As reported in MID-DAY by Somita Pal on  2010-03-05

Fire brigade to inspect basements of malls, multiplexes to ensure safety norms are not violated

The February 18 blaze at Borivli’s Goyal Shopping Centre has been an eye-opener of sorts for the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB). Following the incident, which claimed the life of a fireman as the shopping complex flouted fire norms, fire officials will be doing rounds in the city inspecting commercial complexes such as malls and multiplexes to ensure that  fire safety norms are abided by.

Lucky find: Fire officials recovered 41 cylinders from the basement of a Chembur building yesterday, which flouted fire safety rules

Even before the fire brigade could begin their drive, they zeroed in on their first defaulter — a commercial building in Chembur where they found 41 cylinders in the basement.

Uday Tatkare, chief fire officer, said, “We received a gas leakage complaint and when my officials visited the building, they found 41 gas cylinders stored in the basement. The cylinders belonged to the three restaurants operating in the building.”

“It is hazardous to store so many gas cylinders and that too in the basement of a building. In case there is a fire like the one at Goyal Shopping Centre, it could be dangerous. What’s worse is that the fire system of the building is not functional,” he added.

BMC officials said that the cylinders were stored by the three restaurants in the building, which did not have a NOC from the civic body similar to Goyal Shopping Centre.

The BMC has also alerted gas agencies. S S Shinde, joint municipal commissioner, said, “We are writing a letter to all gas agencies to ensure that the cylinders are stored in a safe location and see to it there is no illegal supply of cylinders.” People can’t store gas cylinders in the basement”.

Anti-piracy raids in two locations of Mumbai have uncovered 21,000 CDs and DVDs worth Rs 150,000. The raids were conducted by a four-member team from AA Khan & Associates along with officials from the area-specific police station.

One raid was carried out at Chembur at a shop in Basant Park and Orbis Shop near the railway station, helped the raiding team uncover 15000 pirated CDs and DVDs. Goods confiscated at Chembur were pegged at around Rs 99,800.

The other raid was at Lamington Road resulted in the seizure of around 6000 pirated CDs and DVDs that included those of last week’s release Toh Baat Pakki, Up in the Air, It’s Complicated and My Name is Khan. The total value of confiscated goods was around Rs 60,000.

Excerpt from CG+, reported by Sudhakar Anchan on February 13, 2010 : Read Full Article

The traffic from Chembur station south side area to Amar Mahal, Pestomsagar, Tilaknagar, Garodia Nagar burdens the Amar Mahal junction significantly. When the auto rickshaws went off the road for half a day recently, there was no traffic congestion, leading to the fact that if the auto rickshaw traffic is handled effectively, there would be relief.

“A similar situation exists for south bound auto traffic towards Chembur Railway station and nearby areas,” says Mohan Bagwe, a local resident. “There is a service road from Shell Colony towards Shramajeevi Nagar Nulla on the western side of the Highway.

If this service road can be linked near the BEST Postal Colony stop on the northbound traffic (western side), autos from the station area can come to Shell Colony, take the Service Road and then the Highway totally bypassing the traffic junction. A free left turn would be a good effective discharge,” informs Bagwe.

Excerpt from therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com, reported by From Kapil Verma & Priyanka Joshi on Jan 2010: Read Full Article

Cops-Underworld nexus easily breached security of BARC

Though the Indian officials have yet to come up with any official announcement regarding the mysterious fire that broke out at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India top nuclear research facility on 29th December, 2009, The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that Mumbai’s underworld mafia Don Chhota Rajan’s goons and some infamous, serving and dismissed Mumbai Cops’ nexus was behind the BARC blaze as a detailed examination was being conducted at the chemistry lab of the centre on the material seized by cops from three persons, belonging to Chhota Rajan gang in Navi Mumbai on the 8th of last month.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that Mumbai police announced on December 8th,2009 that they have arrested three persons who were possessing some suspected chemical. In the beginning, police refused to disclose the identities of the arrested persons but later identified them as Premsingh Savitri, Srinivas Poriyar and Tulsidas Bhanushali and stated that they were booked under unlawful possession of prescribed material under sections of the Atomic Energy Act. Gulabrao Pol, commissioner of police Navi Mumbai, declined to divulge information about the exact time and place from where the three were arrested. However, Police officials said, the suspicious looking material in the form of a metallic ball was sent to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that the top police authorities handed over the further investigations of the case to Mumbai Police’s Special Branch, where the case was given to ACP Prakash Wani was responsible for the Crime Branch’s operations in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs that indicates that the trio with suspected chemical was arrested from eastern Mumbai, considered to be a stronghold of RAW’s Chhota Rajan mafia gang…. read more

