The CAG report also pointed to an overestimation of the scheme’s coverage. It said the state’s reported achievement of 85.1% Functional Household Tap Connections by March 2024 was misleading as it included 27.7 lakh households with private or own-source tap connections that were yet to be covered under the mission

Mumbai: A performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised the implementation of the Centre’s flagship Jal Jeevan Mission in Maharashtra, pointing out that there were deficiencies in the coverage, implementation and funding of the scheme. During the five-year audit period of 2019-24, only 12,703 or 24.6% of 51,560 water supply schemes initiated in the state were completed and 38,857 or 75.3% were ongoing, it said.The CAG report also pointed to an overestimation of the scheme’s coverage. It said the state’s reported achievement of 85.1 per cent Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) by March 2024 was misleading as it included 27.7 lakh households with private or own-source tap connections that were yet to be covered under the mission. Excluding these, the actual achievement under the JJM stood at 101.3 lakh connections, or only 69% by December 2024, the audit said.The Jal Jeevan Mission is the Centre’s flagship programme launched in August 2019 to provide functional household tap connections (FHTC) to every rural household. The funds for the programme are shared between the Centre and state in a 50:50 ratio.The audit was conducted between July and October 2024 and covered the period 2019-20 to 2023-24. The CAG report for 2024 was tabled in the state legislature on Friday.The report also pointed to the delay in the release of funds, pointing out that the state’s schemes received only 46.3% of the funds they were entitled to in the 5-year period. “Maharashtra was admissible for Rs 59,740.9 crore but the total releases from the Centre and state were Rs 27,657.5 crore,” the report pointed out.The delays in the implementation of the project caused a cost-escalation, the CAG report said. The initial estimated expenditure in 2020 was Rs 13,668.5 crore. However, a sum of Rs 26,410.5 crore was incurred by March 2024 without achieving the target of providing FHTC to every household, it said.The audit was deeply critical of the poor planning in the programme. “The cost of implementation increased due to inadequate initial planning, deficient surveys, delays in execution and frequent revision of schemes,” it said. It said that schemes were planned without assured water sources, there was no baseline survey, the village action plan was deficient and the district action plan was not prepared for the whole scheme period.For instance, the audit found that 13 water supply schemes were sanctioned for augmenting the water supply but the water source was not ensured which delayed the completion of the schemes. Two water supply schemes were sanctioned without the provision of a water treatment plant, resulting in the supply of non-potable water.

Residents said modifications were made to the structure over the years

Thane: A 12-year-old boy was crushed to death, while his mother and his nine-year-old brother sustained head injuries after a portion of their nearly 30-year-old one-storey tenement collapsed on them in a chawl in Thane’s Azad Nagar on Friday.The mother, Urmila Jaiswar (35), and her younger son, Vinit, were rushed to hospital and were reported to be stable.The boys—Jaykumar and Vinit—had returned home from school and were resting after lunch while Urmila was on her phone when they heard a creak. Within seconds, the ceiling collapsed, trapping the trio beneath the debris. Their father was away at work at a sweet shop.Local Shiv Sena corporator Meenakshi Shinde, who was among the first to reach the spot, said a section of the tenement’s extended cantilever balcony crashed onto the rented room occupied by the Jaiswar family. A few residents alleged that structural modifications had been carried out to the building a few years ago and some repairs were undertaken recently. The structure may not have been able to withstand the extensions and must have weakened during the rains, said residents. Civic officials said the exact cause of the collapse is under investigation.Urmila and Vinit, recovering in hospital, remained unaware of Jaykumar’s death and repeatedly asked neighbours about his condition. “We haven’t told them yet,” a neighbour said.Mayor Sharmila Pimpalolkar, who visited the site and the family, directed civic officials to immediately evacuate adjoining structures as a precautionary measure and ensure that the medical expenses of the injured are borne by the civic body.The death came two days after deputy CM Eknath Shinde declared “zero tolerance” towards rain-related mishaps in Thane and directed civic authorities to take immediate corrective measures wherever required. With the Friday tragedy, the toll from rain-related incidents in Thane rose to three in the last 10 days. A teenage girl from Mumbra was electrocuted during heavy rain last week, while a 64-year-old plumber died on Thursday after a tree fell on him.

