As reported in DNA by Sandeep Ashar on Friday, June 26, 2009

The recently-inaugurated K-Star mall at Chembur was closed on Thursday after it caught fire on Wednesday evening. The fire had started from Firangi Paani restaurant on the top floor of the seven-storey mall.

Even though the fire was brought under control within two hours, the electricity connection was not restored until Thursday evening with fire officials investigating the cause and the damage caused by the fire.

Consequently, all establishments at the mall, including the Fun Cinema multiplex, remained closed on Wednesday.

According to fire officials, the fire spread through the duct of the false ceiling in a portion of the restaurant.

Even though the fire remained confined to a limited area, the smoke emerging from it spread and covered the entire floor and even reached the lower floors. People present at the mall, including those watching movies at the 5-screens, were immediately evacuated.

Fire officials said the restaurant suffered a property loss worth lakhs. They appreciated the fire safety apparatus set in place by the mall. “The evacuation was smoothly carried out. All the safety equipment was in order,” a fire official said.

A state-appointed committee to recommend safety measures for emergency situation in multiplexes had said in a report last year that cooking in all these restaurants should be banned. “Cooking of food and snacks could be hazardous and should not be allowed directly below or above a multiplex. If at all a restaurant is required, it should bring pre-cooked food and snacks for sale. Microwave heaters could be used for heating of the food,” the committee had said.

As reported in DNA , on Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A fire broke out in a mall at suburban Chembur today, police said. Five fire engines and three water tankers were pressed into service to douse the blaze at K-Mall, they said, adding no casualties were reported. The cause of the fire was not yet known, police added.

As reported in DNA by Linah Baliga on Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Residents of Deonar (M-wards) are up in arms against the BMC for its decision to install a bio-medical waste treatment plant (BMWTP) in the area despite opposition from the local people and their 19 corporators.

The corporators said they had approached additional municipal commissioner RA Rajeev in 2008 when the proposal for a BMWTP had come to the Standing Committee meeting for an approval. But the official did not pay heed to their request and went ahead with the installation, they said, adding that the plant is a health hazard.

“Rajeev has been adamant and gone ahead with this plant. We tried to make him understand how dangerous an incinerator is,” said Raja Chougule, corporator, M-west ward. “When we visited the site with ward committee chairman Suresh Patil, we found that the air pollution control meter was missing in the plant. In Hyderabad, in 2003, the pollution control board had concluded that medical waste should be buried, not burnt,” said Mohammed Farooque, corporator, M-east ward.

Corporators also pointed out that they had no faith in the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) who had failed to monitor incinerators in the past, in Sewree.

“We had asked the BMC to purchase land in Thane and Taloja. But the M ward has become Mumbai’s dustbin,” said Choughule.

Rajeev said, “The bio-medical waste treatment plant has been made operational to treat the waste coming from municipal hospitals.” He refused to divulge any more information about the plant, saying he was busy.

The Standing Committee had recently turned down the proposal of partial closure of the dumping ground in Deonar. So with the additional BMWTP, it has added to the residents’ existing woes.

“We feel cheated by the BMC. They have not stuck to their word though we did a signature campaign and opposed it at the ward committee meeting. We are affected by the smoke from the dumping ground,” said Rajkumar Sharma, a Chembur resident.

Kala Suresh, a Deonar resident, said, “Is the BMC blind to the perils of Deonar? This is like sounding a death knell for us. Do they have no value for the life of the middle class? This is so undemocratic.”

Incidentally, MedWaste Action Group, an NGO, had objected to the incinerator in Sewree in the past, when ashes from the incinerator came flying into residents’ homes. “In Sewree, the BMC not following the MPCB guidelines. The operator was opening the incinerator to use waste as fuel,” said Deepika D’souza, a MedWaste activist.

The most number of trees were chopped illegally in the city in 2008-09 were in Malabar Hill, Pedder Road, Nepean Sea Road, according to a report of the civic gardens department. Chembur and Andheri come second.

There were 16 police complaints against tree cutting in D ward, and 14 and 12 in Chembur and Andheri respectively. Areas such as Bandra and Khar followed with nine cases. A total 153 cases were registered and 145 police complaints lodged throughout the year.

“People think they can get away with this. They don’t see tree felling as a crime. These cases are mostly in buildings where people think trimming and cutting a tree in their compound without the civic body’s permission is not such a big deal,” said a civic official.

Ironically, the BMC that penalises people for hacking trees is itself known for the green signals it gives for cutting trees.Civic chief Jairaj Phatak had said that on an average, permissions to cut 6,000-10,000 trees are given annually.

Excerpt from LiveMint by Bhuma Shrivastava Read Full Article

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) student volunteers helped Bihar flood victims with relief and health services last year. And they provided counselling and trauma care to employees of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower after the luxury hotel was attacked by terrorists in November.

