Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam today exposed BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta of sanctioning the permission for amalgamation of the existing ‘Dhobi Ghat’ in Mumbai’s Mahalakshmi area, which is a 140-year old heritage site, with the adjacent Shri Ram and Hanuman Temple in the vicinity to be brought under the SRA Scheme and redeveloped under the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment) Act, 1971.
Sanjay Nirupam said, “Mahalakshmi’s Dhobi Ghat is a 140-year-old heritage site. How can the Dhobi Ghat, Shri Ram and Hanuman temple and the fish market be recognised as slums? It is the plan of the BMC to demolish these elements of national heritage which is in turn depriving the locals of their sources of livelihood and their houses too. People hailing from different regional and cultural backgrounds reside here in harmony. Instead of redeveloping the actual slums of Mumbai, why are they redeveloping a heritage site?”
Sanjay Nirupam who met with the locals in the Dhobi Ghat said, “If the history of Mumbai is to be written, it cannot be complete in a true sense without stating the significance of the Dhobi Ghat. Unfortunately, some people are trying to erase this part of history of the city. The BMC Commissioner and some officials have formed a nexus with the private builders for their own vested interests. We will fight till the very end to ensure that the locals here neither lose their source of livelihood nor their homes”.
The Mumbai Congress Unit Chief, along with leader of Opposition in BMC Ravi Raja, met with the locals of the area and urged them to stand united and fight the corrupt BMC after they told Mr. Nirupam that the BMC Officials have restricted the locals from using cooking gas and parking vehicles like bicycles and motorbikes which play a crucial role in the daily functioning of the people here since many work as delivery men. The BMC officials and those from the concerned builder’s office have threatened the locals here to not use the ropes in the area to dry clothes too which has posed a challenge in front of them.
Sanjay Nirupam produced a letter dated August 13, 2018 which was written by Chief Engineer of Development Plan S.P. Darade to Architect Anand Dhokay proposing that the entire Dhobi Ghat, the existing temple and the surrounding open spaces spread over a total area of 2650 sq. mt be amalgamated and redeveloped under the SRA Scheme.
A seven-year-old child died after a firecracker exploded in his mouth in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place at Pimpalgaon village under the Raipur Police Station limits on Tuesday evening, an official said.
Yash Sanjay Gavate, the boy, was bursting crackers with his friends ahead of Diwali, he said.
He picked up a ‘Sutli Bomb’, which had not exploded, thinking it had not been lit. As he playfully bit it, the cracker went off causing serious injuries to the boy, the police official said.
Yash was declared dead on arrival at the nearby government hospital, the official added.
Two men were arrested by police in Thane city of Maharashtra on Thursday for allegedly duping at least forty persons by promising them jobs in the railway.
Police stumbled upon the racket when they arrested one of the accused for illegal possession of firearms, said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Deepak Deoraj.
Acting on a tip-off that a person carrying illegal firearms and ammunition was arriving near Upvan Lake in the city, the Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of Thane Crime Branch arrested Rakesh Salunke (30) on Thursday morning, the DCP said.
Two pistols, a revolver and 18 cartridges were allegedly recovered from Salunke, who said he had procured them from Nitin Pagare (33).
However, the probe took an unexpected turn when police also found that Salunke was carrying bogus interview call letters purportedly issued by the Central Railway and some fake rubber stamps.
Police then arrested Pagare, whose wife is a corporator.
Interrogation revealed that he and Salunke had allegedly cheated at least forty persons by promising them jobs in the railway.
Salunke, who was earlier a contractor working for the Central Railway, thought of the job scam as he needed money badly to repay his debts, the DCP added.
The duo allegedly took Rs 2 lakh for facilitating a job in the railway and issued fake interview letters, the police officer said.
The duo were produced before a magistrate who remanded them in police custody till November 5. Further probe is on.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday dared the BJP to claim that the promise of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya was a “jumla”, asserting that it will go down from “280” Lok Sabha seats to two if it did so.
Further attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said the bricks collected for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh were in reality not for the temple but steps that took it to power.
Thackeray was addressing Sena workers at Mahad in Raigad district.
