City: Mumbai

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) unearthed a major milk adulteration racket operating from Dharavi recently, on September 15th. The accused were found slitting the milk packets and removing the milk. They replaced it with water before sealing the cut part with candle flame. The FDA officials seized and destroyed about 807 litres of adulterated milk worth Rs 45, 852. The FDA launched criminal proceedings in a joint operation with the Shahu Nagar police station. A milk adulteration racket busted at Dharavi during a joint operation raid by the FDA and the Mumbai police. Pic courtesy: FDA In another instance,…

Just in time for India’s 75th Independence day, on August 13th, eleven wetlands were added to the list of Ramsar sites. This latest addition was a move loaded with symbolism, taking the number of wetlands of international importance in the country to 75. One among them is Thane creek, which shares shores with Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. It is the 3rd Ramsar site in the state.  To conserve the rich and biodiverse ecosystems, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands brings together member countries — which India entered in 1982 — for wise use of their wetlands. The Ramsar tag is…

Vadhawan Port in Palghar will impact 20,809 fisherfolk According to a previously undisclosed survey by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), the proposed Vadhawan Port in Palghar district’s eco-sensitive Dahanu taluka, adjacent to Mumbai will impact the livelihoods of at least 20,809 fisherfolk living in 16 fishing villages within the 10 km radius of the port. The port will render approximately 72 sq kms of current fishing area inaccessible to fisherfolk during the construction phase and once the operations are underway, states the CMFRI report. The report also points out that only the area outside the harbour of the…

65-year-old Sain Ullah Khan has been driving a taxi in Mumbai for the last 35 years, but his life turned upside down during the COVID pandemic, in 2020. Two years ago, the lockdown took away his income and savings and now he is troubled by high Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) prices. "I used to take Sundays off before the lockdown and work only till noon on Fridays but that has not been possible for the past two years. If I take an off now, we'll be left hungry. Eid is the only time I can afford a holiday," says Khan. Having…

The slow but certain deterioration of cognitive functions that comes with the onset of Alzheimer's Disease is unimaginable for most. We are rooted in a culture where it is simply assumed that a sick person can rely heavily on family or relatives and is entitled to a certain amount of help and benefits. While it might get uncomfortable getting into the details of a caregiving role, these are important aspects to consider and discuss from the very beginning. Setting up personal boundaries are extremely important in order to safeguard mental and physical health of patients and caregivers as well. It…

Mumbai city celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi with great splendour after almost two years of low-key celebrations. During COVID lockdowns, social distancing meant the absence of large gatherings, even on festival days. This year’s vigorous celebrations included banjos, metal cylinders beaten with metal hammers and loudspeakers during processions for Ganesh Visarjan in Sarvajanik pandals of the city. These instruments inevitably raised noise levels. It became a cause for concern for all Mumbai residents as they grappled with the health impacts of noise. In 2016, the Bombay High Court passed a comprehensive Judgement and Order to enforce the Noise Pollution Rules. The Court also monitored the implementation…

In September 2020, the Bombay High Court initiated a suo moto Public Interest Litigation (PIL) following the partial collapse of a 36-year-old illegal building in Bhiwandi. The collapse had resulted in the loss of 38 lives, mostly labourers. On February 26 2022, the court pronounced its judgment: this tragic state of affairs in Mumbai, it said, is because “encroachments on public land happen with impunity” and because slum policy confers a “premium illegality in favour of the encroachers, by granting them a windfall of State largesse…in the form of tenements”. This is nothing but “legalising encroachments on prime public lands,”…

Everyone in Mumbai has an anecdote about their time on the road; a pothole on a speed breaker, complete journeys done in first gear, magically cleared roads at the arrival of a VIP, and so on. Some of these stories of frustration and rage poured out in the Twitter Spaces event, organised by Citizen Matters, “Stuck on the road: The causes and fixes to traffic in Mumbai.” Held on September 13th, Citizen Matters invited citizen groups, experts, researchers and concerned Mumbaikars to share their two cents on how to address congestion in the city. With panellists well versed in diagnosing and…

March 10 2022, is the date that Priya, 16, and her mother Laxmi, 39, will remember for the rest of their lives. On that date, Priya's father Annadurai, 50, lost his life while working in Mumbai's Kandivali area. He was one of three men employed for manual scavenging, a practice that removes human excreta by hand from sewers or septic tanks. This work was supposed to pay each of them Rs 500. Annadurai was a sanitation worker under private contractors. He was hired for work at Kandivali along with his three friends - Rauf Syed, Krishnamurti and Ganpati. With no…

An often overlooked link in the entire waste segregation and management chain is the dry waste segregation centre (DWSC). Mumbai has 46 of them — of varying sizes and capacities — spread across the 24 wards of the city. They serve as the heart of decentralised waste management; collecting waste from houses across the city, clubbing and sorting them and finally, sending it for recycling.  In Mumbai, the centres work in partnership with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and organisations involved in waste management. The BMC provides the space and vehicles for the centre. An NGO then takes over, overseeing the dry…