Mass poisoning bid at Muharram rally in Mumbai, man arrested: Police

The rain had been falling steadily through the morning.Under a giant shed at the Himachal Road Transport Corporation’s Tara Devi depot, about 7 km from Shimla, more than 85 men waited patiently. Some sat on old benches. Others perched on discarded bus tyres. A few crouched in small groups, balancing files on their knees as they hurriedly complete paperwork.The destination they hoped to reach was not printed on any bus timetable.It was a government job.Among those waiting were Madan Lal, 37, from Arki in Solan district; Rajneesh Thakur, 28, from Chail; Ankush, 23, from Shimla’s Annandale area; and Piyush Verma, 29, from Tattapani in Mandi district. Like hundreds of others across Himachal Pradesh, they had answered a last-minute call from HRTC for walk-in interviews to recruit temporary bus drivers. The urgency was driven by a looming crisis. Around 5,500 HRTC drivers and conductors, under the banner of the HRTC Employees’ Association, had threatened to go on strike from midnight on Wednesday. Anticipating disruption to public transport services, the state government invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), while HRTC rushed to create a backup workforce. For many applicants, the advertisement appeared almost overnight. “I saw the notification on Facebook late last night while scrolling through my phone,” said Madan Lal. “Tara Devi is closer to Arki than Solan, so I came here.” For Madan, the journey has been much longer than a single night’s notice.Story continues below this ad A Class XII pass candidate with an ITI diploma in Driver-cum-Mechanic trade, he has spent eight years trying to secure an HRTC driver’s job. He has appeared in recruitment tests three times, clearing the driving test twice but failing to make the final cut. His most recent attempt came in 2023, when HRTC advertised 336 posts before the recruitment process was later shelved. Yet he was back again on Wednesday, documents in hand. Nearby stood Pawan Kumar Sharma, 38, from Kunihar in Solan district. After more than a decade behind the wheel of private buses, he believed experience might finally work in his favour. “Twenty-five drivers will be selected from Tara Devi. Many who had cleared stages of the 2023 recruitment process have a good chance this time,” he said. “Driving a government bus is a serious responsibility. I believe experienced drivers will be preferred.”Story continues below this ad At the same time, he sympathised with the employees threatening to strike. “The government should address their demands. But public inconvenience should also be kept in mind,” he said. Across Himachal, similar scenes unfolded at 31 HRTC offices where walk-in interviews were held. By evening, around 2,100 applications had been received against 675 advertised posts. For Rajneesh Thakur, who arrived carrying an experience certificate issued by the Shimla Transport Union, the attraction of a government job remained as powerful as ever.Story continues below this ad “Who doesn’t want to work in the government sector?” he asked. “Whether it is contractual or daily wages, once you enter the system there is always hope of regularisation.” At Tara Devi alone, nearly 80 applications were received for 25 posts. Regional Manager RK Sharma said many applicants had already cleared driving tests during the abandoned 2023 recruitment exercise. “Preference will be given to experienced drivers,” he said. “Applicants must be matriculates, possess HTV and HMV licences and have at least three years of experience.”Story continues below this ad By late evening, however, the crisis that had triggered the recruitment drive had begun to fade. Following negotiations with the state government, the HRTC Employees’ Association called off its proposed strike after most of its demands were accepted. The only unresolved issue was the transfer of association president Maan Singh from Shimla to Chamba. Confirming the development, HRTC Managing Director Nipun Jindal said an agreement had b

At a time when Mumbai is reeling under a 10 per cent water cut due to depleting water stocks in the seven lakes that supply water to the city, the Mumbai Water Tanker Association (MWTA) has announced an indefinite strike from midnight on June 7. The announcement comes even as Mumbai’s overall water stock has fallen below 15 per cent.The MWTA is the apex body representing water tankers that supply between 200 million litres per day (MLD) and 2,000 MLD to residential, industrial and commercial establishments. These tankers source water from privately owned wells.The association’s decision follows notices issued by tehsildar offices in the Mumbai suburban district to several owners and operators of ring wells and borewells, directing them to stop supplying water to tankers and obtain fresh licences from the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA). The notices also state that some of these wells have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and direct owners to fill them with earth and other material. According to a notice issued by the Andheri tehsildar’s office to a ring well operator on June 4, authorities have asked the operator to submit, within seven days, a no-objection certificate showing compliance with CGWA guidelines. The notice further states that operators continuing to extract groundwater without the required permissions could face disconnection of electricity supply and seizure of groundwater extraction equipment. Speaking to The Indian Express, Ankur Sharma, spokesperson for the MWTA, said that while Mumbai has around 18,000 ring well and borewell operators, notices have so far been issued to nearly 250 of them over the past week. “The notices started coming in during the last week of May. So far, nearly 250 of our well operators have received them. We are not carrying out a strike, but we are compelled to take our vehicles off the road because the notices state that if we continue operating without the required NOC, our equipment and vehicles will be seized,” Sharma said. According to CGWA guidelines, a licence can be issued only if the well is situated on a land parcel measuring at least 200 square metres. The guidelines also restrict water filling from a well to a single tanker at a time. In addition, every well operator is required to install a flow meter to record water extraction.Story continues below this ad MWTA representatives, however, said there is a shortage of such flow meters in Mumbai. They also argued that compliance with some of the conditions is difficult in a space-constrained city. “After our well operators started receiving notices, we wrote to the Chief Minister and the Municipal Commissioner seeking a meeting so that an alternative solution could be worked out. However, we were not given an appointment. As a result, we are being forced to stop our services to avoid legal consequences,” Sharma said. In Mumbai, tanker water is used not only by residential complexes but also for major infrastructure projects, including road concretisation works, Metro projects and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. Tanker water is also used for cleaning railway coaches, maintaining roads, gardens, banquet halls and commercial open spaces. MWTA representatives said that if well operators are prevented from supplying water to tankers, several of these activities could be affected. Similar disruptions occurred in 2023 and 2025 when tanker strikes led to citywide water supply concerns.Story continues below this ad Last year, a prolonged tanker strike prompted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to invoke provisions of the Disaster Management Act, enabling it to take control of private water tankers. The strike was subsequently called off. Following the agitation, state minister Ashish Shelar wrote to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, urging it to revise the CGWA guidelines to better reflect the realities of Maharashtra and Mumbai. However, no such amendments have been made so far. Depleting lake levels