Heavy rain in Mumbai, NDRF teams deployed; local train services partially hit
Mumbai (PTI): Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai on the second consecutive day on Monday, with some areas receiving up to 34 mm of rainfall in just one hour in the morning, affecting local train services during the rush hour between Kalyan and Thakurli stations of the Central Railway network.
In the last 24 hours ended at 8 am, the island city recorded an average of 135 mm of rainfall, eastern Mumbai 154 mm, and western Mumbai 137 mm, officials said.
Three teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in Mumbai to tackle any situation amid the forecast of a high tide and heavy rains in the city and its suburbs.
In its forecast for the next 24 hours starting at 8 AM on Monday, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted "heavy to very heavy rain in the city and suburbs, with the possibility of extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places."
According to the civic body, a high tide of 4.59 meters is expected at 12.59 PM.
Malabar and Mulund Hill recorded 34 mm of rainfall between 6 am and 7 am, followed by Bhandup with 29 mm, Wadala East with 24 mm, and Versova with 20 mm.
Western Railway stated that local train services were running normally on Monday morning, however, commuters claimed trains were running late by 5 to 10 minutes.
Central Railway also stated that local services on all four corridors were normal. Commuters, however, said train traffic was affected between Kalyan and Thakurli stations in the morning rush hour due to a signal problem.
"Many commuters are walking on the tracks as trains are halted for a long time," a passenger said.
A civic official said buses of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) were not diverted.
A day earlier, heavy downpours pounded Mumbai and suburbs, inundating roads in many areas, diverting flights, and briefly affecting local train traffic between Dadar and Matunga stations.
The Mithi River, which originates in Sanjay Gandhi National Park and meets the Arabian Sea at Mahim, swelled due to continuous rainfall in Mumbai since Sunday. It was flowing at 1.5 meters on Monday morning, but its flood level reached 2.26 meters Sunday night.
In other parts of Maharashtra, Konkan and Vidarbha regions have been receiving heavy rainfall since the weekend, causing rivers to swell and low-lying areas to submerge. As a result, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed in Mumbai and other parts of the state.
"We have deployed NDRF teams at Vasai (Palghar district), Thane, Ghatkopar and Powai (in Mumbai), Mahad (Raigad), Khed and Chiplun (Ratnagiri), Kudal (Sindhudurg), Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara due to the monsoon season as pre-positioning, apart from three teams in Mumbai and one team in Nagpur as regular deployment," an NDRF official said.
He said teams are on alert for any emergent response at their locations, conducting reconnaissance in low-lying and landslide-prone areas.
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Mamata’s allegations on Bengal SIR baseless, exaggerated: BJP's Suvendu
Kolkata (PTI): Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Sunday termed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegations over the ongoing SIR in the state as "baseless and exaggerated", and accused her of trying to derail the electoral roll revision exercise for political reasons.
In a post on X, Adhikari also said he has written to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and claimed that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls was "exposing the rot in the voter lists - bogus entries, duplicates, and infiltrators that have been nurtured under the TMC's watch for years".
The BJP leader alleged that the SIR exercise was "damaging the TMC's electoral prospects", and that's why the CM was resorting to hysteria".
Banerjee had on Saturday written to the CEC, alleging that the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls has been turned into an exercise to exclude voters rather than correct records.
In her third letter to Kumar since the beginning of SIR, the chief minister accused the Election Commission of "political bias, insensitivity, and high-handedness" during the exercise.
“I would again reiterate that her claims are nothing but a desperate attempt to derail this crucial process, which is exposing the rot in our voter lists - bogus entries, duplicates and infiltrators that have been nurtured under TMC’s watch for years,” Adhikari alleged in the post.
In his letter to the CEC, dated January 10, the leader of the opposition described the chief minister’s objections as a “politically motivated attempt” to obstruct the SIR and termed the ECI’s move as "essential to ensure free, fair and transparent" elections in the state.
"The chief minister’s portrayal of this exercise as ‘unplanned, insensitive and inhuman’ is nothing short of a gross exaggeration, blown out of proportion to create public hysteria and shift focus from her government’s failures," the BJP leader alleged.
He claimed that the SIR exercise had "exposed vulnerabilities in the electoral rolls that threatened the ruling party’s electoral prospects", triggering what he termed “unfounded outbursts” from the state administration.
On December 16, the Election Commission published the draft electoral rolls after the first phase of the SIR, with the electorate dropping from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore following the deletion of over 58 lakh names.
The second phase, which began on December 27, involves hearings of 1.67 crore electors under scrutiny, including 1.36 crore flagged for logical discrepancies and 31 lakh whose records lack mapping.
The LoP urged the Election Commission to continue the voter list revision exercise with diligence, asserting that the SIR is a routine constitutional process and should not be politicised.
