Mumbai, July 8 (IANS) A woman senior citizen was killed as monsoon abruptly hit Mumbai with full force, with 300 mm rains recorded in just six hours on Monday, throwing flights, railways and road traffic into chaos, stranding lakhs of commuters, and leading to closure of all educational institutions.

The overnight downpour battered Mumbai, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and the entire coastal Konkan region, with the country’s commercial capital reeling under 300 mm rainfall from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m., the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rains for the next couple of days in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and other parts of the state, leading to schools and colleges being ordered shut in Mumbai, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg as a precautionary measure.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the State Disaster Control Room and the BMC Control Room to monitor the rains and flood situation in the state and city while assuring round-the-clock alertness to tackle any eventuality.

Congress Legislative Party Leader Balsaheb Thorat slammed the MahaYuti regime saying that the total breakdown in Mumbai and the sufferings of commuters indicated that the government had not made any preparations to tackle the situation.

Mumbai woke up to waterlogged roads and railway lines, flooding in low-lying areas, and water flowing into homes, shops and offices with subways going under 3-5 feet of water and rendered inaccessible for commuters.

By 8 a.m., the BMC notched heavy rainfall figures in south Mumbai (116 mm), eastern suburbs (169 mm) and western suburbs (166 mm) and more rain continued through the day, which increased by an average of 33 mm till evening 6 pm.

Water flooded the homes of many in Haji Siddiqui Chawl in Santacruz leading to a short-circuit and a fire in which Shanta K. Acharya, 72, was killed.

Mumbai reported another 10 incidents of houses or wall crashes, 12 short-circuits and 40 instances of trees or branches falling around the city.

Commuters rushing to their workplaces encountered either delays or cancellations of suburban local trains – the city’s lifeline which transports over 8.50 million people daily.

The Western Railway (WR) said that there were around 10-minute delays due to waterlogging on the tracks at Matunga-Dadar but it deployed high-capacity pumps to drain the floodwaters.

However, the Central Railway and its Harbour Line took the brunt of the rain with major disruption in its suburban and long-distance train services, leading to huge crowds waiting at almost all the railway stations on its network.

The CR rescheduled 15 long-distance trains scheduled to depart to different parts of India, cancelled one train and short-terminated one train, both in the Nashik region.

Besides, important trains that ferry thousands of commuters on the Mumbai-Gujarat, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Kolhapur sectors, were also hit by cancellations or massive delays or getting stranded at stations en route. The CR Mumbai suburban section experienced huge disruption with train services only normalising after hours as the water levels receded during the afternoon.

Railway tracks were flooded near Kalyan, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Bhandup, Kurla, Sion, and Wadala, hitting smooth operations.

In Mumbai, several subways including Santacruz, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Malad, Kandivali, and Dahisar were flooded with 3-5 feet of water, and east-west traffic was halted. Several housing complexes were waterlogged in Dahisar, Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Jogeshwari, Andheri-Versova, Juhu-Vile Parle, Santacruz, Sion, Wadala, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Powai, Bhandup, and other places.

Scores of big and small vehicles were either stuck or submerged partly-fully in different areas of the city, which were removed by cranes and incidents of tree falls and other minor incidents, though there are no reports of any casualties so far.

The operations at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport were hit with around 27 incoming flights getting diverted to airports in Gujarat, Indore or Hyderabad between 2.22 a.m. to 3.40 a.m. owing to heavy rains. The CSMIA and carriers like Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Vistara and others issued advisories to air passengers to check on the status of their flights before starting for the airport.

In some relief, the Powai Lake in Mumbai, which supplies water to industries, overflowed after the rains, and other lakes showed improvement in water levels, recording up to 18 per cent of the season’s total till July 8, said the BMC.

–IANS

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Mumbai, July 9 (IANS) Days after its announcement by Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar in the budget for 2024-25, the Maharashtra government on Monday issued a government resolution (GR) granting a 100 per cent fee waiver, instead of the existing 50 per cent, in professional courses to girls from the OBC, EWS, and SEBC categories.

This initiative aims to empower girls whose parents’ income is Rs 8 lakh or less annually.

As per the GR issued by the state Higher and Technical Education Department, the scheme will be implemented from the academic year 2024-25.

The state cabinet has given its approval for bearing the additional burden of Rs 906.05 crore. The Higher and Technical Department has said that the government decision was necessitated as currently only 36 per cent of girls opt for professional courses. It is expected that this decision will encourage more girls to enrol in courses such as nursing, MBBS, MBA, BMM, BMS, BCA, and others.

Further, it is also expected that the scheme will help girls to pursue higher education which they may not have done for want of money.

The GR will be applicable to the girls studying in government colleges, non-grant government and partially run on government grant colleges or permanently run without government grant colleges, polytechnic, public universities and deemed universities.

