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Maharashtra

This year, BMC promises good health, infra, ecology, ease and quality of life for Mumbai

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday unveiled a whopping Rs 45,949.21 crore budget 2022-2023, up by 18 per cent over the previous year’s

Rs 39,039.83 crore with a tiny surplus of Rs 8.43 crore.

With the upcoming BMC elections, this year, the country’s biggest and richest civic body will have a massive focus on health, infrastructure, ecology, flood control, besides improving the ‘ease’ and ‘quality’ of life for the 1.75-crore Mumbaikars living in the country’s commercial and glamour capital.

Some highlights are constructing and redevelopment of major hospitals, rejuvenation of the Mithi river, electric vehicle charging centres, IGCSE and IB schools in the Mumbai civic education bouquet, and appointing Urban Space Designers to improve the civic landscape.

Presenting the budget at the Standing Committee meeting, Municipal Commissioner I. S. Chahal said that the estimated revenues this year would be Rs 30,743.61 crore, which is higher by Rs 2,832.04 crore over the previous year’s estimates, and the actual income received till January 2022 was Rs 30,851.18 crore.

On the crucial health front – as the city was the worst-hit in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic of the past two years – the BMC will spend Rs 6933.75 crore – or 15.09 per cent of the total budget – to augment and improve various health-care facilities.

This would include: 200 HinduHridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Health Centres under the ‘Health care at your neighbourhood’ scheme, setting up 200 Shiv Yoga Centres, standardising and modernising civic dispensaries, constructing a new Centenary Hospital in Govandi, a medical college building at Cooper Hospital, redevelopment of two major medical facilities – Bhagwati Hospital in Borivali, Sion Hospital, plus Sidharth/Murli Deora Eye Hospitals, a new Cancer Hospital for Proton Therapy at the KEM Hospital premises, expanding the MT Agarwal Hospital and Bhabha Hospital, extending the Nair Dental College, etc.

Eyeing the civic polls, the BMC will stress on major flood-control measures with an outlay of Rs 1,539.79 crore, for the revival of the 18-kms long Mithi River and its other branches in the suburbs at Dahisar, Poisar, Oshiwara and their major drainage nullahs, plus 386 chronic flood spots that result in submerging many parts of the city during the monsoons.

Chahal said that 95 per cent of the widening and deepening work, 80 per cent of retaining wall construction of Mithi River are completed which has doubled the holding capacity and carrying capacity by 3 times, while the plan for development and pollution control is ready and shall be implemented in four packages.

The BMC has strengthened the capacity to pump out floodwaters in different parts of the city, improved its Storm Water Drain network based on the BRIMSTOWAD Master Plan Report of 1993, and of 58 priority works, 42 have been completed, 13 are in progress and 3 have yet to be taken up.

On the infrastructure front, the BMC will spend Rs 3200 crore for the ambitious Coastal Road Project, visualised by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Rs 1300 crore for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road with 2 flyovers, and Rs 1340 crore for a Sewerage Treatment Project.

For the ‘eco-friendly’ image of Mumbai known as a ‘concrete jungle,’ a significant 219 kms of roads in the city will be improved during the year, electronic vehicle (EV) charging stations in all the 30 major public parking lots, EVs shall be deployed for garbage collection-segregation, Rs 1 crore specifically for ‘electric and electronic waste’ recovery centre in each BMC Ward, more electric crematoria and eco-friendly funeral pyres.

On January 14, the BMC became only the 3rd civic body in the world after Dubai and Singapore to offer 80 public services via a ChatBot, and this year it will become ‘smarter’ by permitting ‘digital advertisements’ to boost revenue, promote digital forms of collecting Property Tax and Water Tax bills, and also other payments.

Stressing on education with a budget of Rs 3370.24 crore – 14.45 per cent higher than last year’s Rs 2945.78 crore – the BMC plans to provide 19,401 SSC students with tabs with latest syllabus, an improvement academic tool in the days of online education, digitalise 1,300 classrooms, and a pilot project of E-Libraries in 50 primary schools.

Already offering the Maharashtra Board, CBSE and ICSE boards in civic schools, this year the BMC will introduce Cambridge University-affiliated IGCSE and one International Baccalaureate (IB) for the derided amunicipality students’.

To ‘ease’ the life of citizens, the BMC will empanel Urban Space Designers to study and rework on roads, pavements, and community spaces to enhance the ‘Ease of Walking’, instal more streetlights for security of women and children and seniors under the ‘Ease of Safety’, new bridges/cement-concrete roads for ‘Ease of Commute’, besides its other ‘easing’ policies like ‘Ease of Doing Business’, ‘Ease of Compliance’, ‘East of Monitoring’ and ‘Ease of Service Delivery’, etc.

In a New Year bonanza announced by the CM, the BMC will exempt Property Tax from 16,14,000 people owning a residential property of 500-sq.feet carpet area which will lead to a drop of Rs 462 crore in the annual revenues.

The Congress Group Leader in BMC Ravi Raja and Bharatiya Janata Party city MLA Ashish Shelar and other opposition parties slammed the budget as ‘disappointing’ and ‘lacking on various fronts’.

