Construction of second tunnel of Airoli-Katai

Pages 8 • Price 2

The Dynamic Daily Newspaper of Navi Mumbai

Saturday, 26 December 2020

VOL. 14 • ISSUE 169 RNI No. MAHEN/2007/21778 POSTAL REGN. No. NMB/154/2020-22/VASHI MDG POST OFFICE

www.newsband.in

Construction of second tunnel of Airoli-Katai

elevated project begins AHAR welcomes 50% waiver in license fee and rollback of the proposed 15%

annual hikeThe Indian Hotel

and Restaurant As-sociation (AHAR), the apex body of the industry has wel-comed the State Gov-ernment’s decision of 50% waiver in license fee and rollback of the proposed 15% annual hike. Mr. Shivanand Shetty, President, AHAR said, “This is a very positive step to-wards supporting the industry which has been badly hit due to the pandemic related lockdown..”

(More on page 6)

Officials ordered to resolve the

pending issues of Mathadi workers

M a h a r a s h t r a Labour Minister, Dilip Walse-Patil and Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh have in-structed the Labour and Home Depart-ment officials to re-solve the pending issues of Mathadi workers within a month. The Minis-ter also promised to allow the Mathadi workers to travel by train from January 1 as they are engaged in loading and un-loading of essential commodities…

(More on page 2)

The work of this important project was started at the hands of Urban Development Minister on December 24th

CONTINUED ON PAGE...2

By Chandrashekhar Hendve

The construction work of the second tunnel

of Airoli-Katai elevated project was started on

24th December at the hands of Urban Devel-opment Minister, Eknath Shinde. The project will connect Mumbai, Navi

Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivali. The new route will avoid traffic

Amnesty Scheme evokes good response

NMMC collects more than Rs 24 crore within a week of its launch

CONTINUED ON PAGE... 3

By Abhitash D.Singh

Realising the finan-cial difficulties that

the citizens had to face during the lockdown im-posed in the backdrop of Covid 19 pandemic, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) launched the Amnesty Scheme (Abhay Yoja-na) from December 15, 2020. The civic body, through the scheme, has

offered 75% rebate on the penalty for delayed payment of property tax till 15th February, 2020. The scheme has evoked a good response from the tax payers and within a week of its launch, the civic body succeeded in collecting Rs. 24.18 crores.

The civic body, till date, has collected

around 30 percent of the property tax i.e. Rs. 187 crores from the estimat-ed Rs 630 crores for the financial year 2020-21.

NMMC Commis-sioner Abhijit Bangar said, “The collection of property tax had been severely affected due to the ongoing pandemic. Further, many citizens of the satellite city are going through financial

difficulties. Abhay Yoja-na was launched by the civic body with an aim to give relief to all those property tax payers who had not paid the tax. The citizens are requested to pay their pending prop-erty tax between 15th December till 15th Feb-ruary, 2020, after which

CONTINUED ON PAGE...2

By Vikram Gaikwad

The movement of local trains on the

Thane-Vashi Trans-Harbour suburban rail-way line was disrupted on Friday after a local's pantograph got entan-gled with the overhead wire at Koperkhairane station at around 10 am, an official said.

About 1 km of over-head wire between Turb-he and Koparkhairane was broken when a pan-tograph on the Vashi-Thane local on the Trans Harbor railway line broke and got entangled

with the overhead wire. As a result, the move-ment of trains from Vashi to Thane and Nerul to Thane were disrupted for about 5 hours. After the repair work was done,

the local services on this route started smoothly at around 3.30 pm.

According to an of-ficial, at around 10 a.m.

Local train services on Trans-harbour line hit due to pantograph malfunctionThe pantograph of the suburban train got entangled with the overhead

wire at Koparkhairane station around 10 am on 25th December

PHOTO By SUMIT RENOSE

2 Saturday, 26 December 2020

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE...1

CONSTRUCTION OF SECOND TUNNEL...

jams and will cover the distance from Airoli to Dombivali in 15 min-utes.

Currently, work on the tunnel is in full swing from both Airoli and Mumbra. In addition, work is underway on the Y Junction Bridge next to the Airoli-Katai route. The tender process for the Sheelphata flyover is also in the final stages and work on the flyover

will begin soon.The Thane-Belapur

Elevated Freeway will be similar to the East-ern Freeway connecting Mumbai to Thane.

“Considering the growing population of this area in future and the need for good roads, this project is very im-portant in terms of over-coming the problem of traffic congestion,” said Shinde.

“The work on this route will be completed in the next one and a

half years, after which the distance between Airoli and Katai will be reduced and the traffic in this area will be faster. The second phase will see a flyover near Dom-bivli, as well as an over-bridge and underpass at Sheelphata, which will greatly reduce traffic congestion in the area in the future,” said MP Dr. Shrikant Shinde

The length of the Airoli-Katai tunnel is 1.68 km and the two lanes of the tunnel will

have three sidewalks each. The tunnel will also have a refuge lane for repair work on both sides, CCTV system and a high-quality fire extin-guishing system to keep the traffic safe.

“This road is very important for both the ambitious projects of Kalyan Growth Cen-tre and Virar-Alibag Multimodal Corridor. It is expected that this route will transform the area in future,” stressed Shinde.


AMNESTy SCHEME EVOkES GOOD....

I have changed my name from BABURAO CHANGU PATIL to BABURAO CHANGO PATIL as per docu-ments.

CHANGE OF NAME

DOCUMENT MISSINGNotice is hereby given, that the original Share Certificate Reg. No. 14, No. of Shares - 5 distinctive No. 066 to 070 issued by Datta Krupa Co-operative Housing Society Ltd., located at Kurla, Mumbai to its member Mr. Prakash Vinayak Bhogate, Owner of room no. C-2 has been lost while travelling from Vashi Bus Depot to Sector - 20, Nerul Bus Depot on 22nd December 2020 at 5.30 pm. A complaint to the efffect has been lodged by Mrs. Sandhya Prakash Bhogate, aged 65 years residing Plot No. 101, Vikram Society, Sector - 20, Nerul, Navi Mumbai - 400 706 with Nerul police station who have recorded the same vide their document missing register No. 2587/2020 dated 23rd December 2020. In case no information about the lost Share Certificate is received within 15 days from the date of publication hereof, it shall be deemed that the Share Certificate has been lost for good and the society shall then initiate the process of issuing a duplicate share certificate to its affected member, Mrs. Sandhya Prakash Bho-gate. The relevant contact Tel. No. 8652657505 is Mrs. Sandhya Prakash Bhogate. Date : 26-12-2020. Sd/- Place : Navi Mumbai. Mrs. Sandhya Prakash Bhogate

NMMC will not only offer any rebate but will also take legal action against the defaulters."

Bangar further added, " The civic body, even during the pandemic, succeeded in collecting Rs. 187 crores property tax from April 2020 till 21st December, 2020. And now through Am-nesty Scheme from 15th December till 15th February, 2020 the civic body hopes to collect good amount which will be used for many devel-opmental works in the satellite city."

NMMC Chief Ab-hijit Bangar instructed the civic body officials to effectively implement the online system so that the citizens do not have to come to the municipal office for paying their property taxes.


Maharashtra Labour Minis-ter, Dilip Walse-Patil and

Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh have instructed the Labour and Home Department officials to resolve the pending issues of Mathadi workers within a month. The Minister also promised to allow the Mathadi workers to travel by train from January 1 as they are engaged in loading and unloading of essential commodi-ties.

Maharashtra State Mathadi,

Transport and General Workers Union had called a strike on De-cember 14 to draw the attention

towards the pending issues and demanded their speedy resolu-tion.

The meeting was attended by Maharashtra State Mathadi, Transport and General Workers Union leaders, former MLA Na-rendra Patil, former Minister and MLA Shashikant Shinde, Labor Department Principal Secre-tary Vanita Singhal, Joint Labor Commissioner Raviraj Ilve, La-bour and Home Department of-ficials, Mathadi Board Chairman and other officials.

