Maharashtra government launches India's largest WiFi service

Maharashtra government on 9 January 2017 launched India’s largest public WiFi service called 'MumbaiWifi'.  The facility was inaugurated by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai.

The facility will initially provide 500 wifi hotspots across different locations like Vidhan Bhawan, Bombay High Court, Kalanagar in Bandra and Mumbai Police Commissioner’s office.

After inaugurating it, Fadnavis described the service as an important step towards digital empowerment. He informed that during the trial period in last week of December 2016, about 23000 users across the city signed up and downloaded more than 2 TB of data.

He also reiterated the government’s commitment to providing 1200 WiFi hotspots by 1 May 2017.

Later Fadnavis tweeted that the government is committed to resolving all problems regarding the connectivity and speed and provide a good internet surfing experience.

Other decisions taken by the state government in January 2017 include

FIR against Cambata Aviation and Bird Worldwide Flight Service

The state government has filed a FIR against Cambata Aviation and Bird Worldwide Flight Service for not cooperating with officials to seize the equipment as directed by the court, to pay dues of employees. Bird Worldwide has leased the Cambata Aviation’s equipment.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier directed Cambata to settle the dues of its employees and warned of stringent action in case of delay. The action was taken after the company ceased operations in Mumbai early in 2016, leaving over 1000 employees in the lurch.

As per the FIR, Cambata Aviation was sent a notice on 26 October 2016, by the Mumbai suburban district administration to deposit an amount of Rs 44514633 within a period of 30 days failing which further notices were sent to them.

MFDA direction to McDonald's to display caffeine content info on containers

Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the restaurant chain McDonald's to display a label mentioning that a particular beverage contains caffeine.

State FDA Commissioner Harshadeep Kamble has said that the decision has been taken to prevent susceptible people like pregnant women, lactating mothers, children and patients from certain adverse effects of caffeine.

Amendment in Maharashtra Land Revenue Code

The state government on 8 January 2017 came up with the amendment in Maharashtra Land Revenue Code. Under the amendment, non-agriculture certification will no longer be required for a land for which development plan is finalised. Unless an agricultural land is converted into non-agricultural, development work cannot be started.

With the new amendment in the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code 1966, things would move more swiftly.

Earlier, the requirement of non-agriculture certification used to cause a delay in projects, including all types of infrastructure development works.