The Sena and the BJP are allies in the governments in Maharashtra and at the Centre, but have constantly been at loggerheads over a host of issues.
“The bricks that were collected for Ram mandir were in reality not for the temple, but were the steps to take you (BJP) to power. Say once that (the construction of) Ram temple was a jumla and you will be reduced to two seats from 280 (in the Lok Sabha),” the Sena president said.
The ruling party currently has an effective strength of 272 members in the Lok Sabha.
The BJP has often been derided by other parties for its poll promises that brought it to power in 2014, which they claim were nothing more than election rhetoric or “jumla”.
Thackeray said the fight had now begun in the run-up to next year’s Lok Sabha polls, adding that the politics and the prevailing environment in the country were on a downslide.
“The 2019 polls are fast approaching. I am not concerned about what will happen (to political parties), but about what will happen to the people and the country,” Thackeray said.
He rued that neither inflation had decreased nor employment increased after the BJP came to power with a majority in the 2014 polls, adding that people were grappling with a “strange” environment prevalent in the country.
Thackeray asked the party workers to go among the masses and ask them if they had received the benefits of the schemes of the Narendra Modi government.
In another veiled dig at the BJP, the Sena chief said he was not for garnering votes after making false promises.
He added that while he was touring the state to take stock of the drought situation, Prime Minister Modi was busy with his foreign tours.
“Maharashtra should get a Sena chief minister this time, I will tour the state to ensure that. The government has declared drought but when will drought relief measures be provided?,” he asked, taking a swipe at the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government, of which his party is a constituent.
Thackeray further said late Sena supremo and his father Bal Thackeray had taught him how to run his party and that he had seen the style of functioning of those close to the late leader.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday extended till November 21 the relief granted to civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha, professor Anand Teltumbde and priest Stan Swamy from arrest in a case lodged against them by the Pune police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence and for alleged links with Maoists.
A division bench of justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre was hearing the petitions filed by the three seeking quashing of the FIR against them.
The bench posted the matters for hearing on November 21 after noting that petitions pertaining to the case were pending before the Supreme Court.
“We will wait and see what order the Supreme Court passes in those matters. Till the next date of hearing, the interim relief shall continue,” the bench said.
The bench had last month directed the police not to take any coercive action against the petitioners or arrest them.
While Navlakha was put under house arrest in the case, Teltumbde and Swamy were not arrested.
Apart from Navlakha, the police had, on August 28, also arrested activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj for their alleged links with Maoists in the aftermath of violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district on January 1.
The police had alleged that Maoists had supported the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune, which had led to the violence.
Navlakha was released by the Delhi High Court, after which he moved the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR against him.
The winter session of the Maharashtra legislature which is set to start from November 19 will go on for two weeks, it was announced on Thursday, with the opposition slamming the government for its `short’ duration.
The two-week session will be unique as it will be held in Mumbai instead of Nagpur after 57 years.
The opposition Congress and NCP demanded at the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee of both houses on Thursday that the session should be extended by one week.
However, the government rejected the demand, a legislature officer said. Conventionally, the winter session is two-week long.
As announced at the end of monsoon session, the winter session will start on November 19. It will go on till November 30, the official said.
The number of working days will be eight as two public holidays — Eid and Gurunanak Jayanti — fall in this period.
Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said that by refusing to extend the session, the BJP-led government was running away from debate on important issues.
The drought situation in the state is alarming and the government is not ready with a contingency plan to deal with it, the Congress leader said.
“We sought one more week’s time to discuss pressing issues like agrarian crisis, drought management, delaying tactics of the government on reservation demand of Marathas, Dhangars and Muslims, Mumbai development plan and other important urban issues,” he said.
“But the government rejected the demand,” he added.
NCP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Council Dhananjay Munde too said that the opposition wanted the session extended by one week.
State NCP president Jayant Patil, who is the group leader of his party in the Assembly, alleged that the government wanted to avoid discussion on important issues.
Generally, monsoon and budget sessions of the Maharashtra legislature are held in Mumbai while the winter session is held in Nagpur, the state’s second capital.
For the first time since 1961, the winter session will be held in Mumbai this year. The monsoon session was held in Nagpur this time after 47 years.
