MUMBAI: The Maharashtra govt has become the last state to abolish the controversial institutional quota round for medical admissions. Additionally, the state govt has decided to bar for two years candidates who participate in admission rounds, block seats and then do not end up taking admission anywhere. “The selected candidates who do not report or do not join their allotted seat in the last round of the admission process, thereby resulting in the lapse of their seat, shall not be eligible for admission for the subsequent two years,” said the gazette.The medical college admission rules have been revised after a gap of 10 years.The move will leave private medical colleges with little independent discretion in filling seats at the end of the admission cycle and is expected to make the process more transparent and merit-driven.Private colleges, said skeptics, may challenge this gazette in court.“All admissions to medical and dental undergraduate courses will be done by the competent authority only through online centralised admission process (CAP) rounds, including online stray vacancy rounds or subsequent stray vacancy rounds,” said the state gazette released on Monday.Students who have opted for physics, chemistry and biotechnology instead of biology in Class XII and cleared the entrance test will also be eligible to participate in the admission rounds.The institutional round has long been criticised by parents, students and medical education activists, who have alleged that it enables arbitrary fee demands, last-minute allotments and admissions that do not always follow the published merit order. “Repeated concerns raised during earlier admission cycles led to discussions on whether the institutional round should continue at all,” said Siddhesh Nar, senior official in the CET cell.Maharashtra was the only state to retain such a system. Medical admissions in other states are conducted entirely through centralised counselling.Parent representative Sudha Shenoy said the change would bring Maharashtra in line with directions previously issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC). “Two years ago, the NMC directed that all undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats should be filled through a centralised admission process. Maharashtra was the only state that continued with the institutional round,” she said.The process has also repeatedly run into legal and regulatory complications. In 2023, Maharashtra conducted an offline institutional quota round, but the students admitted through it were not recognised by the NMC. The following year, the state initially decided against holding the round. However, after a private medical college approached the court, an online institutional quota process was conducted.To date, since medical admissions began, students who remained without a seat after the online CAP rounds become eligible for the institutional round conducted by individual private colleges.Critics alleged that although colleges published merit lists, the final allotments often deviated from merit. Colleges claimed that after higher-ranked candidates did not report, seats were allegedly offered to lower-ranked students willing to pay substantially higher amounts. This would stop now.Medical education activists said abolishing the institutional round closes a significant regulatory gap, reducing the scope for malpractice and ensuring that admissions to private medical colleges are governed by a uniform, transparent and merit-based process.

Many students raised fears of illegal monitoring

Mumbai: Directions to share their live locations with police, 3am notices on messaging platforms to appear before them, hours-long detention at police stations, phones surrendered during detention returned with signs of surveillance, copies of ‘zero’ FIRs not being shared, and calls from different security agencies—many students who took part in protests in support of CJP in the city have alleged being subjected to harassment and illegal monitoring.Some protesters suggested that prolonged detentions were meant to wear them out and discourage them from participating in subsequent demonstrations. “Some of us had assembled in Dadar and were peacefully protesting on Tuesday when police personnel picked us up and took us to Worli police station. Under the pretext of recording our statements, they made us sit there for nearly seven hours. We were so exhausted that we decided not to join the next day’s protest,” said one of them.Samya Korde from Progressive Students’ Union raised concerns at a joint press conference by a few student organisations and some lawyers on Wednesday that students’ “careers are being ruined through FIRs for participating in peaceful protests”. Her father, who was one of the organisers of the protests in Mumbai on July 20, was detained twice.The lawyers said a few among them got 150-200 queries each from protesters facing legal action over the last two days.Aamir Kazi of All India Students’ Federation said he had switched off his phone before handing it over to police after being detained but when he got it back, not only was it turned on but he also received a notification later that the phone was connected to other devices, raising fears that he was being tracked.Vikrant Khare, one of the lawyers, said a student who reached out to him was told by a cop to send her live location. “This is restricting the right to freedom of movement. Another student was asked to unlock the phone and the cops checked their WhatsApp groups.”Kazi said there is a national call to designate spaces like ‘Cockroach Kranti Baghs’ across the country, including in Mumbai, for peaceful student protests and that they would press for this. Korde said demonstrations will continue in some form or the other in the coming days. “It is a students’ movement and we will extend our support wherever required.”Sandhya Panaskar, one of the demonstrators who was briefly detained by Worli police, alleged that the group she was with was picked up even before the protest could start. “Intially, we were not treated well, but women police officers later offered my 11-year-old son biscuits, water and tea.”Another protester who was detained over a demonstration outside Chaityabhoomi on Tuesday said repeated visits to the police station was mentally exhausting. “The officers were not abusive, but every time we receive a call from police, we have to take leave from work and spend several hours at the station. Even if they are following procedure, the process itself has become a punishment for ordinary protesters.”Kalyani Mangave, another lawyer, said students being detained are protected by the law. “There is no need to panic. They can shoot inside a police station as it is a public place. They have every right to call their lawyer. And police do not have any authority to check their phones,” she said, adding that students should read all documents before signing them.

