Police lathi-charged a mob that was allegedly forcibly trying to shut down shops at Ambernath. The mob, comprising activists of a political party, was forcing shopkeepers to down shutters on the polling day, police said.
When police intervened, they were attacked with stones. In another case, suspected activists of NCP attacked an Independent candidate in Mumbra, according to police.
CBI arrested an Enforcement Officer of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation while he was allegedly taking bribe of Rs. 10 lakh for settlement of the employee provident fund.
CBI sources said Devidas Vasantrao Shindikar, Enforcement Officer, posted at Nasik, allegedly demanded and accepted Rs 10 lakh from a doctor promising him to reduce the EPF assessment for the hospital.
After getting complaint, CBI sleuths laid down a trap and nabbed Shindikar while he was accepting bribe from the doctor.
CBI sources said a team of Anti-Corruption unit of Mumbai trapped Shindikar and an FIR has been registered naming him as prime accused.
Vice Admiral Sunil Lamba, commandant of National Defence College, is expected to be appointed as Vice Chief of Naval Staff as part of a major rejig being undertaken at the top level in the maritime force.
Lamba, who is in line to be the Navy chief in 2016, will be taking the position of Admiral Robin Dhowan who took over as the head of the force a week back.
As part of the reshuffle, Eastern Command chief Vice Admiral Anil Chopra is expected to be moved to Mumbai-based Western Command, defence sources said.
Chopra will be succeeded by Vice Admiral Satish Soni, who is heading the Southern Command, the sources.
The Southern Command based in Kochi is now expected to be headed by Strategic Forces Commander Vice Admiral SPS Cheema, they said.
Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Pradeep Chatterjee is expected to head the tri-services Andaman and Nicobar Command in Port Blair.
The reshuffle at the top level was neccessiated by the sudden exit of former chief Admiral DK Joshi and Western commander Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha.
As per seniority, Lamba is in line for being appointed as the next Navy chief in May 2016 after Dhowan’s retirement.
Joshi resigned on February 26, taking moral responsibility after the Navy was hit by a series of mishaps involving its submarines and other assets over the last 10 months.
Soon after Dhowan was appointed as the Navy chief, superseded Sinha sought voluntary retirement, creating vacancies at the top level in the force.
Aam Aadmi party has accused Govandi Police of wrongfully detaining two poll agents of AAP at the request of NCP in Mumbai North East Constituency. The NCP workers reportedly denied AAP workers to set their tables at Rafiq Nagar, Govandi.
Seela who is a close associate of Patkar alleged, “The police are hand in gloves with the sitting MP and NCP candidate Sanjay Dina Patil. Instead of arresting Patil’s supporters who ousted our workers from the booth they cracked down on our workers who had valid documents from the collector’s office to work as poll agents.”
NCP leaders and Govandi Police could not be reached for comments. Patil from NCP, Kirit Somaiya from BJP and Medha Patkar of AAP are contesting from the seat.
A major fire broke out on the seventh floor of 13-storey Maker Chambers at Nariman Point in south Mumbai on Thursday evening, fire officials said.
The fire broke around 6 pm at building number 6 in the complex. It was a ‘level 2’ fire, which means a major one, the official said.
Fire engines and ambulances have been rushed to the spot.
National carrier Air India plans to dry-lease 14 Airbus 320 planes for up to six years to expand its erstwhile Indian Airlines fleet.
Air India intends to procure up to 14 old A320 aircraft, which should not be more than six years old on the date of delivery, with or without sharklet CFM56-5B4/3 engines on dry lease for a period of upto six years, it said.
The erstwhile Indian airline has only Airbus operations.
Deliveries of aircraft should commence in 2014/15 with subsequent induction in staggered manner going upto March 2017, it said.
A police constable was today injured during a clash between Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena workers after both parties alleged that cash was being distributed to voters in suburban Trombay, police said.
At least 18 Shiv Sena workers including Kamini, wife of Rahul Shewale contesting from South Central Lok Sabha constituency were booked under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), among others of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Trombay police station, said Senior Inspector Vijay Kadam
“Two people associated with Shiv Sena have been arrested in the case involving the incident which occurred at about 1 AM,” he added.
Other candidates contesting from the constituency include Eknath Gaikwad from Congress and Aditya Shirodkar belonging to MNS.
