State mulls hawking, driving licences for Victoria owners
a bid to phase out Victoria horse-drawn carriages as per a court mandate, the Maharashtra government plans to offer hawking and driving (autorickshaw and taxi) licences to half the owners and drivers.
The government claims there are 130 drivers and 91 owners of Victoria horse carriages. Some are owners as well as drivers. While 25 owners and drivers will get hawkers’ licences, 34 will get drivers’ licences, said a senior state government official said.
The proposal is likely to be placed before the cabinet for discussion soon. “We will have to come up with an alternative arrangement for the rest,” the government official said.
The state is also drawing up a list of non-government organisations and animal welfare groups ready to take care of the freed horses. In June last year, the Bombay high court (HC) had ordered a complete ban on Mumbai’s iconic Victoria horsedrawn carriages, calling the joyrides completely illegal, ordering them to be phased out in a year. The court observed that most of the horse-drawn carriages were plying illegally as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had taken a policy decision of not granting them licences after 2013.
Police custody of former corporater Razzak Khan, 78, and his son Amjad, 53, arrested for their involvement in the murder of RTI activist Bhupendra Vira has been extended till October 28.A crime branch source said the accused are refusing to divulge details of their accompli ces and hence further interroga tion is a must.
So far, the investigation has revealed that Amjad met Razzak before murdering Vira.
However, cops are yet to find incriminating evidence to nai Razzak’s involvement in the crime.
The cops have collected foren sic evidence from Vira’s resi dence behind Kalina mosque which includes his clothes and have despatched it to Kalina forensic lab for further analysis.
“We have informed the lab official to prepare the report on priority basis ” said a crime