Home Minister Anil

Officials ordered to resolve the pending issues of Mathadi workersState Labour Minister and Home Minister have instructed the

Labour and Home Department to do the needful within a month


The residents living in Sai Sadanand Nagar chawl in

Ghansoli have alleged that ille-gal constructions that that have cropped up in the vicin-ity are illegally connect-ing their sewage line with their sewage lines. This is causing a great deal of inconvenience to the resi-dents. They have demand-ed immediate action from the authorities.

The residents allege that due to illegal sewage connections, the sewage water is overflowing and entering into the houses on the ground floor.

“Three unauthorized buildings

have been constructed on the open spaces adjacent to Sai Sadanand Nagar Chawl and have illegally connected their sewage line with the Sai Sadanand Nagar sewage

line due to which the sewerage line has started overflowing”, said a resident.

To add on to the problem, the residents point out that the road

concretization work that had been carried out by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) a year and a half ago, has not been done properly. The road is at a

higher plane, than that of the chawls due to which the sewage water enters into the houses.

Thus, to solve the issue the residents of Sai Sadan-and Nagar resident, met the officials of Ghansoli ward and submitted a letter.

Speaking about the issue Madan Waghchaure, Engi-neer Ghansoli Ward said, “I have personally inspected the area and have instructed the engineers to do the needful”.

Residents demand action against Illegal sewage connection


3Saturday, 26 December 2020

By Ryhea George

The residents of Panvel are high-ly perturbed by the concept of

‘double parking’ adopted by some of the roads. “Already the roads in Pan-vel are not wide. With the motorists adopting the ‘double parking’ policy, the roads get further constricted. The road on the way to Bapat Wada, Old

Panvel and Line Ali Road faces this menace of the two-side parking. Due to this there are traffic snarls perpetu-ally the entire day,” said Harik Shah, a resident of Panvel. “The officials should take stern action against such drivers, due to whom the pedestrians and the other motorists face difficul-ties,” said another resident.

By Crime Reporter

A woman doctor has been convicted un-

der the PC-PNDT Act and sentenced by the Navi Mumbai court to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000. The doctor, identified as Dr Amita Surve, was found to have not kept the proper records of pa-

tients coming for sonog-raphy at the Millennium Hospital in Nerul nine years ago. There were also significant discrep-ancies and irregularities in the records. There-fore, the municipal health department filed a case against the Mil-lennium Hospital and doctor in 2012 under the

PC-PNDT Act.A case was filed on

December 8, 2012 in the CBD Belapur court on August 6, 2013. The court found the hospi-tal guilty in its verdict. However, no action has been taken against the hospital by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Cor-poration as yet.

Panvel residents urge officials to impose fines for double parking on roads

Female doctor sentenced to 1 year

Travellers coming from England urged to contact NMMC immediately

Passengers travelling from England from 25th November to 25th December, 2020 have to contact the civic body

By Abhitash D. Singh

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Cor-poration (NMMC) has asked all

the travellers coming from England af-ter 25th November to contact the civic body immediately.

A new strain of corona virus has been detected in England and some other countries, and a special survey of migrants travelling from England from November 25th to December 25th is being conducted in the wake of genetic mutations in the corona virus.

NMMC has obtained a list of per-sons who have come to Navi Mumbai from England after November 25th and has started contacting them. However, those who have come to Navi Mumbai from England after 25th November should personally co-operate in this special survey by contacting the nearest Navi Mumbai Municipal Health Centre or Health Department Headquarters.

The civic body has started a toll free number 1800222309/1800222310. The citizens can call on this number for any

assistance.Abhijit Bangar, NMMC Chief

said, "The experts believe that the ge-netic modified virus could spread more rapidly. Therefore, persons coming to NMMC area from England after 25th November should immediately contact the civic body’s health department."

Bangar further added, " Although the number of daily corona infec-tions has been declining over the past few days, citizens need to exercise precaution by strictly following the three-pronged approach to corona pro-tection: regular use of masks, social distance and frequent hand washing, and maintaining a "Covid Appropriate Behavior". Considering that adherence to safety rules is the shield against co-rona virus, all citizens should take care of their own health and the health of the others."

The RT-PCR testing facility for the people coming from England after 25th November, 2020 has been provided at MGM Hospital, Sector 30 in Sanpada.

By Abhitash D.Singh

Maharashtra Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari

offered floral tributes to the memorial of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the occasion of the 96th birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister at the Atal Smriti Udyan at Borivali in Mumbai on Friday 25th Decem-ber, 2020.

Member of Parliament Gopal Shetty, Member of Parliament from Ladakh Jamyang Tser-ing Namgyal, former Minister Vinod Tawde, legislators Sunil Rane, Bhai Girkar, Yogesh Sa-gar and Manisha Chaudhari and Corporators were present.

The Governor visited the Atal Smruti Udyan Complex and saw the audio visual ex-hibition on the life of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Governor saw the replica of the Parliament House created in the Smruti Uday Complex and also took part in a

Virtual Quiz on the life of the former Prime Minister.

Maha Governor pays tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 96th birth anniversary

Inauguration of Livi Institute of Hotel Management and Tourism Management held (By Dinesh Pawar)

on Friday, a local travel-ing train from Vashi to Thane was on its way to Pawne when the lo-cal pantograph broke and got entangled in an overhead wire. As a re-sult, about 1 km of over-head wires on a total of 18 poles between Pawne and Koparkhairane rail-

way stations broke. Upon getting infor-

mation about this inci-dent, a team of the rail-way officials rushed to the spot and immediate-ly undertook the repair-ing work.

The trans-harbour line provides suburban train connectivity be-tween Thane and Navi Mumbai. The CR oper-ates suburban services

between Thane-Vashi and Thane-Panvel sta-tions on this line. Cur-rently only essential services staff, govern-ment employees and selected categories of passengers are permit-ted to travel by the local trains, which resumed operations from June 15, after a few months of suspension due to the pandemic.


LOCAL TRAIN SERVICES ON TRANS-HARBOUR...

Deshmukh also said that a joint meeting of the police and the offi-

cials concerned would be held on the issue of providing police protec-tion to Mathadi workers. The Principal Secretary, Labour Department was

also instructed to hold a joint meeting and sub-mit all the preliminary information and propos-als for resolving all the issues within a month.


OFFICIALS ORDERED TO RESOLVE...


HEAltH AND NutRItIONMerry Christmas 2020

Christmas is a cultural and religious func-

tion celebrated across the world on 25th December every year. Middle of the winter has been a time of celebration around the world marks the arrival of Jesus in the darkest days of winter. The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to cele-brate winter festivals for thousands of years. The branches of it are decorated during winter solstice as it makes think of the spring to come. Nobody is really sure when Fir trees were first used as Christmas trees. The first d o c u m e n t e d use of a tree at Christmas and New Year Cel-ebrations is ar-gued between the cities of Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia. There is a legend and it goes like this. Once on a cold Christmas Eve night, a forester and his family were in their cottage gathered round the fire to keep warm. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. When the for-ester opened the door, he found a poor little boy standing on the door step lost & alone. The forester wel-comed him into his house and the family fed him and put him to bed in the youngest son’s bed. The next Christmas morning when the family woke up by the choir of angels and the poor little boy turned into Jesus. The child went into the garden and

broke a branch of fir tree and gave it to the fam-ily as present and said thank you to them. Ever since then people have remembered that night by bringing a Christmas Tree into their homes!

I am sharing a Christ-mas Special Mangalorean Sannas recipe which is taken with chicken curry. Try this special recipe and

give your feed-back. Merry Christmas!

SANNAS (Mangalorean Catholic styled

steamed rice cakes)

Ingredients: Raw Rice/ Idli rice : 3 cups • Brown boiled rice : 1 cup • Urad dal : ½ cup • Dry active yeast : 1 tsp • Sugar : 3 tsp • Salt : to taste

• Ghee : for greasingMethod : Soak raw rice, brown

boiled rice & urad dal separately for 3-4 hours. Then these separately thoroughly. It should be a fine paste. Now mix all the paste together. In a small bowl containing water add yeast and mix for sometime. Now add this active yeast, salt and sugar to the batter. Keep it for fermentation for atleast 7-8 hours. Now grease small katoris. Pour this batter in the katoris and steam them for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the mould and serve hot with chicken curry.

