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Mumbai Facing Labour Crises

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Photo: Akshay Redij / Afternoon Voice

Thousands of migrants left Mumbai and now city is seeing in labour crises. Economically and the commercially developed state has many challenges ahead. What we are not realizing today is all this growth of Mumbai is because of the efforts made by migrant workers. From taking part in construction work to selling vegetables and riding cars and autos is largely done by them. These are the same migrants today on the streets of the city majority who contribute to this development. Be it agriculture, factories, production units, logistics, constructions you will realize that this was the lot seen everywhere. It is the credit to their skills and hard work that these people are required in every state. Be it Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, or any state. You will find these laborers everywhere. Now since they have gone back in masses and the general sentiment amongst them is that they might not earn well, but they would like to stay at their homes despite difficulties. What next when we are out of this Pandemic situation? How are we going to fill this gap? No thoughts on this so far.

Also forget the daily wage laborers, there is panic everywhere. Most of the service class working in different corporates and SMEs are migrants who have either majorly lost their jobs or are facing salary cuts. How they are going to recover and become the contributors in the tax system again of the states? Banks are calling such classes whomsoever is a consumer for either car loan or personal loan to do the profiling and check whether these credits will be recovered or not. Panic everywhere, in each sector, in every industry. At this moment government needs to look into the survival mode of people, two long months they are at home and struggling to earn one time meal, many have lost their jobs, small business is shut, beauty parlours, saloons to cooking classes like a small business but big contributors in the economy are totally collapsed. There are EMI’s, instalments, rent, and school fees to many other expenses waiting to be paid. The middle class is at stake, with no help from the state government or Centre.

The lockdown has already disproportionately hurt marginalized communities due to loss of livelihood and lack of food, shelter, health, and other basic needs. The government does have a responsibility to protect the health and wellbeing of the population, but some of these steps have left tens of thousands of out-of-work migrant workers stranded, with rail and bus services shut down. The blanket closing of state borders has caused disruption in the supply of essential goods, leading to inflation and fear of shortages. Thousands of homeless people are in need of protection. Police actions to punish those violating orders have reportedly resulted in abuses against people in need. The government is facing an extraordinary challenge to protect over a billion densely packed people, but ramped-up efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in India need to include rights protections. Many police personals and doctors and hospital staff succumbed to COVID19. These frontline workers are not provided with basic safety measures, some doctors who made noise are either got arrested or admitted to the mental asylum. The government should ensure that those at heightened risk, including sanitation workers, community health staff, early childhood caregivers (Anganwadi workers), and people such as midday meal workers – often poorly paid public service officials – who are at the front lines during this crisis, should have been provided protective equipment, medical benefits, and timely wages. Government has no time to look at all these measures; they are busy with social media wars and credit scores.

Above all the lockdown period has caused about two-thirds of production loss — has wiped out around Rs 8 lakh crore. And if the curbs are stretched for 10 weeks, the economy might collapse. The states together could take a hit of Rs 2 lakh crore in the current financial year, while about 10 crore workers in the mining, construction, manufacturing, and services sectors could be rendered jobless. Taking into account the contribution of deferent sectors of the economy and the extent of the lockdown indicates that about 60-70% of the goods and services produced in the country or the GDP is getting lost. Roughly 8-9% of the GDP gets produced in a month on an average. Wholesale and retail trade, hotels, mining, construction sectors will be the worst hit. Agriculture, banking, finance, and power sectors will not be as acted. Farm businesses, essential goods, and services exempted from lockdown have soured less disruption and economic loss. Additionally, e-commerce, except those, which could not transition to work-from-home, and pharmaceutical businesses have also not soured much. These

Businesses are expected to bounce back fully are the lockdown has lied.

