Maharashtra Nav-nirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray has said that the draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) notification would hurt Mumbai and Maharashtra the most if implemented, and has called upon Southern states to unite against the North on the issue. In a news item in today's Loksatta edition, he said the states of the North and their leaders have always had contempt for Maharashtra and, hence, it is necessary for all southern states to join hands, at least for the development of Mumbai.

Pune July 06 Jarden Consumer Solutions has launched its newly designed Bionaire tower airpurifier with permanent HEPA-Type filter. The Bionaire tower air purifier is certified globally by Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and British Allergy Foundation. A press release stated that "The air purifier is an effective solution to the all-pervasive problem of indoor pollution. Bionaire Tower Air Purifier can filter out airborne particles including smoke, fine dust, bad oduor, harmful organic gases, bacteria and viruses as small as 0.3 Micron .'

Mumbai, July 04 Making a pitch for Central funding of its ambitious Mumbai makeover projects, the state government has demanded that the Rs 2,356-crore first arm of the Mumbai Metro project be granted viability gap funding (VGF) by the Centre. According to senior government officials, in a recent meeting at the cabinet secretariat in New Delhi they had also demanded that the Union Ministry of Urban Development fund 35 per cent of the Rs 1,300-crore Mithi river clean-up project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Mumbai, July 04 WET WEEKEND AHEAD Met office forecasts thundershowers or spells of rain with gusty winds; 4.84-metre high tide likely today With the second highest high tide of this monsoon season forecast on Saturday afternoon at 4.84 metres and the Indian Meteorological Department also predicting spells of rain or thundershowers with gusty winds, Mumbaiites are gearing up for a possibly wet weekend. Over the past years, the city has seen severe waterlogging when high tide is over 4.5 metres during heavy rain.

Mumbai, July 2 Three turtles which washed ashore were released into the sea off the Juhu beach early on Tuesday morning after they were rescued and treated. Injured in the fishing net, the turtles were unable to swim and were rescued by local life guards. While, two turtles were treated by physicians, the third one swiftly jumped back into the sea when it was removed from the tangles of the net.

Mumbai, July 2 Doctors caution against self-medication, advise immediate medical intervention Besides large number of cases of leptospirosis, dengue, malaria, gastroenteritis and viral fever, doctors across the city are also seeing a small, but significant, surge in typhoid cases. "Pre-monsoons we saw hardly one typhoid case in 15 days. But now we are getting at least two per week apart from the usual viral fever, malaria and sporadic dengue cases,' said Dr Jayesh Lele, a private practitioner in Malad.

Mumbai, July 2 A day after Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak cited to Mumbaiites the example of the people of The Netherlands who "have learns to live with floods', diplomats from the The Netherlands pointed out tersely that the Dutch had overcome the devastating floods of 1953 and could quite easily offer Mumbai's administrators some advice on how to tackle the elements.

Mumbai, July 1 200 mm in Colaba, 149 mm in Santacruz; before monsoon, BMC said widened drains ready to take 400 mm rain in a day The fear of the monsoon havoc hit Mumbaiites once again on Tuesday morning as rail and road traffic were stalled by waterlogging and two people were washed away by flood waters in suburban drains. Worse, by evening, a harried Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak had this to say: "In the low-lying country, The Netherlands, people have learnt to live with rains, as they cannot cope with the situation.'

Mumbai, June 30 Next on the agenda: only off-street parking In a move to discourage people from bringing private vehicles to the business district, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is all set to increase parking charges after 16 years by four times. Next on the agenda: parking on streets will be banned and off-street parking will soon be introduced.

Mumbai, June 29 With the city topping the list in generating the highest amount of electronic waste in the country, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) along with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) will soon be searching for a landfill site exclusive to treat and dump e-waste as a pilot project.