Excerpt from en0ugh.blogspot.com, blog by V.Parekh on January 3, 2010: Read Full Article

Location: Easten Express Highway Mankhurd Junction

A couple of weeks ago just to ease the flow in diversion of traffic towards flyover at Amar Mahal (Chembur) & Mankhurd, parallel baby flyovers constructed on either of sides the main flyover were thrown open with service roads available on respective sides of these baby flyovers. Even if we just for a min. ignore the tacky quality & finishing of these baby flyover, which we shouldnt as our hard earned money is been wasted on it, the basic purpose for construction of these baby flyovers is not being served at all.

For instance, keeping in mind that there are 3 options on either side viz. the major flyover, baby flyover & service road; the sensible, congestion avoiding & strict tarffic management should have been as follows:

1. The major flyover: To allow flow of traffic heading towards Chembur.
2. The baby flyovers: To divert the flow of traffic towards Mankhurd or Vikhroli, as applicable. Considering the size and amount of traffic using the baby flyover , it should have been of atleast 4 lanes instead of the present 2 lanes. Which is commonly used by traffic coming from Chembur side and Mankhurd side and hence is too narrow.
3. The service roads: To divert only the LMV traffic wanting to enter or exit Ghatkopar through the road connecting to the tunnel passages below the above mentioned flyovers.

As reported in Mumbai Mirror By Nazia Sayed Posted On Saturday, December 05, 2009

BMC officials insist that enough water is supplied to residents of Govandi. However, there is always a water shortage here due to the water mafia. In a bid to end this problem, BMC officials along with Deonar police raided several places on Friday and arrested 22 people, recovering 17 booster pumps.  T C Bhalerao, Senior Inspector, Deonar Police Station, said many of those who have been arrested have prior criminal records. “Many of those who live here have been externed from other parts of the city. They have taken to water and electricity theft as they earn crores in this business.”

BMC officials found that the accused would fix their booster pumps on the main BMC water pipeline and draw water in abundance. Assistant Engineer of BMC, M-ward, Arun Kadam said, “Due to this, there is a shortage of water in the area. Later, this water is sold to poor people at a high price.”

(Above) The booster pumps seized by the Deonar police; (below) The water cans that are illegally filled with BMC water and sold to the poor at high prices

However, Zarina Khan, a Deonar resident, whose booster pump was seized on Friday argued that she had installed one only to get sufficient water supply at her home.

“I sold my jewellery to acquire this connection and now police have seized the motor. How can we live without water?” pleaded the woman who has a family of six.

The man who provided Khan with the illegal connection was arrested. Kadam said the BMC has wanted to conduct such raids for a long time now. “However, until now we never got police co-operation. Now, under pressure from political parties, they accompany us on such raids.”

In the last one week the authorities have arrested 64 people from this area and seized 167 booster pumps in all. All accused have been booked under sections 379 (punishment for theft), 430 (mischief by injury to works of irrigation or by wrongfully diverting water), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC and have been remanded in police custody till Monday.

Want water? Pay up

One gallon(3.7 litres): Rs 15

40 litres: Rs 25

20 minutes supply: Rs 500/month

24 hrs supply: Rs 50,000/month

Excerpt from CG+, reported by Vrunda Moghe Dev on  Saturday, October 10, 2009: Read Full Article

With the Lok Sabha elections done with plenty of complaints of missing names at times omissions of entire buildings from the voters’ lists, the local Election Commission office was asked to take note of these complaints and gear up for the State Assembly elections.

With the latter almost at the threshhold, the newly made cards too are not free from errors. Prabhakar Ranande, president of Bal Vikas Sangh showed how many errors just two cards,-his and his wife’s, contained. Ranade lamented, “I have been a voter for more than three decades and have been a resident of the same place.

As reported in  by India Today,  Seema Kamdar, on October 8, 2009

It’s so full of criminals, the list of candidates for Maharashtra’s Assembly polls almost looks like a dossier on prison inmates.

Two of them ‘boast’ of underworld connections while many others have been booked for murder, attempt to murder, dangerous assault, wrongful confinement, robbery, and burglary. Some of the would-be legislators have been accused of even more horrifying crimes such as dealing with slaves and using minors for prostitution.

These revelations have been made by the National Election Watch (NEW), a cluster of NGOs. NEW has compiled the candidates’ profiles, based on the affidavits filed by the candidates themselves. The report says 127 of the 470 candidates screened in Mumbai and Thane have criminal backgrounds.