Mumbai: The city Crime Branch has arrested a police sub-inspector (PSI) in connection with a Rs 10 lakh cheating case linked to alleged conman Mohammed Khatib alias Dr Raj Khatib, who is accused of impersonating a senior police officer and duping multiple victims over several years.PSI Sanjay Rambhau Jadhav (53), a resident of Vadgaon Maval in Pune district, was arrested by Unit 3 of the Crime Branch after his name surfaced during the investigation into a series of cheating cases allegedly orchestrated by Khatib.The latest case is based on a complaint filed by Gujarat-based real estate businessman Nitin Chaudhary. According to the FIR, in Aug 2020, Khatib, Jadhav and Mahsab Ghaus Khatib allegedly induced Chaudhary into paying Rs 10 lakh in cash as commission by promising to facilitate the release of Rs 1 crore that was supposedly due to his friend, Alpesh Patel. Police said the promised work was never carried out and the money was not returned.Police said that technical evidence showed Jadhav was in regular contact with Raj Khatib and had accompanied him to a meeting with the complainant at a hotel near Mumbai airport, where he allegedly introduced himself as a Crime Branch officer. Further, it was revealed that Jadhav has two previous cheating cases registered against him—one at Vashi Police Station (2022) and another at Sanpada police station (2024).Chaudhary told investigators that he did not approach the police earlier because he believed Khatib was a genuine senior police officer and feared repercussions. He came forward only after learning through media reports that Khatib had been arrested in another cheating case involving impersonation.The arrest comes days after the Crime Branch booked Khatib in a separate case in which he allegedly cheated a businessman of ₹16 lakh on the pretext of recovering money from a builder. During that probe, police also arrested Dharmendra Kumar, who allegedly posed as a doctor for nearly 28 years in Juhu, organised medical camps, treated patients and developed contacts in Bollywood circles.The investigation has now expanded further after a South Mumbai woman lodged an FIR accusing Khatib of cheating her family, attempting to sexually assault her, pressuring her to convert to Islam and duping them of Rs 5 lakh on the pretext of securing pharmaceutical distributorships.The complainant said she met Khatib in 2010 through a common acquaintance involved in land deals and believed him to be a senior police officer. She alleged that he later took her to Ajmer and, along with an associate, repeatedly pressured her to convert to Islam. She also alleged that during a business trip to Miraj and Sangli in 2011, Khatib booked only one hotel room and attempted to force her to undress.The woman further alleged that between 2018 and 2019, Khatib introduced her family to Dharmendra Kumar, who claimed to be an oncologist and took ₹5 lakh for promised pharmaceutical distributorships. When she sought a refund, Kumar allegedly demanded another ₹10 lakh and threatened her.The woman told police she remained silent for years because she feared Khatib’s apparent position in the police force and lacked family support.

Many students raised fears of illegal monitoring

Mumbai: Directions to share their live locations with police, 3am notices on messaging platforms to appear before them, hours-long detention at police stations, phones surrendered during detention returned with signs of surveillance, copies of ‘zero’ FIRs not being shared, and calls from different security agencies—many students who took part in protests in support of CJP in the city have alleged being subjected to harassment and illegal monitoring.Some protesters suggested that prolonged detentions were meant to wear them out and discourage them from participating in subsequent demonstrations. “Some of us had assembled in Dadar and were peacefully protesting on Tuesday when police personnel picked us up and took us to Worli police station. Under the pretext of recording our statements, they made us sit there for nearly seven hours. We were so exhausted that we decided not to join the next day’s protest,” said one of them.Samya Korde from Progressive Students’ Union raised concerns at a joint press conference by a few student organisations and some lawyers on Wednesday that students’ “careers are being ruined through FIRs for participating in peaceful protests”. Her father, who was one of the organisers of the protests in Mumbai on July 20, was detained twice.The lawyers said a few among them got 150-200 queries each from protesters facing legal action over the last two days.Aamir Kazi of All India Students’ Federation said he had switched off his phone before handing it over to police after being detained but when he got it back, not only was it turned on but he also received a notification later that the phone was connected to other devices, raising fears that he was being tracked.Vikrant Khare, one of the lawyers, said a student who reached out to him was told by a cop to send her live location. “This is restricting the right to freedom of movement. Another student was asked to unlock the phone and the cops checked their WhatsApp groups.”Kazi said there is a national call to designate spaces like ‘Cockroach Kranti Baghs’ across the country, including in Mumbai, for peaceful student protests and that they would press for this. Korde said demonstrations will continue in some form or the other in the coming days. “It is a students’ movement and we will extend our support wherever required.”Sandhya Panaskar, one of the demonstrators who was briefly detained by Worli police, alleged that the group she was with was picked up even before the protest could start. “Intially, we were not treated well, but women police officers later offered my 11-year-old son biscuits, water and tea.”Another protester who was detained over a demonstration outside Chaityabhoomi on Tuesday said repeated visits to the police station was mentally exhausting. “The officers were not abusive, but every time we receive a call from police, we have to take leave from work and spend several hours at the station. Even if they are following procedure, the process itself has become a punishment for ordinary protesters.”Kalyani Mangave, another lawyer, said students being detained are protected by the law. “There is no need to panic. They can shoot inside a police station as it is a public place. They have every right to call their lawyer. And police do not have any authority to check their phones,” she said, adding that students should read all documents before signing them.

