GUDI PADWA CELEBRATIONS IN MAHA Enthusiasm and pomp mark

Marathi new year welcomed with colourful processions, traditional attire, camaraderie

First India Bureau

Mumbai: The Gudi Padwa festival is being celebrated with enthusiasm and pomp in Maharashtra on Wednesday with people hoisting "gudis" at their houses and processions were taken out to welcome the beginning of the traditional Marathi new year.

The day is marked by people cleaning their houses, decorating them with colourful rangolis and hoisting the gudi--a bamboo stick decorated with a colourful cloth tied to a “kalash” at the top and a garland of flowers attached to it along with mango leaves and neem leaves.

The word “Gudi” or “Gudhi” means a flag and “Padwa” or Pratipada is the first day of the new moon phase. Hoisting the “gudis” is considered auspicious and believed to bring good luck and fortune.

Farmers celebrate 'Gudi Padwa' festival to mark the beginning of the new harvest season.

In Mumbai city and elsewhere, colourful processions are being taken out joined by men, women, and children in traditional attire.

Music performances, playing of traditional dhols and lezim dances are the major attractions of these processions or shobhayatras.

Women dressed in traditional 'navvari' or nine-yard sarees rode bikes, while horses took part in the processions taken out at Girgaum, Dadar, Vile Parle and other areas in the megapolis.

Women performed the traditional lezim dance and played dhols in the processions, traditionally known as shobhayatras which were taken out in Thane, Dombivali and other satellite towns in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) in the morning.

Marathi outreach: Ahead of BMC polls, BJP’s festive fervour

First India Bureau Mumbai: The Mumbai BJP has announced plans to celebrate Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian New Year, with greater enthusiasm this year. Nearly one lakh karyakartas, or party workers, will

75-ft ‘STATUE OF KNOWLEDGE’ dedicated to Ambedkar on cards

Latur (PTI): The Maharashtra government has given approval for a 75-foot ‘Statue of Knowledge’ dedicated to Dr BR Ambedkar in Latur city, local MP Sudhakar Shrangare said on Wednesday.

He had submitted a proposal in this regard, he said.

On Tuesday, the state government issued an order regarding the statue and also the beautification of the Ambedkar Park in the city, the BJP MP said, adding that Rs10 crore has been sanctioned for the entire project.

Shrangare had last

Crucial Read Two Held For Chain Snatching In Navi Mumbai

Thane: With the arrest of two men, Navi Mumbai Police on Wednesday claimed to have solved 12 cases of chain snatching reported in the limits of Kharghar, Nerul, and Vashi police stations. Deputy Commissioner of Police Pankaj Dahane said there were two incidents last month where motorbike-borne persons snatched a chain. A total of 81.45 gm of chains including a few mangalsutras, altogether valued at Rs6.04 lakh, were seized from their possession. A motorbike used for chain snatching was also recovered. Further probe is on, the DCP said.

MAR 21: HIGHEST SINGLE-DAY RAINFALL IN 17 YRS

Mumbai: Mumbai witnessed the highest amount of rainfall in a single day in March since 2006, as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD). On Tuesday, the city recorded 16.6 mm of rainfall, which was last seen on March 10, 2006, when 11.9 mm was recorded at the Santacruz observatory. IMD Mumbai’s scientist, Sushma Nair, confirmed that this was the highest single-day rainfall in the last 17 years. The Colaba observatory recorded the highest-ever single-day rainfall in March in Mumbai in 1918, measuring 34.3 mm.

Annual Meet Of Tour Operators Later This Year

Aurangabad: The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) will hold its 38th annual convention in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, formerly known as Aurangabad, Maharashtra later this year. The agreement was signed between the Maharashtra government and IATO on Monday in Mumbai. The convention will be attended by 1,500 tour operators from across the country after the monsoon season. The meeting was by The State Tourism Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha was also present in the meeting.

MAN ABSONDING FOR 28 YRS, ARRESTED IN MUM

hoist gudis, on their houses across the city, while booth chiefs and activists will carry out Shobha yatras, or processions, in various parts of Mumbai.

Ashish Shelar, Mumbai BJP President, said, “We have decided to celebrate Gudi Padwa. It is one of the three-and-ahalf auspicious muhurtas as per the Hindu calendar. To welcome the New Year, BJP activists have hoisted gudis on their houses”. The BJP is hoping to make deeper inroads amongst Marathi voters in the city, particu- larly as they account for up to 30% of the population and have traditionally been the Shiv Sena’s main strength. The BJP won 82 seats in the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, just two less than the Shiv Sena’s total.

To win control of the BMC, the BJP will need 114 seats out of 227. Shelar said that cultural nationalism was integral to the party’s ideology and that “every Hindu household must celebrate Gudi Padwa with great enthusiasm”.

Mumbai: An accused in a cheating case who was on the run for 28 years has been arrested here, police said on Tuesday. Police officials posed as employees of the civic body BEST in order to trap him. Recently, police got a tip-off that he was living in a flat in the Dana Bandar area, the official said. Virendra Sanghvi alias Mahesh Shah was named as an accused in a cheating case registered at D B Marg police station in 1995. He was accused of selling bogus shares of Rs20 lakh, said a police official.

2nd e-double decker bus hits Mumbai roads

Introduction Of Electric Bus

year

First India Bureau Mumbai: Within a month of introducing the first air-conditioned electric double decker bus (e-bus), the civicrun Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) has started plying second such vehicle in the city, but the passengers, enthusiasts and staffers said they were left disappointed as the issues they had flagged in the first bus remained un- addressed in the latest service. The first electric double decker bus was introduced in the city on February 21.

The second such bus, registered at the Vashi Regional Transport Office (RTO) on March 17, is being operated on route no 138 between

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Backbay Depot in south Mumbai, besides being used for heritage tours, a BEST spokesperson said.

A few minor internal changes have been done in this bus based on the passengers feedback given after the bus first was introduced, he said.

The second electric double decker bus has been hired on wet lease from a private operator.

The BEST staffers, passengers and bus enthusiasts said that they had pointed out some flaws in the first double decker e-bus and they were expecting those to be rectified in the next bus. But several of their concerns related to safety and comfort remained unaddressed in the second double decker e-bus as well, they said.

Currently, the BEST has only 50 diesel-run double decker buses.