Here are the top 5 news updates of May 6, 2021:
A day after Supreme Court Justice praised the efficacy of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in handling COVID-19 cases, the Bombay High Court bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni today appreciated the "Mumbai Model" and suggested municipal commissioners of other districts in the state to use this model. The bench has ordered BMC chief Iqbal Chahal to conduct a video meeting with the municipal commissioners of other districts and guide them on how to manage patients and control the pandemic. The judges have also ordered the Maharashtra government to consider imposing a total lockdown in Pune city given the "alarming" numbers of Covid cases there.
A Bombay High Court bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale today granted Maharashtra's former home minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh liberty to move vacation bench in case of an urgency, and was asked to give the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) a 48-hour notice in the corruption FIR registered against him. The bench also granted four-weeks time to CBI after additional solicitor general Anil Singh told the court that he had received the application on Wednesday night. Amit Desai, appearing for Anil Deshmukh, vehemently opposed for time to be granted. But the bench held that it would give the requisite time to CBI to respond.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today announced a state-wide lockdown starting Saturday till May 16 to tackle the second wave of COVID-19 situation in the state. The lockdown will start from 6 am on May 8 till May 16. The chief minister on Wednesday had highlighted the "serious situation of COVID" in the state and indicated the possibility of a lockdown, saying that the "situation calls for imposing more restrictions in the state". "Kerala is going through a serious situation with COVID spreading rapidly in the state. The test positivity rate (TPR) is not coming down," said Vijayan.
The Union Home Ministry has formed a four-member fact-finding team to look into reasons for the post- poll violence in West Bengal and also assess the ground situation in the state, officials said today. The team, led by an additional secretary of the ministry, has left for the state. On Wednesday, the ministry had sent a terse reminder to the West Bengal government to submit a detailed report on the post-poll violence and to take necessary measures to stop such incidents "without any loss of time". At least 14 BJP workers were killed and nearly one lakh people fled their homes in post-poll violence in West Bengal, BJP president J P Nadda has alleged.
Equity gauges Sensex and Nifty notched up gains for the second straight session today following hectic buying mainly in auto, financial and IT counters. The BSE benchmark Sensex closed higher by 272.21 points or 0.56 per cent at 48,949.76. In volatile trade, the index oscillated between a high of 49,011.31 and a low of 48,614.11 during the day. Similarly, the NSE Nifty ended with a gain of 106.95 points or 0.73 per cent at 14,724.80. On the Sensex chart, Bajaj Auto, HDFC, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and ICICI bank emerged as the prominent gainers. On the other hand, PowerGrid, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, and NTPC were the major laggards.