Sectors like construction, mining and small businesses dependent on migrant

Workers will face a supply crunch. The workers who have left cities will take time to come back, or they might not even return. There will be a problem of wages, which might move northward, migration has a completely deferent behaviour. Lockdown continued for about 10 weeks; India’s economy would be completely ruined. Hence, those with the least risk should be allowed to function as soon as possible. The state governments’ revenues have soured massively. The Centre should release the held-up amount of approximately Rs 30,000 crore of GST compensation. Right now, I don’t see any ray of hope, but eventually, things should become breathable or else this would be never-ending loss to mankind and by all means.


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Cyclone Nisarga: CM Uddhav Thackeray Visits Storm-Hit Raigad; Announces Rs 100-Crore Aid

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday announced financial assistance of Rs 100 crore for Raigad district, which bore the brunt of cyclone ‘Nisarga’ three days ago.

Thackeray made the announcement while on a visit to Alibaug taluka of Raigad district, around 110km from Mumbai, to take stock of the situation.

The CM said he had given orders for expeditious assessment of damage caused by the cyclone which made landfall in the coastal district on Wednesday afternoon.

High-speed winds accompanied by rains caused large- scale damage in coastal areas of the district.

“This assistance (of Rs 100 crore) will be given for emergency relief. This is just a beginning. Don’t call it a package,” he said.

Thackeray said the coronavirus threat can increase because of rain.

“We have to stop other rain-related ailments as well. We will not leave any one in the lurch. Restoring electricity supply, telecommunications and house repairs is our priority,” he said.

Thackeray, who arrived in Alibaug from Mumbai, was accompanied by guardian ministers of Mumbai suburbs and city, Aaditya Thackeray and Aslam Shaikh, respectively.

Raigad guardian minister Aditi Tatkare and district collector Nidhi Chaudhary briefed the CM about the post- cyclone situation.

SC Gives Centre, States 15 Days to Transport Migrant Labourers Back Home

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The Supreme Court on Friday said it intends to give 15 days to the Centre and states for transporting all stranded migrant labourers to their native places, commencing hearing on their plight during the Covid-19 lockdown period.

The Supreme Court was hearing in suo motu PIL over the plight of migrant workers.

The court said, “What we intend to do is we will give you and the states 15 days’ time to transport all migrants. All states will bring on record how they will provide employment and other kind of relief. There should be registration of the migrants.”

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the government has transported an approximate of 1 crore migrant labourers so far.

“By road 41 lakh migrant labourers have been transported and 57 lakhs by train,” he said.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, who was representing the Delhi government, told the court that around 2 lakh workers are still in Delhi. He said, “They are choosing not to go back. Less than 10,000 workers have expressed desire to go back to their native places”.

The Uttar Pradesh government also made a similar statement in the court.

Senior advocate PS Narasimha, who was appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, said, “At no point of time did the state charge the migrant labourers. Obligation of states is two-fold. We have to send those migrants back who were in UP as well. 104 special trains were organized to send back 1.35 lakh people.”

The UP government also said, “There are no persons who want to leave. People who are original residents of UP are working in different parts of the country. 5.50 lakhs migrant labourers were brought from Delhi borders and buses did more than 10,000 trips.”

“1,664 Shramik Special trains were organised in an extraordinary measure and 21.69 lakh people were brought back to the state,” the government has said.

Average Daily Covid-19 Case Growth Rate Down in Mumbai: BMC

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With a trend of steady decline in COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, the average daily growth rate of infections has gone down, claimed officials of the city civic body, spearheading the metropolis’s response to the pandemic.

According to a top Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official, as per the data till June 2, the average daily growth of COVID-19 cases went down from more than 8 per cent a few days ago to 3.64 per cent.

Till June 2, a total of 41,986 COVID-19 cases and 1,368 deaths were recorded in the city, the worst-hit by the disease in Maharashtra.

According to the BMC, it has conducted over 2.08 lakh tests till June 2, of those only 20.18 per cent people tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“Even the COVID-19 case doubling rate has gone up to 19 days,” said the official.