This Christmas try out this de-licious recipe and enjoy with your family.

By: Bhavani Swaminathan

The writer is Nutritionist and Founder of AAKANKSHA : Desire For Wellness. Contact 7021648382; e-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://aakankshadfw.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and subscribe to our Channel.

Dr. A K Sengupta has revolutionised

the thinking and con-cepts of retired citizens of Navi Mumbai by his unique group called ‘My Retired Life Founda-tion’ (MRLF) which has more than 250 members who have been enjoying hundreds of multifari-ous activities almost ev-ery fortnight for the past three years. Their motto

is: Living life with dig-nity and self-respect.

Dr. Sengupta is the founder of Higher Edu-cation Forum (HUF) which has 3,500 mem-bers. He is a teacher, thinker, researcher who is the former Director of Bhavan’s S P Jain Insti-tute of Management and Research (SPJMR), one of the topmost business schools in India, former Director, SIES school of Management Studies and currently the Men-tor of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s K M Munshi Institute of Advanced Studies and Vice Presi-

dent of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Navi Mumbai Kendra and many other organisations. He is also the author of six books and several research ar-ticles.

MRLF was started in late October 2017 by Dr. Sengupta along with Dr R K Rao and Sau-rav Das. They say, ‘We wanted to do something that can help senior citizens to live a life of dignity and be in touch with each other. We also wanted to create an en-tity that can provide a platform to senior citi-zens to pursue their tal-ent, discover new talent

amidst them, do what they could not do dur-ing their working life, do some social service beyond their homes and be part of a large unified community’.

The inaugural pro-gram, a grand musical event was held in the auditorium of SIES Col-lege of Management Studies (SIESCOMS), Nerul on 9th December 2017. Since then, there have been programmes very frequently, enjoyed by the senior citizens. Talks, discussions, workshops, events fol-lowed in quick succes-

sion garnering an al-most hundred per cent attendance of registered members.

The Public Charita-ble Trust was registered in 2018 and has contin-ued its progress very fast. During these 3 years, MRLF has grown into a big entity with a large membership of seniors from different parts of Navi Mumbai and some from Mum-bai. The average age of the members is 65 plus with senior most mem-bers being more than 90. MRLF is truly cosmo-politan and many of the members have retired

from banks, schools and government institutions like BARC, etc.

The main activities of the MRLF include providing a networking opportunity to senior citizens to be with each other, to arrange talks on regular basis on dif-ferent topics like health, lifestyle, nutrition, ex-ercises including yoga, meditation, etc.

MRLF has created a digital awareness and handholding programs on topics like What-sApp, Facebook, You-

MRlF: A haven for senior citizens

By Dr. Veena Mohan Adige


By Ashok Dhamija

Northern Railway in coordination with

Southern Railway via Konkan Railway route with halt at Panvel too have decided to augment one Second Class Sleep-er coach on a temporary basis to Nizamuddin - Ernakulam Jn. - H.

Nizamuddin “Duranto” Weekly Special. The de-tails of the train run with a revised composition of 17 coaches on following days same is as under:

A) Train No. 02284 H. Nizamuddin - Er-nakulam Jn. “Duranto” Weekly Special ex. H. Nizamuddin on Sat-

urday 26th December, 2020.

B) Train no. 02283 Ernakulam Jn. - H. Nizamuddin “Duranto” Weekly Special ex. Er-nakulam Jn. on Tuesday 29th December, 2020. Passengers are request-ed to kindly avail the services.

Temporary augmentation of coach on H. Nizamuddin - Ernakulam Jn. - H. Nizamuddin “Duranto” weekly special


By Abhitash D.Singh

He came to the city of dream, Mum-bai with an aim

to make it big in Bolly-wood. However, without any Godfather and with limited knowledge about the city, he failed to achieve his dream. Shub-haran Ram Paswan, a 27 year old, who hails from a small village Ghongheya Laxmanpur Nawada vil-lage in Darbhanga district of Bihar, still nurtures the dream of becoming an ac-tor. He took up odd jobs to sustain himself, but dur-ing the lockdown he was rendered jobless. While surfing through google, he chanced upon the con-cept of 'Living Statue', which although is quite popular in Western coun-tries is relatively new in India. He then decided to don the role of the 'Living Statue' of Navi Mumbai. He has been entertain-ing the visitors at Sagar Vihar, Mini seashore and Vashi Sector-9 Market for the last four months. In a conversation with News-band he shares his strug-gle and his goal. Excerpts:

Q: When did you de-cide to don the

role of 'Living Statue' of Navi Mumbai?

A: I came to the city of dreams- Mumbai in

the year 2014 to try my luck in Bollywood as an actor. But I had no clue about the city nor did I have any godfather. I tried for atleast 6-7 months but when my money got over, I decided to take odd jobs. One of my friends kept me at his place but since I was out of money within two days, he asked me to move out. Later I moved to Navi Mumbai and for four days I stayed at Vashi station having just Vada Pav. With the help of my brother-in-law, who stayed in Navi Mumbai, I got a job as a security guard in Navi Mumbai. I had been working as se-curity guard for the last six years but during lock-down I lost my job. I am the only breadwinner for my family and also my fa-ther is a kidney patient, so I have to take care of everything. As I was job-less, I faced financial crunches and also I have a loan of around Rs. 5-6 lakh on me. But, I never gave up in the past nor will I give up in future. My salary was very mea-gre as a security guard. I even took up the job as the delivery boy of Ama-zon but I was removed from the job because I was not familiar with the different locations. Dur-ing lockdown, when ev-erything came to a stand

still, I started searching on Google on different occupations. I chanced upon the concept of 'Liv-ing Statue'. This concept is quite popular in foreign countries. I then decided to try the same in Navi Mumbai. It took three months for me to practise as a statue. It is not easy by any means to stand still for hours. I decided to pose as the statue of ‘Golden Man’ and with this began my journey as the ‘Living Statue of Navi Mumbai’. I perform at Sa-gar Vihar, Mini seashore and Vashi Sector-9 Market from 4-7pm.

Q:How satisfied are you with your role

of 'Living Statue' of Navi Mumbai?

A: Frankly speaking after losing the job

during lockdown, I always wanted to do something extraordinary. I had to do something to earn a livelihood and along with it, I also wanted to make people happy so I thought why not earn and enter-tain people at the same time. I have also faced the consequences of it. Initially when I started performing as the "Living Statue" I was slapped by visitors but now I am get-ting support from all the

people along with NMMC and the police officials. I am donning the role of the "Living Statue" for the last three months and now people take photos along with me. I am very much satisfied with my role as "Living Statue" in Navi Mumbai and I want to take Navi Mumbai and India on global map.

Q: We have heard that you took a

loan from your friend to purchase the "Living Statue" attire. Do you earn enough to meet the requirements?

A: Yes, it is right that I did not have mon-

ey to purchase the attire for "Living Statue" which cost around Rs.3,000 to 3,500. I took a loan from my friend to purchase it. Overall, it took 25 days for me to collect all the paraphernalia and also four months of rigorous training during lockdown before starting the show for the public. I perform at Sagar Vihar from 4pmz to 6pm and from 6pm to 7pm at Mini seashore and after that from 7pm to 7:30pm at Vashi Sector-9 market. Sometimes I am also asked to perform at various events. Frankly speaking I don't earn a huge amount but I accept

whatever the people give and by God grace I am able to run my family as well as keep some money aside for my father's kid-ney treatment.

Q: You are also a certified massage

therapist and you have even worked as a mas-sage therapist. Why did you choose this profes-sion over massage thera-pist?

