Bastiwala plans protest against Mukesh Ambani’s $2 billion home on Wakf land

Mukesh Ambani has built a 27-storey building which is 550-feet above sea level. The building includes 6 floors just for parking. It is to be noted that he is the fifth richest person around the world and the richest resident in India. The house constructed is the costliest ever in the planet. The entire cost for constructing the building is $2 billion according to Forbes. The 4,00,000 square-feet building was constructed in a span of four years. Back in March 2008, Mukesh Ambani was ranked the fifth richest person in the world with $43 billion. The only comparable building to that of Mukesh Ambani’s house is the triplex penthouse at New York which was built at a cost of $70 million.

The particular place from the building is designed to offer a panoramic view of the city. There is a separate gym for each family member, open air gardens in four floors, a theatre that can accommodate 65 people along with wine and snack bar. This is not yet. The list goes on with a spa, swimming pool, Jacuzzi, personal helipad etc. Something special about the building is that Mukesh Ambani is planning to build an Ice room to cut of the Mumbai heat. Each floor is constructed with twice the height of a normal one which will make the building twice as tall as other tall building in the locality. The number of people working everyday in order to maintain things will be around 600.

It has been the most talked about residential property in India for sometime now. Housed in Mumbai's up market Altamount Road, Mukesh Ambani's 27-floor residence, currently standing high, is in a bit of a controversy. Antilia, as it will be called, is a 4,532 square metre piece of land, which was bought by a company called Antilia Commercial, owned by Ambani, in 2002 for around Rs 20 crore.

It now transpires that the land belongs to the Wakf Board and questions are being raised over the deal. The Maharashtra government has termed the transaction as "illegal" and has issued a show cause notice to the Chairperson of the Maharashtra State Board for the Wakfs. The alleged irregularities in the sale of the land, as alleged by the government, is something that the Wakf Board will have to clarify on. The original owner of the property is said to be the Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Orphanage. As things stand, the Wakf Board issued a notice to Antilia Commercial asking why the property should not be restored to the Wakf Board as it was acquired in contravention of the Wakf rules.

The Ambani house, as envisaged, will be among the most extravagant residential projects in the country. Apart from a mammoth outlay of Rs 400 crore, the house is expected to have a six-floor parking, a health club, a swimming pool, an entertainment centre and helipads. While speaking to Santacruz Patrika, the District President of NCP K.A.Bastiwals said, “The property belongs to Wakf Board which cannot be sold nor the title altered. Since it was use for an orphanage it is shameful to note that one of India’s wealthiest person has constructed his residential skyscraper which housed an orphanage. In this regard I am contemplating to take a morcha to Haji Ali in solidarity protest for orphans.” When contacted, the Reliance Industries spokesperson was not available to comment.

Kalina lady injured in tree fall to be compensated by BMC

While more people fall victims to unpruned trees falling on them, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the housing societies are pointing fingers at each other. The civic body alleges housing societies don’t take action and the societies say the BMC takes its own sweet time in granting permission to trim the trees. Nearly four cases of tree collapses were reported in housing societies over last two months, the most recent being that of a Kalina resident, Annie Fernandes (37), who sustained grievous injuries when a tree fell on her. The BMC drew flak for the incidents and it decided to take action on the housing societies. The BMC has given a 15-day deadline to societies to prune overgrown trees or cough up Rs 5,000 as penalty. . A lot of cars are parked under them, and children play in the compound in the evenings. So if a branch falls, someone is likely to get hurt. Also, to trim a tree, one needs to take permission from the BMC which sometimes takes more than two months.

It was a month ago, Annie Fernandes, 37 years and a widow resides at Kolivery Village, Kalina. On that fateful day while she was crossing the road a tree fell on her. She was grievously injured and was lying at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Hospital where she underwent treatment. Annie being a widow lost her husband about 3 months ago and has a 2 year-old child. Her father works as an employee in the office of Our Lady of Egypt Church, Kalina.

After the accident, the Asst. Commissioner and Engineer, Garden dept visited the site. But when the time came to paying the injured lady compensation it is alleged that the Asst. Commissioner showed reluctance. However, Rev. Fr. Adrian Ferreira, Parish Priest, Our Lady of Egypt, Kalina intervened and shot a letter to the Corporator, Alice Therattil. After a lot of persuasion and follow-up by Alice Therattil with the Mayor, garden Dept of BMC, Municipal Commissioner, Anand Walhalkar, AMC and C.B.Rokade, DMC she finally managed to get an amount of Rs 50,000 cleared by BMC for the injured Annie Fernandes.