Undeterred by police’s action over the previous three days of CJP protests, word of mouth brought demonstrators to multiple sites

Undeterred by police’s action over the previous three days of CJP protests, word of mouth brought demonstrators to multiple sites

Undeterred by police’s action over the previous three days of CJP protests, word of mouth brought demonstrators to multiple sites

Undeterred by police’s action over the previous three days of CJP protests, word of mouth brought demonstrators to multiple sites

Undeterred by police’s action over the previous three days of CJP protests, word of mouth brought demonstrators to multiple sites

Undeterred by police’s action over the previous three days of CJP protests, word of mouth brought demonstrators to multiple sites

Undeterred by police’s action over the previous three days of CJP protests, word of mouth brought demonstrators to multiple sites

Mumbai: A decentralised, largely leaderless movement coordinated through social media and word-of-mouth swept across Mumbai on the fourth day of CJP protests on Wednesday as students, parents and other citizens gathered at Shivaji Park in Dadar, Ambedkar Garden in Chembur and near IIT-B at Powai despite heavy police deployment, preventive detentions and prohibitory orders.At the time of going to press, there were unconfirmed reports that police had registered two FIRs over the protests at Shivaji Park and Chembur. Cases had earlier been filed against 800-900 people for the previous three days of protests. Around 200 organisers and participants were briefly detained at Shivaji Park and some 30-40 at Powai.Shivaji Park saw the largest gathering of over 2,000 protesters. What began as a peaceful march at 4pm soon turned into a cat-and-mouse chase after police started picking up participants. Instead of dispersing, the crowd split into smaller groups and marched through the Shivaji Park-Sena Bhavan precinct, raising slogans along different roads. The groups converged near N C Kelkar Marg and surrounded two police vans, refusing to let them leave unless some of the detainees were released. After a brief standoff, police opened the vans and released them, triggering loud cheers.Vedant Nimbalkar (21), a student who was forced into one of the police vans, said he was picked up on the way from the railway station to the protest site. He said a large number of protesters had been detained in the same manner. Actress Aayesha Khan from the movie ‘Dhurandhar’ was among those detained at Dadar, taken to Worli police station and later released.The Powai demonstrators were detained barely 10 minutes into their protest. They were taken to Powai police station and released after 30 minutes. “We told them that it is our right to protest and stand in solidarity with those protesting in Delhi. But they asked us to leave,” said Shailendra Chauhan, general secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions.An IIT-B student said some were stopped from going out of the institute by the campus security. “They threatened us and said authorities would be informed if we participated in the protest.”The Chembur protesters came armed with red roses and copies of the Constitution and gathered at Ambedkar Garden, braving heavy rain and strong police presence. Undeterred by police action over the previous three days, protesters raised slogans and held placards as the crowd swelled.Accountability was the common refrain across all protest sites. “We want the resignation of the education minister [Dharmendra Pradhan]. We also want compensation from govt for all students who died because of the paper leaks,” said Aryan Dedhia (19) from Sathaye College, who was at Shivaji Park. Alden D (36), a freelance writer, said the turnout reflected growing public frustration. “The young people protesting here want answers.” Sonali Katrat, an auto driver at the Chembur protest said, “I was at Shivaji Park on Tuesday and heard there would be a protest on Wednesday as well, which is why I came. She said she had been following the protests at Jantar Mantar and activist Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike. As a mother of two, she felt it was her “duty to fight for their future”.The brief detentions had prompted Shiv Sena (UBT) functionaries to intervene. The party’s Chembur district president, Pramod Shinde, and Yuva Sena joint secretary Jaspreet Singh Vadhera remained at the Chembur site to assist students in case of detention and ensure that the protest remained peaceful. “The students are angry and they need to vent. We must allow them that and listen to them,” Shinde said.Many protesters in Chembur said they planned to head to Shivaji Park later in the evening, as Wednesday was expected to be the last day of demonstrations before Mumbai police’s prohibitory orders banning assemblies of five or more people came into force from July 23-Aug 6.Meanwhile, Bombay Bar Association expresses its deep concern over FIRs and detentions. It said the right of citizens to assemble peacefully and to express dissent is an integral facet of the freedoms guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution. “Peaceful protest is not merely a constitutional right but also an essential feature of democratic governance,” it said in a statement.(Additional reporting by Aditi Menon)

