Days after Congress president Sonia Gandhi offered to pay for the travel of stranded migrant workers by trains to their homes, a Bihari NGO has offered to pay for the travel cost of 50 trains to carry Bihari migrants and students stranded in Mumbai.

Former NCP MP Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil and three others figure in the list of BJP candidates for the May 21 Maharashtra legislative council poll.

A fire brigade personnel in Pune city in Maharashtra has tested positive for novel coronavirus, a senior official said on Friday. The fireman went to a private hospital on Monday to get himself checked for some other ailment, and as part of procedure, his samples were sent for coronavirus testing and the report returned positive on Thursday, Pune fire brigade chief Prashant Ranpise said.

The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to take an appropriate decision on sharing the transport costs of migrant workers returning homes.

Bombay high court on Friday sought a reply from the state on a public interest litigation by a Pune woman on permission to take pet dogs for their daily walks, while observing that walking them within housing society compounds for now, as permitted, was adequate for the moment.

Sajjansingh Dhurve from Pondi in Junawani of Mandal Khajeri cannot believe that his colleagues, with whom he was heading home, are no more.

The state government would be short of Rs1.4 lakh crore, or 40 % of the projected revenue for the 2020-21 fiscal, if any financial package were announced for the migrant workers’ assistance, sources in the finance department said on Friday.

Fewer non-essential shops opened shutters on Friday than the day before with the traders’ association insisting on total resumption of business after the lockdown exit.

A fire broke out in a pharmaceutical packaging factory in the Satpur industrial area on Thursday night. While there were no casualties, goods and articles, collectively amounting to over Rs 35 lakh, was gutted in the fire.

University students not in the final semester of graduation and postgraduation will be promoted automatically without having to appear for any exam, state higher and technical education minister Uday Samant announced on Friday.

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) has announced a two-day complete lockdown of the entire cantonment area, starting Saturday.

The Pune Municipal Corporation is likely to seek help from the State Reserve Police Force to intensify the monitoring at the containment zones following the recent spurt in coronavirus infection cases in the city.

Migrant workers will no more be required to submit medical certificate while applying for police pass to travel to their home states, said city police commissioner Vishwas Nangare Patil on Friday.

A 51-year-old police constable who had tested positive for coronavirus died in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Saturday afternoon, an official said. This is the sixth death of a police personnel due to Covid-19 in the state, he said.

(This story originally appeared in PuneMirror on May 9, 2020)

Three members of a family, including two women, were found murdered in Andhi village under the limits of Manda police station of Prayagraj district on Thursday morning.

The rapidly increasing tally of novel coronavirus cases in the state has alerted jail authorities who are fretful of the fallouts of Covid-19 outbreak within the prison walls and are taking preventive steps besides social distancing to ensure all staff and inmates stay healthy.

Directing officials to ensure that nobody walks back home, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said that the government was making all efforts in deploying buses and trains to bring back stranded migrant workers.