As many as 79 people have lost their lives in incidents related to cyclone Tauktae in different parts of Gujarat, officials said on Thursday as the authorities carried out restoration work in affected areas and launched damage assessment exercise.
Mumbai and its adjoining areas were lashed by heavy showers on Tuesday, causing water-logging at a number of places, including railway tracks, which slowed the movement of trains and vehicles on roads.
Thackeray was speaking virtually after the inauguration of a water taxi service, linking Navi Mumbai to south Mumbai, and the Belapur jetty in the neighbouring township.
The IMD has forecast heavy rainfall in some parts of the state in next 48 hours. "The southwest monsoon has arrived in Maharashtra. The onset line is passing over Harnai, Solapur, Ramagundum (Telangana) and Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh)," IMD Mumbai centre's deputy director general K S Hosalikar said.
The Mumbai civic body asked all schools to remain shut and to ensure that the students were sent back home safely.
The Maharashtra government has decided to stop home quarantining of COVID-19 patients in 18 districts where the positivity rate is high and all active patients in these areas would be admitted to COVID Care Centers, health minister Rajesh Tope said.
The orange alert implies that authorities should be ready to handle situations arising out of severe weather.
The street-fighter attitude is what keeps Rane going even at 69. The expectation is -- at least in the BJP camp -- that he will be itching for a battle royale with the Shiv Sena in its bastions.
The relaxations will come into effect from Tuesday morning, said a government order.
Twenty-six coronavirus patients died during the day, taking the death toll to 485, a state health department statement said.
NDRF, with the help of local authorities and police, has been conducting evacuation operations to minimise the potential damage from the cyclone.
Still reeling under a deadly second wave of Covid-19, Maharashtra may witness a third wave of the infection in July-August, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Thursday.
Santosh Patkar of Devgadh Taluka Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra is a worried man these days. Devgadh, which is known as the home to world famous Alphonso variety of mangoes, has seen an unusual drop in yields which is affecting farmers' income. Being one of the primary agricultural produce from the area, Santosh is not untouched by this somewhat rare phenomenon. He said in his own mango garden, yields have come down by a third from most trees.
'Getting Brijbhushan to rake up Thackeray's anti-north Indian stand is the BJP's way of cutting Raj Thackeray to size.' 'Could just one MP have stopped Raj Thackeray's Ayodhya tour?'
As many as 48 persons were injured in these incidents and 25 still missing, while so far, 2,29,074 persons have been evacuated from the flood and rain-affected affected areas and moved to safer places, the government said in a statement in Mumbai.
Cyclone 'Nisarga' has made landfall near Alibaug on Maharashtra coast with the wind speed of more than 110 km per hour and heavy rainfall, leading to falling of many trees and electricity poles, a Raigad district official said.
He claimed Maharashtra is the only state which has upgraded its health infrastructure to tackle the pandemic 'like no other country has done'.
Gale-force winds, heavy rainfall and high tidal waves swept the coastal belts of Maharashtra and Goa as Cyclone Tauktae hurtled northwards towards Gujarat.
So far, 50 people have also been injured in these incidents, the government said in a statement.
No immediate relief appears in sight as the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for six districts which have been already pounded by downpour, forecasting "extremely heavy" rainfall and recommending preventive actions.
Town planning authority MMRDA on Tuesday said that nearly 150 patients at its COVID facility in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) have been shifted to another location as a precaution in the wake of the Nisarga Cyclone which is expected to make a landfall close to the city on Wednesday.
A Nashik police team is on its way to Raigad to arrest the Union minister.
In a letter to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, party MP and spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi stated, "It would be a crying shame if we let go our history without giving the benefit of knowledge to our future generation.
Parts of Raigad, Ratnagiri districts in the coastal Konkan region and Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, have been worst affected by the floods. Besides that, heavy rains have been pounding parts of Satara district.
While the BJP wants a bigger share, on the back of its spectacular performance in the April-May Lok Sabha polls, the Sena is not willing to play ball, said sources from both parties.
The Congress MLA and others were produced before a local court which granted them bail, the official said.
Intense spells of rain are likely to continue in the districts of Thane, Raigad and Mumbai during next four hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
'It could rain about 200 mm in short span of time.'
Reader Pradeep Keskar has sent us this photograph of the star.
Sulking Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane on Thursday said he will quit the Prithviraj Chavan ministry on Monday but has decided to remain in the Congress.
With the cyclone set to make landfall on Wednesday, Maharashtra and Gujarat activated their disaster response mechanism, deploying NDRF teams and evacuating people from areas likely to be hit.
The cyclone made landfall in Raigad district on Wednesday afternoon, blowing in from the Arabian sea, with an intensity of severe cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 100-110 kmph peaking at 120 kmph. But it spared Mumbai, the country's financial capital which is already struggling to cope up with the coronavirus pandemic.
Congress candidate from Kankavli constituency in Maharashtra Nitesh Rane said he has earned his candidature for the legislative assembly elections through his work and not because he is the son of former chief minister Narayan Rane.
Rane, who resigned from the Congress party about two weeks ago after a long-drawn tussle with its state leadership, had claimed three days back that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had invited him to join the NDA.
An ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh, including an immediate relief of Rs 50,000, was announced by the collector for the kin of the deceased.
Stones were pelted from both the sides, following which police used cane-charge to disperse the agitators, an official said.
'There is no future for the Shiv Sena under Uddhavji's leadership.'
Thackeray said lockdown has been partially eased because economic activities need to continue as 'now we have to learn to live with the virus'.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray through video conference and took stock of the state's preparedness to tackle any eventuality, the latter's office said. 10 units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in vulnerable districts, while six others have been kept on a stand-by, officials said.
Schools and colleges in the city and adjoining districts have been closed as a precautionary measure.
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