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The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Maharashtra government on a bail plea filed by the father of minor involved in the 2024 Pune Porsche accident case. On May 19, 2024, a 17-year-old boy, driving a Porsche, allegedly under the influence of alcohol, fatally knocked down two IT professionals in Pune's Kalyani Nagar area. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice to the state government on the appeal filed by Vishal Agarwal challenging an order of the Bombay High Court which denied him bail. The matter has been posted for hearing on March 10. The high court had on December 16, 2025, rejected the bail plea of Agarwal and the other accused. On February 2, the top court granted bail to three accused while observing that parents are to be blamed for incidents involving juveniles, as they don't have control over their children. The court allowed the bail, noting that the accused - Amar Santish Gaikwad (alleged middleman), Aditya Avinash Sood,
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday virtually inaugurated the Tardeo-Nagpada-Mumbai Central flyover, a key east-west connecting link in south Mumbai that offers commuters a smoother alternative route. The earlier 130-year-old British-era bridge at Mumbai Central had been declared dangerous and was subsequently dismantled. The new flyover is expected to restore the east-west connectivity disrupted for the past two years and ease congestion on Jehangir Boman Behram Road (earlier Bellasis Road), Dr Dadasaheb Bhadkamkar Marg (Grant Road), Pathe Bapurao Marg and the Mahalaxmi station bridge, officials said. The total length of the flyover is 333 metres, including 138.39 metres on the eastern side, 157.39 metres on the western side and 36.90 metres within railway limits. The carriageway is 7 metres wide, with adequately wide footpaths on both sides, they said. Fadnavis inaugurated the flyover via videoconference, with Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde present along
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar on Tuesday assumed her ministerial duties at the state secretariat Mantralaya, 13 days after the death of her husband and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. She was accompanied by senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and her elder son Parth Pawar as she took her seat in the deputy CM's office, marking a poignant transition in the state's leadership. NCP leaders Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Chhagan Bhujbal and Dhananjay Munde were among those present. Sunetra Pawar will attend the cabinet meeting scheduled on Tuesday, the first to be held since Ajit Pawar's death. She will also participate in the business advisory committee meeting for the February 23 budget session. NCP leader Ajit Pawar was killed in a plane crash at Baramati in Pune district on January 28. Sunetra Pawar took oath as the state's first woman deputy CM on January 31. She has been given the charge of the exicse, sports, minority welfare and Aukaf departments and also ..
Godrej Agrovet on Tuesday said it has signed an initial agreement with the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission to empower over 5,000 women farmers and promote sustainable agriculture in nine key cotton-growing districts in Maharashtra. "Through this partnership, we aim to equip women farmers with practical high-impact agronomy so they can achieve better yields and uplift their families. We are committed to building models that scale responsibly," Godrej Agrovet CEO and Managing Director Sunil Kataria said. The three-year partnership aims to mobilize Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and women farmers to adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM), improving farm productivity and creating resilient livelihoods. In its first year, the program will focus on nine key cotton-growing districts: Nagpur, Amravati, Yavatmal, Washim, Parbhani, Jalgaon, Beed, Akola, and Nanded, covering over 5,000 women farmers and more than 50,000 acres of farmland while engagin
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has held wide-ranging talks with US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor on strengthening cooperation between the state and America, with a focus on boosting investments and expanding business ties. The discussions, held at the chief minister's official residence in Mumbai on Saturday, were also attended by Consul General Michael Schreuder, Fadnavis said in a post on X. The two sides explored opportunities to enhance US investments in Maharashtra and support state-based companies looking to expand their presence in the US, he said. The CM said he also briefed the US delegation on the state's flagship and strategic initiatives, including the Navi Mumbai International Education City. "Both sides agreed to work more closely to deepen US-Maharashtra partnership," he added.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Saturday extended toll relief extension for electric vehicles at Atal Setu by another year and cleared a slew of decisions related to infrastructure and urban transport, a day after the BJP-led Mahayuti scored a decisive victory in the civic polls. The cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, also okayed the revised cost and the state's share for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP-2), aimed at improving suburban rail and urban mobility infrastructure. It also waived the premium for a plot allotted at Ulwe in Navi Mumbai to the Tirupati Devasthanam for the construction of the Padmavati Devi temple. The cabinet cleared the restructuring of 1,901 posts in the Directorate of Economics and Statistics and approved renaming it as the Commissionerate of Economics and Statistics. Revised staffing patterns were also approved for district planning committees, divisional commissioner offices, and special development programmes, according to an ...
The Maharashtra government has waived stamp duty on documents related to agricultural and crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh to reduce the financial burden on farmers and simplify the loan process, Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Saturday. "The decision was taken after it was noticed that farmers were facing an additional financial burden even while availing loans. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed that revenue laws and rules be made simpler and more people-friendly, and accordingly, this decision was taken," he said. The revenue and forest department issued a government gazette notification in this regard on January 1. The waiver has come into effect from that date. As per the notification, stamp duty will not be levied on legal documents required for loans up to Rs 2 lakh, including title deeds, deposits, mortgage and pledge papers, guarantee letters, mortgage deeds and loan agreements, according to Bawankule. Earlier, crop loans attracted stamp duty at t
The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cancelled the licences of 13 medical stores and suspended those of 32 in Nanded district over alleged sale of intoxicant tablets, officials have said. As part of a drive, the FDA had issued show-cause notices to 48 medical stores for selling intoxicant tablets without a doctor's prescription and for violating the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, Assistant Commissioner (Drugs) AT Rathod said in a release on Wednesday. After the explanations submitted were found unsatisfactory, the licences of 32 medical stores were suspended, while the licences of 13 stores were permanently cancelled. Action has been proposed against the remaining three medical stores, it said. In some cases, the FDA said, the medical stores have secured stay orders at the government level, and proceedings against them are currently pending before higher authorities.
