Hours after mid-day published a cover page story on what led to the flooding on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway last week, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the local civic body swung into immediate action to initiate an anti-encroachment drive against illegal dhabas and other establishments.

Sources closely associated with the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) told mid-day, "We never saw these thick-skinned babus of the civic body act so swiftly. But your (mid-day's) article shook the department, and they deployed several machines to conduct the anti-encroachment drive. The credit for this drive must go to mid-day."