A: As a massage thera-pist I have to visit

the customers in the so-cieties where I was called but during the lockdown I was not able to get the business and also I was not enjoying it. I wanted to do something out of the box which will make me as well as people hap-py and the idea of "Living Statue" came to my mind. Earlier there were "Living Statue" in India too but now it is a rare scene. Ini-tially, there were lots of hurdles, but now people are loving me and also supporting me. I am get-ting good respect.

Q: What will be your advice to those

who want to embrace this profession?

A: I would say that any-one who is interest-

ed in entertaining people through "Living Statue" then they can definitely try their hand at it. But it needs lots of patience and also lots of practice. One has to practice how to maintain balance and also to stand in the same position for several hours at a stretch. The breath-ing timing is also very im-portant.

Q: Finally let us know what is your goal

in life?

A: My aim is to become an actor. And also,

through "Living Statue" I want bring Navi Mumbai and my country on the world map.

As NAvi MuMbAi’s liviNg stAtue My AiM is to tAke the sAtellite city oN globAl MAp: shubhArAN rAM pAswAN


EditorialISSUE: 169 26 DECEMBER, 2020

Once considered to be the heaven of peace and tranquility, Navi

Mumbai can hardly be described the same. In the last few months there has been an alarming rise in crime, especially the petty thefts and house burglaries. Police response to the rising crime has been inadequate. Insufficient police strength, huge migration of labour, because of large scale construction activities, close proximity to Mumbai, which can well be described as the den of underworld gangs and criminal ac-tivities, are sported as excuse for the zoom in the crime graph. But along with these, there is no denying the fact that handling has been inept and wanting.

While police may pat their shoul-ders for solving a few of the cases, it is disheartening to note that several remain unsolved which only help in bolstering the enthusiasm of the culprits, encouraging them to ven-ture further into crime. Police justify themselves by claiming that some of the absconding culprits are for-eign immigrants who flee back after committing the crime and as such fall beyond their jurisdiction. This is unfortunately true. The police do not seem to have the authority as well as the power to nab such culprits, unless the Central Government per-mits, which is a long procedure. This problem can only be tackled if India, like other nations, follows the prin-ciple of issuing visas to the neigh-

bouring countries and allows only those foreigners who have obtained proper jobs and accommodation. Secondly memorandum of under-standing should be signed with the neighbouring countries to allow the police to nab the culprit from what-ever area he may have fled to.

The attitude of the police of-ficials towards the complainants is also many times not encouraging. It is seen that there is the tendency to ignore the crime, discourage lodging of complaints, slow disposal of cas-es, harassment of witnesses etc. This has certainly dwindled the faith of the public in the police department and they simply hesitate in going to the police stations for lodging of complaints and for other grievances. Over the past few months, there has also been a dereliction of duties as well. Night patrolling, which used to be a daily exercise, has been aban-doned, for reasons best known to the police officials themselves. This has led to the increase in the cases of chain snatching and house break-ing incidents. The detection rate has also not gone up.

The public on their part should come forward bravely with com-plaints as well as with information. The night patrolling exercise should be started for all the sectors to check the growing petty crime. It should be the endeavor of each one of us to make Navi Mumbai a crime free society.

No longer an oasis of peace

By Ashok Dhamija

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the governing body

for cricket in the country approved the inclusion of two new franchises from the existing eight currently to its cash rich T20 Indian Premier League (IPL) during its 89th Annual General Meeting (AGM). Chaired by BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Secre-tary Jay Shah and held on Thursday in Ahmedabad, the decision for the 10-team league however will come into force in 2022 and will witness a total of 94 matches from its current 60.

The BCCI in its other decisions stated that it will certainly host the ICC T20 World Cup in 2021 and the 50-over World Cup in 2023 and will seek full tax exemption from the Union Government for the same, as sought by the ICC. In its non-approval it was willing to forgo a certain percentage from its annual revenue of USD 390 million from the global body

The Board, in principle, also de-cided to back the bid of International Cricket Council, the world governing body of cricket for inclusion of the sport, in the T20 format for the Los Angeles Olympics games scheduled in 2028. The same however is subjected to few clarifications from the Indian Olympic Association.

The BCCI further stated that the

much delayed domestic season will fi-nally get underway, in January with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tourney and it will suitably compensate all first-class players, both men and women through their respective state bodies including Mumbai Cricket Association for the curtailed domestic season on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In what would be a major boost to women’s cricket senior and junior, the BCCI has decided to hold tourna-ments including those in the age group during the upcoming IPL-14 season to be held in India next year despite the pandemic-related concerns. It was also hopeful that a two-Test series involv-ing Indian women’s team next year would be subject to a final call by the BCCI Apex Council. Further the age of retirement for BCCI-affiliated um-pires and scorers has been extended to 60 years from the existing 55 currently.

Former Indian skipper and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly will con-tinue as a Director in the ICC Board, while Secretary Jay Shah will be the alternate Director as well as India's representative at the Chief Executive Committee meets of the global body. Veteran politician Rajiv Shukla will be the new Vice President of BCCI, while former Indian cricketer Brijesh Patel will continue as the chairman of the IPL Governing Council.

Ten team to compete in IPL from 2022, Committed to host ICC global events: BCCI

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah reiter-ated India’s commitment to host the ICC global events during the 89th AGM (File photo)

The IPL 2022 edition which will be a ten-team affair was among the many ramifica-tions of the BCCI's 89th AGM

By: Chandrashekhar Hendve

The Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR), the apex

body of the industry has welcomed the State Government’s decision of 50% waiver in license fee and rollback of the proposed 15% annual hike. The Association has thanked NCP Chief & RS MP Shri Sharad Pawar, Maha-rashtra Chief Minister Shri Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Shri Ajit Pawar, State Excise Minister Shri Dilip Walse-Patil, Tourism Minister Shri Aaditya Thackeray for this deci-sion which will help the beleaguered industry which was shut for 7 months

due to the lockdown. Commenting on this, Mr. Shi-

vanand Shetty, President, AHAR said, “This is a very positive step towards supporting the industry which has been badly hit due to the pandemic re-lated lockdown. We expect such kind of steps in the coming days too which will help the industry to bounce back to some normalcy. Our industry is the second largest employment provider with 60 lakh direct employment in and around Mumbai and 2 crores in-direct employment and this will help the Government too on the revenue front.”

AHAR welcomes 50% waiver in license fee and rollback of the proposed 15% annual hike

Extension of Gandhidham Jn. - Tirunelveli Jn. - Gandhidham Jn. weekly festival special run

By Ashok Dhamija

Western Railway in coordination with Southern Railway have de-

cided to extend the periodicity of fully reserved Gandhidham Jn. - Tirunelveli Jn. - Gandhidham Jn. Weekly Festival Special to clear extra rush of passengers during win-ter season. The Details are as under :

Train no. 09424 Gan-dhidham Jn. - Tirunelveli Jn. Special will leave from Gandhidham Jn. at 04:40 hrs every Monday from 04th January to 25th January 2021 and will reach Tirunelveli Jn. at 23:35 hrs on the next day. On its return journey Train no. 09423 Tirunelveli Jn. - Gandhidham Jn. Special will leave from Tirunelveli

Jn. at 07:40 hrs every Thursday from 07th January to 28th January 2021 and will reach Gandhidham Jn. at 02:35 hrs on the third day. The above Weekly Special will comprise of 22 Coaches.

This includes One 2 Tier AC-, Five 3 Tier AC, Ten Second Class Sleeper, Four Second Class Seat-ing and Two SLR Coach-es. The above Special will halt at Ahmedabad Jn., Vadodara Jn., Su-rat, Vasai Road, Panvel,

Ratnagiri, Madgaon Jn. Karwar, Man-galuru Jn., Kozhikode, Shoranur Jn., Thrissur, Ernakulam Jn., Kayamku-lam Jn., Thiruvananthapuram Central and Nagercoil Town stations in both directions. Passengers are requested to kindly avail the services.


