Mumbai: Around 98% of surveyed residents in the H-West ward do not hold formal skill certifications despite possessing skills and capabilities. With only about 2% of residents holding certifications, below the national average of 4.1%, the findings highlight the need to recognise and certify existing competencies rather than address a lack of capability.Additionally, at least 71% of the ward’s nearly 7,000 women homemakers have expressed willingness to enter paid employment, indicating a significant untapped workforce that could benefit from skill certification and employment support. Nine per cent of youth profiled and evaluated in the ward have shown interest in being self-employed with a focus on opportunities arising out of the gig economy.The findings of the first-of-its-kind AI-enabled hyperlocal Saksham Skill Census were unveiled by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday. Developed by the office of district collector Saurabh Katiyar and the District Skill Development Centre, the pilot surveyed 59,824 households across Bandra West, Santacruz West and Khar West, and profiled 45,000 candidates, to identify unrecognised talent and connect it directly with market demand.Women in the ward also showed a desire for skill development, with 52.9% expressing interest in training, compared with 54.1% of men. Moreover, 67.4% of women said they were keen to upskill.Along with the household survey, Saksham conducted a comprehensive employer survey involving 1,018 employers across banking and financial services, IT, healthcare, retail, hospitality, automotive and logistics. Based on the survey, 1,690 candidates have already been shortlisted for direct interviews and offer coordination, while 2,179 candidates have expressed active interest in employment opportunities.Residents were profiled and mapped to tailor-made livelihood pathways, enabling skilling interventions and employment opportunities aligned with their aspirations and capabilities.The process of connecting more than 5,800 unemployed youth with employment opportunities is also in the pipeline. The next phase of the initiative will focus on organising weekly ward-level job fairs.

The foundation stone was laid on Aug 3

Mumbai: ED will soon get a 14-storey office building with four basement levels at BKC to house its western region offices. The agency’s director, Rahul Navin, laid its foundation stone on Monday.The 2,200sqm plot adjoining CBI’s office building was allotted to ED by MMRDA at Rs 362 crore. ED took possession of it in March to begin the process of construction, which had been pending for four years due to land allotment and payment issues.The authority has approved the building’s layout and ED is in the final stages of obtaining construction permission and no-objection certificates from the authorities concerned. Once construction begins, the project is expected to be completed in 48 months.ED’s western region offices in Mumbai currently operate from two locations—zone-1, which handles cases mainly pertaining to Mumbai, from a govt building in Mazgaon, and zone 2, which takes care of cases from the rest of Maharashtra, from the third floor of Ceejay House in Worli. The agency’s special director had his office on Ceejay House’s fourth floor, which also has multiple private offices. These two floors’ office premises originally belonged to the late drug smuggler Iqbal Mirchi and ED confiscated them in a money laundering case against his family members and associates. The agency’s old office in Ballard Estate in south Mumbai is now being used to store old records.The dedicated office building in BKC may help ED maintain confidentiality of its work and safeguard its documents and attached assets, said officials.The agency is said to be discussing creation of another zonal office in the city to split the caseload from other parts of Maharashtra.A senior ED official said the agency undertook an infrastructure capacity-building programme as it is expanding its footprint and Mumbai, as its biggest and busiest zone, needed space to accommodate all staffers under one roof within its own premises, considering the sensitivity of the work it does.ED had explored many options for its office building in Mumbai, like CBI, and in April 2022, it sent a formal request to the state govt seeking land at BKC. MMRDA approved the request in May 2023 and decided to allot the plot to it on an 80-year lease. The plot’s price was decided on the basis of the rate the last property auction fetched in BKC.

History sheeter held for robbing a lawyer’s bag from a moving auto rickshaw in BKC

History sheeter held for robbing a lawyer’s bag from a moving auto rickshaw in BKC

History sheeter held for robbing a lawyer’s bag from a moving auto rickshaw in BKC

History sheeter held for robbing a lawyer’s bag from a moving auto rickshaw in BKC

History sheeter held for robbing a lawyer’s bag from a moving auto rickshaw in BKC

