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Pune trio goes on a ‘long drive’ – a record 21,000 km through borders of India

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Creating a new record, a Pune couple and their friend – all software engineers-cum-adventure lovers – went on a ‘long drive’ in an SUV, covering a whopping 21,000 km in 70 days across the entire boundary of India, from east to west, north to south.

They are — Jaykumar Anadkat, his wife Pooja Padiya-Anadkat, both from Gujarat, and their friend Sonesh Mehra from Rajasthan, who are the co-founders of the adventure club, ‘PlacesAroundPune’.

“We have done many activities like hiking, trekking, cycling, mountaineering, scuba-diving etc., but this time we wanted to do something unique and fulfilling. So we charted out this trip — “#MapMyCountry” — in our Tata Safari SUV, and we hope to make it to the record books,” said Jaykumar, after the trio returned home late on Monday.

The trio, all aged 35, embarked on their journey on February 27 from Magarpatta and returned to the same location on May 8, zooming through 26 states, several Union Territories, 52 major cities and over 250 important travel destinations along the boundary and borders of India.

“We went around the country’s periphery, all the border states and drew the India map through the car route, starting in a clockwise direction from Maharashtra,” said Mehra.

From Maharashtra, they went to Gujarat (Dwarka and Koteshwar temples in the extreme western parts of India), Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, the Northeastern states like Kaho in Arunachal Pradesh, the first village of India in the east, and Danushkodi Rameshwar and Kanyakumari as the southernmost tip.

“We touched six international borders — Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. We learnt a lot about the different people of India, their cultures and lifestyles, the weather systems, the abundant beauty of different parts of the country. It was a very enriching drive indeed,” said Pooja.

The ultra-long drive took them from 45-degree Celsius in Rajasthan deserts to the -5-degree Celsius in snowy Kashmir, braving hailstorms in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland, torrential rains in Assam, and the humid weather in the southern states. Though they carried suitable clothes, many a times they had to hunt for more locally in order to survive.

The trio recalls speeding through some of the wildest and densest forests akin to a jungle safari, off-roading, dusty dry desert sands, boat-rides in mangrove forests, traversing snowy mountains roads, or gingerly driving through bamboo bridges, over deep valleys and turbulent rivers in different parts of India, soaking in the first sunrise in the east and the colourful sunsets in the west and southern beaches.

They also joined some tribal and traditional cultural festivals, wearing local costumes, singing, dancing or prancing to their tunes, and gulping cuisines ranging from the weirdest to delicacies, cooking for themselves on roadside fires, or just gobbling some fruits when nothing was available or dhabas were shut.

There are literally miles of many memories, including some a bit spooky, that the trio returned with — like one excited gentleman from Punjab, Ripu Daman, who contacted them through Facebook and happily hosted them with his family for a night.

In Nagaland, they met a 95-year-old member of a tribe of erstwhile ‘headhunters’, who still proudly wears a garland with a few heads on it that he claimed to have acquired many decades ago!

Today, Jaykumar, Pooja and Sonesh are extremely thrilled on completing their ‘long drive’ without any untoward incident, something they will cherish for long.

Maharashtra

Mumbai: BMC’s helpline ‘My BMC Marg System’ launched ahead of monsoon, special focus on filling potholes

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Mumbai: BMC launches special helpline to fill potholes in Mumbai With an aim to address citizens’ complaints promptly and effectively, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation has implemented an integrated complaint management system ‘MyBMC MARG’ (Complaint Management and Redressal System) this year. Through this system, citizens will be able to register 114 different types of complaints related to the Municipal Corporation through a single application and they will also be able to follow up on them. Under this, the facility of registering complaints of potholes on roads on the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system has been provided to the citizens.

