Mumbai, Sep 21: With several parts of Maharashtra facing severe drought conditions due to inadequate rainfall this season, Nationalist Congress Party-SP chief Sharad Pawar is set to undertake a tour of the affected regions from next Monday.

The veteran leader will visit farms directly to assess the situation on the ground and interact with affected farmers. The announcement comes amidst escalating political action over the agrarian crisis.

Earlier, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had directed all guardian ministers to conduct field reviews in their respective districts to expedite government relief measures.

While CM Fadnavis has accused the opposition of politicising the situation, Sharad Pawar’s planned tour is expected to raise the pressure on the state administration. Although the state government has announced that crop damage assessments (panchnamas) will begin on October 5, farmers have expressed anxiety over delays in receiving relief funds.

In a letter to CM Fadnavis, Pawar previously urged the state government to officially declare a drought and submitted a 9-point charter of demands. He also urged the CM to declare a state-level drought immediately without waiting for formal technical criteria, extend emergency drought benefits to heavily affected talukas, provide immediate compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare to affected farmers and Rs 25,000 as special financial aid to landless farm labourer families, implement a farm loan waiver immediately, facilitate fresh crop loans, increase the incentive subsidy for farmers with consistent loan repayments from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000, and cover defaulting farmers from the 2025–26 season under the waiver.

Pawar called upon the CM to apply the Re 1 crop insurance scheme retroactively with all previously excluded trigger points restored, and immediately disburse the promised Rs 17,000 per hectare compensation for unseasonal rain damage from last year, initiate special works under the Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) focusing on agriculture and water conservation and provide dedicated water tankers to preserve fruit orchards, and conduct immediate surveys in villages facing drinking water shortages to deploy government tankers.

He has emphasised the need to set up cattle fodder camps, drinking water points, and veterinary services on demand, launch a special drive through the Energy Department to repair faulty transformers on priority to counter load-shedding issues and set up state- and district-level control rooms to monitor daily rainfall, crop health, water scarcity, and fodder availability. He also demanded that the government should waive complete tuition and academic fees for students studying in drought-affected talukas, rather than limiting concessions to examination fee waivers.

Meanwhile, NCP SP MLA Rohit Pawar has already initiated a tour of the drought-hit areas, launching sharp attacks on the state government. Rohit Pawar, in a post on X, said that when assessing drought, human errors should be avoided, accurate processing of information from various indicators should take place, and drought-affected talukas should be identified in less time. For this purpose, the government has developed Maha-MADAT, an advanced computer system, extremely important for determining Trigger-1 and Trigger-2, but he pointed out a crucial shortcoming in it.

“However, the shocking fact is that the tenure given to MRSAC (Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre, Nagpur) for this computer system, Maha-MADAT, was only up to the Kharif season of 2024. Despite the Agriculture Department repeatedly submitting proposals for extension of tenure, this government has not yet taken any decision on it. While Maharashtra is burning in drought, how can the government sleep for two whole years like this? The government should immediately complete the necessary processes, declare drought in the state, and implement relief measures accordingly,” he noted.

Parallel to Sharad Pawar’s field visits, the NCP-SP has convened a comprehensive state-level meeting on September 28 in Mumbai. The meeting will be chaired by the party’s state President Shashikant Shinde in the presence of Working President Supriya Sule. Attendees include party MPs, MLAs, state office-bearers, observers, spokespersons, district and taluka heads, frontal organisation chiefs, and former candidates.

During the meeting, NCP SP will evaluate the drought and water scarcity situation across Maharashtra and its impact on rural life, formulate the party’s stance and strategy regarding youth unemployment, address paper leaks and examination malpractices affecting st, students’ futures and issue guidelines and vigilance tasks for office-bearers regarding the State Infrastructure/Information Register (SIR). Besides, the party will review the current political landscape in Maharashtra and discuss organisational expansion and party-building strategies.

Mumbai, Sep 21: The driver of the high-end car involved in the fatal Mumbai Coastal Road accident was allegedly driving rashly and negligently, resulting in his death as well as two other vehicle occupants, while another person sustained grievous injuries and remains in critical condition, police said on Monday.

An FIR was registered earlier in the day at Tardeo Police Station in connection with the fatal car crash on Mumbai’s Coastal Road. The accident took place between around 5 a.m. and 5.20 a.m. on Sunday, when a black high-end car travelling northbound from Marine Drive towards Haji Ali allegedly lost control while being driven at high speed near Lotus Jetty.

According to the FIR, the car crashed through a barrier and plunged from the flyover into an under-construction area below, leading to the deaths of three of the four occupants. The severity of the accident was evident from the extent of the damage to the car, which tore through the signboard hanging from the bridge. The roof of the car was pushed inwards, the windshield was shattered, and the bonnet was completely destroyed.

The four youths travelling in the car have been identified as Shanay Gujjar, 21, Dhairya Darshan Seth, 17, Aditya Jakasania, around 18-19, and Aditya Kalpeshwar Oswal, in his early 20s.

Police said Gujjar was found in the driver’s seat after the accident. The FIR alleges that he was driving the vehicle in a rash and negligent manner, resulting in the deaths of himself, Seth, and Jakasania, who were seated in the rear of the car.

The fourth occupant, Oswal, sustained grievous injuries in the crash. He was taken to Nair Hospital along with the other occupants for treatment.

Gujjar, Seth, and Jakasania were declared brought dead at the hospital, while Oswal continues to undergo treatment for his injuries.

During the investigation, police recovered four mobile phones from the accident site, including three iPhones and one OnePlus phone. A Coach New York wallet was also recovered, containing a Rs 100 currency note and the Aadhaar card of Jakasania.

Police have registered offences under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act along with relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections relating to rash driving and causing death by negligence.

Pune Sep 21: A social media influencer was forced to prostrate in front of Raj Thackeray’s photograph for allegedly mocking Raj Thackeray in one of his reels.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena workers captured the influencer, Mahesh Mote, and forced him to prostrate before a photograph of Raj Thackeray with slippers on his head and black ink smeared on his face. He was recorded while he apologized on camera in the same position while doing sit-ups.

The video showed tears flowing down Mote’s cheeks while the latter apologising to Raj Thackeray and the MNS workers for alleged insult and also pleading before them to be forgiven and let off.

“I inadvertently said something wrong about Raj Saheb, and I also mistakenly spoke inappropriately about Shubham Dada and other MNS office-bearers. Today, I deeply regret my mistake. Because of this reel, I have found myself in this predicament. I sincerely apologise to the MNS party and to all of you,” Mote pleaded, with wet eyes.

According to reports, a sub-divisional president of Hardaspur Assembly constituency, Shubham Jagdale alleged that the influencer used abusive and offensive language against MNS chief Raj Thackeray in a video posted about 15 days ago.

Previously, the influencer was in Keralam but as soon as he returned to Pune, MNS workers got information and brought him to an MNS Public relations’ office, where the apology video was recorded.

Jagdale claimed that Mote was given “mahaprasad”, meaning that the latter was treated roughly. Boasting about the incident, the MNS worker said that anyone who would try to tarnish Raj Thackeray’s image would meet a similar fate.

“We brought him to our office and made him lie down before a portrait of the respected Raj Saheb Thackeray and demanded an apology,” a MNS leader was heard saying.

In further boasting, he stated, “In true MNS style, we gave him a fitting reply in our own language – something you might even call ‘Mahaprasad’. I believe that if anyone makes such remarks against Raj Saheb Thackeray, MNS will respond in exactly this manner.”