State has cited migration of pregnant and lactating women as reason behind pending list of beneficiaries. (Express photo by Rupsa Chakraborty)
Along the backwaters of Narmada river, 25-year-old Tagali Laldas Pawara resides in Khadkya village, located in Akrani taluka of Nandurbar district, just 10 km from the Gujarat border. Last July, she delivered her second child at home. But even before the anemic Tagali could recover, within a month of her delivery, she had to join her husband in Gujarat to earn a livelihood in a sugarcane farm. Soon, the infant who was left behind with her in-laws developed pneumonia and succumbed to it on August 15, 2021.
“If only I had the money, I wouldn’t have to travel, leaving my breastfeeding infant behind. If I was with him, he might have survived,” said Tagali.
Nandurbar, one of Maharashtra’s most backward districts, ranked the second lowest in per capita income in 2020-21, which was Rs 95,532 in comparison with Mumbai’s Rs 3,13,852, as per the data provided by the Collector’s office.
There was a ruckus in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday when members of the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS) and Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) got into a verbal spat inside the civic body headquarters as both parties tried to claim possession of the sole Shiv Sena party office on BMC premises.
At present, there is only one party office for the Shiv Sena, located on the ground floor of the old building and adjacent to the office of the BJP. After the Shiv Sena split into two, no dedicated offices for the new factions were set up inside the civic body, mainly because the elected body of representatives has been dissolved and the BMC is under the rule of a state-appointed administrator.