Residents of Pali Village are voicing their apprehensions over the construction of a sports facility on a cherished open playground (Representative image generated using AI)

MUMBAI: Even as Bandraites have been demonstrating against the proposed conversion of Neville D’Souza sports ground at Reclamation into a convention centre, a similar fear has gripped residents of Pali Village in the same suburb.Citizens have questioned ongoing construction work on a large plot owned by the Collectorate, which has been an open playground since decades.A private NGO is building a sports facility on the site.As per documents available in the Suburban Collector’s office, the Collectorate has allocated a sum of Rs 6 crore for the construction of a “welfare centre and healthcare utility” under the Annual District Development Plan.The work is being undertaken by an NGO named I Love Mumbai Foundation (unrelated to Nana Chudasama’s NGO bearing a similar name).Shiv Sena politician Rahool Kanal, who is president of this foundation as well as the Pickleball Association of Maharashtra, said he is building a multi-sport cricket turf and pickleball court on this ground.“It will be open for local players. The land ownership will remain with the state. There is no change of user or ownership. There will be no construction beyond permissible limits. We will levy a nominal fee of Rs 10 or so just to cover maintenance costs, like public toilets charge,” he said.City and Suburban Collectors are empowered to distribute funds for projects under the Annual District Development Plan, including those recommended by MLAs and MPs.Rahool Kanal had made a representation to local MLA Ashish Shelar requesting allocation of funds for welfare activity through this plan, which was forwarded to the Suburban Collectorate and approved.The work order issued by Mhada wrongly designates Rahool Kanal as corporator.However Bandra activists resent the move. They say in the 1950s, this ground was leased to St Anthony High School, which closed in 2011 but had remained open to all.In 2012, local activists Colman Pereira and Daphne Warapen were among four people who had campaigned against alleged encroachment of this plot, CTS F-513A and B, by a private club.“It was an open playground where local boys played since the 1950s. We won appeals to various authorities against this club which had built its own tennis court. We succeeded in getting the tennis court demolished,” said Pereira.Their later appeals were upheld by the then Collector, followed by the additional commissioner Konkan Division court as well as the Bombay High Court.This has made them question the legal and moral propriety of the current initiative.“How can the present Collector overturn the order of his own predecessor, and the high court, which declares the site as a free open playground for the public? It can only be done after going in appeal against the HC order,” Pereira said.“This is the place where local boys have been playing since decades. They cannot afford to spend thousands of rupees to join private clubs in Bandra.”Warapen added that the project appears massive given that its completion date is 2027.The Annual District Development Plan is a routine exercise by District Planning Committee and district Collectors.Funds are directed towards upgrading primary health centres into “smart” centres, converting civic schools into “smart schools,” and constructing public halls and social welfare centres across Mumbai.

Mumbai: On Tuesday, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar visited the protesters at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and advised the Centre to give them a hearing, in sync with the opposition front against the Modi govt on the CJP agitation. However, on Wednesday, Pawar was photographed meeting with PM Modi in Parliament, further raising speculation over whether his party was discussing its likely support for the Centre’s delimitation bill.The party’s position, as spelt out by MP Supriya Sule, who was also present at Wednesday’s meeting, is that the NCP (SP) was open to supporting the bill if it led to a 50% rise in the parliamentary seats in all states. It is possible that the Centre may introduce the bill in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, which has currently been overtaken by the protests. The bill had been defeated in April.After the exit of six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs in June to join the NDA, there has been rising pressure within the NCP (SP) to retain its flock. With the delimitation bill a likely trigger for another split, there has been increasing speculation about the NCP (SP) legislators supporting the bill while remaining in the party or merging with the NCP.While both the NCP and NCP (SP) have said there is no proposal regarding a merger on the cards, the BJP has made it clear that no new party from the state will be taken into the NDA. This suggests that a merger is the only option available for the NCP (SP). However, BJP sources said that if the NCP (SP) MPs support the delimitation bill, it will not even need the party to merge with the NCP.However, the NCP (SP)’s state chief Shashikant Shinde said that there was no political motive to Pawar’s meeting with Modi and he only went to present the views of the protesting students. “He had visited the protesters at Jantar Mantar and he wanted the government to have a dialogue with them. He went to convey their issues to the Prime Minister. Our stand on the delimitation bill is already clear,” Shinde said.