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Entertainment

Nana Patekar death: Final post-mortem report out, rules out foul play

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8 hours ago

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October 11, 2026

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Mumbai, Oct 11: The final post-mortem report in the death case of veteran actor Nana Patekar has clarified the cause of death to be natural. A team of doctors at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Bambolim, in its report, has clarified that his death was a natural death, caused by a massive heart attack.

It was confirmed by the Goa Police to media. As per the police, the family has also been informed about the report and the family has also agreed to the medical report and has not raised any objection so far.

As per the final post-mortem report by GMC, the blood supply to the heart was stopped due to a blood clot in the main coronary artery, which led to a cardiac arrest. At around 2:30 am on October 8, the actor informed his family friend about his ill health on WhatsApp, after which he was brought to Manipal Hospital, Dona Paula, where doctors declared him dead even after about 45 minutes of CPR .

For the unversed, the Panaji police had registered a case of unnatural death under section 194 of the BNSS under UD No. 62/2026. Now that the post-mortem has confirmed natural death and ruled out any foul play by son Malhar Patekar and nephew Prasad Patekar, the case will be closed soon.

The late actor Nana Patekar was cremated with full state honours at his farmhouse in Donje in Pune district on Thursday. The actor was given a 3-gun salute.

The late actor’s friends and members of the film fraternity including Jackie Shroff, directors Anil Sharma, Aneez Bazmee, and producer Firoz nadiadwala arrived at Donje village to attend the last rites of Nana Patekar.

A huge crowd also turned up to bid adieu to the departed soul. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also paid his last respects to Nana Patekar at Pune airport before leaving for Mumbai. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde went to the actor’s Pune farmhouse to pay his respects.

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Maharashtra

Show proof for your claims before spreading anarchy: Ram Kadam on ongoing protests in Delhi

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8 hours ago

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October 11, 2026

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Mumbai, Oct 11: Condemning the ongoing protests that engulf the national capital and other major cities, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ram Kadam said on Sunday that evidence or facts should be presented before spreading anarchy in the state for just the sake of it.

Speaking to media, the BJP leader added, “Congress leaders carry the Constitution in their hands and speak about it, but their actions are aimed at undermining it. Are they above the law and administrative procedures, including the requirement to obtain permission?”

“Ever since he (Rahul Gandhi) returned from the US, it is unclear what has come over him and what is driving his actions. Is foreign funding behind his attempts to create unrest here? The voter list purification process has been carried out during the tenures of several Prime Ministers, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh,” Kadam said.

“The electoral roll has not been reviewed since 2004 till 2025. That job is being done now. Is a dead person above the 2.8 crore voters. More than one crore voters’ names are repeated in the electoral rolls. Is removing those names a crime?” the BJP leader added.

“More than 6.3 crore voters have left their original homes. It’s a transparent process. If you have concrete proof and evidence, present it, but spreading anarchy in the state in the form of protests owing to foreign funding can’t be supported,” he said.

Reacting to the comments made by NCP-SP MLA Rohit Pawar on former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s death, Kadam said, “Rohit Pawar has engaged in political theatrics by claiming that he would reveal the mystery behind the muffler on October 10. Ajit Dada Pawar has passed away, and 15 days ago, Rohit Pawar said he would reveal the mystery, but October 10 has passed without any revelation. This shows that he is engaging in cheap political stunts.”

Previously, NCP-SP leader Rohit Pawar had expressed his doubts about the plane crash that killed former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and sought intervention of the probe agencies for further investigation.

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Crime

Elderly Pune resident duped of Rs 8 lakh by man posing as ECI official; 2nd such case in city

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9 hours ago

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October 11, 2026

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Pune, Oct 11: An unknown person posing as an official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) defrauded a 78-year-old Pune resident of Rs 8 lakh, officials said on Sunday.

The victim, Jitendra Kumar Ahuja, is a resident of Pune’s Ghorpadi. He was cheated of Rs 8,00,015.34. A case was registered at the Mundhwa police station on October 10.

According to the police, the accused gained Ahuja’s trust by posing as an ECI official. He told Ahuja that his documents did not match. He then sent Ahuja a link and asked him to fill in his information.

It is alleged that the accused gained access to Ahuja’s mobile phone through the link and defrauded him of over Rs 8 lakh. This incident occurred between October 1 and 3.

The police have registered a case against the unidentified accused under sections 319(2), 318(4), 3(5) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act.

This is the second such case that came to light on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the police said that a person posing as an official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) cheated an 80-year-old man of Rs five lakh online under the guise of updating his voter card in Pune.

A case regarding this incident has been registered at the Lakshminagar Police Station in Pune.

According to the police, the complainant, Kanjasheri Vaidyanathan Venkatesan (80), is a retired employee of an automotive manufacturing company, residing in the Yerwada area of ​​Pune. The accused called him, claiming to be from the ECI’s office, and stated that he needed to update his voter card.

Subsequently, the accused instructed him to download an APK file. After the file was downloaded, the accused gained access to the victim’s mobile screen, compromised his banking passwords, and fraudulently siphoned off Rs. 5 lakh.

A case has been registered at the Lakshminagar Police Station under Sections 308, 318(4), and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as well as Sections 66(D) and 66(C) of the IT Act.

The full name and address of the accused have not yet been ascertained.

Investigations into both cases are currently underway, and further details are awaited, officials said.

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