According to BMC’s health department data, in the past one month, the maximum number of cases, 1,739, on a single-day were detected on May 22, while the minimum, 404, was recorded on May 13.

Another senior BMC official said, the daily number of cases are seeing a declining trend with the count remaining below 1,500 on most of the days since May 22.

According to the officials, due to aggressive screening, testing and contact tracing of suspected COVID-19 patients, the civic body has been successful in keeping the spread of the pandemic under control.

Punjab govt urges Centre to arrange trains for bringing migrant workers back to state

migrant delhi, migrant buses, punjab, punjab governmentPunjab Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Sham Arora has in a letter to the Union government urged it “to arrange trains for bringing migrant workers” who wish to come back from their home states and join work as industrial units have resumed their operations.

He further informed that the Punjab government had even sent buses to ferry the labourers back to the state and “two such buses have already reached Hoshiarpur today.”

Arora also urged Chief Ministers of other states to purchase PPE kits manufactured in Punjab to fight coronavirus.

“I had written another letter to all Chief Ministers of other states to purchase masks and PPE kits being manufactured by Punjab’s textile industry. At present, 103 units are manufacturing approved PPE kits in the state,” he said.

He stated that “for the benefit of industry, new industrial parks, near Mandi Gobindgarh, Mattewara (Ludhiana), Rajpura (Patiala), Mohali and Bathinda are also in the offing.”

Arora also claimed that during the lockdown/curfew, the industry was given several relaxations by the Punjab government and more such relaxations will be given in the future.

World Environment Day: Reiterate pledge to preserve biodiversity, says PM Modi

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday pitched for collective efforts to ensure that the planet becomes a better place for future generations. “On #WorldEnvironmentDay, we reiterate our pledge to preserve our planet’s rich biodiversity. Let us collectively do whatever possible to ensure the flora and fauna with whom we share the Earth thrive,” he wrote on Twitter.

“May we leave an even better planet for the coming generations,” he said.

Modi also shared a brief video of his latest “Mann ki Baat” programme in which he had referred to World Environment Day.

“The theme this year is biodiversity…(it) is especially pertinent in the current circumstances. During lockdown in the last few weeks the pace of life may have slowed down a bit but it has also given us an opportunity to introspect upon the rich diversity of nature or biodiversity around us,” he had said.

Much of the avian fauna had sort of disappeared due to sound and air pollution, and now after years people can once again listen to their melodic chirping in their homes, Modi had said.

He had also pitched for saving rainwater, saying the traditional conservation methods are in the form of very simple remedies, and employing these “we can tap the water”.

He also urged people to plant trees and make resolutions so that a daily relationship with nature can be forged.

Temperature is on the rise, so do not forget to “facilitate water for the birds,” he said.

Roaming outside without a mask? Now pay Rs 500 fine in Delhi

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Roaming out of the house without wearing a mask? Delhi police have now been authorised to fine those who are found without wearing a mask on the streets. As per the orders of the Lieutenant Governor, the Delhi Police will now fine Rs 500 to all those who do not wear masks while moving out of their house.

Coronavirus cases in Delhi have crossed 25,000 while the death toll has mounted to 650.

The number of active cases in Delhi has risen to 14,456 while 9,898 people have recovered after contracting the virus.

On first day of ‘Unlock 1.0’ Mumbai sees Traffic jams

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After the relaxation of lockdown and reopening of religious places and all places of worship for public, hotels, restaurants and hospitality services and all shopping malls which has been permitted to re-open from June 8 onwards. Mumbai is witnessing traffic jam; one big rain exposes BMC and with several waterlogs. Mumbai witnesses outpouring traffic on first day of ‘Unlock One’.

These guidelines will be effective till June 30 and the first phase is set to have an economic focus. The Home Ministry has lifted almost all restrictions placed under the lockdown, however, the right to implement relaxations has been put on state governments considering the prevalent COVID-19 situation in their respective states. Western Expressway and Eastern Express Highway, Sion-Panvel Road, Sion Vegetable Market, Vakola and Goregaon saw huge traffic, traffic police expecting further more surge in traffic.