Mumbai: Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) police arrested a history-sheeter for allegedly robbing the bag of a practising lawyer at Bombay High Court while she travelled in an auto-rickshaw from Kurla to her Malad home on July 31.The accused, Illiyaz Khan (22), was nabbed on Monday night after police chased him around a garden in Bandra when he noticed them. Police recovered the stolen bag from Khan and recovered the lawyer, Megha Sharma’s (26), PAN Card, Aadhar Card, few cash and beauty products worth over Rs 7000.Sharma was returning home after attending his friend’s birthday when her bag was robbed.Khan was tracked down after police scanned through dozens of closed circuit television (CCTV) from BKC to Bandra and identified him. “Khan is an history-sheeter was arrested by the Bandra railway police in a case of theft. He committed the offence a month after he was released on bail. There are over 14 cases of theft and robbery against him in Andheri and Bandra since 2022. He has used his friend’s bike to commit the offence after following the lawyer’s rickshaw and robbed while the vehicle moved parallelly in the same direction,” said a police officer of the BKC police station.In the complaint, Sharma said: “I was travelling in a rapido rickshaw at 1.45 am after attending my friend Aditi’s birthday celebration at Nehrunagar in Kurla East when the incident occurred. After the program, I booked the rickshaw to go home to Malad from that location. While traveling in the rickshaw, I was holding my bag in my hand. The bag contained my legal professional documents, Aadhaar card, PAN card, two debit cards, and one International Forex Card. While traveling in the auto-rickshaw, near Hansbhuga Junction, Bandra East a biker came near our auto-rickshaw and snatched the bag from my hand.”Sharma got the rickshaw driver to chase the biker, but he vanished at high speed before she approached the BKC police.DCP (West Zone-3) Nimit Goyal supervised the team of senior inspector Suresh Padvi, assistant inspector Kishore Parkale, sub-inspectors Sangram Bagal, Prakash Rathod and team, which scanned through CCTV and identified Khan, and gathered his whereabouts information through the criminal data record (CDR).

Navi Mumbai: Three officials of a credit co-operative society for Mathadi workers, having office in the premises of APMC fruit market, Turbhe, along with their five accomplices, have been named in an FIR for siphoning off Rs 6.7 crore by forging documents and signatures of several Mathadi worker for fraudulently registering their membership account and disbursing loans in their names without their knowledge.An FIR was registered at the APMC police station on Monday after a complaint was lodged by a 29-year-old Mathadi worker who was one of the victims. The accused are Baburao Ramishte Mathadi Kamgar Sahakari Patpedhi’s chairman, vice-chairman, other concerned office-bearers, divisional secretary of All India Mathadi, Transport and General Workers’ Unions, former manager of Vashi/Turbhe branch, a clerk and three heads (mukadams) of Mathadi workers’ groups.The accused were charged under relevant BNS sections for cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy, forgery of valuable security, will, etc, forged document or electronic record using it as genuine and joint criminal liability.ACP Vishal Hire of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) informed that an FIR was registered against the accused persons after a complaint was lodged at the EOW unit-3 by a Mathadi worker Akash Jagtap, a resident of Kalamboli. The complainant alleged that from June 20 onwards, the accused had conspired, used forged documents and signatures of several mathadi workers, opened their membership accounts in the credit co-operative society, without their knowledge. Thereafter, approved huge loans in their name, ranging from Rs 13 lakh to Rs 25 lakh, thus committing financial fraud of collectively ₹6.67 crore at the credit co-operative society.ACP Hire said, “During the preliminary probe of the complaint, the scrutiny of documents at the credit co-operative society and bank transactions with loan disbursements revealed that the accused persons had connived for fraudulently approving loans in the names of 31 mathadi workers after forging their documents and signatures for opening their membership accounts for availing the loans. The accused persons have not being arrested yet as in-depth probe is being conducted.“

Mumbai: State govt on Tuesday told Bombay high court it is not possible to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to use clay for making idols for the upcoming Ganesh festival.“We will implement it next year. How can it be stopped today? PoP idols are already made,” advocate general Milind Sathe told Justices Ajey Gadkari and Kamal Khata. The festival begins on Sept 14. HC had sought the state’s stand on PM’s July 26 appeal during his Mann ki Baat radio programme.HC is hearing a PIL to implement Central Pollution Control Board’s May 2020 revised guidelines that ban plaster of Paris (PoP) idols. Last year, after CPCB clarified the guidelines are “advisory in nature,” HC on July 24, 2025, allowed over 6-ft idols to be immersed in natural water bodies such as rivers and seas as per the state’s immersion policy.Sathe said a meeting was held on July 31 that included stakeholders to consider the PM’s appeal. He said as the festival is hardly 40 days away, it was decided to follow HC’s July 2025 order. “We will ensure 100% removal of residue within 24 hours… Allow us to go forward as per the 2025 policy,” said Sathe. He also said “from this year, we’ll ensure idols are not made of PoP or such idols don’t go into natural water.”Advocate Ronita Bhattacharya Bector, for the PIL petitioners, pointed out that HC’s order said its directions shall apply for festivals till March 2026. Sathe said, “Today there is no ban on PoP.” Justice Gadkari asked, “Have you informed the PM’s office that you can’t do it?” Sathe replied, “Why would we be doing that? We have accepted the appeal and will implement it. What else can we say? Immediate implementation cannot be done for this festival.” Justice Gadkari said, “You are the state. You have to see the welfare of your people.” But Sathe said, “It can’t be done in one day.”He said the state is committed to preventing water pollution. PoP immersions will be stopped in a “phased manner so that PoP idols will ultimately stop being made.” The judges said the state was “put to notice for years.” Sathe said in 2025 there were 31,000 PoP idols out of 28 lakh idols in Maharashtra, adding, “We will try to ensure the number going to natural water bodies goes down.” The final hearing will continue on Wednesday.