As per report in the media it was mentioned that BMC is ready to pay Rs one Lakh to relatives of dead and Rs 50,000 to injured. Hence, in this case-Why should Annie Fernandes not be compensated by BMC? While confirming with Alice Therattil she spoke to Santacruz Patrika and said, “After a lot of persuasion with BMC I finally managed to get compensation sanctioned for Annie Fernandes.” When asked if Annie has received the payment Alice replied that she will be receiving the compensation shortly.

The biggest hurdle to this problem is that trees are not allowed to be trimmed or cut without BMC’s permission. According to the rules, the permission should be granted within 30 days. However, there are hardly any cases where the permission is given within that period. This delay can sometimes lead to accidents. The recent accidents have made the BMC conscious and they want to take all the precautionary steps so that no other mishaps occur in the future and they don’t have to compensate anyone.
While clarifying with an Asst Commissioner of BMC on tree cutting or trimming he said, “First and foremost, everyone needs to know that every single tree in the city belongs to the BMC because it has been registered under the tree census. Even if the tree is in one’s housing society, one cannot cut or trim it without permission from the civic body. And to take permission, citizens need to take a photograph of the society with an application for trimming the branches.”

BMC has no funds for road repair in Kalina

The megalopolis is reeling under unprecedented pressure-environmental degradation, poor infrastructure, bad roads, lack of water, improper sewage lines, encroachment on footpaths, high priced housing and growing population.

In less than a month two road cave-ins at Sunder Nagar, Kalina have made residents to demonstrate against the inefficiency of BMC. A little over a week ago, a bus carrying about 40 children, almost tumbled into a huge crater caused by a cave-in. This led to panicky amongst the children and led to children falling over each other. However, the bus driver bravely managed to extricate the bus from the pit. For over a month now, residents of Sunder Nagar have been a witness to one of their arterial roads caving in, part by part. But, to their dismay, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has categorically stated that it doesn’t have funds to repair it.

This implies that the panicked residents will have to wait till the civic body arranges for funds. A member of the ‘Save Garden & Neighbourhood of Sunder Nagar (Ext) Association’, (SGNSNA), said, “The BMC has been very lethargic in maintaining the road... After the first road cave-in surfaced we immediately informed the BMC but they lent a deaf ear to our complaint. Secondly, despite the second road cave-in took place we once again informed the BMC to take action but they refused to our heed”, said one of the member.

Later, while contacting an official from the H/E ward, he clarified and replied, “The repair work is going to cost us around Rs 4 lakh. At the moment, we have no funds to repair the road because none have been sanctioned. We have now asked the local corporator if she can sanction the work from her own funds.” However, Alice Therattil, corporator, Ward No 84 too did not heed and said she was out of funds, since she has utilized almost all her funds in development work in her constituency.

According to the official, the road, an asphalted one, was built just four years ago, by the civic body’s storm water drain department. The official added that a culvert under the road may have caused the cave-in. “There must have been some leakage that caused the foundation of the road to be eroded, as a result of which the road caved in,” he said.

Similarly, a road in Vakola caved in on last week also because of leakage in the underground water pipeline. Around peak morning hours, a part of the Jawaharlal Nehru Road near the Vakola Bridge, that was covered by paver blocks caved in. Civic employees detected it before any mishap occurred. Civic officials said a small stretch of the road, measuring four feet, developed cracks and caved in. On excavation, civic employees found a cavity underneath.

AL Waghralkar, assistant municipal commissioner said, “A 6-inch underground water pipeline was leaking, that lead to a cavity underneath.  Civic employees noticed it and took preventive measures to restore it.” The pipeline was repaired and the road was reopened on Wednesday.

 “These cave-ins can be prevented if old underground utilities are replaced. The civic body doesn’t even have an underground map of all the utilities,” said an official from the road department, on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media on this issue.