Such work isn’t unusual for an institute that sent teams to refugee camps after Partition in 1947 and, more recently, helped in reconstruction work in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and recorded farmer suicides in Maharashtra.
TISS has a record of stretching the definition of academics, from the postgraduate courses it offers in public health and social entrepreneurship to disability studies and action.
But for two years in a row, TISS’ health system courses have missed the top slot in the Mint-C-fore survey by a whisker. Last year’s write-up in Mint on the top-ranked Institute of Health Management Research in Jaipur generated scathing comments from TISS fans, who wrote in to complain that the Mumbai-based institute was worth a lot more than it had been given credit for.
All the more reason for a trek to the TISS campus in Mumbai’s Deonar area, a campus that’s so simple it could be a smaller version of Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan in West Bengal.
Even the greenery on the campus is not in the form of carefully cultivated and manicured gardens. A stroll through the campus is more like a walk in the woods, with each tree and shrub allowed to grow and proliferate on its own, albeit not wildly….Read Full Article

A constable attached with the city police was found dead in neighbouring Thane after going missing on June 20, police said on Tuesday. Bharat Maruti was stationed at the Tata Power House in Chembur, but after he failed to report on duty and did not return home his wife filed a missing persons complaint with the Chembur police, they said.

The body of the constable was found on Tuesday night near a factory in Ambernath and was found to have no injury marks on it, police officials said. Further investigations are on into the death of the constable and the body has been sent for post mortem, they said.

As reported in TOI on 23 Jun 2009, by S Ahmed Ali

The crime branch on Monday claimed to have solved a murder and a case of attempted murder of a senior citizen with the arrest of three persons, including a woman.

The three accused have been identified as Rajendra alias Raju Thorat, Rahul Shinde and Tarabai Shinde; Tarabai gave the other two a contract of Rs 10,000 to bump off her alcoholic husband.

The first incident dated back to March 17 this year when an unidentified body was found on Eastern Express Highway in Vikhroli. The police received a tip-off, which led to Thorat being picked up and interrogated.

Thorat then confessed to have killed Ramesh Shinde (40) at Tarabai’s behest and said his friend Rahul had helped him, said senior inspector Ansar Pirzade.

The police then picked up Rahul and Tarabai. Tarabai, who is a resident of Shivaji Nagar in Mankhurd, told the police that she was fed up of husband Ramesh’s drinking habit and wanted to get rid of him.

Further interrogations revealed Thorat and Rahul had also taken a supari from some goons to bump off Chembur resident Dadasaheb Kordak (62) after. They had stabbed Kordak on March 20, the police said.

Excerpt from Blog, by Shobhana Subramanian on 22nd June 2009: Read Full Article
Ever since he moved to the western suburb of Versova, in Andheri, Sameer Shah’s visits to his friends in Ghatkopar have become rare. It’s a killing one-and-a-half hour journey each way, if he’s lucky. Shah’s hoping for an easier ride, one he may get sooner than he thinks. By July next year, he could get to Ghatkopar in less than a third of the time he currently takes, using the city’s first elevated metro rail service being built by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure.

Historically, connectivity between the eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai has always been weak, and even now it’s a nightmare going from one end to the other. Which is why Anand Krishnan, who lives in Vile Parle, misses out on the bhajan sessions at the Subramanya Samaj in Chembur where he grew up. He simply can’t afford to spend two-and-a-half hours on his commute. The state government’s trying to hurry up the new Santa Cruz-Chembur link road, but Krishnan will still have to wait a couple of years before he can hope to zip to Chembur in 10 minutes.

It’s not just east-west connectivity that’s bad, the newer suburbs of Navi Mumbai too aren’t easily accessible. And huge tracts of land on the mainland, across from Sewri on the island city, remain completely unused. Since the suburban railways are the backbone of Mumbai’s transport infrastructure — 5 million people commute by train every day — companies have been forced to locate their businesses in just three or four areas that are accessible by rail. So it’s not surprising that rentals in Nariman Point actually skyrocketed to Rs 500 per sq ft per month at one time — now they’re down to Rs 250-300 per sq ft per month. After all, here’s where, in Maker Chambers IV, the Ambani headquarters are located, as is the State Bank of India. The neighbouring Fort area, with Bombay House and the HSBC Bank at Flora Fountain, isn’t much cheaper.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) invites applications for admission to Bachelor Of Education (BEd) Programme 2010.

The BEd programme offered by IGNOU is an innovative programme utilizing self-instructional materials and information and Communication technologies (ICTs) and personal contact sessions. The programme is a judicious mix of theoretical and
practical courses to develop in practicing teacher’s appropriate knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes.

Admission will be based on an Entrance Test on Sunday, August 16, 2009 all over the country.

Duration: 2 years

Medium of Instruction: English and Hindi

Eligibility:
1. A Bachelor’s degree or a higher degree from a recognized University.
2. In-service teachers with 2-years full-time teaching experience on temporary/permanent basis in a primary / secondary/ higher/ senior secondary school recognized by Central or State Government or a Union Territory. Age no bar.

Filled-in form will be accepted at the concerned Regional Centre on or before July 15, 2009.

‘Student Handbook & Prospectus for the B Ed Programme-2010′ can be obtained from the Registrar (SRD), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi [Images]- 110068 and from all Regional Centres of IGNOU (please see addresses from the website) by sending a sum of Rs 550/- through a Demand Draft drawn in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi/city of concerned Regional Centre or by paying Rs 500/- in cash at the respective sale counters. Please write your name and address on the back of the DD.

Last date for receipt of request for ‘PROSPECTUS’ by post is June 30, 2009

Application form and prospectus can also be downloaded from the website: www.ignou.ac.in and sent along with a DD for Rs 550/- in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi by Registered/Speed Post to the concerned Regional Centre.