The long awaited KStar Mall near Diamond Garden, has Finally opened its doors to the eager Chembur Residents. Though a tad smaller than most of popular Malls in Mumbai like the InOrbit, Nirmal Lifestyles/PVR , Center One, Dreams Mall, It sure will be more busy compared to most of the formerly mentioned hangouts , as it is First and the Only yet for us Chemburites.

Happy that now there is an Air-Conditioned place to window shop in Chembur too, we thought of taking a tour of the new ” Chemburs Place To Be “. It turned out to be a QUICK tour, as probably more than half of the shops are yet to open.

After passing through a Metal detector, a quick scan of your carry bag, and another scan by an hand held, You will see only a REBOOK store on the ground floor, On the first we saw Koutons, Le Berry, b:you , and a yet to open E-Zone , the second had a huge ING Insurance (WHY???? such a big floor space occupied by a Bank inside an already measly mall, we could have had some recreation area instead ,Please!) . On the third, there is this food court. A few stalls were open and I must say there were enough people to fill the space on a Saturday afternoon (that just shows how desperate we all are for a hangout in Chembur)

Apart from the classic array of already bored to death choice of Dominos Pizza, Mac Donalds, we have Little Italy, Kailash Parbat, a Chinese called China Land (…very intuitive indeed… pun!) , A south Indian called Malgudi (Now that is innovative) and a few more closed doors … you have to wait to find out.  Inspite of having carried our hunger to the mall, with a hope to  hog on anything new our NEW Mall had on offer , we din’t find anything novel to satisfy our palate …

As you can see from the pictures , The Mall still doesn’t seem to have received the complete consignments of the light bulbs required .. the place seems  quite under lit even at 2 in the afternoon!

General secretary of Chembur Karnataka Sangha, Ranjankumar R Amin was allegedly assaulted by Nilesh Tathare, an ex-employee of Chembur Karnataka High School. Ranjankumar said, “While walking on NG Acharya Marg at 9 pm, Nilesh who was standing nearby, suddenly attacked me with a metal chain due to which I fell down.”

Senior police inspector of Chembur police station said, “A complaint has been lodged against Tathare”

Read Sudhakar Anchan’s full story in Chembur-Ghatkpoar Plus

In an entrapment , on the basis of a tip off, RCF police team arrested three men for possessing fake currency notes worth Rs 2.94.
RCF police PSI Sanjay Bhapkar , said that according the statement given by those arrested, every one lakh fake currency notes would be exhnaged for Rs 75,000 genuine notes. The detainees are yet to disclose the identity of the clients whom they were about to deal the fake notes with.

The three men arressted near Gurudev Hotel at Chembur, were Mohammad Rafiq Shaikh, Mohammad Hasan Shaikh and Anil Chauhan and all the three were residents of Bainganwadi.

RCF police has also confiscated computer, scanner and a printer from Mohammad Rafiq Shaikh’s residence.

Sixty-three-year-old Suresh Gambhir, Sena nominee for the Mumbai South-Central Lok Sabha seat Gambhir  is probably  the most unlikely Shiv Sainiks to be liked by Muslims,  the one who does not discriminate on the basis of religion, is soft spoken and, what is more, firmly refuses to criticise his opponent.

A simple measure of his popularity lies in the fact that he has not lost a single election he has contested since 1978. In that year, he stood for the BMC’s Mahim seat and when he was re-elected to it in 1985 it was by the highest margin in Mumbai. He was elected from Mahim to the legislative assembly four times from 1990 onwards. This is Gambhir’s first attempt at entering Parliament.

What is the secret of his consistent success? Says Gambhir: “There is no secret. I have been in touch with my voters 24×7. I do not believe in giving letters, but personally accompany my voters, whether it be for getting a bed in a hospital or a seat in a school. Also, I have never discriminated against anyone on the basis of religion or caste. Mahim has a large number of Muslims and I share a very good equation with them.”

When the communal riots ravaged Mahim in 1992-93, Gambhir was busy getting the injured, both Hindus and Muslims, admitted to hospital. Never the one to mouth Hindutva slogans, he appears to have mastered the art of making friends. “I may not have solved all the problems. But no one can say that I did not try to help them,” he says with innate modesty. He refuses to criticise his main opponent.

Asked for his agenda, Gambhir says that he will work for the security of the metropolis. “I was among the first to rush to Mahim station when it was hit in the 11/7 blasts. I have seen death at close quarters. 26/11 should serve as a wake up call for all Mumbaikars.

“My other priority will be to provide affordable housing for the poor and lower-middle class. The redevelopment of Dharavi is another major item on my agenda. I have demanded that each hutment dweller be given flats measuring 400 square feet and those owning commercial establishments be given extra space,” Gambhir says.He also promises to take up the problem of pollution in Chembur, which is now a part of Mumbai South-Central. He said the burning of garbage needs to be tackled on a priority basis.

As reported in TOI By S Balakrishnan on 4th April 2009

A motor training school from Trombay was booked for drunk driving while he was teaching a student on Friday morning. Mohammad Salim Shaikh was so sloshed that a test recorded the alcohol content in his blood at 499 mg/100 ml. He admitted that he had consumed country liquor.

The traffic police will now write to the RTO which has the power to cancel the licence of the driving school.
“Shaikh used to teach 20 students in the morning and 20 in the evening on a daily basis. He has been in the profession for eight years now. What kind of training must he be imparting to students if he doesn’t adhere to the traffic rules himself?’’ asked DCP (traffic) Harish Baijal.

Shaikh worked for the Bagde Motor Training School. It has four offices at Mankhurd, Trombay, Nerul and Seawoods. The incident occurred at the Mankurd T-Junction at 11.45 am when the traffic cops spotted a Tata Sumo being driven in a haphazard manner.

As reported in TOI on 4th April 2009

The MMRDA had received about 8,000 objections and suggestions from residents against the proposed Rs 8,200 crore,  27 Km  elevated route from Charkop to Mankhurd line ,  But  is  in no mood to give in to the demands of citizens who want an underground metro rail. MMRDA says that it is too late to consider the demands, as it will push the project further by two years.

An MMRDA official told reporters “April 30 is the last day of submitting bids. At this moment if we consider the demands of residents, the project would be delayed by at least two years. Lengthy process needs to be followed to get approval for the project. Everything is done now. Even the Central government, which approved the project, has also agreed to provide about Rs 1,500 crore viability gap fund,”.

The citizens are determined to oppose the plan.