Potholes sometimes form on the roads during the monsoon season. In this context, the Municipal Corporation is constantly striving to take immediate notice of the complaints received from the citizens and take necessary corrective action. Digital media is being used to make the process of registering pothole complaints easy and efficient for the citizens. Last year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had launched a separate mobile application ‘Pothole QuickFix’ for lodging complaints about potholes on roads. Through this application, citizens can lodge complaints with information, photos and location of potholes on roads. The initiative received a good response from the citizens. During this time, citizens had to use different systems for lodging complaints related to different departments of the municipal corporation. Keeping this in mind, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has launched a comprehensive system ‘MyBMC MARG’ from this year to provide more comprehensive and convenient services to the citizens. The mobile application ‘Pothole QuickFix’ has been integrated into this system. Accordingly, the facility to lodge a total of 114 types of complaints related to various departments of the municipal corporation including potholes, solid waste management, sewage issues, water supply, road maintenance, parks, public health, pest control, encroachments, lighting is available on ‘MyBMC MARG’.
The feature of the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system is that it is possible for citizens to register complaints from one platform, upload relevant images, check the current status of the complaint, track the action taken by the concerned department and get information about it after the complaint is resolved. Hence, the entire process from complaint registration to redressal has become more transparent and citizen-centric. This initiative by the Burhan Mumbai Municipal Corporation has made the complaint registration process easy, transparent and efficient and has provided a single comprehensive digital platform for citizens to follow up on their grievances. Especially when citizens register complaints of potholes on the roads, it becomes easier for the concerned department to take immediate action. This helps in expediting the pothole repair process. Android users can download the MyBMC MARG application on their smartphones using MyBMC MARG – Apps on Google Play and iPhone users can download the MyBMC MARG app – App Store. The people of Mumbai are appealing to the Municipal Corporation to register all complaints regarding potholes on the roads on the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system.

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Maharashtra

Mumbai: Two accused arrested for staging a drama of jewellery theft worth over Rs 60 lakh in Andheri

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Mumbai: Police have succeeded in arresting two such clever accused who had fabricated a story of theft and road accident and staged a drama of jewellery worth Rs 60 lakhs being stolen. However, during the police investigation, it was revealed that the person delivering the gold jewellery was the thief and he had committed the theft along with his friend. MIDC police had registered a case of theft on the complaint of Kanchan Pawar of Gold Star Company. According to the details, the complainant had sent his employee Avinash Gangadhar Kadam (26) to deliver the gold jewellery. At the same time, he told that his motorcycle Activa had met with an accident and during this time the gold jewellery and bag were also stolen. He pretended to be admitted to the hospital without any injury or wound. During this, the police examined several CCTV footage and it was revealed that the suspect, whose name is Manoj Hemant Jogdand (41), was patrolling here in a suspicious manner before the accident. During the investigation, the police came to know that It turned out that both of them had faked the theft and planned the robbery by describing the incident as an accident. After that, the police also took Avinash into custody. In this case, the police arrested both the accused and solved the mystery. This operation was carried out by DCP Dutta Nalawade on the instructions of Mumbai Police Commissioner Devin Bharti.

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Maharashtra

Social media influencer Lala Lifestyle Mohsin Khan files complaint against four people in Nagpara Police

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Mumbai: Social activist and social media lifestyle influencer Mohsin Khan alias Lala Lifestyle has filed a written complaint under Section 173(1) of the BNSS, 2023 at Nagpara Police Station seeking registration of an FIR against four persons for alleged caste-based harassment and criminal offences. Those against whom Lala Lifestyle has filed the complaint include Moin Batla son of Asif Batla, (2) Shoaib Tiger son of Zubair, (3) Sharukh Pathan, and (4) an unknown person. Khan has invoked the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, namely Sections 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s), 3(1)(u), 3(1)(za) and 3(2)(va)* along with Sections 61, 196, B196, B13,53 2023, and the IT Act, A complaint under Section 67 of 2000 has been registered. In addition, FIR No. 0154 of 2026 has already been registered at Dongri Police Station on 12/03/2026. As per the complaint, the accused was allegedly involved in caste-based humiliation, criminal threats and circulation of obscene electronic material. Khan has submitted electronic evidence and has sought police protection citing threats from the accused. Nagpara Police has confirmed receipt of the complaint. Further investigation is pending.

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