Sadashiv Lokhande, a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate from Kurla, has been booked under Section 371. This deals with ‘habitual dealing in slave’ and is punishable with a jail term of 10 years or even a life sentence.

Some candidates have even been accused of trading in minors for purposes of prostitution.

In Jogeshwari East, Congress candidate Bhai Jagtap, who has declared assets worth Rs 12 crore, has five cases against him. These include wrongful confinement and buying a minor for prostitution.

Former BJP corporator Gopal Shetty, a candidate from Borivli, faces charges of ‘habitual dealing in slave’ and ‘buying minor for prostitution purposes’. The Shiv Sena candidate from Dahisar, Vinod Ghosalkar, has also been accused of slave-dealing.

Broadly speaking, both these offences relate to human trafficking, says crime lawyer Tejas Bhatt. “A person booked under Section 371 is charged with not giving the person (deemed as slave) his/ her minimum wages or other benefits under the labour laws,” he explains.

Under Section 373, anyone who keeps a minor can be presumed to be doing so for the purpose of prostitution.

Sada Sarvankar, till recently a Shiv Sena leader who will represent the Congress in Mahim, has 25 cases against him, including attempt to murder and use of dangerous weapons.

Ramchandra Kadam, an MNS candidate from Ghatkopar West, faces charges of cheating and “inducing delivery of property by dishonest means”. Bhavesh Bhinde, an Independent candidate from Mulund, has 25 cases including “taking gift to recover stolen property”. Senior Sena leader Subhash Desai, who is seeking a re-election from Goregaon, has 10 cases against him. Most of them are political such as rioting and defamation.

Pitted against him is a wellknown trade unionist, Sharad Rao, with five cases against him. Rao is fighting on a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket.

Deepak Nikhalje, underworld don Chhota Rajan’s brother, is fighting from Chembur, apparently against his brother’s wish.

Nikhalje is being fielded by the Republican Party of India (Athavle). He has assets worth about Rs 4 crore and two police cases against him.

Arun Gawli, who has formed the Akhil Bharatiya Sena, is seeking re-election from Byculla.

He faces 13 cases, including murder, extortion and theft.

Apart from dealing in slaves and buying minors, MNS’s Lokhande has also allegedly abetted “the desertion of soldier, sailor, or airman”. His party colleague Pravin Darekar, who is standing from Magathane, and Ashish Shelar, the BJP’s Bandra West candidate, have also been accused of similar offences.

Samajwadi Party’s Abu Asim Azmi, who was acquitted in the serial bomb blast case and is contesting from Mankhurd- Shivaji Nagar, has nine criminal cases against him including extortion, forgery and promoting enmity between groups.

But not all constituencies have crime-tarred candidates.

Some like Mumbadevi and the reserved constituency of Dharavi have a clean slate.

As reported in Mid-Day on 5th October 2009

They stood shivering in the rains without an umbrella for over four hours and got only a vada pav for their presence.

Thank you for coming: Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati during an election rally in Govandi yesterday

Public sentiment at Mayawati’s rally at MMRDA ground at Shivaji Nagar in Govandi yesterday was that of anger, as the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief arrived at 7:30 pm, 90 minutes after the scheduled time.

“I was only given one vada pav since afternoon. We were brought here at 4 pm and not paid. I didn’t even know Mayawati was coming,” complained Tai Mangal Waghmare, a woman in her 60s.

“Three buses crowded with people were brought for the rally,” said Meenubai Naik (54), a staunch BSP supporter.

He added, “We will vote for the BSP because no other party helped us when our houses collapsed.”

Mayawati promised that migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar won’t suffer if the BSP came to power.

Today around 12 O’ Clock , I  happened to go to Chembur  station via Diamond Garden.   Bunch of  Reserve police stationed at a few places on the way  seemed to be the norm of the day . Thought it must be some planned stately visit by some neta babu to the area. On reaching office, a few phonecalls back to back  got some shock and horror news … Chembur was under terrorist attack….

Or Was it ? To check its preparedness in the event of a terror attack, the city police today conducted a mock drill at Chembur in the eastern suburbs of the megapolis.

Over 300 police personnel wearing bullet proof jackets and armed with AK-47s took positions at various spots near K Star Mall as part of the exercise. ”We were testing our preparedness by conducting mock drills. This will enable us to know the topography of the area and we can swiftly take positions in case of any adverse situation,” Deputy Police Commissioner Dilip Sawant said.

The exercise lasted for about 45 minutes. However, passers-by, unaware of the drill, were scared to see policemen bearing arms taking positions and a large number of vans parked outside the mall.