All Political parties join to show might against Reliance Infra

A steep hike in tariff, allegedly by about 300 increase in the past 5 years per unit, in suburban Mumbai where Reliance Infrastructure caters to around 28 lakh consumers has led to violent protests by political parties. Political parties, have called for government intervention to roll back the hike. There is massive unrest among consumers over the tariff hike.Reliance has imposed severe tariff hike on 28 lakh consumers in suburbs while the people are already grappling with overall price rise. Frustrated at paying 'inflated' electricity bills, consumers of Reliance Infra (RInfra) are switching over to TATA Power Company (TPC) for cheaper electricity. It is total exploitation by Reliance. There are three rates of electricity, one is TATA, the other is BEST and then even Reliance had their own rates. In this Reliance have the highest rates. Within few months arrears will also come and people will have to pay through their nose," complained a resident.“Mumbai is the only city where people are paying different rates for power. There cannot be any justice as to why suburban residents should pay more than those living in South Mumbai. The government should have a uniform power tariff. If there are issues related to companies supplying power, it should subsidise the cost in public interest,” said Mumbai BJP president Raj Purohit. The BJP has decided to file a petition in the Bombay high court against the government’s policy. Sena was among the first to raise the noise over steep power prices in the western suburbs. But gradually, the BJP has made the agitation a common cause. To negate the public sentiments against Congress and NCP, the Congress also came out to show its concern on the matter.RInfra, meanwhile, has blamed Tata Power for the suburban fare hike. In a statement, Reliance Infra said that the high tariff disparity among the Mumbai distribution companies is due to a disproportionate capacity allocation by Tata Power. Tata Power Company, by keeping Mumbai consumers power-starved has displayed its profiteering attitude and exploited the shortage economy by selling power to states like Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. This is despite RInfra’s request with Tata Power and readiness to sign long-term purchase agreement for city consumers, which was turned down.

CCTV footage help Police make some headway

The BMC continued to face wrath after a two-year-old infant was stolen from civic-run VN Desai hospital in Vile Parle on Friday. On Monday, a delegation from Mumbai Mahila Agadhi led by Shaina NC, a BJP national executive member, accused the civic body of negligence and met additional municipal commissioner Ashish Kumar Singh to submit a document comprising seven pointers to augment the security in all civic hospitals. “The BMC should address the issue urgently and nab the gang involved,” said Shaina NC. “It should work in tandem with the police to deal with the problem holistically.” An infant was stolen from Sion hospital in 2009, and incidents of babies getting swapped were reported from Sion and Nair hospitals in 2007 and 2010. The BMC denied there were any no loopholes. “It is a case of negligence on behalf of the parents, and not a security lapse,” said Singh.

 “On the lines of railway announcements, we intend to play audio messages in hospitals alerting people to beware of suspicious persons in the premises and urging them to report the same to hospital staff or authorities,” Dr Sanjay Oak, medical director (civic hospitals), told media. “We plan to put up pictorial alerts displaying dos and don’ts on the issue.”  All counters for paperwork will be set up near the outpatients department on a single floor, to avoid such thefts, he said. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon deploy 200 women guards in all civic hospitals. The Standing Committee of the BMC last week gave its nod for deploying 200 women guards at major civic and peripheral hospitals in the city, Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner, said. “Shaina NC, member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive, led a delegation to the office of Ashish Kumar Singh, additional municipal commissioner, on Monday and demanded that security measures at civic hospitals should be more stringent. She also demanded that visiting hours should be restricted and that hospitals should provide parents and their baby matching rubber bands for easy identification.

The police are questioning residents of nearby localities to find out whether they had seen any woman with an unknown child. “We suspect that a woman who was being coerced to deliver a (boy) child could be instrumental in the kidnapping,” said an officer from Vakola police station. The police are also exploring involvement of beggar gangs. Thanks to the CCTV cameras installed at VN Desai Hospital, Santacruz (East), the Vakola police have been able to identify the woman who kidnapped two-month-old Ayush Mishra on Friday. Police said the woman had been seen at the hospital for two days before she kidnapped the child. “We have footage of the woman while she was entering the hospital around 10.30 am. It is the only footage in which her face is clearly visible,” said an investigating officer, requesting anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Investigators said that they did not have footage where she interacted with Ayush’s grandmother, as some cameras were non-functional. “Also, the woman had covered her face while leaving the hospital premises,” the officer added. Hospital employees told the Vakola police that they had seen the woman visiting the hospital for at least two days before the kidnapping. Anil Kharade, senior police inspector at Vakola police station, said, “Sketches of the accused are being made with the help of CCTV footage, and on the basis of the description by Ayush’s grandmother.”