By Ashok Dhamija

The Central Govern-ment has accepted

the suggestions of the Security Association of India (SAI) in amend-ing the Private Security Agency Regulatory Act (PASARA) 2005. These amendments have been included in the Gazette of India (Gazette) is-sued last Tuesday. The Vice Chairman Dr. B.R. Kumar Agrawal and President Gurcharan Singh Chauhan of the city based association in a joint statement shared that on our suggestion, the validity of the veri-fication time limit has been increased from 3 years to 5 years. They further added that the second amendment pub-lished in the Gazette is that if a renewal appli-cation is made before the expiration of the li-cense and if the license has not been renewed or is pending then that pe-riod will be deemed as a valid period. Third is that the license will now be issued in the name of the agency.

Apart from this, an-

other improvement has been made in the above act in which if a train-ing certificate is issued by one state, then other states will accept the same training certifi-cate. Now there will be no need to get training certificates from other states separately. In ad-dition, if the license is issued to the applicant after personal verifica-tion by the controlling

authority of a state, in such cases the authority of other states will have to validate the license. Most of the issues under PSARA Rule 2020 like multi state level anteced-ent verification, training to licensee and validity of licence during renew-al process are resolved under PSARA rule 2020 by Rule 3(5), 3(9) para and 5(10) including the antecedent verification through CCTNS process and not through Police station are resolved. The President of SAI Chau-han has thanked Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Additional Central Home Secre-tary Vivek Bhardwaj for this.

SAI’s suggestions included in PSARA Act

(L to R) Security Association of India’s Vice Chairman Dr. B.R. Kumar Agrawal and President Gurcharan Singh Chauhan

Tube, Twitter, cyber se-curity, etc. There have been talks on religious and spiritual topics and celebrations of festivals.

They have organised talks by senior doctors of Apollo Hospital (with whom MRLF has a tie-up) on different spe-cialized health topics. Discounts on medical issues, counselling op-portunities, CSR activi-ties take place regularly. Members visit senior citizens at Homes like Aajicare Old Age Home, Karuneshwar Old Age Home near Panvel, Paramshanthidham Vr-iddhashram, Taloja and spend time with them.

A much awaited pro-gram is a monthly musi-cal programme or “Sab Ki Suno Programs” where members can ex-

press their views on any topic of their own.

Transport was ar-ranged earlier for the MRL members to visit but now during the corona pandemic, all programs are held vir-tually. Entertainment programmes are held where the members sing and dance beautifully, attend workshops and talks and discuss vari-ous issues online. They collected Rs 1.14 lakhs and donated to the Chief Minister’s Relief fund during the pandemic.

MRLF made con-scious efforts to make its members techno-savvy and has successfully conducted more than 80 programmes during the 9 months from April to December 2020 all on virtual mode. This has been a phenomenal achievement.

MRLF has a biannu-

al News Bulletin called “Prakarsh” that con-tains articles / poems by members.

MRLF is one of the most vibrant new gener-ation senior citizen hubs in Navi Mumbai and has come to be known for its agility, diversity of programs and activi-ties, sense of purpose and enthusiasm among members. They are all very focussed and enjoy being part of this vibrant group.

Dr Sengupta has been encouraging mem-bers to write in whatsup where all the commu-nication of the group is featured, and partici-pate. A series on Indian Great Personalities was started where all impor-tant personalities were included. Then a series on interesting places in India has been written by the members.


MRLF: A HAVEN FOR SENIOR CITIzENS...

With curfew imposed from 11:00 pm to 6:00

am there was no public movement in many

areas of Navi Mumbai during this period.

(By Sumit Renose)

By Dinesh Pawar

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birthday was celebrat-

ed at BJP office in Uran on Friday, De-cember 25th, 2020.

On this occasion BJP taluka president and corporator Ravi Bhoir, Uran city president and corporator Kaushik Shah, BJP Uran taluka gen-

eral secretary Sunil Patil, and former sarpanch Mahesh Kadu, Jasim Gayas, Rashuram Mhatre, labour leader Jiten-dra Gharat, Kegaon BJP vice president Ankit Mhatre, Kegaon Young General Secretary Viraj Mhatre, Rajesh Nakh-wa, Uran City General Secretary De-vendra Gharat and BJP office bearers and activists were present.

Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birthday celebrated at Uran BJP office

Christmas celebration in the city

Unmask your hearts and welcome Jesus

Time for Family selfie amidst pandemic

Glittering lights spreading positivity

A huge Christmas tree installed outside InOrbit Mall, Vashi has been the centre of attraction

A crib installed by St. Joseph’s Church Be-lapur with a spirit filled message. "I am vac-cinated by the blood of Jesus. No virus can touch me." (Photos by Ashok Dhamija)

A banner put by MGM New Bombay Hospital, Vashi outside appreciating the tireless efforts of Healthcare Workers this Christmas


Masks were distributed to the children along with hampers

By Indrani Basu

It was a day of fun and frolic for the 80 children from economi-

cally backward community who came to enjoy a grand Christmas party that was organized for them on 23rd December, 2020. The chil-dren in the age group of 3 -16 years, who have been taking regular treat-ment at ART Centre under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s (NMMC) hospital in Vashi, came from Turbhe, Koperkhairane, Uran and Vashi and enjoyed the fun and merriment with great gusto.

The event was organized and conducted by Ahoma Charitable Trust Vashi at the open air inside the NMMC Garden at sector 14, Vashi. Divya Kotak, the founder of this or-ganization shared, “We have been

associated with these children for the last ten years. Usually, Ahoma has been taking care of their nutri-tion by providing them with nutri-tious food and protein powder every month with a due permission from the head of the Art Centre. Even during lockdown, Ahoma did not stop rendering service, instead pro-vided protein powder which is an immunity booster for those ailing children on a regular basis. We also provided monthly ration to their families.”

She added, “We were quite doubtful whether we would get per-mission this year to organize the party due to the ongoing situation of Covid pandemic. Usually this is an annual event and we conduct differ-ent kinds of educative program ev-

ery year for them during Christmas. This year the children were eagerly waiting for this party. Finally, we re-ceived the permission from NMMC to organize the same.”

Gayatri Thakkar, a member from the organization conducted educa-tive session on yoga, pranayama, shared knowledge about healthy food to enhance their immunity.

The children wearing Santa caps participated in merry making and played games, sang song and took part in dances. Sandhya, a girl from the group, who was dressed as San-ta Claus, narrated stories on Christ-mas and sang carols.

The correct way of wearing mask, hand sanitization or washing hands frequently with normal soap and the way to maintain safe dis-

tance, were some of the vital lessons shared to them by the members.

“As they have immunity prob-lem, these three Covid 19 etiquettes are the most important measures for them to protect themselves from the virus,” informed Puja Chandan, an-other organizer. “We distributed gift hampers which included some basic needs for them like mask, protein powder, healthy packed food, note book and stationeries,” she added.

Meanwhile, on behalf of ‘Make a Wish Foundation’ Divya Kotak, being a member of that foundation, handed over cycles to terminally ill children as their wish granting.

Children of ART Centre have fun and frolic at the Christmas party

By Indrani Basu

In the backdrop of Covid 19 pan-demic and with the announcement of

regulations for celebration, Christmas was celebrated in a subdued manner in the city. Keeping in mind the mandates declared by the State Government, the assembly for evening Mass was can-celled and it was streamed live so that people could enjoy the mass sitting in-side their homes.

Wilma Pereira, a resident of sector 48 Seawoods, Nerul told, “As I have been actively associated with all the activities of my Parish, I was upset be-cause there was no morning Mass not even online one. I think this is the first time in the history that Christmas is being observed without Mass and con-gregation.” Pereira along with her son prayed in front of the altar. She cooked lunch for her family. But she could not resist herself from distributing sweets and cakes to her neighbours.

It was a rather calm and contended Christmas celebration for Inacin Ma-thia and her family too. She made a variety of cakes, cupcakes, brownies for her little daughter Fah and also

sent to her neighbours. She even made a beautiful crib. She shared, “This year due to the pandemic, there was no as-sembly near our Church. We were not even able to chit chat with our friends and neighbours.”

