Mumbai: Mumbai woke up on Wednesday to a refreshingly cool winter morning, featuring clear blue skies, gentle breezes and a crisp nip in the air. While the weather initially offered a welcome break for residents, a thin blanket of haze lingered across the city, subtly muting visibility and showing the city’s ongoing struggle with deteriorating air quality.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted a pleasant day with clear skies, a minimum temperature of around 15°C and a maximum of 33°C. However, despite the favourable conditions, Mumbai’s air quality remained a cause for concern, largely due to escalating pollution levels tied to the city’s rapid and continuous construction boom.

Major government-led infrastructure projects, including new metro corridors, bridges and extensive road-widening initiatives, combined with a surge in private real estate development, have contributed to dust and particulate matter in the air.

By today morning, air quality monitoring platform AQI.in recorded Mumbai’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) at 141, placing it in the ‘poor’ category. Though this number reflects an improvement from the more severe readings seen late last month and early December, the air remains far from safe.

Certain locations emerged as major pollution hotspots. The Wadala Truck Terminal registered a shocking AQI of 409, categorised as ‘hazardous’ and posing severe health risks. Deonar and Colaba also reported troubling figures, with AQI readings of 217 and 203, respectively, placing them within the ‘unhealthy’ range. Prominent residential and industrial zones such as Worli and Kurla were not far behind, recording AQI levels of 193, deemed ‘poor’.

Suburban areas showed relatively cleaner air but were still affected. Charkop (67), Kandivali East (68) and Jogeshwari East (78) fell within the ‘moderate’ range, indicating acceptable but still tainted air. Powai (80) and Chembur (82) also registered moderate AQI readings.

For context, AQI levels between 0–50 are considered Good, 51–100 Moderate, 101–150 Poor, 151–200 Unhealthy, and anything above 200 Hazardous.

Navi Mumbai: A case has been registered against two people in connection with the fire that broke out in Vashi’s Raheja Residency, which killed four residents, including a 6-year-old girl. The incident occurred on October 21 when the blaze, which started around 12.40 a.m. on the 10th floor, quickly spread to the 11th and 12th floors.

a case has been registered at Vashi Police station against Sanjay Ubale, Raheja Residency manager and Pradeep Patil of Life Save Fire Service. The report stated that the building had appointed Life Save Fire Service to carry out fire prevention measures, while Ubale, as the manager, failed to ensure that the work was being completed, leading to the tragic fire that claimed the lives of innocent residents.

The four deceased were identified as Vedika Sundar Balakrishnan (6), Kamla Hiralal Jain (84), Sundar Balakrishnan (44), and Pooja Rajan (39) — all residents of Raheja Residency. While several other residents were injured due to the fire.

Among the injured members were Manabendra (69), Malika (58), and Ritika Ghosh (39) from Room 1106; Bhavna (49), Mahavir (51), and Krish Jain (21) from Room 1005; Nirmal (53) and Mehul Jain (32) from Govind Complex; and Damayanti Agrawal (80) and Sumanti John Topno (18) from Room 1105.

The fire brigade official said the situation was brought under control after several hours of firefighting, followed by extensive cooling operations. According to the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) Fire Department, several fire engines from Vashi, Nerul, Airoli, and Koparkhairane stations were rushed to the spot.

Kolkata, Dec 9: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Tuesday, challenged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to speak against the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP A. Raja, for making baseless allegations linking Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Vande Mataram’s composer and legendary Bengali writer, to past communal tensions in the state.

BJP had raised the question whether Mamata Banerjee would dare to speak against Raja, considering that both Trinamool Congress and FMK are part of the opposition Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

“Mamata Banerjee must speak up against the INDI Alliance, of which she is a part, as it continues to denigrate and defile the rich legacy of Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Is TMC’s alliance with the DMK and Congress more important than the pride of West Bengal? Shame on her,” observed BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, in a social media statement.

Earlier, the BJP had also issued a statement accusing Raja of “irresponsibly” linking West Bengal’s communal tensions to Bankim Chandra’s writings and thus “twisting facts” in an attempt to paint him as “regressive”.

“Raja’s accusation that Bankim Chandra opposed women’s education and social reform is deeply misleading. Bankim believed real reform must arise from a renewed and awakened Hindu society, not just from superficial legislation – a difference in approach, not in values. Through his novels, Bankim Chandra introduced strong, layered, assertive female characters and consistently encouraged women’s education,” the statement issued by the BJP read.

The BJP also claimed that Mamata Banerjee should answer whether West Bengal’s pride was negotiable for power.

Incidentally, the BJP’s observations come just a couple of hours after CM Mamata, earlier in the day, criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his inadvertent reference to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as “Bankim Da” during his speech in Parliament.

The Prime Minister immediately amended his words and said he would henceforth address Chattopadhyay as “Bankim Babu”.