Sunita, felicitated during a Dandiya programme at Dhobighat

Sunita, Asst. Editor, 'SANTACRUZ PATRIKA'  being felicitated during a Navratri 'Dandia' programme. Also seated is Shri Kripashankar Singh, Chief of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee...

Will Suresh Thakur be appointed as Corporator?

It was about three years ago that we elected 227 corporators to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Of the 227 seats, 74 were reserved for candidates from backward or scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The candidates had to provide a caste certificate as proof of their caste. The caste certificate is obtained typically from the collector's office, which comes under the revenue department and not under the social welfare department. The caste certificates are scrutinized by the Scrutiny Department for their validity after the BMC elections are over. This process takes several months. Of the 74 winning reserved candidates, the caste verification committee found 17 to be false. That is, almost one-fourth of all winners had a false certificate. If this statistic is extrapolated to the whole state (which has a population of about four crore potential caste certificate seekers), then we may have more than one crore fake certificates. This sounds similar to the case of Andhra Pradesh, which found out that based on the number of ration cards issued, 85 per cent of the state was below the poverty line.
The 17 affected candidates, fearing that their elections may be set aside, or claiming that their certificates were not really fake, moved court to prevent the election authorities from declaring their certificates as fake. This process took several months, or years, finally until which time the term of the BMC corporator may end. So a court decision after that is pointless.
In July, 2010, the disqualification of Shiv Sena corporator Pravin Devhare in ward no.185 by the Bombay High Court came as a blow to the saffron party in the Hindu-dominated area. The court instead appointed MNS candidate Prakash Patankar as the corporator. Devhare, one of the 17 corporators who were accused of submitting fake caste certificates during the civic elections of 2007, had challenged the case in the Bombay High Court. He had sought a stay on the findings of the scrutiny committee that found the certificates fake. However, the High Court disqualified Devhare’s nomination and appointed Patankar who had secured the second highest number of votes — 909 votes short of Devhare’s 9,800. As the matter was going on in court, that particular ward did not have a corporator for the past three years. .Similarly, the fate of Mahadeshwar Pandurang, Shiv Sena (accused of submitting fake caste certificates) and Suresh Thakur, Congress has been in the courts for more than three years. Mahadeshwar Pandurang who was declared winner was challenged by Suresh Thakur in the Courts. After fighting a long-drawn legal battle in courts challenging Mahadeshwar Pandurang’s fake caste identity the matter has finally reached the tip of the ice-berg. Suresh Thakur while speaking to Santacruz Patrika clarified and said, “Caste certificates of Vaishyawani and Kulwant Wani under OBC has been dismissed by the High Court and orders passed to remove from OBC.” He further added, “Mahadeshwar Pandurang had appealed for a stay but the HC pronounced an order dismissing the caste certificate of Mahadeshwar.” “Though after a long wait I am delighted but let’s wait for the final outcome which in most probability will be pronounced shortly,” concluded the delighted Suresh Thakur. However, while speaking to Santacruz Patrika, Mahadeshwar Pandurang clarified and said, “The HC came to a conclusion that the GR of 1995, 96 and circular of 2008 issued by the government was not proper and correct and accordingly the case was squashed.” I have done no wrong and submitted my caste certificates of Vaishyawani as per order. But if the court does not treat it as correct I have no say and have to respect the HC order. My elder brother and my son have got validity as Vaishyawani by the government and why I have been discriminated. The Court order is final and I have respect for the order,” added Mahadeshwar.Further, when questioned on the next course of action he replied, “The alternative is to move the Supreme Court. But since I have no money and my ill health doesn’t permit, I leave it to the decision of the Court. The final decision in the Small Cause Court will put an end to the long drawn battle”Finally, Mahadeshwar said that the order of the HC of dismissing Vaishyawani from OBC is not a good decision. What will be the fate of employees employed under this category? What will be the fate of Medical, Engineering and various students who have taken admission as Vaishyawani under OBC? The order has put everyone’s fate at stake.