Mumbai: Mobile phone theft is rarely associated with efficiency manuals or assembly lines. But a seven-member ‘Dhakka Gang’ arrested by MIDC police appears to have turned pickpocketing into a carefully choreographed operation, complete with specialised job titles, role assignments and a well-rehearsed drama.The ‘Dhakka Gang’, arrested on July 30, targeted commuters travelling on crowded BEST buses along the Andheri-SEEPZ and Andheri-Ghatkopar routes.According to the police, each member had a designated role and even a nickname, allowing the group to steal expensive smartphones, priced around Rs 1 lakh, without victims realising they had been robbed.At the centre of the operation was the “machine”—the specialist who deftly lifted the phone from a passenger’s pocket. Standing alongside was the “chapper denawala”, who used a bag to shield the theft from public view. The phone was instantly handed to the “charmer”, who passed it to “boor”, whose only job was to disappear with the loot. Three or four others were known as “thekhdaar”, whose task was to keep the person surrounded.By the time the victim sensed something was amiss, the phone had already travelled through the gang’s human conveyor belt.Investigators said the gang followed an unwritten territorial divide, operating only in Andheri East and avoiding areas controlled by another mobile-snatching gang in Andheri (W).Police alleged the group stole at least 135 premium smartphones in the last month and a half and had set themselves a target of collecting 1,000 devices before refurbishing and sending them to Bangladesh and Nepal, where they were sold for roughly half their market value, making them difficult to trace. “The mobiles are sold for half the price (Rs 1 lakh are sold for Rs 50,000) in Bangladesh and Nepal. They claimed to have been operating it since year and a half,” said the police.The breakthrough came after MIDC police planted an informer who gained the gang’s confidence and monitored its movements. Acting on the information, officers laid a trap at Juinagar railway station, where the gang had temporarily shifted operations after two of its members were earlier arrested by Andheri police.“We laid a trap accordingly and nabbed them from Jui Nagar railway station where they had temporarily relocated their territory after two members of their gang were earlier arrested by Andheri police,” said a police officer of the MIDC police station.Police said the gang coordinated every morning over WhatsApp calls; they would decide which bus stops to target and assemble around noon to start their work.The arrested accused are Wasim Salim Shaikh (35), Azhar Mukim Mirza Baig (22), Firoz alias Jahid Hussain Khan (37), Dilshad Ahmed Ali Baig (28), Mubin alias M K Jahrila Babu Raza Khan (29), Abid Ali Azgar Ali Shaikh (27) and Sushil Kumar Chhatradhari Singh alias Thakur (40). The police found out that Wasim is the machine, Azhar is the chapper denawala, Firoz is the charmer, Dilshad is the Boor and the others are thekdaars.With the arrests, MIDC police said they solved two cases committed in their jurisdiction in June and July and one registered with Andheri police, and seized 135 mobile phones worth Rs 12.7 lakh stolen in the last month and a half.Police said the gang’s victims included an ONGC employee, Jagat Jyoti Mohanty (59), who was heading to his workplace on June 6 when he boarded a bus at 2.15 pm from Seepz Bus Stop in Andheri (East). The gang stole his mobile worth Rs 90,000.“CCTV footage of the crime, information was received through technical investigation and undercover informants that the said crime was committed by a gang of mobile phone thieves who hails from Shivaji Nagar, Govandi and Kalyan localities. The gang was caught on July 30 when they reached the bus stop outside Juinagar railway station to steal the mobile phones of passengers travelling in the bus,” said the police.DCP (West Zone-3) Datta Nalawade supervised the team of ACP Yogesh Shinde, senior inspector Ghanshyam Nair, inspector Sunil Karande, sub-inspector Kiran Nawle and staff, police said, adding that the team studied the gang members’ operating methods in BEST buses and how they robbed passengers using distraction.