THE TIM

ES OF IN

DIA eP

APER

Mumbai:The second editionof the Joint Entrance Exam-ination (main) for admissioninto various engineeringcourses was not a smooth af-fair for many who attemptedthe offline test on Sunday.While students in a few cen-tres claimed that they got 15-25 minutes less to attempt thepaper, some perceived errorsin the physics sectionstumped the students. Manyfound the paper, especiallythe physics and mathematicssections, tough and lengthy.Around 11.85 lakh studentsregistered for the offline ex-am conducted by the CentralBoard of Secondary Educa-tion (CBSE) across the coun-try.

Teachers from coachinginstitutes claimed that noneof the choices given for atleast one question each inphysics and mathematicswere right. Two questions inthe physics section again, hadthe wrong units, claimedsome students and coachinginstitutes. A student from aCBSE school said that hewasted a lot of time in findingthe right value. “In the end, Idid not get enough time tocomplete the paper and I had

to blindly mark the options,”he said. Another student fromThakur College said that thephysics and mathematics sec-tions were tougher as com-pared to last year.

Praveen Tyagi from II-Tians Pace, said, “In anotherquestion all options given hadpositive values, but the cor-rect answer should have anegative value. It is a nationallevel exam conducted by theCBSE. The paper-setters

should ensure that the papersare error free and do not puz-zle students.” Ramesh Batlishfrom FIIT-JEE said thatthough the error in the unitswould not affect the value, stu-dents would wonder if theiranswer was indeed correct.While each question carries 4marks, there could be ques-tions of 8-16 marks, whichraised doubt among students.

CBSE chairman VineetJoshi said that the expertteam of the board took duecare to ensure the papers areerror free. “But students whohave queries can write to usand we will look into it,” saidJoshi.

Meanwhile, students at acouple of centres alleged thatthe invigilator gave 15-25 min-utes less to complete the pa-per. A student who got a cen-tre at an engineering collegein Bandra, said, “We were giv-en the question paper and theOMR sheets around 9.30am,when in other colleges it washanded over to the students atleast 10-15 minutes earlier”

Teachers also pointed outthat the question papers wereheavily based on the NCERTsyllabus followed by theCBSE and hence they seemedtougher for the state boardstudents.

Yogita Rao TNN

Errors, time constrainttrip up JEE candidates

THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI *MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014 3TIMES CITY

Mumbai: The victims of themilk tanker mishap had trav-elled on the same vehicle totheir native place in Sangam-ner and hitched a ride back af-ter spending a week there.

The senior-most victim,Abdul Shaikh, lived in Malwa-ni, Malad (W). The other fourvictims who died on the spotwere identified as Shaikh’sdaughter-in-law Sameena (33),granddaughter Sara (4),daughter Shayana (56), andher son Irfan (32).

Those injured are Shaikh’sdaughter-in-law Nasreen (29),and her kids Alina and Arsa-lan (both 5), driver NavnathGite (26) and cleaner AnandGaikwad (27). They have allbeen admitted to Sheer Gov-ernment Hospital in Nashik.Nasreen was not told about herdaughter Sara’s death, a fam-ily member said.

The Shaikhs were all seat-ed in the front cabin next to thecleaner’s seat at the time of theincident. The police said theyare yet to verify if it was a case

of drunk driving. While Abdul lived in Azmi

Nagar in Malwani, Sameenaresided in a squatters’ colonyin Goregaon, from where thebodies were taken for burial.

Residents of Azmi Nagarwoke up to the news of thedeaths when the Kasara policecalled up Abdul’s daughterKhalida to inform her about

the accident.Aarif Khan, one of the vic-

tim’s husband, told TOI, “Asthe tanker’s driver comes fromour village to supply milk inMalwani, we take a ride in hisvehicle to avoid travelling byST buses. He would drop usnear our home but we neverthought it would turn out to beso dangerous.”