Mumbai: Two MBA students arrested in connection with the suspected drug overdose case at a music concert in Goregaon in April, which left two of their batchmates dead, told fellow students over a WhatsApp group that “pills” would be available at the concert, the chargesheet has revealed. A 3,500-page-long chargesheet was filed before a magistrate court at Borivali on Thursday, even as police arrested one more person in the matter.Nitesh Khemlani became the 14th individual to be arrested in the case. He is related to the prime accused, Mahesh Khemlani, who has been accused of supplying the drugs, along with another key accused, Ayush Sahitya.The chargesheet has been filed against 12 of the 14 accused persons. Those named in the chargesheet include Mahesh, Sahitya, three others accused of delivering drugs — Anand Patel, Shubh Agarwal and Vineet Gerelani — besides two MBA students, the event organiser, a security guard at the venue, two employees of the venue management company and Khemlani’s partner, Jiya Jacob.The police have stated in the chargesheet that the drugs were sent from Germany via courier by Khemlani’s friend. Police also said that despite being alerted by bouncers at the venue that drugs were being supplied and consumed, the organisers took no action. Police have alleged that the organisers and the drug suppliers connived to facilitate the supply of narcotic substances for financial gain.Investigators have banked on monetary transactions and WhatsApp chat conversations to establish a link between different accused persons.The chargesheet contains statements of 110 witnesses, including other MBA students who attended the event.Nitesh and Deepak Hemwani, who was held on June 29, have not been named in the chargesheet. Hemwani is accused of receiving the drug parcel at his residence.Advocates Surendra Landge and Azad Gupta, who earlier represented Patel, said they are yet to receive a copy of the chargesheet.The incident dates back to April 11, when three MBA students — part of a larger group of students from the same college — popped Ecstasy pills while attending a techno music concert at an exhibition ground in Goregaon East. They fell ill and two of them — a 28-year-old male and a 24-year-old female — died the next day. The third student — a 25-year-old female — survived.In her statement, the survivor said that she and her friends reached the music concert at 9.30 pm. She popped a yellow-coloured pill with water that one of her classmates, Raunak, gave her. Around midnight, her 24-year-old friend, who later died, popped a similar pill. “We were dancing together and my friend seemed OK. I had taken the same pill during another event in Oct last year,” she said, adding that she did not remember what happened thereafter at the music concert and woke up directly in hospital.

The police complaint was lodged on Thursday by one of the two girls who suffered electric shock

