People fail to understand the meaning of development

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September 18, 2015

We often hear people talking about development in a very simplistic and general manner, often they fail to understand its true meaning. Mostly, the citizens will expect that they get a government job with accompanying security in service and secured pension. Youth should realise that good days will only come and you will embark on path of progress only by working hard, maintaining required standards and quality. People expect results instantly, which is unrealistic. Patience is necessary to achieve success.

Our Railways are performing good work, considering the vast network of their operation. The railways have upgraded the internet based ticketing system and also have introduced mobile ticketing on suburban section. The government must take steps to generate power and its effective distribution. It is necessary to eradicate electricity theft in a country like India might result in a loss of up to a third of the power generated. Same is the case of water availability. Even though the BMC has introduced 20 per cent water cut but the civic body has failed to curb water leakage which is occurring mostly in slum areas. The quality of pipe lines needs to be improved but burgeoning population creates lot of hindrance. Not a single minister talks about controlling the rising population. Some of them are more bothered about imposing a ban on meat.

Training must be imparted to youth for enabling them to become skilled workers. Our criminal justice system is such that powerful and wealthy people seldom are awarded punishment and poor people become victims.

Garbage collection, segregation and disposal is very important. Of the 1,27,486 tonnes of waste generated daily in India in 2011-12, Mumbai alone accounted for 6.11 per cent. It is estimated that every resident in the metropolis now generates about 630 grams of waste daily, a figure that is expected to touch 1 kg in the coming years. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ambitious plans to process and manage the 7,000-8,000 metric tonnes (MT) of waste generated daily. But since the formulation of the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Rules (management and handling) in 2000, most of these ideas have either failed to take off. Critics say while the BMC has an elaborate system in place for collection and transportation of waste, there are no real-time checks in place to see if the appointed contractors are following specifications. If BMC wants to increase segregation of waste, it will first have to invest in more dust bins for Mumbai. Agriculture is considered unfashionable but recently at Cambridge I saw how beautifully they do harvesting, packaging using mechanical means with great aesthetic accuracy.

Pansare’s killer has Sanatan connection

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

Sameer Gaikwad’s arrest confirms about the outfit’s link in the elimination of Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar.

Even though the police claims to have made a headway in the Govind Pansare murder case by arresting Sameer Gaikwad from Sangli but investigations gathered pace after the murder of Kannada scholar and researcher M M Kalburgi in Dharwad, Karnataka. Probe was fast tracked after left parties and rationalist forces expressed concern about the snail paced investigation process of this case. Sanatan Sanstha has been in controversy for its extreme right wing ideology and was on radar from last two years, after the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune. Activists of this organisation have also been arrested for their role in a blast in Thane’s Gadkari theatre. Its members were also arrested in another blast case in Madgaon, Goa. AV too had reported about the involvement of Sanatan Sanstha in murder of Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare. Gaikwad’s arrest confirms about the outfit’s link in the elimination of these rationalists.

Even though more than two years have passed after the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar but police still remain clueless about the accused’s whereabouts. The Karnataka government had announced Rs 5 lakh reward to those who could provide clues about the murder of Kalburgi.

Kolhapur and Sangli Police have launched a joint operation to nab Sameer Gaikwad. Police said Gaikwad has some criminal backgound. He was produced in a court at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra which remanded him in police custody till September 23.

Sachin Sawant said, “There has always been doubts about the involvement of fundamentalist outfits behind the murder of Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar. Since reports about the involvement of Sanathan Sanstha has come up hence the government must impose a ban on this outfit.”

Inspector General of Police Sanjay Kumar Verma, heading the SIT, confirmed the development.

“Samir is an active member of Sanatan Sanstha since 1998 and has been arrested and remanded to police custody until September 23. The arrest has been made on leads we got through electronic surveillance,” Verma said.

According to Verma, accused Gaikwad and his family members are associated with Sanatan Sanstha. Gaikwad used to frequently visit the outfit’s asharam in Goa.

Govind Pansare’s daughter-in-law Megha Pansare said, “Sameer Gaekwad is a resident of Sangli. He is linked to Sanathan Sanstha. The police tracked Sameer’s whereabouts through his call details. He used to run a mobile shop in Sangli four years back.”

Uma Pansare, Govind Pansare’s wife said, “The police have done a laudable job by arresting Sameer Gaekwad. They should investigate this matter thoroughly in order to avert the murder of rationalists in future.”

On February 16, Pansare was gunned down outside his house in Sagar Mala locality of Kolhapur city and five days later succumbed to his injuries at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. The police managed to procure CCTV footage of the nearby areas but owing to its poor quality they were sent to London for enhancement. New sketches were prepared based on the enhanced footage received from London.

Pansare’s family has been demanding a probe into the Communist leader’s murder. They had also filed a petition in the Bombay High Court which had asked Maharashtra government to file its response to the petition seeking constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the killing.

The Karnataka and Maharashtra police will work together to find out if the murder of Professor Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare are in any way linked. The Karnataka CID which has formed four teams has already sent a batch of officers to Maharashtra.

Robert Vadra is now a ‘Mango Man’

By

Vaidehi Taman

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September 16, 2015

Nowadays, Robert Vadra is very much active on social network and attacking BJP and its ruling government on it. Amid controversy regarding Robert Vadra’s presence in the list of select VVIPs exempted from frisking in airports, he urged government to withdraw his name. Vadra has said that he is not a VIP and his name should be removed from that list. He also felt that it may be a conspiracy to malign his name. He said that he has never used this privilege. The government had earlier clarified that it had no plans of removing Robert Vadra from the no-frisking list. Vadra insisted that he had earlier also consented to removing his name from the list. He said that in any case it just takes a minute to get frisked and he had no problem with subjecting himself to such checks like ordinary citizens. Vadra said if he needs to he would physically go to all airports to remove his name from the list. He also urged those outraging on this issue to dedicate time to more on critical problems. These statements were really considered as a big slap on BJP’s face from Vadra. The Home Ministry had recently asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to go ahead with its plan to review the list of 33 categories of people, including the Dalai Lama and Vadra.

More than a year after coming into power, Narendra Modi-led NDA government now has finally removed Vadra’s name from the “no-frisking” list at the country’s airports. Vadra had repeatedly urged the government to scrap his name from the VVIP list. Reacting to the government’s step, Vadra wrote on Facebook: “I appreciate that my name will not appear in the VVIP list anymore. I hope this is a dead issue now and will not be used against me. My Best wishes. Vadra has appreciated the development. He had also said earlier that he was not interested in the special privilege.

Clearing the government’s stand, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said that if Vadra wanted his name to be deleted earlier, he should have written a letter rather than posting it on Facebook. The issue of Vadra’s exemption from frisking and checking at airport had been raised many times. Gajapathi Raju had last year said that the no-frisking list should be meaningful and not “ornamental”. Anyway, there are many sides to this story. On social network, BJP supporters are cherishing this status of Vadra, whereas Congress supporters have reason to overpower BJP stating that Vadra forced BJP to do this.

Robert Vadra is Priyanka Gandhi’s husband. He is the son-in-law of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, and a member of the Nehru family by marriage. In the recent times, he grabbed headlines because of his controversial relations and land dealings with DLF group. In October 2012, Arvind Kejriwal accused Vadra of taking an interest-free loan of Rs. 65 crores and heavy bargains on land from DLF Limited in exchange for political favours. DLF responded that it had dealt with Vadra as a private entrepreneur, which the loan was Business Advance which was given, as per practice of trade, to make payments for land purchased from Vadra, that the company did not sell him land at a throwaway price, and that no quid pro quo took place.

After the controversy, Robert Vadra’s Facebook comment “Mango people in a banana republic” that was later deleted, had become widespread punchline for the news reporters and the public to talk about. Then civil society activist and now chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal had raised questions over the rise in his fortune. Kejriwal was claimed that the evidence pouring in from mango men from across the country. Mango men would prove to be nemesis for the powerful. Numerous reports have questioned veracity of balance-sheets of Vadra-owned companies, which claim to have received an overdraft of Rs. 7.94 crores from Corporation Bank. Corporation Bank has now denied ever providing an overdraft facility to that amount. Vadra, has been repeatedly targeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP over his same controversial land deals, which allegedly led to windfall gains for his company. However, so far neither Modi nor Kejriwal could prove anything against Vadra or Gandhi family. They have miserably failed to prove them guilty. BJP lost its credibility by alleging the Gandhi and Vadra but failed to prove those allegations of loot, having Swiss Bank Account and Black Money. Now, just to satisfy their false ego they are using unwanted tactics to keep up self-image.

BJP is creating hue and cry against Vadra for land deal in Haryana and Rajasthan to fool public to gain political mileage. Public is losing faith in the BJP government as it fails to arrest and convict allegedly corrupt leaders of UPA who have recklessly looted public money of country by abusing power as claimed by BJP and its then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The public will teach lesson to BJP like they had done to Congress if it fails to convict corrupts indulged in corruption during 10 years of UPA regime. Frisking or no frisking, Vadra will not lose anything as long as Congress is here. However, with such cheap traits BJP and NDA will lose its sheen with time.