According to police, Constable Vikas Thorbole was patrolling the area when he received information that a heated argument has erupted between the Sena and MNS workers.
Sena workers alleged that MNS was distributing cash in a vehicle. The MNS workers also made similar allegations against the Sena, police said.
While the MNS vehicle was being taken to police station, workers from both parties clashed and pelted stones at each other during which constable Thorbole sustained injuries, Kadam said.
However, another officer said Thorbole was also thrashed with a hockey stick by a group of men.
Based on the statement of the constable, an FIR was registered and 18 persons including Kamini were named as accused in the case, police said.
#GetInked was trending high on Twitter in Mumbai section whereas #mumbaivotes was the top trend in India’s trending list. However, less than 35 per cent voters in Maximum City had reached polling booths to vote in the general election till 3 PM. None of the polling booths had any facilities for voters, it was hot summer and people were standing out for hours but there was no water, no sheds. We can’t blame Mumbaikars for poor turnout; they were abused by authorities time and again. Member of Parliaments from Mumbai have neglected Mumbaikars’ interest, safety, convenience, hence they neglected them, and it’s as simple as that. Here people are really very practical, no waves can make them to vote or touch their emotions. Whenever crowd was hired for political rallies, I had always doubt in my mind; will they ever turnout to exercise their franchise? So much campaigning, so much money wasted, so much advertisement and praising, but they neglected common man. Maharashtra has witnessed disasters in past one year. No political party has assured them safety and comfort.
Before 1991, the voter turnout never fell below 50 per cent, and from 1962 to 1977, it crossed 60 per cent with the highest turnout of 68 per cent recorded in 1967. So, why Mumbai has stopped voting? The impact of economic liberaliation on the financial capital, a decline in working class movements and the collapse of Mumbai’s mills are the major issues which has hampered the voting percentage in this city. Elimination of slums, shifting of slums from one area to another, distance between work place is also other reasons of decline in percentage. Summer vacation is another factor for poor turnout as many families have gone to their native village or are touring. There are many such factors that have affected voter’s turnout. More than the close battles being fought, voting in Mumbai is being watched to see if India’s financial and entertainment capital will improve on its dismal voting figure of 41.5 per cent in 2009. May be we failed in convincing people that, the need for change is required; change from the present system, irrespective of political parties. The electoral role needs to be revamped completely and the enrollment and transfer process needs to be made simple. For example, if someone moves out from say Bangalore to Mumbai, he/she should be able to apply for his/her name transfer using a simple form (even online) and within say a week or so it should be done. I cannot understand that, in the age of Information Technology, why we need paper forms! Go online, access your details, request for change – if required upload the required documents, that’s it. Until that happens, this problem will be there in metro cities where migrant population is high.
Mumbaiites have very less patience, they would love to be in traffic jams but when it comes to standing in voting queues, they won’t. The infrastructure in our city has just been propped up before the elections. We will continue to suffer if we do not show the politicians that our vote will make a difference. Many offices were open on voting day. There should be a day off mandatorily, but many people were working, which shows that the government wants the middle class to be out from the election process so that their candidates who use money and muscle power win. Even people from Bollywood were missing as they were away in the US for an award ceremony.
In 2009, the Congress and NCP swept the polls and won all six seats in Mumbai. This time, opinion polls say that BJP and its partner Shiv Sena have the advantage. The Aam Aadmi Party has added the twist to the tale, fielding candidates like former banker Meera Sanyal and social activist Medha Patkar. In early hours of polling, thin voter turnout seemed to dominate most polling booths in South Mumbai even as the city tried to shed its reputation as a city with political apathy. The 2009 election in the city saw a dismal 43 per cent turnout despite the fact that it came just months after the horrific terror attacks of November 2008. In 2009, Mumbai hit rock-bottom when it came to engaging with electoral democracy. At 41.4 per cent, not only was the city’s voter turnout in the previous Lok Sabha election well below any other metropolitan city in India, it was also the worst voting percentage in Mumbai’s history. On the bright side, the highest turnout in Mumbai was in 1967, when over 68 per cent of the city’s electorate came out to vote. That year, Mumbai’s (then) Central South constituency recorded the highest voter turnout for any constituency in Mumbai’s history, with over 70 per cent of the population getting inked. The seat was won by veteran socialist S A Dange of the Communist Party of India. Trade union leader George Fernandes won from the Mumbai South constituency that year on a ticket from the Samyukta Socialist Party. Over 67 per cent of South Mumbai came out to vote that year. In last 20 years, people have seen here gang wars, useless government, bomb blasts, terror attacks, riots, commuting problems, road issues, and infrastructure problems. Somewhere people stopped believing in government and political leaders.
