Thane: The Thane Traffic Department has issued a new traffic advisory following the commencement of service road merging work by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) between Mullanbaug and Patlipada on the busy Thane–Ghodbunder Road. The work, which began this week, is expected to cause significant congestion during peak hours, prompting authorities to introduce diversions and temporary restrictions to improve traffic flow.

According to the official notice signed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Pankaj Shirsat, the construction activity will require partial road closures in the stretch connecting Mullanbaug and Patlipada. All heavy vehicles, including trucks and goods carriers, will not be permitted to pass through the area during work hours. Instead, they will have to take designated alternate routes as advised by the police.

The alternate routes include diversion of vehicles through Kapurbawdi and Manpada Junction for those travelling towards Ghodbunder, ensuring that smaller passenger vehicles and emergency services face minimal disruption. The advisory will remain in effect until completion of the service road merging work, which is being carried out to ease future traffic flow along the corridor.

The Thane Police’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle also alerted citizens, stating, “Service road merging work by MMRDA between Mullanbaug and Patlipada has started. Traffic congestion is expected during peak hours. Citizens are requested to use alternate routes.”

Citizens have been advised to plan their travel in advance and avoid the route during morning and evening rush hours. The police have assured that adequate personnel will be deployed at key junctions to manage the situation and assist commuters.

New Delhi, Nov 3: The process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of West Bengal’s electors’ roll has been turned into a political game of narratives – spreading rumours and uncertainty, leading to panic, even alleged deaths by suicide. In a move that can further heighten tensions, West Bengal’s ruling and principal Opposition parties are both reportedly planning two separate rallies in the state on Tuesday to amplify respective narratives around the process of SIR.

Incidentally, the Election Commission of Inda (ECI) begins its house-to-house verification from the same day (Tuesday). As the state election office races against time to train Booth Level Officers (BLOs) on the use of the mobile application, enumeration forms, and other tools and procedures before the process kicks off on November 4, it faces protests over safety concerns and workload from this vital workforce.

Some BLOs have raised concerns over security and safety following threats coming from political parties, including the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party.

Threats include “rivers of blood” flowing in case of deletion of voters’ names from rolls, and party Booth Level Agents (BLAs) being told to “shadow” BLOs during the exercise.

Meanwhile, the state’s principal Opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have been reiterating their claims that more than a crore of fraudulent entries will be deleted from voters’ list during the process.

Now, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, intends to hold a rally at Agarpara, in nearby North 24 Parganas on the same day, demanding the removal of “intruders” through the SIR.

Incidentally, on Saturday, November 1, Abhishek visited the residence of Pradip Kar, who died by suicide in Agarpara, reportedly mentioning in his diary “fear of NRC” (National Register of Citizens – an effort from the Government of India to document all Indian citizens, aimed at distinguishing legal citizens from illegal immigrants).

Blaming the Union government and the Election Commission for the suicide, he promised to take to the streets in protest.

There have been allegations of illegal immigrants, especially from neighbouring Bangladesh, having registered their names as electors in the state.

The rising political temperature this winter has thus made the enumerators wary of a backlash from either side while discharging their duties on the ground.

The fears have been aggravated with current reports of the Trinamool planning a rally in Kolkata to raise “widespread fears” of “large-scale disenfranchisement” through SIR.

The rally will be led by the party’s top two leaders, Chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and her nephew and General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool’s three-time MP from Diamond Harbour.

In adjoining Bihar, similar allegations of aiming to arbitrarily remove voters’ names had been raised by the Opposition during the course of the SIR process from ECI.

Days of similar diatribes over “widespread fears” of “large-scale disenfranchisement” ended with the process delisting only 3.66 lakh names, and adding 21.53 lakh eligible electors.

Yet, the exercise has again snowballed into a major war of attrition with the poll body announcing SIR initiation in a dozen states.

In Kolkata, the Trinamool is likely to begin its march from B.R. Ambedkar’s statue and end at the residence of Rabindranath Tagore, in what is being seen as an effort to link SIR with the Constitution of India and the recent language controversy over Bengali.

Between the claims and counter-claims from political parties, West Bengal prepares for Assembly elections, to be held in the earlier part of next year.

Hyderabad, Nov 3: A 10-month-old child lying dead next to the body of her mother. This is perhaps the most disturbing visual that emerged from the horrific road accident in Telangana’s Rangareddy district on Monday.

The picture shows the baby, wrapped in warm clothes, under her mother’s arm, depicting the unbreakable bond.

There were heart-rending scenes after a bus-lorry collision near Mirzaguda in Chevella mandal, about 60 km from Hyderabad.

A gravel-laden tipper truck rammed into the Road Transport Corporation bus on the Hyderabad-Bijapur highway around 6.30 a.m., killing 20 people, including drivers of both vehicles. Another 20 people were injured.

The accident occurred when the bus with 72 people was coming to Hyderabad from Tandur in Vikarabad district.

As the tipper pierced through the right portion of the bus, the victims were either crushed to death or buried under the gravel.

Heart-breaking scenes were witnessed at the accident site with cries for help by those trapped in the gravel and in the mangled remains of the bus. A few passengers with blood-stained clothes were seen limping out.

The ghastly tragedy snuffed out several young lives and shattered many a dream. Those who travel every day between Tandu and Hyderabad for college and work lost their lives. These include five young women who were all students of Koti Women’s University in Hyderabad.

Three sisters, Tanusha, Saipriya and Nandini of Tandur town, lost their lives in the disaster. They were all studying at the Women’s University. While Tanusha was pursuing an MBA, Saipriya and Nandini were degree students in their first and third years, respectively.

Their father, Yellaiah Goud, was inconsolable while their mother collapsed due to shock on seeing their bodies. The eldest daughter of Goud was married last month.

The deceased students include Muskan and Akhila Reddy, both in their 20s.

A woman teacher was among those critically injured in the accident. Jayasudha was seen buried in the gravel up to the waist. She sustained grievous injuries to her legs and was admitted to Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad.