As many as 204 unauthorised private schools are currently operating within the municipal corporation limits of Mumbai, an RTI query has revealed.

Activist Anil Galgali had sought information about such institutions from the School Education Department on June 25 this year.

In its reply, Deputy Education Officer of the Private Primary Schools department, Prakash Chahate handed over a list of all the unauthorised private schools.

As per the list, the maximum of 36 such schools fall in the jurisdiction of M west ward in Chembur, followed by 30 such schools in Kurla L ward, 20 in P north ward, 12 in Ghatkopar N ward, 12 in Chembur M east ward, 10 in Matunga F north ward, 10 in Andheri K east ward, 10 in R Central ward, 10 in R north ward, 9 in R south ward, 9 in Bhandup S ward, 8 in P south ward, 8 in G north ward, 5 in Byculla E ward, 5 in Andheri K west Ward, 3 in B ward, 2 in Mulund T ward, 2 in F South ward, 1 Each in A Ward, H East ward and D Ward.

On the query of action taken against such schools, Galgali was informed that as per provisions of the Right to Education Act and actions based under section 18(5) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, fine of Rs 1 Lakh is levied on any unauthorised school.

The reply stated that if the school failed to comply with then a fine of Rs 10,000 is imposed per day.

The department also informed that all the said schools have been issued notices.

The RTE Act 2009 does not contain clarity on “Account Head” under which the recovery of fines levied on unauthorised schools have to be collected.

The clarity is even absent in the orders of the government as well its various resolutions issued in regard to the implementation of the Act.

The department has sought necessary directions from the government regarding the Account Head under which the fines levied have to be collected and deposited with the treasury, but it has yet to receive the necessary guidelines from the government, Galgali said.

An empty local train rake rammed into buffer of a platform at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in wee hours.

However, nobody was injured as the platform number 5 where the incident occurred was empty that time. The incident also did not affect the schedule of suburban trains on Central Line.

The EMU rake hit the buffer at the dead-end of the platform when it was being placed there after mandatory checking, the Central Railway stated in a release here.

The incident occurred in wee hours and the platform was available for traffic after 6:55 AM, it said.

As per the release, the Railway Minister has ordered an inquiry into the incident, it added.

A similar incident had happened in June at Churchgate railway station on Western Railway, when an over-speeding train had crashed into the buffer, injuring five commuters.

BJP group leader in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), Manoj Kotak filed his nomination for the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections from the Mumbai local self government body.

Out of total eight seats which are up for grab for the biennial election slated for December 27, Mumbai has two seats.

Kotak will face Bhai Jagtap of Congress as the main opponent while Ramdas Kadam of Shiv Sena, the environment minister, is likely to sail through with his party having requisite numbers from another seat.

Kotak, a two-time corporator, had unsuccessfully contested Assembly elections from Bhandup (west) seat last year.

Jagtap and Kadam, both sitting MLCs, had filed their nomination papers on Monday.

The quota for winning the first round of MLC election from the Mumbai seats is 75 while a total of 227 corporators in Mumbai form the electorate for the election, out of them BJP’s strength is 31.

When contacted, BJP’s Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar said nominees of his party and Sena will win the two seats from Mumbai.

“We will get in touch with other parties for support,” he said without elaborating.

The eight MLCs in the biennial elections (held once in six years) are to be elected from local self-government bodies constituency. The seats are: Nagpur, Akola-Washim-Buldhana (both in Vidarbha), Solapur, Kolhapur (western Maharashtra), Ahmednagar, Dhule-Nandurbar in North Maharashtra and two seats in Mumbai.

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed Shivaji Park Gymkhana Club to hold a fund-raising function for a cricket camp on December 25 and December 31, subject to certain conditions including adhering to noise pollution rules.

The permission was granted by a bench headed by Justice V M Kanade on a plea made by the club’s lawyer Ravi Gadagkar. The conditions — which the club has to abide — have been imposed by the high court in the past for use of this ground. These pertain to adherence to noise pollution rules and restoration of the ground to its original position after the event.

Hearing a PIL, the high court had banned holding of events at the iconic Shivaji Park in the past two years after declaring the ground as a silence zone. The application of club, on which the order was passed today, was opposed by Wecom Trust, an NGO, which said noise pollution rules debar use of loud speakers in a silence zone.

Moreover, the lawyer of Wecom Trust Kaustav Talukdar, alleged that the club, under the garb of cricket camp, wants to hold new year parties and there was likelihood of violation of noise pollution rules. He said the Supreme Court has laid down that relaxation in noise pollution rules cannot be allowed in a silence zone.

The club, on the other hand, argued that it had opened a cricket academy and out of 500 candidates it had shortlisted 50 who would be provided training for three months free of cost under the guidance of former cricketer Sandeep Patil.

However, it required funds for this purpose and hence the club had decided to hold fund raising events at Shivaji Park in Dadar in Central Mumbai.

An engineer with Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) allegedly committed suicide at his residence due to ill health and work stress, police said on Tuesday.

Dattatraya Mastud, 45, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room at his Khadakpada house late Monday night, Thane Police PRO Gajanan Kabdule said.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot, he said. According to preliminary investigation, Mastud was ailing from throat cancer and was under job stress.

He was nabbed by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) last year in connection with graft charges, the PRO said.

When the incident took place, Mastud was alone in the room while other family members, including his wife and son, were sleeping in the adjoining room. The body was sent for post-mortem and a case of accidental death has been lodged in this regard, police said.

The Bombay High Court, while dictating the verdict on appeal filed by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan against his conviction in the 2002 hit-and-run case, today referred to evidence relating to his drunken driving and said there were several anomalies in his version.

For the second day, Justice A R Joshi continued to deliver the judgement in the court on Salman’s appeal challenging the 5-year sentence imposed on him by a Mumbai sessions court.

The Judge referred to a series of lacunae right from extraction of blood samples to its transfer, preservation and testing to check the presence of alcohol.

The Judge observed that “anomalies” and “missing links” creates doubt over the crucial piece of biological evidence.

After the mishap, Salman was sent to civic-run Bhabha Hospital at Bandra, however, blood extraction facility was not available and Bandra police station’s senior inspector Kishan Shengal (PW-27) sent him to government-run JJ Hospital where the blood sample was collected by Dr Shashikant Pawar (PW-20).

The medical officer extracted the blood and it was subsequently analysed by Dattatraya Khobrajirao Bhalshankar (PW-18), the assistant chemical analyser (CA).

Justice Joshi, who is in the process of dictating the verdict, also noted the discrepancies in the examination of blood samples.

“PW-20 carried out clinical exam of the appellant (Salman)…He found smell of alcohol in his breath. Later, he drew his blood sample and put it in two vials, which was sealed by the ward boy. He had drawn 6 ml of blood and has put it in two vials, 3 ml in each of them, ultimately, what reached the CA was 4 ml of blood in one vial,” he noted.

“PW-20 gave one sealed envelope containing two forms – form A and form B and two vials….At police station; PW-21 (police constable) was given two sealed envelopes to be given to CA…He gives two envelopes to the receiving clerk of the FSL, who has not been examined in the court. PW-18 says one police constable gave him the blood samples…This is a missing link in the biological evidence,” the Judge noted.

Justice Joshi said, “…In fact, greater care could have been taken by the CA if his evidence has to be accepted as expert evidence and in order to place reliance, then the handling of samples at various stages from blood extraction to blood examination should have been proper.”

If an employee is murdered while performing his duty, he is eligible for compensation under the Employees Compensation Act, a Thane court has held.

Judge BY Phad awarded a compensation of Rs 8,61,120 to a woman and her child for the murder of her husband while on duty in 2011.

In their claim, family members Pramiladevi Ram Avtar Singh, 24, Amarkumar Ram Avtar Singh, 6, Jadish Hareram Singh, 56 and Marnidevi Jagdish Singh, 30 of Darbhanga from Bihar stated that the victim was serving as a driver with one Siena D’silva of Mira Road in Thane district.

It was on June 28, 2011 while he was driving a Toyota Innova on the Nashik-Pune road in the jurisdiction of Sinnar, in Mohadari Ghat that he was beaten up and murdered. The accused–Shaikh, Naushad Allauddin and Atik Ul-Anola Haque– then escaped with the vehicle. Later, they were arrested.

The family members submitted in their application that deceased Ram Avtar Jagdish Singh was 26 years old and was earning a salary of Rs 8,000. They further submitted that he died during the course of his employment and while performing his duty and claimed an amount of Rs 8,61,120 and also additional sum of Rs 2,500 as funeral expenses, Rs 5,000 for transporting the body from Sinnar, and Rs 2,000 towards legal expenses adding upto Rs 8,70,620.

The opponents in the case were the owner of the car, and employer of the deceased (D’ Silva) and Reliance General Insurance Co Ltd.

The employer confirmed the employer-employee relation but contended that the claim was excessive. He also said that he was not liable for payment of compensation as the vehicle was insured with the insurance company and prayed for discharge from the liability.

The insurance company contested the claim and said the claim was false, vexatious and frivolous. They argued that Singh did not die in an accidental mishap and it was murder. Also, there is no employer-employee relationship between the first opponent and the deceased.

“The insurance company has no knowledge of the relationship of applicants with the deceased. It also denied that the deceased died while in employment of the first opponent. Therefore, insurance company cannot be saddled with payment of penalty and interest,” the company submitted in the court. In his submission, the counsel for claimants, Sameer A Deshpande, informed the court that on that fateful day the deceased was driving the car owned by the first respondent and the accused who committed robbery of the vehicle also killed the employee.

The police papers on record proves the case of the applicant, he said.

Since the deceased died during course of employment of the opponent he is liable to pay the compensation amount to the applicants and the other opponent being insurance company is liable to indemnify the first opponent and pay the said amount to applicants, he submitted.

In support of his submission he cited at least half a dozen rulings of the various High Courts.