As per the Nagpur Pact of 1953, which eventually led to the creation of the state of Maharashtra, Nagpur was accorded the status of second capital. It was decided that one of the sessions of the legislature will be held in Nagpur.
However, the pact did not lay it down which session will be held in Nagpur. It was decided later that it will host the winter session, the legislature official said.
India number one Ankita Raina fought back doggedly to subdue long-time rival Rutuja Bhosale in three sets and move into the second round of the L and T Mumbai Open tennis championship on Wednesday.
Direct entrant Ankita, ranked 197, overcame Rutuja, ranked 366, 4-6, 6-2 7-6 (5) in 2 hours and 17 minutes in a late night match after she trailed 0-3 in the final set by dropping her serve twice before restoring parity at 4-4.
Ankita, the lone Indian remaining in the singles draw, will now meet Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, conqueror of fourth seed Olga Danilovic, in the round of 16 tomorrow in the $125,000 WTA event.
It was the seventh meeting between the two Indian women on the professional circuit going back to 2012 with Ankita leading 4-2 going into the match at the Cricket Club of India.
Rutuja and Ankita split the first two sets before the former took an early 3-0 lead by breaking her rival twice.
But Ankita, a quarterfinalist last year, hit back to retrieve the two service breaks before the set went into the tie break which was won by the India number one.
There’s a popular saying in India – Athithi Devo Bhava – meaning the guest is God. Backed by this popular belief and the rising business prospects due to the significant growth of the Indian travel industry, homestays have today become a viable option for both travellers and its owners alike.
For the guest, it’s a home away from home that is nicely tucked into the greens or high up in the hills, in the remotest hinterlands. For the property owner, it’s a lucrative income source.
Numbers suggest that India’s travel market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 11-11.5 per cent and will be worth $48 bn by 2020. Homestays are indisputably one of the means to cater to this growing demand. Rising disposable incomes, focused government measures to boost the travel industry and the growing appetite for travel is accelerating this growth.
In fact, India saw a 15.6 per cent annual increase in foreign tourist arrivals in CY 2017 as against the previous year. Business tourism too is expected to grow three-fold by 2030 from $30 bn in 2015.
There is no doubt that the Indian hospitality industry must diversify its offerings to keep up with this exponential growth and tap into its extraordinary potential. Alternate accommodations such as homestays – which occupy only a small section of the market today – will grow in stature and play a significant role.
Though still nascent, homestays are a growing phenomenon across the globe, and India numbers among the most promising countries for this segment, and for good reasons. Homestays can provide an experience of true Indian hospitality – unlike formal hotels, which come with limitations. Guests are either accommodated in the family home or in separate quarters nearby and often provided with a level of comfort which even the most reputed hotels cannot hope to match.
Homing in on Homestays
With many travellers now looking for homely comfort during holidays, homestays have surely made their mark in the tourism market. Organized hospitality establishments require a lot of space, which can be very expensive and even impossible to acquire in most of India’s hottest tourist destinations. Their growth and profitability are largely hampered by high real estate and financial costs. Mostly financed via debt, the capital (interest and depreciation) cost eats into their profitability.
Also, hotel chains may not be interested in opening up shop in some of the emerging ‘unspoiled’ destinations, precisely because unspoiled means non-saturated – and a formal hospitality play do require a certain saturation of paying customers. Moreover, hotel rooms can cost a pretty penny and may not be attractive for less well-heeled tourists.
Also, the main attraction for homestays is that they allow tourists to taste the local ‘flavour’ of a destination at an affordable cost – not only in terms of authentic, home-cooked local cuisine but also the lifestyle of the locals. There can be (though by no means always is) a personal touch to homestays that a hotel simply cannot replicate.
Further, the property owner can regale the guests with local folklore and social background, allowing for an intensely immersive experience which can yield lasting memories – not to mention return custom and favourable referrals not only to friends and family but also via online forums and listing feedback.
Finally, homestays are usually available in high-density tourist locations where hotels are booked up during peak season or local festivities and events.
