Authorities will maintain a strict vigil on candidates campaigning and canvassing for votes in four Parliamentary constituencies in Mumbai Suburban district, with an electorate of over 73 lakh, to check any irregularities.

District Collector Shekhar Channe told three video surveillance teams will cover each assembly segment in all the four constituencies.

“The teams will be assisted by flying squads and also by static surveillance teams. They will track any illegal activities like distribution of cash or liquor and will have the powers of seizure. The flying squads will include a special executive magistrate and three police officials,” Channe said.

The parliamentary constituencies are Mumbai North, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North West and Mumbai North Central.

These constituencies, along with Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central, will go to polls on April 24.

“Preparations for conducting the polls are complete and a special drive tomorrow will enable voters to rectify changes in the voter rolls as well as make additions,” the Collector said.

He said booth-level officers from Election Commission will distribute voting slips in addition to the political party workers. There will be 7000 polling staff in the district.

“Out of the 73,11,500 voters, 40,54,347 are men and 32,66,077 are women. While 73 are transgenders. As per the 2009 voter list, there were 72,08,278 voters in the suburbs. Since 2013, there have been 7,38,854 deletions and eight lakh additions in the voter list,” Channe said.

He said new enrolment in suburbs has increased by around 8 lakh in the recent times, which is expected to go up as the registration for new voters will continue till March 25.

The Collectorate has also started new helpline number 1800221952 for complaints regarding violation of model code of conduct which is in force for general elections.

“Apart from this, toll free number 1950 is also functional to guide new voters on how to register with the Election Commission,” he added.

Actress Juhi Chawla’s brother Bobby, who had been in coma since quite some time, passed away on Sunday.
Bobby Chawla had been in coma since April 2010. He breathed his last at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, sources said.

“This is the perfect screenplay… Look at how my brother timed it… He gave me the biggest gift of my lifetime… Saw its release… And went away…,” Juhi posted on Twitter.
Juhi starrer Gulaab Gang hit theatres two days ago.

He went into coma after suffering a massive stroke in April 2010.

Bobby was the former CEO of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment.

Relatives of five Indian passengers, travelling by the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, are anxiously waiting for any information about the fate of the aircraft and their loved ones.

Samved Kolekar, whose father, mother and brother were travelling by the Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing is waiting patiently along with his wife at a hotel here along with relatives of 154 Chinese passengers.

It is a testing time for the young researcher in Astrophysics as he is waiting to know about his parents and brother who were coming here to visit him.

“They are coming to visit me here,” said Samved, who hails from Mumbai. Considering the tough time he is going through, he was reluctant to interact with the media and provide more details. His father, Vinod Kolekar (59), mother Chetana (55) and their younger brother Swanand (23) were in the plane along with two other Indians Chandrika Sharma (51) and Kranti Pralhad Shirshath, whose husband is based in Pyongyang in North Korea.

Both Samved and Pralhad are put up in a hotel here by the Malaysian airline as search continued to locate the plane carrying 239 passengers and crew amid reports that it may have been crashed off Vietnamese coast on Saturday.

Indian Ambassador to China Ashok K Kantha spoke to both Samved and Pralhad over phone and offered all assistance, while Counsellor Shrila Dutta Kumar met them. M H Pastakia, Head of the Indian Community in Beijing, also called on Samved and offered all support and assistance.

As the search operation made little progress, the Malaysia Airlines meanwhile offered to fly both the families to Kuala Lumpur along with the relatives of 154 Chinese passengers in order to provide them better assistance at the headquarters. They have not yet decided and preferred to wait for the news about the fate of the plane. Family members of Chennai-based Chandrika Sharma, an Executive Secretary in the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) who was also travelling in the same plane on way to Mongolia on official work, were expected to reach here or Kuala Lumpur after an official announcement about the fate of the plane.

Thane police would conduct sessions in schools and colleges to educate the students and their parents about the benefits and hazards of the social media.

Along with the children, their parents need to be educated and warned of the ill-effects of the misuse or excessive use of social networking sites, Thane Joint Commissioner of Police V V Laxminarayana said here yesterday while addressing the police commissionerate staff on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

“I was in the CBI as the Joint Director in Hyderabad for eight years during which I interacted with more than 4 lakh students. My experience there was the youngsters made use of the social networking sites excessively,” he said.

Excessive use of anything and being addict to it is hazardous and brings in ill-effects, the official said.

Citing an example, he said one student there had a record 1,000 friends on the Facebook.

One should use such social network the way one drinks water in small quantities. “If you go deep into the water, you get drowned, in the same manner if you use the social network excessively and become addict to it you are sure to be doomed,” he warned.

For training the parents and students, the police will take assistance from social organisations and NGOs, Laxminarayana said, adding that he has also asked police officers to give proper advice and solve the problems of people who come to them with their grievances.

On the occasion, he felicitated female employees of the police force who excelled in sports and those from the counselling organisations.

A chawl owner from Samrat Ashok Nagar of Kalwa has been arrested by the Kalwa police for allegedly killing a 15-year-old boy and dumping his body in a heap of sand, the police said.

Senior police inspector R D Malekar of the Kalwa police station told PTI that the police spotted the body of the teenager, Bharat Suresh Rathod.

As luck would have it, there was a CCTV camera installed at the location and the police spotted chawl owner Suresh Anandrav Mankawde (47) near the body between 1.20 and 2.30 am in the CCTV footage.

The police has charged him under Section 302 and Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code. Further investigations are in progress, the police said.

The motive behind the killing is yet to be known, the police said.

The Nashik Lok Sabha constituency will witness a multi-cornered contest in the upcoming polls where NCP stalwart and Maharashtra PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal is pitted against AAP’s Vijay Pandhare and Shiv Sena, BSP, MNS and CPM nominees.

Aam Aadmi party nominee Pandhare, a retired chief engineer of Nashik’s Maharashtra Engineering training Academy (META), was the whistleblower of alleged irregularities in various irrigation projects.

Pandhare, who is contesting Lok Sabha elections from Nashik for the first time, is hopeful of a win on the back of issues like corruption, development, his party’s impact in Delhi elections and several corruption charges levelled against Chhagan Bhujbal by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and others.

Shiv Sena’s candidate Hemant Godse had contested the last Lok Sabha elections on MNS ticket against NCP’s sitting MP Sameer Bhujbal, the nephew of Chhagan Bhujbal.

Godse is the son of Sena’s former MP Rajabhau Godse and a sitting municipal corporator and zilla parishad member too.

Also in the fray is sitting CPM corporator Tanaji Jaibhave.

Congress party’s rebel corporator from Nashik Dinkar Patil recently announced his candidature on Bahujan Samaj Party’s ticket.

Congress had on Friday issued a show cause notice to him for anti-party activities. As per the notice issued by Nashik city Congress observer Bhai Jagtap, Patil is supposed to explain why he held a press conference and declared that he would be contesting the Lok Sabha election on the BSP ticket.
Meanwhile, MNS declared Pradeep Pawar as its nominee from the Nashik seat.

The Nashik parliamentary constituency has a total electorate of 15,45,564, including 07,20,601 women voters, spread in six Assembly segments of Sinnar, Nashik-east, Nashik-central, Nashik-west, Devlali and Igatpuri.