Shiv Sena spokesperson and party’s women wing coordinator Susiben Shah hailed the government’s move, saying: “Once again, CM has demonstrated that this government is committed to serving the common man.”

–IANS

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Jalandhar, July 9 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on the last day of the campaign for the Jalandhar West bypoll, on Monday sought votes for AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat, hinting he would be made a minister if he wins.

Addressing public meetings, he urged the people to support and vote for Bhagat on July 10.

Attacking the Congress, the Akali Dal and the BJP, he said: “God does everything for the betterment of the people, that’s why a corrupt person resigned on his own and now Jalandhar will get an honest MLA.”

“Mohinder Bhagat is a ‘bhagat’ by nature too, he is an honest and sincere leader.”

The Chief Minister added the ‘jharoo’ (AAP symbol) button will be on the 5th number on the EVM machine but asked people make sure that Mohinder Bhagat comes first on the result day.

He said parties like the Congress and the Akali Dal and their leaders like Sukhbir Badal cannot compete against the AAP.

“They come out of their houses after asking the temperature and go inside their houses after doing formalities,” Mann said, adding the AAP leaders are from common families and they stay among people and work for them.

Noting party chief Arvind Kejriwal “is in the jail under a false case”, he said: “Let’s win this election for him and give him something to smile about while he is in jail fighting against the dictators”.

To woo the electorate, the Chief Minister added: “If you make Mohinder Bhagat win and climb the ladder of the Assembly, I will take him to the next step”, hinting at a ministerial post for him.

Addressing the people, Bhagat thanked the people for their constant support. He urged the people to vote for the AAP to encourage Chief Minister Mann and give him a boost to work with even greater zeal for Punjab and its people.

–IANS

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Kolkata, July 8 (IANS) After the Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed by the West Bengal government challenging the court-monitored CBI probe into Sandeshkhali cases, the BJP said that the verdict is another slap on state government.

“Apex court verdict is yet another slap on the face of the government who tried to protect the main accused in the Sandeshkhali cases by spending crores of taxpayers’ money,” BJP state President and Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar said.

He said that approaching the SC has become a regular practice for the state government with its unjustified pleas which are automatically rejected.

Former CPI(M) legislator from Sandeshkhali Nirapada Sardar said that when the world knows that Sheikh Shahjahan was the terror of Sandeshkhali and the principal brain behind the misdeeds why is the state government making desperate attempts to protect him by approaching the apex court.

Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said that he expects the apex court to ensure the neutrality of the central agency in carrying out the probe.

On Monday, an apex court bench presided over by Justice BR Gavai declined to interfere with the order of the Calcutta High Court directing the CBI to commence its probe in the matter after creating a special investigation team (SIT) for that purpose.

–IANS

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Jammu, July 8 (IANS) Another soldier injured in the terrorist attack on an army convoy in J&K’s Kathua on Monday, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital, taking to five the toll of soldiers killed in the dastardly attack.

An official said a JCO was among the five martyred army soldiers.

Para commandos were airdropped in the area after the terror attack to trace and hunt down the terrorists.

Officials said the terrorists threw a grenade and then opened automatic fire on army vehicles that were on routine patrol duty on Machedi-Kindli-Malhar road in Kathua at 3.30 p.m.

“The attack by terrorists occurred near Badnota village, which is 150 km away from Kathua town,” officials said. Earlier, officials had said the place of the terrorist attack was 52 km away from Kathua town.

The security forces retaliated, but reports indicate that the terrorists escaped from the spot.

“Ten army soldiers were injured in this terrorist attack. The injured were shifted to the hospital where five soldiers succumbed to critical injuries. Five injured soldiers are being treated at the hospital,” an official said

A massive CASO (Cordon & Search Operation) was started in the area.

Officials said that reinforcements have been rushed to the place to augment the strength of the security forces so that the terrorists responsible for the attack are traced.

Monday’s attack is the second major terror-related incident in Kathua district in the past 4 weeks.

Two terrorists and a CRPF jawan were killed in a gunfight during a search and cordon operation on June 12 and June 14 in the Hiranagar area of the district.

A major terror attack on innocent pilgrims occurred on June 9 in the Reasi district of Jammu division in which terrorists fired at a pilgrim bus returning from Shiv-Khori temple.

The terrorists killed the driver of the bus and kept firing at the bus after it fell into a gorge. Nine pilgrims were killed in that attack and 44 others were injured.

J&K DGP, R.R.Swain has said that a group of foreign terrorists is active in the hilly Poonch, Rajouri and adjacent districts who are taking advantage of the terrain and remoteness of the area.

Security forces have launched an aggressive campaign against the terrorists.

On July 6 and July 7, six terrorists and 2 soldiers were killed in two encounters between the holed-up terrorists in the Kulgam district of the Kashmir Valley.

–IANS

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