Navi Mumbai: An FIR was registered against the suspended NMMC (zone-1) executive engineer (electrical) Pravin Gade at Nerul police station Thursday evening in the incident of two college girls Ujwala Wagh (19) and Shubhangi Balkhande (17) sustaining severe electric shocks due to an exposed underground live electrical wire submerged on the water-logged road on the Mumbai carriageway of the Sion-Panvel highway near Nerul flyover on June 30 around 12.30 pm, reports George Mendonca. The girls had alighted at the traffic signal from a share auto rickshaw after returning from college and were walking through the flooded road to reach a stationery shop.Following the incident as political leaders and workers of various political parties separately staged sit-in protests in the cabin of NMMC commissioner Kailas Shinde demanding immediate suspension of the concerned official, the civic chief had suspended Pravin Gade on July 1 after a preliminary inquiry into the electric shocks incident found him prima facie responsible for negligence, as he was the concerned officer responsible for NMMC’s electrical department in the zone-1 area where the incident occurred. Thus, holding him accountable for allegedly failing to monitor, review and control the electrical work under his jurisdiction. NMMC chief Shinde had also initiated disciplinary proceedings against Gade for his alleged dereliction of duty.The police complaint was lodged on Thursday by the college girl Ujwala Wagh after she and her friend Shubhangi Balkhande were discharged from Fortis Hospital, Belapur, on Thursday morning as they recovered completely after treatment for 10 days. The accused suspended NMMC officer Pravin Gade was booked under the BNS section for the offence of negligent act endangering human life or personal safety of others.Nerul police claimed that an FIR was registered against the accused Pravin Gade after receiving information from the NMMC administration in response to the correspondence regarding whose negligence had caused the electric shock incident.Subhash Balkhande (42), the father of the college girl Shubhangi, said, “Though Nerul police have registered an FIR against suspended NMMC executive engineer Pravin Gade, the actual culprit is the concerned NMMC contractor, who neglected the maintenance of the underground electrical cable, resulting in the breaking of the cable and exposure of live electric wire, causing the mishap. Fortunately, my daughter Shubhangi and her friend Ujwala survived despite suffering severe electric shocks. Now that my daughter has been discharged from the hospital after complete recovery, I will be going to Nerul police station on Friday evening to seek to register an FIR against NMMC’s concerned contractor for his act of negligence that could have been fatal for my daughter and her friend.”

The relaxation will allow thousands more to be covered by the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar farmers’ loan waiver scheme.

Mumbai: Amid protests, including from political circles, CM Devendra Fadnavis announced on Friday that the state govt is broadening some of the criteria of the latest farm loan waiver scheme, raising the cap from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh for those who had benefited from the 2019 scheme.The relaxation will allow thousands of farmers to be covered by the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar farmers’ loan waiver scheme.Fadnavis said in the assembly that the condition requiring loan repayment in 2026-27 under the incentive component is also being done away with, saying those who repaid their loans in two of the previous three years will now be eligible.Govt had declared the latest farm loan waiver on June 2, amounting to Rs 36,585 crore. It was expected to benefit 55.7 lakh farmers, but it also drew criticism over keeping thousands of farmers out with stringent conditions. The scheme covers short-term crop loans taken between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2025 and has three components: debt waiver, one-time settlement and incentive benefits for those who have regularly serviced their loans. The waiver was among the promises on Mahayuti’s manifesto before the 2024 assembly polls.MLAs from treasury and opposition benches had sought removal of the Rs 50,000 cap. “In the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar farmers’ loan waiver scheme [of 2026], we were providing waivers of up to Rs 2 lakh to those who have outstanding debts of more than Rs 2 lakh… Some MLAs met me and asked for removal of the Rs 50,000 cap for previous beneficiaries. I told them that if this condition were removed, govt will incur expenses of Rs 3,000-4000 crores. We had kept this condition to bring in discipline,” Fadnavis said.The opposition credited its protests for the relaxations. NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar, who had led a three-day hunger strike last month demanding the withdrawal of “stringent conditions” called it a “success of our struggle”. “If a united struggle is waged on the streets, success is certain without fail—this is yet another vivid example of that! Jai Kisan! Even though govt had announced the loan waiver two months ago, the announcement made today to remove the restrictive conditions and terms from it has truly brought about the loan waiver for us,” he said in a post on X.In the assembly, CM Fadnavis hit back at MNS chief Raj Thackeray for his criticism over the 18-hour disruption of the Mumbai-Pune ‘missing link’ following a landslide. Mimicking Fadnavis, Thackeray had on Thursday questioned why raising concerns over the quality of infrastructure projects was being portrayed as an insult to Maharashtra and why seeking accountability was being labelled as politics.“He (Thackeray) is my friend. Since he is a friend, we are not in any danger from him in politics. We are happy that he is in politics. However, if he had gone into the field of mimicry, then there would have been no market for any standup comedian,” Fadnavis said. “Many people are angry after my speech in the assembly… There was that Rs 7,000 crore was washed away even though not a single crux was broken. So is this an insult to me? This is an insult to Maharashtra itself. Spreading fake news or spreading fake news is an insult to Maharashtra…”