Jovita D’Souza, the carol singer from Nerul Church missed the choir this year. “We had practiced and finally recorded our carols to play the record-ing before mass. This year, Christmas Eve mass was a simple one following the guidelines and was attended by only fifty close parishioners and of-fice bearers. I and my husband, had the chance to attend the evening Mass as

carol singers, but as soon as the mass was over, all of us immediately left the Church without interacting with any-one.”

Jovita too had a simple Christmas celebration attending a lunch at her in- law’s house. She made hampers and distributed among her friends.

Covid 19: City observes subdued Christmas celebration

Jovita's sweet hampers for her friends and neighbours

Inacin Mathia made a crib at home

Schools are encouraging children to draw Christmas Tree and Santa claus in their online classes on the eve of Christmas. Nikhil Krishnan, 7 yrs, Reliance Founda-tion School, Koparkhairane.

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The commissioner of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corpo-

ration (NMMC), Abhijit Bangar called a meeting of all the officers and the divisional officers and the Medical Superintendents and Medical Officers of all the hospi-tals and civic health centres and directed to remain vigilant after a new strain of coronavirus was detected in Britain and some other countries.

With the Government of Ma-harashtra imposing night curfew from 11 pm to 6 am till 5th Janu-ary, the commissioner directed that hotels, restaurants and pubs should be given written instruc-tions by the corporation as well as the police to ensure strict compli-ance.

“In addition, it is important to adopt three-pronged approach to protection, such as masks, so-cial distancing and frequent hand

washing,” said Bangar. The de-partment officials were also di-rected to take action against the citizens who do not follow the safety rules.

The Greater Mumbai Mu-nicipal Corporation is paying at-tention to the passengers coming from UK and those passengers are being quarantined in Mumbai for 7 days. After 7 days, their RTPCR test will be done and after the re-port is negative, the passengers will be instructed to stay at home for 7 days quarantine. The com-missioner gave a clear order to the medical officers and departmental officers of the civic health centres to keep a close watch on such pas-sengers arriving in Navi Mumbai.

The list of passengers travel-ing from abroad will be received from the BMC and the airport administration and further action will be taken as per the guidelines

of ICMR.Passengers from other coun-

tries will be contacted on a regular basis through the call centre and will be closely monitored to see if they are showing covid 19 like symptoms.

Against this background, as per the instructions given by the Chief Minister, the Commissioner directed to increase the number of Covid 19 testing. 3,000 testing is done at present. It specifically suggested to increase the RT-PCR test.

“The coronavirus is spread-ing rapidly abroad in a new form and the municipal administration is taking necessary measures to ensure that the citizens of Navi Mumbai are not endangered. The co-operation from the citizens is important. They are urged to fol-low all the Covid 19 protocols,” appealed Bangar.

New strain of Covid virus: NMMC chief asks officials to stay vigilant

By Abhitash D.Singh

The work for the second phase of Kharghar Cen-tral Park is likely to be started in 2021. The

Mahavikas Aghadi government has shown its inter-est to develop all the halted project, including the Central Park project. The state deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that the work for the second phase of Kharghar Central Park would be undertaken on a priority basis in 2021.

Earlier in the year January, 2017 the City Indus-trial and Development Corporation (CIDCO) floated a tender to develop the second phase of Central Park in Kharghar, spread over an area of 63 hectares. The phase 1 of the park is spread on around 25 hectares and was thrown open to the public in 2010.

A senior official from CIDCO on the condition of anonymity said, "The second phase of the Cen-tral Park is being designed on the lines of London's

Hyde Park and New York's Central Park. Our at-tempt is not to emulate these historic parks but to create a park which is in tune with the ethos of Navi Mumbai."

He further added, "The project will be devel-oped on Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. The work involves the conceptualization, designing, construction, maintenance for certain years and then handing it over to CIDCO. Yash Creations and Ven-ture will be starting the Rs. 1600 crore project in the year 2021. CIDCO the planning authority for the city will not be investing any fund for the project."

Priya Ratambe, Public Relationship Officer of CIDCO said, "I will not be able to speak in detail about the second phase of Central Park in Kharghar till we get the confirmation from the firm which will be developing it."

The CIDCO official said, "The facilities at Cen-tral Park Kharghar will include Musical Fountain on the same line as in Singapore and Dubai; Virtual Reality Show, Snow Park, Five Star Hotel and also roller coaster rides, a Ferris wheel, miniatures of the historic forts in the state or heritage buildings in the country in the lines of Essel World and Imagica in Khopoli. In fact it will be bigger then Imagica and Essel World."

Second phase of Central Park, Kharghar

to start in 2021

Kharghar-Taloja-Panvel face high levels of air pollutionThe month-long air quality monitoring carried out by NGO ‘Waatavaran Foundation’ revealed that the residents of these areas are breathing polluted air for 17 hours a day

By Chandrashekhar HendveNavi Mumbai

From a month-long air quality monitor-

ing carried out by NGO, ‘Waatavaran Founda-tion’ in the Kharghar-Panvel-Taloja belt, it was found that these areas faced high levels of particulate Matter pollutant- PM 2.5 in the air of early in the morning, between 6 am to 8 am. The air quality

data collected across this belt also indicated that Panvel witnessed ‘bad air days’ through-out the one-month period, where most days had crossed the Indian standards of permissible levels of air quality.

According to health experts, the particu-late matter pollutants especially the PM 2.5


26 December 2020 - 1 january 2021

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EditorialISSUE: 29 26 DEC. 2020 - 1 jAN . 2021

2

The state of public transport sys-tem is a barometer indicating

extent of development of a city. If one goes by this definition, the im-age of Navi Mumbai that emerges out is extremely disheartening considering the deplorable state of NMMT, the public transport service provider in Navi Mumbai. The quantity of service is hugely defi-cient and the quality is abysmally poor. Not only this, tariffs have also become unaffordable. Still they are being patronized by local people, not out of choice but out of compul-sion, as demand is disproportion-ately more than the supply.

The public transport modes in Navi Mumbai- whether NMMT, BEST, ST or local trains- none have expanded proportionately to the increase in demand on account of large scale development in Navi Mumbai during the last decade. A major fallout of this lack of vision is increased number of personalized and hired modes of transportation, which itself has its adverse effects. The traffic density and traffic vol-umes have increased tremendously without corresponding increase in arterial infrastructure and therefore the transport system is literally creaking under pressure. There is an increase in traffic jams and more recently, the availability of parking spaces has reduced drasti-cally especially during peak hours. The environment is also victim as huge amount of exhaust is being

released by the increased volumes of vehicles. Another major impact of increased volume and density of vehicles is increase in traffic indis-cipline and consequent accidents.

Unfortunately, NMMT has not fared well on the expectations of the residents of Navi Mumbai. This is particularly unfortunate as a good public transport system contributes a lot by way of provid-ing cheaper transport, reduction in vehicle population and consequent reduction in traffic congestion and accidents and last but not the least in preserving the environment. It can also solve the problem of parking space. Because of its poor vision and improper management, NMMT is grossly deficient in qual-ity and quantity of service. Many of the nodes of Navi Mumbai are not being catered to and frequency is erratic and the service is abso-lutely unreliable. To set the things right, there are intermittent talks of privatizing the organisation, but un-fortunately in most of the cities and countries, the public transport is the responsibility of the State. More investment needs to be made by the State in this sector, if these services have to be made efficient with an aim to cater the increased demand. Also, improved NMMT shall not only compliment the services being provided by railways, BEST and ST, but shall also become the indi-cator of development of the city of Navi Mumbai.

Efficiency should be the hall mark

are extremely small and known to easily enter the lungs causing respiratory illnesses. High levels of PM 2.5 are also responsible for lower visibility and smog.

For conducting this study, Waatavaran had installed five low-cost real-time air quality monitors that measure particulate matter con-centration in ambient air at MIDC, Taloja; Sector 13, Panvel; Sector 36, Kharghar; Navade, Taloja; & Sec-tor 7, Kharghar. The PM 2.5 data was monitored between November 13, 2020, to December 13, 2020, and then analy-sed.

