Excerpt from Hindustan Times, reported by Bhavika Jain, on July 01, 2010: Read Full Article

With fogging and anti-larvae measure not proving to be effective to curb the mosquito menace, the residents of Chembur have revived an age-old method to control the breeding of larvae.

Pestom Sagar Residents Association (PSRA) have begun a breeding of guppy fish also called as million fish. They leave these fishes into stagnant water puddles, which are sites for mosquito breeding.

This fish is a predator of mosquito eggs and larvae, which lead to the spread of malaria. The residents have also spoken to supervisors of the construction sites near their locality and have released some of these fishes inside the water puddles in their premise.

Construction sites have been identified as high-risk malaria zones by the civic body.“There are four such construction sites where we have released these fishes.These fishes eat the larvae and help in controlling their spread,” said Dr Vijay Sangole of the Pestom Sagar Citizen Forum (PSCF).

Excerpt from CG+, reported by Sujatha Subraman on Saturday, April 17, 2010 : Read Full Article

Approach road at Pestomsagar dug up at both ends; officials claim signboards indicating status of work were stolen!

Their agony began before the festival of Holi when the Central Agency of MCGM decided to lay new water pipelines from Somaiya junction up to Kamrajnagar. As these pipelines pass through Road No 6, the said road has deep trenches plus the entire road has uncleared debris.

In the words of Rajan Iyer, a senior citizen, “Visibility is poor in the evenings and these trenches are deep. Further, the entire road is uneven with debris lying on the road. On two occasions I have hurt my ankle while walking on this stretch. Work would have been smooth sailing had the authorities finished the job at one end before progressing to the other end.”

Another resident Prakash Bashikar stated, “There are no signboards placed at the site indicating the nature and duration of the work. In case of an emergency we do not know whom to contact as no responsible official is present at the site.” Interestingly, this locality has an organised residents forum known as Pestomsagar Residents Forum but even the office bearers of this forum state they were not intimated about the water pipe project.

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 DNA by Sandeep Ashar on February 10, 2010: Read Full Article

With the city’s water crisis worsening by the day and water becoming a scarce commodity, Mumbaikars have decided to take rearguard action. Residents of the Pestom Sagar locality from Chembur have decided to form their own brigade to curb water misuse and to spread word on recycling and reuse of water.

Dr Vijay Sangole, joint secretary, Pestom Sagar local area citizens’ group (LACG) refers to the citizens’ team as the Aqua-Guard Brigade. The mandate for the brigade, which comprises of local citizens, is to ensure that all developers save water while undertaking construction activity in the region, Sangole said.

“We will get them to install water conservation and recycling units. If they do not toe the line, members of the brigade will register complaints with the civic body,” Sangole added.

Excerpt from CG+, reported by Vibha Singh  on 11 Sep 2009: Read Full Article

S Ganesan, resident of Pestomsagar, has been creating awareness among the residents about the importance of reading their electricity bills. Meanwhile, he felt sure that the inflated bills received by the residents were due to the manipulated new electric meters installed by Reliance. Residents were not able to prove it because it was not possible to keep a tab on the consumption pattern and meter reading in a house.

Says Ganesan, “I was sure that the meters were being tampered but was not having proof to prove the accusation. I have a separate meter for my garage which is used only for parking my car. I purchased the garage from the society in 1996 and also bought a separate meter in my name. At that time BSES gave me the electric supply and classified the garage as non-commercial consumption unit.

The garage light was used only once or twice in a month when I parked my car at night. The consumption for a whole month was hardly two or three units per month and I always paid the minimum of Rs 30 per month. This continued for nearly 12 years that is from 1997 to March 2009.”

“In March 2009 Reliance Energy changed the meters and I started keeping a watch on the new meter. To my surprise I found that the unit consumption had partially increased to 7 in March and shot up to 16 units in the month of April and 15 in May — and in all these months I had not used the garage lights at all,” he said.

In June, Ganesan’s bill jumped three units everyday without even using the garage lights. When finally the reading touched 49 he switched off the mains inside the garage and the meter reading stopped. Explains Ganesan, “I could find out the increase in the meter reading as it was in the garage but a domestic user cannot afford this experiment and continues paying the inflated without discovering the mischief.”

As reported in Mid-Day  By  Kranti Vibhute on    2009-08-31

At a time when environmentally conscious Mumbaikars are opting for eco-friendly immersions in artificial lakes, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) discouraged people in Chembur from doing so, saying it was against Hinduism.

