Sunil Bandekar writes a usefull details about Stations on the  Harbour line …. heres a quick snippet … read more on his blog

Chembur is a suburban neighbourhood in the eastern Mumbai. The name Chembur is derived from the word “Chemburee” which means “Large Crab” in Marathi.

LokmayaTilakTerminus was earlier known as Kurla Terminus, as it is situated in Kurla. The Kurla and Tilak Nagar suburban railway stations are located nearby.

Govandi has excellent infrastructure, with connectivity to Sion-Trombay Highway, on the Eastern side. Deonar Village is adjacent to the Sion-Trombay Highway…

• Read more about these and other  stations on central railway(Harbour line) by Sunil Bandekar

Tata Power has commenced its commercial operation of the 250 MW ‘unit8’ at the Trombay Thermal Power Station.
Trombay Unit 8 attained full load of 250 MW at 16:27 hours on 26th March. This unit has successfully completed 72 hours of full load trial operation on March 29 and on the successful demonstration of the same the Unit’s “Date of Commercial operation” was declared as 29th March 2009.

The 250 MW Unit 8, will operate on imported Indonesian coal and will enhance the generation capacity of the Trombay Thermal Plant to 1600 MW from the current capacity of 1350 MW.The commissioning of the unit will help in bridging the ever increasing demand and supply of power for the city of Mumbai, claims a company press release.

April 30, is the day of voting in Mumbai. For all those voters who have not yet registered as voters for the Lok Sabha elections, April 1, is the last day for registering.

After this date the Election Commission will stop accepting the forms. You can identify your ERO (Electoral Registration Office) by logging on to the official website ceo.maharashtra.gov.in. Necessary forms can also be downloaded.

According to Jeevan G, ERO from Chembur, those who do not possess voter I-cards can still cast their vote with some document proof like a driving license, passport or PAN card if their name is on the voter list. However, if the voter’s name is missing on the voter’s list then there is no way he/she can vote during the polls.

AGNI (Action for Good Governance and Networking in India) has plans to set up a special cell on the day of the polls to help the voters in locating their names, identifying their nearest ERO and other related matters. This NGO wants volunteers for this on the day of elections. Those wanting to volunteer can call 98209 89310.

Registration forms

• Form 7: If you want the name of a family member deleted from the voter list because he is no more or has moved to some other place.
• Form 8: For correction of any entry like name, age, address.
• Form 8A: If the enrolled voter wants change of address within the same constituency like within Chembur.
• Form 1A: for obtaining voter I-card.
• New voters (age group 18-25 eyars) need to fill Form 6 for inclusion of name in the electoral rolls along with Form 1A for voter I-card.

Note these dates

• April 1: Last date for voter registration.
• April 9: Publication of final voter list
• April 30: Date of election.

Ward numbers of areas falling under MUMBAI SOUTH-CENTRAL   constituency

• 172 Anushaktinagar
• 173 Chembur
• 178 Dharavi
• 179 Sion Koliwada
• 180 Wadala
• 181 Mahim

Polling centres are likely to remain the same.

• Read more on this in Chembur-Ghatkopar-Plus “Voters be aware of these changes” by Sujatha Subraman

The home of Ganesh Sakhre at Baiganwadi, Govandi didn’t see the gudi heralding the Maharashtrian New Year this time. Ganesh and his family are yet to recover from the loss of his father Sitaram Sakhre in the terrorist attacks at CST in November.

The pain remains as they have fresh memories of seeing the head of the family being killed in front of their eyes. “The terrorist who did this to us is still alive. He also should be shot dead they way he shot our father,” says 19-year-old Ganesh.

• Read full article by Divya Fernandez in Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus

Pestom Sagar Citizens , like every year are doing their bit for the Earth Hour or locally called as the Batti Bandh campaign. In fact, V Sangole, member of Pestom Sagar Citizens’ Forum in Chembur said “In our local area co-ordination group meetings, we urge people to switch off lights when not required. It has to become an individualist movement in every house rather than just a campaign to conserve power,” .

What is Earth Hour (Batti Bandh) CampMumbai ? Cities across the world readies to switch off its lights for 60 minutes on Saturday evening (8.30 to 9.30 pm) to send out a strong message for a greener earth.

DO YOUR BIT TOO!!!!!

Read article in DNA

MUMBAI SOUTH-CENTRAL  :
Mahim, Wadala, Koliwada, Dharavi, Chembur and Anushakti Nagar.

Contenders:

• Eknath Mahadeo Gaikwad| INC(Congress) He is the only Maharashtrian candidate-and a prominent Dalit face-for the Congress in the city. Gaikwad has to depend on the Dalit votebank in Dharavi and the eastern suburbs. He will also have to look for Muslim sympathisers as there is a good percentage of Muslim voters in his constituency.
• Suresh Gambhir | Shiv Sena : He is the MLA for Mahim, but the announcement of his name came as a surprise. This constituency was earlier contested by senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi, who has decided not to contest.
• Shweta Parulekar| MNS: She is a relatively new entrant into elections, but can eat into the Marathi votes in areas like Dadar and Dharavi

Constituency Information:

• Male voters 8,25,546 | Female voters 6,64,486
• Total voters 14,90,032
• Main communities – Maharashtrians, Dalits, South Indians, Muslims
• Slum voters 62.28%

MUMBAI NORTH-EAST : Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar, Ghatkopar East, Ghatkopar West, Vikhroli, Bhandup and Mulund

Contenders:

• Kirit Somaiya | BJP : The BJP high command preferred him over Poonam Mahajan. Somaiya banks heavily on Gujarati votes and has been raising issues like electricity woes.
• Sanjay Patil | NCP : The MLA hails from a rich family of landlords. The son of the late MLA Dina Bama Patil, Sanjay Patil has served as the Mumbai president of the NSUI before heading the NCP youth wing.
• Shishir Shinde| MNS : Known for harping on the Marathi manoos issue, he recently forced a Karachi sweetmeat shop owner to remove the word `Karachi’ from his shop signboard
• Ashok Singh| BSP:  A grassroots worker, he may eat into the Dalit votebank in Ghatkopar

Constituency Information :

• Male voters 8,71,726 | Female voters 6,98,616
• Total voters 15,70,342
• Main communities – Maharashtrians, Gujaratis, North Indians, Muslims
• Slum voters 69.74%

BMC plans to close of a 52-hectare area at the north-western end of the 132 hectare Deonar dumping ground. A new 141-hectare Kanjurmarg (west) dumping ground with a capacity to take in as much as 4,000 tonnes of the 8,500 tonnes of garbage currently generated daily in Mumbai has been given a go ahead by the Bombay High Court . This new mega dump will take the brunt of the closed 53 h Deonar dump and the Mulund dumping ground which is only 20 hectares with an intake capacity is barely 500 tonnes a day…

The sad part of this change would involve large-scale destruction of Kanjumarg mangroves. Natures Treasure will make way for Human Waste … 

• Read more news on this on DNA

The ‘No criminals in politics’  campaign , launched by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Pubic Interest Foundation,  aims to stop citizens across India from voting for political candidates with criminal records and stop political parties from fielding persons with criminal records. 

 Mumbai’s well-known personalities and corporate captains have got to-gother to support this campaign to make citizens aware of  the details of the electorial candidates and  enable them to vote for the right person.  The website www.NoCriminals.org offers information about the various contestants in the constituencies for the elections.

Read more in DNA