The Maharashtra government routed routine procurement of medicines and medical equipment through the state-run Haffkine institute using Advance Contingent bills, leaving 559 bills worth Rs 2,226.32 crore pending for adjustment at the end of 2024-25, CAG has said. Advance Contingent (AC) bills are a type of government bill used to draw money in advance for urgent or unforeseen expenses, when it is not practical to wait for detailed bills or vouchers. According to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabled on the last day of the winter session of the state legislature on Sunday, pending AC bills accounted for 63.03 per cent of the total AC bills, in violation of Rule 282(2) of the Maharashtra Treasury Rules, which bars withdrawal of funds unless required for immediate disbursement. The report identified the Medical Education and Drugs Department as the biggest defaulter with Rs 2,212 crore of Detailed Contingent (DC) bills pending, followed by the Public Health ...
Maharashtra minister Ashish Shelar on Saturday told the legislative council that the state government was "not happy" with Union minister Jitendra Singh's remark made last month on not changing IIT Bombay's name to IIT Mumbai. The state government is not just unhappy, but it has written a letter to the Centre expressing its opinion on it, Shelar, who is Minister of Cultural Affairs, said. Shelar, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was replying to a query raised by Shiv Sena (UBT) member Anil Parab about the government's stand on Singh's statement. Addressing a function in the last week of November, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Science and Technology, said, "As far as IIT Bombay is concerned, thank God it still is this name. You have not changed it to Mumbai. So that's another compliment to you. And also true for Madras. It remains IIT Madras." The remark invited a sharp reaction from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, who said it shows the
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said road works valued at Rs 1.50 lakh crore have been approved for Maharashtra for 2026. The works will begin in the next three months, he told reporters on the premises of the Vidhan Bhavan, where the state legislature session is underway. The Nagpur MP visited the legislature complex to attend an event marking the centenary celebration of the Vidhan Parishad. Gadkari told reporters that MSIDC (Maharashtra State Infrastructure Development Corporation) will construct a new Pune-Sambhajinagar expressway for Rs 16,318 crore, and an MoU has been processed. The new expressway will reduce the travelling time from Pune to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to two hours and from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to Nagpur in two-and-a-half hours. He said the 'bhoomipujan' (ground-breaking) of Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur Elevated Road, which is being constructed for Rs 4,207 crore, will be done after the local body elections are over. Gadkari said that the DPR proc
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday said officials responsible for registering documents should have refused to process agreements that were not permissible under the law and clearly informed the parties concerned about such limitations. His comments come against the backdrop of a notice issued by the deputy registrar to the firm of his son, Parth Pawar, seeking Rs 21 crore in stamp duty and penalties in connection with a controversial land deal in Pune. Recently, the Bombay High Court raised sharp questions regarding the police probe into the land deal, suggesting authorities might be shielding Parth Pawar by failing to name him in the FIR. Ajit Pawar sought to dispel perceptions stemming from a bill cleared by the legislative assembly on Friday, which empowers the revenue minister to hold hearings in contentious cases related to the IGR. Pawar said those who registered such documents were at fault, and officials should have exercised due diligence at the time
More than 1.28 lakh people in Mumbai were bitten by stray dogs in 2024, raising concerns about the safety of citizens and prompting authorities to undertake measures like sterilisation and vaccination of free-roaming canines to control their population. This information was shared by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in the state legislative council on Friday in a written reply to queries by MLCs Sunil Shinde, Vasant Khandelwal, Sandip Joshi and others. These legislators raised concerns about the increasing number of stray dogs in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) limits and a similar menace in Nagpur. Shinde stated that more than 9,400 people were bitten in Nagpur, the second capital of Maharashtra, in 2024. He said that a survey conducted by the BMC via Human Society International, as per the Animal Welfare Board rules, revealed that the number of stray dogs had come down from 95,172 in 2014 to 90,757 in 2024. In Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) limits, 9,427 peop
The Maharashtra cabinet has approved a scheme to construct all-weather motorable approach roads connecting agricultural fields across rural parts of the state. The decision was taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday, an official statement said. The 'Mukhya Mantri Baliraja Shet-Panand Raste Yojana' allows 100 per cent mechanised construction, replacing earlier limitations under the MGNREGA framework where dependence on manual labour had slowed execution in several regions. The scheme will ensure all-weather motorable farm-to-field roads in rural Maharashtra, the statement said. Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who will head the monitoring committee for the scheme, said farmers have faced persistent challenges with damaged or inaccessible roads during the monsoon, affecting crop sowing, harvesting and transportation. The scheme provides for 100 per cent use of machinery for speedy and quality construction. There will be no depend