CM Shinde: 147 fatal road accidents recorded in Mumbai from Jan- June 2023

As many as 147 individuals died in road accidents in Mumbai from January to June 2023, as per the Maharashtra government.

The Maharashtra government, during the ongoing winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur, disclosed that 147 individuals lost their lives in road accidents in Mumbai from January to June 2023. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde presented these statistics in a written response to a query raised by Congress legislator Ashok Chavan, a report by news agency PTI stated. 

"From January to June, there were 132 accidents reported in Mumbai, resulting in the tragic demise of 147 individuals. The RTO officials have already initiated vehicle inspection drives to curb such occurrences," stated the CM.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance—which includes the Congress, the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, and the Shiv Sena (UBT)—staged a protest outside of Mumbai's Vidhan Bhavan. They claimed that the state government was "on ventilator support," denouncing the way it was managing healthcare and symbolically depicting it as gravely unstable, a PTI report stated. 

According to the report, during the protest, Congressmen Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat, along with Leader of Opposition--Vijay Wadettiwar of the legislative assembly and Ambadas Danve of the legislative council--displayed a stretcher, carried stethoscopes, and wore white coats.

Speaking to reporters, Danve voiced his concerns about the deteriorating quality of healthcare, citing cases where several deaths were recorded in government hospitals in the Thane district's Kalwa, Nagpur, Nanded, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. He criticised the government for failing to provide quality healthcare and highlighted the lack of medications in state-run hospitals, the report added. 

Danve specifically brought up two concerning cases of patient deaths: in September, Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded saw 31 patients, including infants, and between October 2 and 3, the Government Medical College and Hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar saw 18 patients. In August, too, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa announced the deaths of eighteen people in a single day, the report added. 

On the other hand, Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister, made a noteworthy declaration in Mumbai about the review of the previous pension plan (OPS). He emphasised his talks with Nagpur's Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, suggesting a possible review of the OPS, which has been discontinued. This is in response to a long-standing demand from government workers dating back to 2005, stated a report in PTI.

The OPS, which provided a fixed monthly pension without requiring contributions, was superseded by the New Pension Scheme, which requires 10% of employees' salaries in addition to dearness allowance. Citing possible financial benefits for citizens and acknowledging the Center's consideration of this issue before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 2024, Pawar hinted at a possible revision of their previous opposition to the OPS.

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