Anyway, the countdown has begun for BJP’s bad days?

Reliance Jio to offer unlimited free wi-fi during Ganesh Utsav

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

RIL’s telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm has announced the launch of unlimited free Wi-Fi service, Jionet, at select pandals during ongoing Ganesh Utsav.

Devotees visiting Lalbaug Cha Raja, Andheri Cha Raja and Sahyadri Cha Raja pandals during 11-day long festival will be able to access high speed Wi-Fi internet services through their mobile devices, the company said in a statement.

“This year, we are privileged to join the festivities by offering ‘Jionet’ high speed Wi-Fi internet service…as we want visiting devotees to sample the digital ecosystem we are building consisting of high speed data networks,” Reliance Jio spokesperson said.

The users’ feedback on the overall experience and network will be used to improve the services further as Jio gets ready for its formal launch, it added.

“Once 4G LTE service commences, wi-fi and LTE networks will operate seamlessly with each other,” the statement said.

The company is expected to commercially launch its 4G services by the end of this year.

Visitors at any of the three pandals will have to scan and select Jionet, fill their details in a message that will appear on their device and later enter one-time password to start using Wi-Fi service.

“The system will automatically log the user out after every 30 minutes of inactivity, and the user has to log in again with the same password,” the statement said.

Local train derailment hits Dabbawala service

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

The derailment that hit the suburban local train service, the metropolis’s lifeline, not only caused massive inconvenience to passengers on Wednesday but also threw the famed Dabbawalas’ operations out of gear.

Widely lauded for their slick system for reaching meals to thousands of office-goers, the dabbawalas on Wednesdayfailed to deliver tiffins as they could not collect them back from offices due to the stoppage of the suburban local train service on Western Railway (WR)’s network. Seven coaches of a Churchgate-bound fast local train came off the tracks on the WR line on Tuesday, leading to the blocking up of three lines between Andheri and Vile Parle. The disruption caused a great deal of inconvenience to commuters as services came to a grinding halt for hours.

Intimate photos of Sheena Bora and a man close to Indrani Mukerjea with police

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

Mumbai Police, who are investigating the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, may have stumbled upon some intimate photographs of the deceased with someone who was close to her mother Indrani Mukerjea.

This picture is apparently quite explicit. The report quoted sources as saying that Sheena sent these so-called suggestive photos of herself to this person on WhatsApp.

Sheena also reportedly met up with this man in Thailand.

Sheena and this man supposedly interacted on internet-based chat applications.

Indrani’s son Mikhail Bora has also shared some photos with the Mumbai Police which may throw light on the case, as per reports.

It is being said that Sheena and the person close to Indrani had become close and intimate and Indrani confronted both when she said got a sense of it or found out.

However, there has been no official version from the police’s side.

Indrani is accused of killing Sheena with the help of her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamvar Rai on April 24, 2012.

Indrani was apparently hiding from her husband and former Star CEO Peter Mukerjea that Sheena and Mikhail were her children and called them her siblings in front of the world.

Peter and Indrani married in 2002.

Indrani, Sanjiv and Rai have been arrested on the charges of murdering Sheena and disposing of the body at Pen forest in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

Name politicians who set up illegal pandals: HC to MCs

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed all the municipal corporations in Maharashtra to file affidavits by October 9 disclosing the names of politicians who are involved in erecting pandals without permission for Ganesh Chaturthi festival beginning Thursday.

Hearing a batch of public interest litigations filed by social activist Mahesh Bedekar and others, a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka also asked the corporations to issue show cause notice to such illegal pandals.

The municipal bodies were also asked to collect the names and other particulars of the pandal organisers so that action could be taken against them.

During the course of the hearing, the judges were informed that prominent politicians were allegedly involved in erecting such pandals and the civic bodies were reluctant to take action against them as they were influential and would thwart attempts to demolish the structures.

The judges, however, asked the civic bodies to disclose the names of such politicians who are involved in erecting pandals without permission.

Hearing the same matter on Tuesday, the judges had threatened to take contempt action against political parties, trusts and organisations which set up pandals during festivals without securing permission and those who flouted noise pollution rules.

S M Godwarkar, counsel for the petitioners, submitted a report of NGO Awaz Foundation enumerating violations committed by organisers during the recently held ‘Dahi Handi’ festival in Mumbai.

The report said that no action had been initiated against the offenders for noise pollution violation.

Acting on this report, the bench asked the Mumbai Commissioner of Police to look into these alleged violations and file an affidavit about the action taken or proposed to be taken against the offenders.

