Seven months after police fired at villagers on the Pune-Mumbai expressway killing three of them, 48 farmers summoned on Friday for questioning for their alleged in violence during the incident were arrested, produced in court and sent to jail. The farmers, who assumed that they were being called for routine questioning, were taken aback after the arrest. They have been booked under IPCs several sections like attempt to murder, rioting,...

-PTI The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has fined 59 industrial units for unlawfully storing and disposing large quantities of hazardous waste on their premises. The industries have been asked by MPCB to pay the fine (amount not specified) and have been directed to send the hazardous waste to common treatment facilities, the 2011-12 Economic Survey of the state, which was tabled in the ongoing Budget session of the legislature, said. The facilities...

-The Times of India After being dormant for nearly a year, the H1N1 virus has made an appearance in Mumbai. A six-year-boy from Mulund tested positive for the virus that claimed several lives during and after the 2009 pandemic, and still continues to haunt neighbouring Pune. The virus had remained 'underground' for the better part of 2011, but suddenly struck Pune in March this year killing five and affecting 95 people in...

-PTI About 58.8 per cent of households in Maharashtra have TV sets while 13.3 per cent have computer/laptop and 69.1 per cent have telephone/mobile in their households, as per the data on "housing, amenities and assets" in the 2011 census. The respective figures at national level are 47.2, 9.5 and 63.2 per cent, Ranjit Singh Deol, director Census operations, Maharashtra, told reporters in Mumbai. The share of households having two wheelers is 24.9...

Often, municipal corporations carry out flawed projects which go against public interest and only suit vested interests. Use of RTI can help unearth such irregularities. Here’s a startling example... The Mula-Mutha rivers in Pune resemble stinking nallahs, yet the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had a brainwave of implementing a river navigation project on a 25-odd km stretch from Ramwadi to Kharadi, envisioning boat rides as one of the activities to save...