The Ministry of Health shall also issue and SOP for the resumption of operations. In the second phase, schools, colleges, educational/training/coaching institutions will be resumed after consultation with respective states and Union Territories. The decision on the re-opening of these institutions will be taken in the month of July based on the feedback of parents and other stakeholders.

The third phase shall determine the opening of certain activities that will continue to remain prohibited until stated otherwise which include air travel, metro rail, cinema halls, gymnasiums, bars, auditoriums, entertainment parks, large social/political gatherings etc. Mumbai witnessed a huge surge of traffic on day one as the city marked the first day of “Mission Begin Again” on Monday. The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier issued a new set of guidelines to facilitate the phase-wise dilution of the extended lockdown.

Stay safe Mumbaikar, only you can take care of yourself

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There was long lockdown, people are in hurry to get back to their bread earning. Almost all the reserves got absorbed in this unplanned long lockdown. Monsoon has arrived but exposed the authorities and government with one pouring. The city’s buying cars faster than it’s building roads. The number of vehicles on Mumbai’s roads has increased in thousands while the city’s total road length has not increased accordingly, even if the roads are increased in the recent past the population has over grown in the city, so controlling traffic is actually a faraway thing. A 10 per cent increase in car population increases parking woes by 25 per cent and traffic congestion by around 20 per cent. There is a need to implement schemes that put a premium on using vehicles in Mumbai. These schemes include the Bus Rapid Transport System and increased parking charges. The study said the number of vehicles in the Mumbai metropolitan region is expected to reach 75 lakhs by 2024. New York has 50 lakh vehicles while Beijing has 20 lakhs. Well, Mumbai will always remain jam and monsoon is another challenge to control the roadblock.

Massive traffic queues across the city, especially in areas that are badly flooded including Dadar, Parel, Sion, Andheri, Jogeshwari and Santacruz. Residents complained that brand new water pumping stations on which the civic body spent 200 crores failed to work after being damaged by rocks. Mumbai has once again stuck in water. BMC has been silent over the news this monsoon. This is strange. Every year, there is at least one picture of a BMC worker who is working towards clearing the choked drainage, the silent messages depicted in pictures but what is the point in it? Every year Government is making budgets for drainage and those people are doing their jobs. The ever-procrastinating people, who are not answerable to anybody, waste much of government funds. Thankfully, the privatization has spurred those workers to work hard and be answerable. For example, the railways, people working for the railways are now ‘lesser’ corrupt, they are, I would not defy it but the point of escalations has been brought up a higher scale.

Just one or two rains hit Mumbai, but look at the conditions around, Railways station escalators are not protected against weather, there are water logs everywhere on the stations to metro and skywalk, tiles are broken and holes everywhere. Of course, there are attempts being made to ‘advance’ the facilities to passengers by installing escalators worth nearly 80 lakhs per set, which can speed up enough to cope with the rising demand of hurry for citizens. Ideally the escalators powerful enough and requires more electricity than an elevator, depending on the number of people who join in. So, what next? Fair of railway tickets too gone up, again that is the price we all are willing to pay for the facility given in return.

Scenario for railways commuters does require their employees to be disciplined and firm in their actions but someone should also keep up with the ownership to help railways spend our money, wisely. More money spending schemes are coming up! Mumbai is also billed to have protected the monumental buildings. There are over 110 monuments in the city and each is derived in their own style, each of them needs protection in their own style and each style needs a special approach. Although, right now only the data is being compiled to know which monument will need what kind of facility for protection. We can witness that Taj Mahal has been going ‘yellowish’ and many credited the ‘acid rains’, earlier, which are mainly caused due to factories using thermal energy where the combustion rate of coal used is not even near 90%.