Sandhya Nair & Pradeep Gupta TNN

THE DECEASED ➤ Abdul Shaikh (93), Malad resident ➤ Sameena (33), daughter-in-law ➤ Sara (4), granddaughter ➤ Shayana (56), daughter ➤ Irfan (32), grandson

DEATHON THE HIGHWAY

On Sunday, around 1.45am, a milk tanker heading to Mumbai from Sangamner in Ahmednagar district overturned near New Kasara ghat on the Mumbai-Agra Highway, killing five members of a family. Three other members of the same family, the tanker driver and cleaner suffered grievous injuries and were admitted to a hospital in Nashik

THE INJURED | Shaikh’s daughter-in-law Nasreen (29), her kids Alina & Arsalan (both 5), driver Navnath Gite (26), cleaner Anand Gaikwad (27)

The mangled tanker near Kasara

Victims hitched ride to nativeplace & back on milk tanker

Mumbai: An EMU failure nearMumbra on Sunday evening ledto bunching of trains on CentralRailway. With trains moving at asnail’s pace, inconveniencedcommuters preferred to jumpon to tracks and walked to thenearest station.

CR public relations officer AK Jain said an “unit defect” ledto the bunching of trains. “It ledto three trains stopping on thetracks. But we ensured that thetrack was cleared and servicesnormalized at the earliest.”

Commuters said trains on theMain line were delayed by 20-30minutes. “We were stuck insidethe trains for a long time,” saidArvind Singh, who was travell-ing from Kalyan to Bhandup.

Harbour line commuterswere inconvenienced earlier inthe day due a megablock.Though the blocks ended arou-nd 4pm, it caused a cascading eff-ect and bunching of trains conti-nued, a source said. An officialsaid, “There was a huge rush ofpassengers as schools have shutand families are planning outin-gs or going to tourist spots on Su-ndays. We had issued a megabl-ock advisory two days ago.”

Snag in trainnear Mumbra

derails CR

MEGABLOCK ADDS TOCOMMUTERS’ WOES

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: In the seventh acci-dent involving Indian Navyships and submarines in theWestern Command in the pastnine months, a fire broke outin INS Matanga, an ocean-go-ing tug, on Sunday afternoon.

The tug was undergoingrepairs at the naval dockyardwhen the fire broke. Weldingwork was being carried out bya private firm in the sewagetreatment plant compart-ment, when insulating materi-al in the adjacent compart-ment started smoldering andemitting thick smoke, the Na-vy said in a statement. Fire ten-ders were rushed to the spot.No casualties were reported,but the Navy is probing the ex-

tent of damage. A board of in-quiry has been ordered to in-vestigate the incident. The68-m tug was commissioned in

the Indian Navy in 1983.Since August 2013, 21 naval

employees have died in nearly13 mishaps across the country.

Fire on naval tugboat atdockyard, no casualty

IN TROUBLED WATERS ➤ On August 14 last year, INS Sindhurakshak sank after blasts ripped through its torpedo section. All 18 pers-onnel on board were killed

➤ Last year, a fishing trawler sank after colliding with INS Talwar near Ratnagiri

➤ In January, INS Sindhughosh ran aground at the naval harbour in Mumbai

➤ Early this

year, INS Betwa, ran aground at the Mumbai harbour

➤ On February 26, two sailors died in a fire that broke out on submarine INS Sindhuratna

➤ Recently, a toxic gas leak killed a senior officer,

commander Kuntal Wadhwa, on

board a destroyer, INS Kolkata, at

Mazgaon Docks

INS Matanga is capable of towing two large vessels

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Creators of a suc-cessful public service projectin Singapore, which equipsits citizens with updates ondengue, will soon be design-ing a prototype for the city.

Through the service,Mumbaikars can receive textand email alerts, if there arecluster of dengue cases neartheir homes, schools or work-places.

