City: Mumbai

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to build three underground parking lots at Flora Fountain (with capacity of 176 cars), Worli (640 cars) and under a section of Raosaheb Patwardhan Park (228 cars), Bandra (West). Overall, the underground parking lots, meant to accommodate 1044 cars, will be built at the cost of about Rs 300 crores.  However, citizens have opposed this move vehemently leading to withdrawal of another proposal of underground parking beneath Juhu's Pushpa Narsee park (PNP).  Citizens mobilised to protest after a BMC press note on February 2, 2023 announced plans for underground parking underneath Patwardhan Park in…

On February 7, 2023, 30 fishermen from Uran Koliwada were arrested for opposing work on the Uran bypass bridge. The grounds for the FIR against them was that the accused were causing "danger to the nation," as the project is of "national importance." While they were given bail, the arrests are emblematic of fisherfolk's fight to oppose the rampant and widespread destruction of their fishing areas by development far and wide. Fishermen from Uran Koliwada have been protesting against various projects carried out by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO), Navi Mumbai Special…

A living will is a written document in which a person expresses their wishes regarding medical treatment in the event they become terminally ill or incapable of making decisions themselves. In a living will, an individual designates a proxy to make decisions on their behalf and instructs proxy as well as others about what he or she wants. The concept of a living will is based on the principle that every person has the right to determine the type of medical treatment they receive or discontinue when their condition requires it. Many others share the same view but the mere…

Back to summer heat After a respite from the scorching heat after Mumbai took the honour of being the hottest in the country on Monday (at 39.3 degrees Celsius), expect a very warm weekend. It is likely to reach between 36 and 39 degrees Celcius, which will be accompanied by poor air quality. Strong winds from the east are pushing back the sea breeze. Post-March 12th, the temperature may slightly dip again. Source: The Indian Express Air quality data may be fudged A leading scientist has expressed doubts over the air pollution data from most of the continuous ambient air…

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be increasing the number of swimming pools in the city this year. It also announced 25 per cent discount for women at four of its existing functional swimming pools to increase the number of female users. The current annual fee for large pools is Rs 10,100 while for the smaller ones, it is Rs 8,000. The monthly fee varies as well, depending on the size of the pool, and ranges between Rs 1,300 to Rs 4,700. While the pools have special slots for women, from 11 am to 12 pm and 5 pm to…

Ravindra Jhagde, 42, has a story to underscore how well-respected his father’s job as an operator in Standard Mill, Prabhadevi, used to be. “My cousin’s husband had to pick between two job offers. He could be a teacher in a government school in or around Bhor in Pune, or he could be a mill worker in Mumbai like my dad. He chose the latter.” Jhagde is a vegetable and fruits wholesaler in Dadar, barely a stone’s throw from the slum home he grew up in, where his mum and sister operated a khanawal, a traditional Maharashtrian eatery, from where they…

Areas in Mumbai's Kurla to experience water cuts every Saturday for 10 days The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be carrying out works to strengthen water lines at Khairani road in Mumbai's Kurla for 10-days. As a result of this, starting March 5th, there will be a water supply outage in the area every Saturday for a period of 10-days. The BMC will be conducting the necessary works in stages instead of a continuous 10-day water disruption to prevent prolonged inconvenience to the locals. The civic body also advised the residents to boil water every Sunday as a precautionary measure…

The St. Peter's Seaside Cemetery, Kadeshwari Marg, near Mount Mary’s Steps, was established more than a century ago, around 1906. It serves a sizeable population of Catholics, concentrated in Bandra. It is an active cemetery and large numbers of Catholics have their graves here. About 50 burials take place every year. On 2nd January 2023, the Joint Municipal Commissioner – Zone III, served a 7-day Notice on St. Peter’s Church, under Sec 299 of the MMC Act 1888, intimating the take-over of a section of our cemetery for road-widening of 9.15 meters, including about 10 graves and the compound wall.…

Three years ago Shoaib (24) followed Aisha (21, name changed) on Instagram, she followed him back. He was from Nasik and she lived in Ghatkopar. Each was curious about the other, the attraction soon turned into a conversation and then many conversations. Unafraid of losing him, Aisha revealed a crucial detail at the very beginning of what would become a life-long commitment between the two—she had tuberculosis (TB). Six months after this, when Shoiab told his family about his intention to marry Aisha, it was only expected that her health condition would cause concerns. "I said, 'So what if she…

On December 15th, 2022, around 15 students at the Banegar English High School in Mira Road were in for a rude shock. Denied permission to attend class as on a normal day, they were made to sit apart in a spare classroom with broken desks and benches. The reason: their parents had been unable to pay their school fees, and this was their punishment. "They switched off the fan and made them sit in the storeroom for the entire day. No teacher came to check on them, nor were they let out at recess," says Swaleha, mother to seventh grader…