The bench also asked the police commissioner to hold an inquiry into the functioning of police officers who were given the responsibility of detecting noise pollution violations during the festivals.

If it is found that they have not taken action against the offenders of noise pollution, then action should be taken against these officers, the judges said.

BJP leader Madhav Bhandari talks to students to end FTII deadlock

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

In an effort to end the 97-day-old impasse at FTII, senior BJP leader Madhav Bhandari held informal talks with students’ representatives even as the relay hunger strike by three protesters continued on the crisis-hit campus.

Bhandari, who is also the chief BJP spokesman in Maharashtra, later told, “My visit and talks were in personal capacity during which I tried to find a common meeting ground to end the strike. When there are negotiations to discuss the issues raised, a give and take approach and not a rigid one matters.”

He made it clear that he was exploring a solution in his personal capacity and had no “mandate” by the government to engage with the students.

Meanwhile, three students continued the relay hunger strike in a makeshift pandal on the campus with one of them – Himanshu Shekhar – completing seven days of his fast today.

The students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) have been boycotting classes bringing academic activity to a standstill to press for their main demand of removal of actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman, questioning his “credentials, stature and vision” to head the prestigious institute.

Bhandari said he was “hopeful” of resolving the deadlock and appealed to the students to give up their hunger strike as it involved a health risk.

FTII Students’ Association (FSA) leaders Harishankar Nachimuthu and Vikas Urs, who met the BJP leader, told him that they were eager to resolve the stalemate.

They said they were willing for a dialogue with the government to discuss their demands, which also includes creation of a “transparent mechanism” to make appointments on the FTII governing body in the interest of the institution.

Police claims breakthrough in cable operators assassination

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

The police claimed to have made a breakthrough in the assassination of a cable operator at Ulhasnagar a few days ago after the arrest of a person from Sangli district on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference here today, Joint Commissioner of Police V V Lakshmi Narayana told reporters that it was on September 11, when two unidentified men barged into the office of cable operator Sacchanand Atmram Karira (50) in Ulhasnagar and shot him at point blank range.

Karira died on way to hospital and offences under Section 302 along with the Arms act was registered against unknown assailants.

The police which had formed different teams to nab the killers spotted three people in an autorickshaw at Murbad after the shootout, the police official said.

The police arrested one Nitin Audhade in connection with the killing of the cable operator, the police official said.

Two others have been detained in connection with the offence and their interrogation is on, the police official said.

The police official said that two offences were registered earlier at Ulhasnagar under Section 395, Section 397 and Section 364 of the Indian Penal Code at Ulhasnagar in 2002, besides another offence under Section 3 and Section 25 of the Arms Act at Kurla police station in 2012.

The police is trying to find out who hired killers to liquidate the cable operator, the police official said.

There is no record of the victim having informed the police about any threat to him by anybody earlier demanding ransom, the police official said.

Contempt notice against Kolhapur Bar Association

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Afternoon Voice

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September 16, 2015

The Bombay High Court issued criminal contempt notice against office-bearers of the Kolhapur Bar Association for taking out a mock funeral procession of retired Chief Justice Mohit Shah and abstaining from work to press their demand for a circuit bench there.

The HC also issued criminal contempt notice against office-bearers of the bar associations of Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Satara districts, besides Kolhapur, for going on strike.

The office-bearers and members of the Kolhapur Bar Association had on September 9 taken out a mock funeral procession of Justice Shah, who had retired as Bombay High Court Chief Justice on September 8. The lawyers had also gone on a one-day strike claiming that their demand seeking establishment of a circuit bench in Kolhapur was not fulfilled.

A division bench of justices A S Oka and V L Achliya said even assuming that the lawyers’ demand for a circuit bench is legitimate, it still does not permit them to take law in their own hands.

“Prima facie their conduct of taking out a mock funeral procession of retired Chief Justice Mohit Shah aggravates contempt and gross misconduct. It appears to us that the conduct of the office bearers of those bar associations in calling upon its members to abstain from work amounts to misconduct,” the court said.

“Apart from lowering the dignity of the judicial system, the real victims are the poor litigants who had to suffer as lawyers abstained from work,” the court said.

Besides the members of the Kolhapur Bar Association, lawyers in Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Satara districts had also gone on a strike.

“We issue criminal contempt notice against all office bearers of the bar associations of Kolhapur, Sindhudurg district, Ratnagiri and Satara districts. We direct the principal judges of the courts from these districts to issue the notice after ascertaining their names and other details,” the court ordered.

The bench also asked the Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council to look into the matter and take appropriate action. It posted the matter for further hearing on October 9.