The Singapore initiative,X-dengue, was launched in2011, and has gained lakhs ofsubscribers following a col-laboration with the govern-ment. The X-dengue creatorsrecently won $10,000 to de-sign the programme to com-bat dengue in India. Theywere one of the participantsin a contest announced byBreakdengue, a global initia-

tive, which supports tangibleand innovative ideas. “Thepilot project is going to bebased in Mumbai. We arelooking at collaborationswith the BMC and centralhealth authorities,” said phy-sician Dr Pratit Samdani,

one of the minds behindBreakdengue. “X-dengue isbased on the idea that the gov-ernment spends a lot of efforton gathering information onfresh outbreaks and dengueclusters but that does not al-ways reach people in time,”

said Samdani, adding thatthe project itself had come in-to being after one of the co-founders suffered from den-gue in 2011. “It is a simpleidea that can make a lot of dif-ference. Dengue is preventa-ble disease after all,” he said.

Prevention from vector-borne diseases also remainsone of the main highlightsthis World Health Day, wherethe World Health Organiza-tion’s slogan is ‘Small bite,big threat’. Mumbai, muchlike the rest of the country,had witnessed 120% increasein dengue deaths last year.

Luckily, incidence of ma-laria has been going down inthe past three years record-ing a 34 to 50% dip in cases aswell as deaths. “This city hasa problem of non-slum in-door breeding of mosquitoes.Awareness of citizens canput an end to their spread,”said Dr Mangala Gomare,epidemiologist, BMC.

Soon, get real-time alerts on dengueSumitra Deb Roy TNN

➤ ‘X-dengue’ is an existing public service system in Singapore that disseminates real-time information on dengue clusters or cases

➤ Citizens have to sign up on a website or download a cellphone app and create an account

➤ Each account can log up to eight different addresses and for each address there can be five cellphone nos. registered

➤ Users receive alerts on new cases in areas that concern

them such as their homes, schools, workplace

➤ People will get text/email alerts if they reside/work within 150m of a dengue

cluster

➤ Local health authorities are roped in, but users themselves can share cases in their homes or neighbourhood

➤ The idea is to encourage users to take preventive steps

MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK

WORLD HEALTH DAY

Mumbai: The BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)has proposed virtual planningof public amenities, in a majorshift in policy.

BMC will not mark a reser-vation on a plot of land, but itwill be proposed in the develop-ment plan (DP), and when an ar-ea undergoes redevelopment,the civic body will demand thata particular size area be madeavailable to develop the amenity.

Civic officials said physicalholding of land was necessaryfor civic infrastructure such as roads, storm water drains,playgrounds, gardens andparks. But amenities such ashospitals, balwadis, dispensar-ies and schools could be createdwhen an area goes in for redevel-opment.

“The state government iskeen on an urban renewal mas-terplan for the city, for which thecity has been divided into 151clusters of one acre each. Whenan area goes in for redevelop-ment, BMC can demand theseamenities if marked on the DPfor that cluster,’’ officials said.

They said this would reducelitigation and acquisition costs,and there will be no danger ofencroachment.

BMC preparatory studiesshowed space demand estimat-ed for education amenities is1,549 hectares, medical ameni-ties 365 hectares, open spaces2,357 hectares and social ameni-ties 349 hectares.

Arguing for virtual plan-ning, BMC said that during im-plementation of the 1967 DP, itencountered land acquisitionproblems in terms of scale ofcompensation and rehabilita-tion of affected persons.

PK Das, civic activist, archi-tect and town planner, said BMCcannot complain of failures andrelinquish planning. “Virtualplanning is speculation. Whilethere is not enough vacant landfor all amenities and redevelop-ment can provide amenities,BMC must do detailing on what would be plotted on theground and what can be madeavailable through built-up ar-ea,’’ Das said.

Public amenities maybe ‘virtually planned’BMC Plan Will

Reduce Litigation,Acquisition Costs

Clara Lewis TNN

NOW YOU WILL HAVE A SAY

We have been able

to compare census and slum data, do a lot of number crunching, and create models with ease owing to technologySitaram Kunte | MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER

BMC must do an analysis of the impact of policies on Mumbai such as slum redevelopment, transfer of development rights and mill land redevelopment. It is important for a city to know if policies have had a positive or negative impact, and if they must be continued or discontinuedP K Das | ARCHITECT, TOWN

PLANNER & ACTIVIST

NEW DEVELOPMENT PLANIt will hear the local community’s voice when redevelopment is being done. It will not physically reserve land for public amenities that may be required. Land will be reserved in the new plan only for infrastructure that is on the ground, like roads and playgrounds

HOW IT WILL HELPBesides letting users decide what they want, BMC will not be required to reserve plots for future public amenities and save it land acquisition litigation

Mumbai: Preparation ofthe city’s development plan(DP) is technology-driven.The use of technology hashelped the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation(BMC) collate and analysedata and enabled greaterpublic participation.