Bhagwan Kesbhat, Founder of Waatavaran Foundation informed, “The key reasons for initiating this first of its kind study in this area, was to not only under-stand the air quality that people from the Kharghar-Panvel-Taloja were daily breathing, but to also highlight the fact that the Maharash-tra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and the civic body have failed to provide real-time air quality monitoring system.”

Kesbhat, who himself is a resident of Kharghar, added that monitoring air quality is the very first step of mitigating air pollution as regular and robust monitoring is key to framing effective poli-cies and ensuring their timely implementation.What did the study reveal?

The study revealed that the highest, PM2.5 levels were recorded at 7 am, which was 141.1 μg/m3 (average of data from five monitors). Though the highest levels of PM 2.5 were recorded in the early

hours of morning, data also suggests that resi-dents were breathing in polluted air for 17 hours every day.

Farah Thakur of Waatavaran who analy-sed the data of the five locations shared that the average PM2.5 levels across five locations at Panvel over this 31-day period was 101.12 μg/m3, which is 1.7 times the Indian standard (60 μg/m3) and four times the WHO standard (25 μg/m3).

Of all the five loca-tions where data was analysed, the PM 2.5 levels at MIDC, Taloja was found to be the highest. “The aver-age PM2.5 level here over these 31 days was 139.27 μg/m3, which is 2.3 times the Indian standard and 5.5 times the WHO standard,” she stated.

Waatavaran will be sharing the detailed report of this study with the Panvel City Munici-pal Commissioner, local elected representatives as well as the State en-vironment department and MPCB.

Meanwhile in its recommendations to the authorities, Waatavaran has suggested setting up Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations in Panvel to make sure real time data is available along with creating a ‘Clean Air Action Plan’ focusing on Panvel. “It is impor-tant to check the indus-trial emissions, manage road dust pollution and also make entire Panvel region a ‘Zero Waste Burning’ city to reduce emissions and improv-ing air quality,” said Kesbhat emphasising that the PCMC needs to take this matter on priority as the city is facing a huge health risk from such elevated levels of air pollution.

“This study by Waatavaran has shown

that half a million peo-ple living in Panvel are constantly exposed to high levels of particu-late matter air pollut-ants, the major source of which appears to be motor vehicular traffic, followed by industry sources and then road dust. The pollutants can cause several health problems, including recurrent lung infec-tions, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart ail-ments and stroke in the elderly. It is now up to the local authorities to take this issue seriously and plan strategies to reduce the levels of air pollution in Panvel us-ing sustainable means,” said Dr Sundeep Salvi, Director, Pulmocare Research and Education (PURE) Foundation, Pune.

“Air pollution at any given location is a function of local emis-sions, pollution com-ing from nearby and distant places and the meteorology governing it, the only thing in our control is to reduce the emissions at source and that’s the best way to achieve breathable air quality,” remarked Sunil Dahiya, Analyst, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

“Waatavaran’s air monitoring study has helped identify some useful trends of air quality in and around MIDC, Taloja. The daily data shows poor air quality that is much above the Indian Air Quality safe level. Real-time monitoring of air quality with scientifical-ly validated technology helps provide citizens with timely informa-tion which impacts their health and well-being,” remarked Ronak Sutaria, Founder and Director Mumbai based air quality researchers Respirer Living Sci-ences (RLS) Pvt. Ltd.


kHARGHAR-TALOjA-PANVEL FACE HIGH...

Zanzawat Book 2019-20 of Raje Pratishthan Kamgar Sena was unveiled by Ramsheth Thakur.


By Ryhea George Navi Mumbai

The supporters of Ma-havikas Aghadi pro-

tested against the rise in petrol rates in the coun-try. The petrol and diesel prices have hit the high-est level since the ruling government came into power in 2014. Diesel prices have risen from Rs. 60 (2014) to a record high of Rs 80.51(2020) per litre and petrol from Rs. 70 (2014) to Rs. 90.30 (2020) per litre. The protests were held on Sunday 20th Decem-ber at Airoli and Nerul. Around 70-80 people gathered at both the lo-cations to participate in the protest.

The protest was led by NCP Youth In-charge (Navi Mumbai) Tejas Shashikant Shinde, NCP

District Chairperson Ashok Gawde, NCP Regional General Secre-tary Prashant Patil, NCP Navi Mumbai District President Rohini Vilas Ghadge, NCP Youth Chairperson Rajesh Bhor, NCP Taluka Ai-roli Youth Chairperson, Sameer Mane.

NCP Navi Mumbai District President Ro-hini Vilas Ghadge said, “While the country is facing problems like in-flation, unemployment, natural disasters like flood, drought, cyclone and now the pandemic, instead of supporting the public with financial schemes such as claims of insurance money, sub-sidiaries, farmer loans waive off etc. the gov-ernment is coming up with strict budget plans

or rise of petrol/diesel rates, rise in taxes which will not only promote inflation indirectly but will also cause the com-mon man in the country to save less and spend more money.”

A volunteer of Ma-havikas Aghadi Digvi-jay Shinde said, “Since the 2014 election, the ruling government has always been cheating the public by bringing acts such as demonetiza-tion. They have cheated farmers in different ways and are also assuring the youth with the employ-ment schemes. How-ever, these assurances have remained only on papers. The youths are facing unemployment and the common man is facing hike in petrol and diesel rates”.

Mahavikas Aghadi stages protest against petrol hike

L e t t e r s t o t h e e d i t o r

Celebrate Christmas with Hazel Parikh's East Indian Marathi songs

Celebrate Christmas this year with Hazel Parikh's online singing com-petition of East Indian Marathi songs on December 25, 2020 from 9.00 pm onwards. Hazel was the first person along with Polly D'Mello to release an East Indian Marathi language audio cassette comprising of original East In-dian Marathi songs in the year, 1982 when the East Indian community did not have any audio cassettes or CDs of their own. Since it was the first East Indian Marathi cassette, it sold like hot cakes within the community. As of today, Hazel has sung a lot of Marathi songs in East Indian Marathi language on stage, on TV and for Catholic weddings. She is going live on December 25, 2020 from 9.00 pm onwards by singing all her East Indian Marathi songs by singing them online from all her twelve audio cassettes and CDs.

jubel D'Cruz, Mumbai

Cinépolis India and Nexus Malls have joined hands to roll out a

unique offer available only across four malls in the Nexus Malls portfolio, where patrons would can avail tickets for DC’s latest release, Wonder Wom-an 1984 only at Re. 1. With an intent to reinstate the going experience at Seawoods Grand Central Mall, Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad One, Ahmeda-bad, Westend Mall, Aundh and Mall of Amritsar, Punjab, Nexus Malls and Cinépolis India have come together to unveil the sequel of Wonder Woman at an exclusive price for these three days. Cinépolis will be dedicating 1 auditorium every day where all shows will be run with this exclusive offer. The special offer can be availed using the code CINEWW84 only on BookMyShow and PayTM.

Cinema plays an extremely critical role in delivering the holis-tic experience for mall goers when they plan a visit to a mall and therefore, Cinépolis India and Nexus Malls have come together to revive the movie going experience before the end of 2020. This also marks the first time that a cinema operator and a mall developer have joined hands to revive the expe-rience post the lockdown.

Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Devang Sampat, CEO Cinépolis India said, “2020 has been very challenging for the entire movie industry and for the exhibition industry in particular. However, we are now ready to move on and this association with Nexus Malls is a fantastic opportunity to do just that. The association is a win-win for our patrons, wherein they get to experience Wonder Woman 1984 the way it was originally intended by DC and Patty Jenkins; at the same time, they can avail a Never-Seen-Before offer for a movie of this scale. We are delighted to be able to bring this as-sociation and this offer to our patrons in line with our promise of provid-ing them a world class movie experi-ence.”

