2011. The NIA has sought death penalty for the accused in this case. Statements of 223 witnesses were recorded in this case and 23 witnesses defected in the court, including 8 witnesses from the army and defense department. The court has ordered all the accused to be present on July 31 and if anyone is absent, action will be taken against him. The court will pronounce its verdict in this case only on July 31 because the hearing of the case has been completed and the court has also reserved its verdict.

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