MUMBAI: The timetable for opening new colleges and introducing new courses was on Tuesday postponed for a period of one month by the Maharashtra government as meetings mandated for the exercise could not be held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said.
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, he said.
As per Article 109 of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, a timetable is defined to decide the opening of new colleges, introducing new courses and curriculum, increasing the number of classes or batches and setting up of satellite centres, among others.
A statement from the chief minister's office (CMO) said the pandemic affected the process of holding meetings to set up a timetable, adding that an ordinance will be issued soon to amend Article 109 to support the decision of postponement.
The state reported 2,844 new coronavirus cases and 60 deaths on Tuesday, the health department said.
It took the infection tally to 65,44,606, and the death toll to 1,38,962.
As many as 3,029 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the number of recovered cases in the state to 63,65,277.
Maharashtra now has 36,794 active cases.
There are 2,54,985 people in home quarantine and another 1,514 in institutional quarantine.
The state's COVID-19 recovery rate is 97.26 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.12 per cent.
The total of coronavirus tests conducted in the state climbed to 5,84,29,804, including 1,43,768 samples examined since Monday evening.
Ahmednagar district reported the highest 457 new infections in the state on Tuesday.
Among eight regions of Maharashtra, the Pune region reported the highest 914 new COVID-19 cases, followed by the Mumbai region at 874.
The Nashik region reported 545 new cases, Kolhapur 336, Latur 99, Aurangabad 44, Akola 17 and Nagpur 15 cases.
Of the 60 new fatalities, the highest 19 deaths were reported in the Pune region, followed by 14 in Nashik region.
Pune region reported 10 deaths, Kolhapur region seven, Aurangabad region three, Latur region five and Akola region two deaths.
No new death was reported in the entire Nagpur region.
Mumbai recorded 394 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths, while Pune city reported 170 infections and two deaths.
Among the 36,794 active patients in the state, Pune district has the highest 9,263.
Coronavirus figures of Maharashtra are as follows: Total cases 65,44,606; New cases 2,844; Death toll 1,38,962; Recoveries 63,65,277; Active cases 36,794; Total tests 5,84,29,804.