Mumbai: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised the implementation of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Laadki Bahin Yojana, saying it was marked by “significant deficiencies” in budget estimation, expenditure control and financial management.The CAG report released on Friday said state govt had spent over Rs 33,237.2 crore on the scheme, exceeding its budgetary provision by nearly Rs 3,541.2 crore which “remained unjustified”. It also observed that the sharp rise on women welfare schemes from Rs 261.8 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 33,554.4 crore in 2024-25, especially under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Laadki Bahin Yojana reflected a major push toward welfare-oriented transfers rather than capital formation. However, expenditure in the social sector for housing (54.7%) and water supply and sanitation (31.8%) notably decreased compared to 2023-24.Ahead of the assembly elections, the state govt launched the Laadki Bahin Yojana on June 28, 2024, allowing eligible women aged 21 to 65 to receive a financial benefit of Rs 1,500 per month through direct benefit transfer.Rising expenditure a concernMaharashtra’s economy remains one of the strongest in the country, but rising day-to-day expenditure and growing liabilities could leave the state with less money for development works and force it to borrow more in the coming years, the CAG cautioned.The audit report said the state’s strong Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth and higher-than-national per capita income provide a solid economic base. “However, the widening revenue deficit, rising committed expenditure and growing liabilities could affect the state’s long-term financial health.”The CAG said Maharashtra has remained within the borrowing and fiscal deficit limits prescribed under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, but its revenue deficit has increased sharply. With undischarged liabilities exceeding Rs 27,184 crore, both the revenue and fiscal deficits could worsen.The report said govt is increasingly borrowing to meet routine expenditure instead of creating long-term assets such as roads, schools, and hospitals. A growing share of tax revenue is being spent on salaries, pensions, interest payments and subsidies, leaving less fiscal space for infrastructure and other capital works.Salaries, pensions and interest payments together accounted for nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore, or 52% of the state’s revenue receipts in 2024-25. Although this proportion has declined from earlier years, it continues to limit fiscal flexibility. Subsidies rose 16.7% to Rs 56,089 crore, mainly due to higher electricity tariff subsidies for farmers and support for cotton, soybean and oilseed cultivation. The CAG said such expenditure should be kept fiscally sustainable.The report also flagged weaknesses in budget management, including excessive supplementary grants, departments failing to spend funds despite additional allocations, delayed surrender of savings and heavy expenditure in the final month of the financial year. Such year-end spending, it said, weakens financial discipline and legislative scrutiny.The audit also noted that Centre did not release the 15th Finance Commission grant of Rs 1,391 crore for million-plus cities in Maharashtra during 2024-25. The state has six eligible urban agglomerations where these grants are meant for air quality, drinking water and solid waste management.Poor financial reportingThe CAG also raised concerns over the quality of the state’s financial reporting, saying several accounting practices were undermining transparency and accountability. Off-budget borrowings stood at Rs 28,640 crore as of March 31, 2025. The audit also found that govt did not account for around Rs 762.5 crore in interest payable on several interest-bearing deposits, understating expenditure and overstating public account balances. Furthermore, nearly Rs 3,277.6 crore of National Pension System contributions remained parked instead of being transferred to the designated pension fund manager, contrary to Government of India guidelines.Parking of fundsThe CAG criticised govt for leaving nearly Rs 20,993.1 crore unutilised in treasury-approved Virtual Personal Deposit Accounts (VPDAs) beyond the financial year, calling it “financially imprudent” as it distorted the fiscal deficit and led to additional borrowings. The CAG said that had the unspent VPDA balance been returned to the consolidated fund on Ma-rch 31, 2025, state’s revenue deficit would have been Rs 9,001.7 crore instead of Rs 29,994.8 crore, effectively inflating the deficit by Rs 20,993.7 crore.