Maharashtra:Take adequate steps before lifting restrictions -CM

An 80-year-old patient in Ratnagiri district became the first fatality in Maharashtra due to the Delta Plus variant of coronavirus. This was confirmed by Health Minister Rajesh Tope. According to district officials, the deceased who was from Sangameshwar taluk, also suffered from other comorbidities. The Health Minister said that the rest of the 21 Delta Plus patients identified so far in seven districts, were stable and some of them had been discharged. He also gave the information that more samples were being collected in each of the 36 districts, and the National Center for Disease Control was assisting the State government in this work.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Udhhav Thakeray has cautioned District Collectors to take adequate steps before lifting Covid-19 restrictions in their respective areas and unlock only after conducting a detailed study of the situation. In a meeting on Thursday with the District Collectors of seven districts, Mr. Thakeray said that even though rights had been given to the local administration to decide on unlocking, any decision should be taken “without compromising safety”. These seven districts of Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Hingoli have been recording higher test positivity rates.

BJP and Congress hold protests on OBC issue

The state units of the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Congress party held protests across Maharashtra on Saturday with a demand to restore reservation for the Other Backward Classes in local governing bodies. This reservation was quashed by the Supreme Court in March this year, The leader of the opposition, Devendra Fadnavis, addressing BJP workers in his home district of Nagpur, said that if his party came back to power, he would ensure that the quota for the OBC is restored within four months and if not he would retire from politics. Mr. Fadnavis said that the unrest within the OBC is the consequence of the incapability of the state government.

However, the state Congress working president Chandrakant Handore, the state Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant and the NCP state chief Jayant Patil blamed the former BJP government for the situation. They also blamed the BJP for failing to submit empirical data on the OBC to the Supreme Court despite being in power at the Centre.

Issue of Naming the Airport

Thousands of people from Mumbai and the adjoining districts converged on Palm Beach Road and near Killa junction outside the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters on Thursday. They were protesting against a proposal to name the under-construction Navi Mumbai Airport after the Shiv Sena founder, the late Raj Thakeray. Their demand was that the Airport be named after the late PWP leader and parliamentarian Dinkar Balu Patil. They protested by dancing, playing musical instruments and performing Vatt puja. Police have booked around twenty thousand people for unlawful assembly, not following orders and taking out a protest march.