Speaking about this first of a kind association, Mr. Nishank Joshi, Chief Marketing Officer at Nexus Malls said, “The last nine months have been unprecedented and everyone had to remain confined to their homes over an extended period of time. Since the

MHA has allowed malls across the country to reopen, we have been long-ing for the Cinema halls to reopen, which would ensure the customers had one more reason to come back to us with their families. We are delight-ed to partner with Cinépolis India, to initiate a movement which completes is an industry first and would help de-liver a safe and hygienic experience as the patrons come back to the malls and cinema malls to catch up on their favorite movies. I am certain, people in our catchments would grab this opportunity and come over to catch up on DC’s first big release in over nine months”

Seawoods Grand Central will be following the industry-best practices

to ensure Safety and Hygiene is main-tained at the mall premises. Keeping in mind the safety of the patrons when they are at the mall, they have joined hands with Bureau Veritas to ensure industry-best practices have been implemented. In the New Normal, we will ensure that all our patrons, retailers, and staff are welcomed to the premises of the malls which is abiding by all safety and sanitization measures which have been advised by the local authorities.

Wonder Woman 1984 (stylized as WW84) is a 2020 American super-hero film based on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman. It is the sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman and the ninth installment in the DC Ex-tended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by Patty Jenkins from a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and David Callaham, based on a story by Johns and Jenkins. Gal Gadot stars as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen. Set in 1984 during the Cold War, the film follows Diana and her past love Steve Trevor as they face off against Maxwell Lord and Cheetah.

Cinépolis and Nexus malls join hands to roll out a unique movie-going experience

at Seawoods Grand Central MallWonder Woman 1984 to be shown

at Re. 1 on December 28, 29 and 30


By Crime Reporter, Navi Mumbai

The rising number of vehicle thefts in the

satellite city is posing a challenge to the Navi Mumbai police. As per the statistics in the year 2019, 802 vehicles were stolen within the limits of Navi Mumbai Police Commissionerate, while 721 vehicles were stolen till the first week of De-cember, 2020. The statis-tics show that there has been no significant re-duction in the number of vehicle thefts in the year 2020, despite the impact of Covid-19. Among the two-wheelers, four-wheelers, three-wheelers and heavy vehicles, the number of auto rickshaw thefts has also increased

this year. Due to the pandemic, the police are unable to travel to other states to investigate ve-hicle theft cases, which has affected investiga-tion process.

A total of 802 vehi-cle thefts were reported within the Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner-ate in 2019, including 597cases of two-wheeler theft, 79 cases of au-torickshaw theft, 88 cas-es of car-jeep and light vehicle theft and 38 cases of truck-tempo theft. Of these, only 298 crimes have been detected by the police.

In 2020, a total of 716 vehicle theft cases have been registered so far, in-cluding 498 two-wheeler thefts, 97 autorickshaw thefts, 98 car-jeep and

light vehicle thefts and 23 truck-tempo thefts. Only 229 vehicle theft cases have been detected. A to-tal of 79 rickshaws were stolen in 2019, while 97 auto rickshaws were re-ported stolen till Decem-ber 7, 2020.

Vijay Chavan, as-sistant police inspector, Motor Vehicle Theft Cell, said that most of the motorists had parked their auto rickshaws and had gone back to their hometowns after the out-break of corona due to which the cases were not registered soon.

In the year 2019, Panvel city police sta-tion had registered the highest number of cas-es. Out of the 82 cases, 71 crimes were of bike

theft; 3 auto rickshaws, 2 four wheelers and 6 heavy vehicles. Out of these, 32 cases of theft of two-wheelers, 3 cases of theft of auto rickshaws, 2 cases of theft of four-wheelers and 4 cases of theft of heavy vehicles have been detected by the police.

In Nhavasheva police station, only 7 vehicles were stolen in 2019, of which 4 two-wheelers, 1 four-wheeler and 2 heavy vehicles were stolen.

The highest number of vehicle thefts in the current year has been registered in Nerul with 61 two-wheeler thefts, 14 auto rickshaw thefts, seven four-wheeler thefts and one heavy vehicle theft with a total of 83 vehicle thefts recorded.

Of these, 15 cases of theft of two-wheelers, 6 cases of thefts of auto rickshaws and 2 cases of four-wheelers have been detected. So far this year, Nhava-Sheva police sta-tion has recorded the lowest number of thefts with only 5 vehicles theft recorded, including 2 for two-wheelers and 3 for heavy vehicles. Of the 802 cases of vehicle theft that took place in 2019, 298 crimes have been uncovered. The crime rate was 37 percent.

So far this year, the police have succeeded in uncovering 229 cases out of a total of 716 cases. Bringing down to 31 per cent.

“It is challenging to catch four-wheeler

thieves as they flee the city with stolen vehicles. Many of these criminals have also been arrested in other states. The thieves change the engine and chassis numbers of the stolen vehicle, thus mak-ing it difficult to find the stolen vehicle. Investiga-tions into various cases have revealed that the thieves who steal motor-cycles are stealing mo-torcycles mainly for fun and just for riding and leave the vehicle at the same place after the ve-hicle runs out of petrol. The thieves who steal rickshaws take the stolen rickshaws to another area and sell these by chang-ing their numbers,” said Vijay Chavan, Assistant Inspector of Police, Mo-tor Vehicle Cell.

Rising vehicle thefts: A challenge to Navi Mumbai Police

Comparative statistics of vehicle theft crimes for the year 2019 and 2020 two-wheeler rickshaw car-jeep truck-tempo, trailer total filing revealed light vehicle and heavy vehicle 2019 597 79 88 38 802 298 2020 498 97 98 23 716 229

FILE PHOTO

A blood donation camp was orga-

nized by the City and Industrial Develop-ment Corporation Ltd (CIDCO0 on 21st December 2020 under the chairmanship of Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee, Vice President and Manag-ing Director of CIDCO and with the participa-

tion of CIDCO Employ-ees Union. The blood donation camp was held following all the rules regarding Covid-19.

161 officers and staff spontaneously donated blood during this camp.

The blood donation camp was organised in collaboration with J. J. hospital blood

bank. "This is a small contribution made by CIDCO to fill the blood shortage created dur-ing the difficult times of the current Covid-19. CIDCO intends to organize a plasma donation camp soon, similar to the blood donation camp,” said Dr. Mukherjee.

Blood donation camp held at CIDCO Bhavan

By Chandrashekhar Hendve Navi Mumbai

While the number of corona cases

are coming down, the pandemic is still far from over. To ensure that the people do not adopt a lenient attitude towards Covid 19 pro-tocols and stringently follow the new normal, Aam Aadmi Party, Navi Mumbai, has started organizing free mask distribution and ‘Selfie with Mask’ campaign along with endorsing Swachh Navi Mum-

bai, activities in public places like bus stops,

parks and through door to door campaign.

AAP organises ‘Selfie with Mask’ campaign

Masks were distributed on the occasion

The City and Indus-trial Development

Corporation (CIDCO) has made available 12 plots for sale at Ghanso-li in Navi Mumbai and 15 plots at New Panvel (East). Successful ap-plicants would be able to construct a bungalow, row-house, building, or residential type house of their choice. The plots will be sold through e-tender and e-auction process. All the other processes will also be

done online. The online registration of applica-tion has started from 21st December, 2020.

Under this scheme, a total of 12 plots are avail-able for sale in Sector-4, Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai and a total of 15 plots in Sector-8E, 9E, 5A (E) and 12E in the rapidly developing New Panvel (E) node. The e-tender process for this scheme will start from 11.00 am on 28th December 2020 and will end at 11.59 pm

on 13th January 2021. The e-auction process will start at 11.0 am on January 14, 2021 and will end at 5.00 pm on January 14, 2021. The results of the scheme will be announced on 15th January 2021 at 03.00 pm. Detail infor-mation of the scheme such as deposit, pro-cessing fee, location of plots, rates etc. and the scheme booklet is avail-able at https://eauction.cidcoindia.com.

Residential plots available for sale at Ghansoli and New Panvel by CIDCO

Construction of second tunnel of Airoli-Katai

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Transcript of Construction of second tunnel of Airoli-Katai