Whenever it pours thousands of commuters leaving for offices gets caught unaware on reaching the suburban railway stations as trains gets cancelled due to waterlogging of tracks, as services on all three railway lines – Central, Western and Harbour – always gets cancelled. As every year, the civic body issues flood alert and keeps silent on their preparations. Large parts of Mumbai, including the central, western and eastern suburbs get flooded, and traffic comes to a standstill. Water levels at 91 major reservoirs nationwide are the lowest in a decade – no more than 29 per cent, water levels at Indian reservoirs are 71 per cent of last year, or 74 per cent of average storage over the last decade, the CWC data reveal.

The 91 major reservoirs contain 157.8 billion cubic metre (BCM) of water; the capacity of these reservoirs is 250 BCM. Another 400 BCM water is available for irrigation in India through groundwater, according to this answer given by the government in the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of Parliament) in July 2015. July 2016 is on course to witness the worst water scarcity in a decade, and the waterlogs too would be much more as Sena-BJP wasted their entire tenure just accusing alleging each other but none really bothered to care for the city. Then the BJP Government came up with Minister centric apps, they were talking about “Aache Din” to “Badal Raha India” but in reality, nothing has moved, even after coming to power and ruling for five long years they were blaming previous government’s inefficiency. Well, the BJP came and gone out of power doing nothing much towards waterlogs and potholes. Now its new government Maha Vikas Aghadi, they are yet to tackle COVID-19 cases and rain water has arrived with new challenge to them, hope this government lives up to our expectations.


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Chhoti Si Baat & Rajnigandha director Basu Chatterjee, passes away at 93

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Veteran filmmaker Basu Chatterjee, known for his relatable, light as soufflé brand of cinema with films such as ‘Rajnigandha’ and “Chitchor”, died on Thursday following age related health issues. He was 93. Chatterjee, who is survived by his daughters Sonali Bhattacharya and Rupali Guha, died in his sleep at his Santacruz residence.

‘He passed away peacefully in his sleep in the morning. He hadn’t been keeping well for quite a while due to old age problems and died at his residence. It’s a great loss for the film industry,’ Ashoke Pandit, president of the Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA), told a news agency.

The last rites of the filmmaker, who blazed a middle-of-the-road trail in the 1970s and 1980s, will be performed at the Santacruz crematorium, Pandit said.

Many people in the film industry and outside condoled the death of the director, who placed the middle class and its everyday joys and struggles at the centre of his cinematic world.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, ‘Saddened at the demise of legendary film director and screenwriter Basu Chatterjee. He gave us gems like ‘Chhoti Si Baat’, ‘Chitchor’, ‘Rajanigandha’, ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’, ‘Rajni’ among others. Condolences to his family, friends, fans & the entire film fraternity.’ Filmmaker Hansal Mehta said Chatterjee leaves behind a great legacy of cinema gems.

‘Basu Chatterjee moves on. For me very few see the lighter side of life like he did. All his films have a smirk on their faces. I’m a big fan. and I have ‘Kahaani 2′ to prove it,’ said “Kahaani” director Sujoy Ghosh said.

Chatterjee began as a cartoonist in a tabloid but changed his career path after assisting Basu Bhattacharya in the Raj Kapoor-Waheeda Rehman starrer “Teesri Kasam”.

The two Basus along with Hrishikesh Mukherjee formed the Hindi cinema triumvirate whose ethos lay firmly in the middle class and its day-to-day struggles at a time when most of Bollywood was focused on larger-than-life stories of angst and tragedy led by Amitabh Bachchan.

Actors like Vidya Sinha, Amol Palekar and Zarina Wahab were the stars that were favoured by Chatterjee to tell aspiring stories of the middle class.

His cinema was progressive for the times, unhurried and a slice of everyday life — about conversations over cups of chai and romances blossoming in public buses, trains and office buildings.

Some of his best-known works are ‘Us Paar’, ‘Chitchor’, ‘Piya Ka Ghar’, ‘Khatta Meetha’ and ‘Baton Baton Mein’.