Eco-tourism – the Call of the Wild
One interesting branch of homestays in India is the eco-tourism concept, which takes it several steps further and opens the doors of India’s remotest hinterlands and villages to domestic and global tourists, giving them a ‘hands-on’ experience of rural India with all its quaint ‘limitations’. This experience can extend to allowing guests to participate in pastoral activities like sowing and harvesting the local crop. Eco-tourism is an unbeatable ‘back-to-nature’ twist to the homestay ethos that many foreign tourists find incredibly attractive.
Relaxed & Proactive Government Policies
As per the government data, India will need more than 2.5 million rooms across the hospitality industry to meet the snowballing demand by 2020. In its efforts to bridge the growing demand-supply gap, the Indian Government has provided several incentives to homestays.
As a result, this model has also been adopted by large formal holiday hospitality chains like Mahindra Holidays as a logical extension of their services. (When this happens, homestay proposals are evaluated by the group and ‘standardized’ to a certain extent to ensure that guests can expect a certain minimum of comforts and conveniences).
The Government has also relaxed the licensing rules for people seeking to convert their property into certified homestays and is developing a centralised database. Simultaneously, it is working with online aggregators like Airbnb that list homestay properties and introduce ratings, guest houses and bed-and-breakfast options.
Backed by its e-visa policies that are likely to boost more foreign tourists into the country, the government is also urging the state governments to exempt homestays from service taxes and levies including water charges, electricity and other commercial charges to attract more homeowners to convert their properties into homestays.
A Glimpse at the Future of Homestays
Homestays may not be everyone’s cup of tea – but by the same coin, neither are formal hotels. With a marginal area of overlap, they both cater to a uniquely different tourist segment and therefore do not impinge on each other to any significant extent. With the benefits being extended to homestays by the Government and the increasing spread of customers who will not have it any other way, this segment of hospitality is, with no pun intended, as safe as houses and here to stay.
By Anuj Puri
(The author of the article is the Chairman of ANAROCK Property Consultants & HVS ANAROCK)
Congress’ social media head Divya Spandana tweeted a controversial comment along with a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi standing next to Sardar Patel’s ‘Statue of Unity’, evoking a sharp reaction from the BJP which slammed it as the “language of arrogance”.
Spandana tweeted a picture of Modi standing next to Sardar Patel’s 182-metre-tall statue in Gujarat, which was unveiled on Wednesday, with the comment: “Is that bird dropping?”
Asked about the tweet, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit out at the opposition party, alleging that “this is the real culture” of the Congress party. They miss no opportunity to abuse the Prime Minister of India, he said.
“It is the same party which called the Prime Minister ‘neech’. Shashi Tharoor called him a scorpion and now Divya Spandana says that he is a bird’s dropping,” Patra said.
“This is nothing but the language of arrogance from the Congress party for the normal Indian who with his sheer hard work become the Prime Minister of the country,” he said.
Despite criticism from the ruling party and Twitterati, Spandana remained defiant. “When you’re done huffing & puffing take a breath & hold a mirror to yourselves. My views are mine. I don’t give two hoots about yours. I’m not going to clarify what I meant and what I didn’t cos you don’t deserve one,” she tweeted.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that stubble burning in Punjab was the sole reason behind the rising pollution levels in the national capital as he slammed the Centre for failing to provide straw management machinery to the farmers.
Justifying his claim by showing a satellite picture of stubble burning in Punjab as well as Haryana, Kejriwal rejected the claims that Delhi’s air quality had worsened due to its traffic or industries.
“This is a satellite image… You can see the red spots which indicate stubble burning in several parts of Punjab including Bathinda and Amritsar… There cannot be a more scientific (proof) than this,” Kejriwal said while addressing the media here.
“There is a small portion of Haryana (burning stubble) but its role is quite limited. Otherwise, it (stubble burning) is mostly happening in Punjab, Kejriwal said, adding that Delhi had neither witnessed a sudden rise in vehicles plying on the road nor new industries had opened up overnight.
Blaming the Centre for the mess, Kejriwal said that Union minister Harshvardhan had assured him “a few months ago” that both Punjab and Haryana would get grants to buy machines for managing stubble.
“Why did it not happen? He will have to answer it,” he added.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convener further said that the quality of air in Delhi deteriorates every year after October 25, once the farmers begin burning paddy stubble.