This year, they really bid adieu to their responsibilities of choosing best government. It seems that they have no expectation from political goons. The biggest question is that till 4: 30 PM, voters’ turnout was around 40 per cent and all of a sudden by 6 PM, survey said that voters’ turn out touched 53 per cent. What miracle happened in one and half hour that changed the entire equation of the day? Should we call it turnout of Mumbaikars in evening or fake votes? Think about it.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday took on Narendra Modi on his home turf of Gujarat, saying the state was nowhere near “swarg” (heaven) as claimed by him, and accused the BJP’s Prime Ministerial hopeful of being concerned only about his chair.
Addressing her first election rally in Gujarat, which goes to polls on April 30, she tore into Modi’s much-touted Gujarat “development model” and appealed to the people to reject the “divisive” the ideology of RSS-BJP as it was “bad” for the country.
“The BJP leader claims if he comes to power, he will transform the country into ‘swarg’ (heaven). But he does not tell you the truth about difficulties which you might be facing in your day-to-day life,” Gandhi said, targeting Modi without mentioning his name.
“The debt of Gujarat Government stands at 1.75 lakh crore, many villages do not get drinking water, every second child below the age of five is malnourished here and school dropout ratio is highest in Gujarat,” the UPA Chairperson said.
“Most surprising thing is those who earn more than Rs 11 a day are not considered poor by the Gujarat Government. Now you tell is this ‘swarg’ (heaven) or something else?” she asked the people at the well-attended gathering.
“He is just interested in his chair. They are not interested in welfare of the poor people.”
Gandhi also targeted BJP and Modi on corruption and raked up the issue of non-appointment of Lokayukta for 10 years in Gujarat.
“BJP has broken all boundaries of corruption. They are levelling baseless corruption allegations against Congress but it is we who brought a law like RTI. We have also taken strict action against those who were found guilty of indulging in corruption,” the Congress chief said.
“Has the BJP Government taken such steps – no they have not. Why was Lokayukta appointed in Gujarat after 10 years? Was the appointment delayed to cover up corruption,” she asked.
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday joined his sister Priyanka Gandhi in attacking Narendra Modi over snoopgate controversy, saying Gujarat government has no regard for women as it gets their phones tapped.
Addressing an election rally at Hargaon, he alleged that Modi gave 45,000 acres of agricultural land to an industrialist though no industry has been set up there till date and claimed farmers in Gujarat would have starved to death had the Centre not implemented MNREGA.
“Gujarat government has no regard for women as they get their phones tapped while Congress respects women and believes in empowering them,” the Congress vice president said.
Priyanka Gandhi took on Modi by raking up the “snoopgate” controversy surrounding him and said leaders who indulge in wrong acts against women should be “thrown out”.
The BJP reacted by accusing Congress of being confused about its poll campaign and strategy and said its top leadership continued to launch personal attacks on BJP leaders while resenting such attacks on their own leaders.
It was alleged that Gujarat authorities had carried out illegal surveillance on a young woman in 2009 on direction of Modi, a charge rejected by BJP.
The Union Cabinet had on December 26 last year decided to set up the Commission of Inquiry to probe into the Gujarat snoopgate. The decision was taken under the Commissions of Inquiry Act under which the Modi government has already set up a similar panel.
“Modi who wants to guard the country sidelined senior BJP leaders like Jaswant Singh and LK Advani,” the Congress VP said at the rally today.
Continuing his tirade against the “Gujarat model” of development, Rahul said, “If UPA government had not implemented NREGA, farmers of Gujrat could have died of hunger”.
Criticising Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul said youths from the state go out in search of employment and when they go to Maharashtra they are beaten and forced to go back home by Shiv Sena and BJP.
Also targeting BSP supremo Mayawati, Rahul accused her of grabbing land of poor farmers and amassing wealth during her regime.
Rahul, who was campaigning in support of party candidate Jitin Prasad from Dhaurara and Vaishali Ali from Sitapur, promised to stop “money drain: to China and assured the people that goods made in Dhaurara and Sitapur will be exported if Congress returns to power.
