With the new year approaching, the forest department is gearing to get its boots dirty and dig trenches to safeguard its land from encroachers.

With the new year approaching, the forest department is gearing to get its boots dirty and dig trenches to safeguard its land from encroachers. With 2,232 illegal structures, incsluding shanties, huts and pucca houses, razed so far, the department has now spread its patrolling to prevent these structures coming up on its land again.

The eviction-and-demolition drive follows a Bombay High Court order. On Sunday, 10 hectares of fresh land was officially restored after the drive. The campaign of reclaiming the forest land started 10 days after the festive season in November, when slumdwellers were asked to produce documents to prove their legal status.

The Bombay high court has permitted a social activist to make the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) a respondent in a public interest litigation on the alleged irrigation scam in Maharashtra.

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society to file a formal application seeking the transfer of petition challenging the demolition order to the National Gree

From January 1, 2013, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking will not allow commuters chewing betel leaf (paan) or consuming tobacco products, such as paan masala, to boa

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday filed its reply in the Bombay HC on the irrigation scam.

Even as there is growing concern among Mumbaikars over electromagnetic (EM) radiation from cellphone towers, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has gone slow in giving clearance for new towers.

An estimated 1,000 applications for new towers are pending with the BMC, while around 1,800 towers have been declared illegal. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is planning a meeting with the chief engineer of the BMC’s Development Planning and Building Proposal department to gauge reasons for the delay and resolve them. “Not having mobile towers cannot be a solution.

A month after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to replace the controversial Dattak Vasti Yojana — aimed at keeping slum areas clean — with the Swacha Mumbai Prabodhan Abhiyaan, a framework for the new scheme was discussed at the BMC standing committee meeting on Wednesday.

The new scheme, which focuses on keeping slum areas clean, incorporated the name ‘Prabodhan’ after ‘Prabhodhankar’, the pen name of former Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s father. The Dattak Vasti Yojana was scrapped after it came under the scanner for alleged misappropriation of funds and monopoly by politicians.

The Maharashtra government has ordered an inquiry against Torrent Power, a distribution franchisee of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MahaVitaran) in the powerloom town of Bhiwandi.

A committee expected to be led by a MahaVitaran senior is to probe alleged excess recovery from consumers, fast running of power meters, accidents and deaths due to system faults.

The state has sought Rs 3,232 crore towards financial assistance for disbursement

The Maharashtra government has decided to extend financial assistance to horticulture farmers, who have suffered losses due to rain deficit in various parts of the state, the Assembly was informed today. State Rehabilitation Minister Patangrao Kadam told the House about this, in a reply to Subhash Desai (Sena) and others on the issue of damages to the horticulture crops. Kadam said the government decided on providing aid to affected farmers in a meeting held on May 15 and 17 this year. He, however, did not quantify the losses.