The last DP was overtak-en by so many changes on theground that BMC had tokeep pace through amend-ments to development con-trol regulations, resulting inhaphazard growth of thecity, changing the characterof the DP.

This time, civic officialssaid, the DP department hasused the geographical infor-mation and global position-ing systems to carry out landsurveys and accuratelymark how land is being usedin the city on a base map, aswell as trace undergroundutilities. Satellite images

and Google Maps have beensuper-imposed on the basemap to understand how aplot of land has been devel-oped over a period of time.

Satellite images are avail-able from 2006 to 2012, andGoogle Maps since 2000.“This has helped us analysean area, fix property bounda-ries and a quick search withproperty numbers enablesus to see temporal changeson the ground,’’ a civic offi-cial said.

This easy super-imposi-tion of images, as well asability to compute numbers,has helped BMC divide thecity into 151 sectors and planfor each one. Civic officials,for instance, can do a time-distance analysis of publicamenities such as a school,hospital and playground in aone-km radius.

When BMC uploads dataon its website, residents cansee what it has planned ontheir plots and in the vicinity.

Tech to the rescueClara Lewis TNN

Mumbai: The Charkop policearrested an employee of a pa-thology laboratory in Maladon Sunday, who allegedly is-sued a false HIV-positive re-port to a man.

The cops are also probingthe role of another staffer ofthe lab in the case.

On Saturday, the policehad registered a cheating caseagainst the accused, RajendraMehra and his accompliceGeeta Mehra of Pacific Lab.The complainant, Joel Chet-tiar (38), is a real estate con-sultant.

Last month, he had sub-mitted his blood sample at thelab. He was shocked when thereport revealed that he wasHIV-positive.

Chettiar was very worriedand after an argument athome, he decided to get anoth-er HIV screening done wherehe tested negative. To be sure,Chettiar got a third screeningdone, which too was negative for HIV.

He then approached a so-cial worker and subsequentlycontacted the Charkop police .After an initial investigation,the police had registered anFIR on Saturday under sec-tions 467, 468, 420, 34 of the IPCagainst the Mehras.

Lab employeeheld over false

HIV+ reportTIMES NEWS NETWORK

COMPLAINTS GALORE

➤ Students at three centres in the city claimed they got 15-25 minutes less to attempt the paper

➤ Students and coaching institutes said there were more than two errors in physics and mathematics sections

➤ Students found the physics and mathematics sections tough and lengthy

Students come out of a JEE centre after taking the test

Pic: Anil Shinde

The husband of a constable,Sumedha Chavan, who

hanged herself on Thursday,was arrested on Sunday.Chavan’s father has claimedthat the accused, Rakesh, hadbeen torturing his daughter anddemanding a motorcycle.Chavan, a Vikhroli resident, hadleft behind a suicide note,stating no one should be heldresponsible for her death. TNN

Husband of constablewho hanged self held

The mother-in-law andsister-in-law of a 30-year-old

woman, Vinita Potole, werearrested on Saturday for alleg-edly attempting to kill Potole bysetting her on fire. The incidenttook place at a slum in Borivli onSaturday. The victim is in criticalcondition, the police said.

In-laws arrested forsetting woman on fire

Three persons were arrested forallegedly accepting bets on the

Twenty20 final cricket match bet-ween India and Sri Lanka on Sun-day. The arrests were made afterthe police raided a flat in Walkes-hwar. One of the arrested accused,Naresh Shah, is the main bookie,cops said. As many as nine landlinephones, two cellphones, a laptopand a computer were seized.

T20 betting: 3 nabbed