Residents of Pestom Sagar were shocked when members of HJS protested with banners during visarjan at the artificial lake at Nana Nani Park on Saturday.

“Around 15 people were present and insisted that we immerse the Ganesh idol in natural water. Yesterday, they even destroyed the place where Ganesh idols were kept after immersion.

We have filed a complaint against them after they threatened a gardener against holding artificial immersions,” said Dr Vijay Sangole, joint secretary, Pestom Sagar Citizens’ Forum (PSCF).

Despite the protests, around 500 families opted to go the eco-friendly way. PSCF has been carrying out eco-friendly Ganesh visarjans since 2005.

Mayor Shubha Raul, who is an avid supporter of eco-friendly immersions, said, “I called HJS members to my bungalow at Dadar and told them that their beliefs are a misconception.

In fact, I will have a meeting with officials from Pollution Control Board and BMC along with HJS to change their mind.”But Shivaji Vatkar, spokesperson of HJS, was adamant. “Immersion of Ganesh idols in an artificial well is against Hindu rituals. We have readings by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board regarding water pollution of 2007, which states there is no pollution in the water,” he said.

Mayor Shubha Raul has been inviting citizens to carry out Ganesh idol immersions at the artificial well in her Dadar bungalow. This year, 613 people showed up for visarjan after one-and-a-half-days. For the five-day visarjan, 387 families showed up and 400 for the seven-day immersions.

Pestom Sagar advanced locality management (PSALM)  have again managed to shake and stir BMC, Make right use of RTI( Right To Information) and  get more peace into Pestom Sagar… 

As reported in DNA by Ashutosh Shukla Wednesday, May 6, 2009 :  ”Determined, they nailed PIO’s wrong info report” :-

 Officials regularly tell lies and rarely get caught. But this one time, a public information officer (PIO) was caught telling a lie under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and his superior officer had to give a written acknowledgement of that lie.

The noise emanating from 12 repair workshops near Nana-Nani Park at Pestom Sagar, Chembur, was a source of harassment to the residents there. The residents had already complained to authorities concerned seeking relief from the noise, particularly since the area was earmarked as a silence zone.

“Sleeping or studying was a big problem and we kept on reminding the authorities,” said V Sangole, a member of the Pestom Sagar advanced locality management (PSALM). When the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) did not act, residents decided to file a plea under RTI Act in January seeking details of the licence given to two workshops which made the most noise.

“What surprised us was that BMC’s public information officer said these shops do not keep machines, while we saw them being used,” said GR Gaonkar, another resident. “We contested his claim and took the matter to first appellate authority (FAA),” said Sangole, adding that initially the FAA, who is the executive engineer, BMC, sided with the PIO.

The residents bolstered their case with information from other officials. “The licence department gave us a list of activities that were conducted by these shops, including cutting and treating of metals with the use of machines,” said Sangole. When presented with this evidence, the FAA had to state in writing his PIO had told a lie. Now, two weeks later, all the shops have stopped their metal works, while one has shut down.

In A formal function recently held at Nair Hospital, Chembur and its people won three awards as a part of the Clean Up awards announced by the civic corporation in the year 2008

At this function , The municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak presented awards to

1. The municipal ward M (West) won the cleanest ward award, this award was handed over to the AMC (Assistant Municipal Commissioner) Ramesh Pawar.
2. Raja Chougale, the local corporator, won the Best Corporator award.
3. Pestomsagar Citizens Forum bagged the award for cleanliness as well as for initiating various eco-friendly measures. Pestomsagar Citizens Forum was among the select few NGO, who also got some cash award.

 Dr V Sangole, joint secretary of Pestomsagar LACG (Local Area Citizens group) ,  recieved the awards  on behalf of their forum.

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

BMC felicitated Sheetal Sangole from Pestomsagar   and forty-one other women achievers from different walks of life at the BMC headquarters on the occasion of International Women’s Day. 
 
Sheetal has many feathers in her cap like …Initiating several eco-friendly ventures  in her neighbourhood ( Peston Sagar) , Starting artificial immersion wells during Ganesh Chathurti.Taking measures to control the mosquito menace by letting in some guppy fishes in the mosquito breeding stagnant water pools.

She was also in news recently for  being very instrumental in giving Chembur is first Noise Polution Free Zone. (Chembur Pestom Residents Get Their First Silent Zone In Mumbai )

Read more on this in Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus