As Adivashi pens this 100th piece, a ray of hope appears on the horizon for one of the daunting problems raised several times in these columns. Thousands of families have been living dangerously in less than three-decade-old crumbling JN type buildings built by CIDCO as permissions to redevelop their properties have been held up by the planning agency itself. Now the residents can heave a sigh of relief as Bombay High Court recently pulled up CIDCO for the delay and asked it to act. The Court even authorised the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) to issue the permission for redevelopment if CIDCO fails to do so. These residents have been in a Catch-22 type situation as NMMC declared the buildings dangerous and asked the residents to vacate, while CIDCO sat endlessly on the files. Corporator Kishore Patkar, president of JN3 Type Residents Association which filed the writ petition, says the court verdict is a big welcome relief. Many who have vacated the buildings and been living in transit camps in near slum conditions too can hope to shift to new apartments sooner or later. The verdict also paves the way for redevelopment of hundreds of JN1, 2 and 3 buildings which developed severe cracks. There have been many cases of ceiling plasters giving away injuring some people.
Adivashi has also been writing about reckless driving and rampant signal jumping in the city of the 21st Century. The traffic police have adopted a twin strategy – one by installing CCTV cameras at many signals and two felicitating on-the-spot those who follow the traffic rules. Many motorists, stopped by the police for no fault of theirs, were pleasantly surprised to get certificates of appreciation and roses from the men in uniform!
Meanwhile, the police have also begun to a keep strict vigil on the CCTV images and send notices to the residences of errant motorists as rash driving and cases of jumping the red signals continue to cause nuisance on main thoroughfares like Palm Beach Road and junctions at Vashi, Kopar Khairane and Airoli.
Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) undertaking has brought relief to the people of Kharghar, Khanda and Kamothe nodes who have been traditionally harassed by auto rickshaw drivers. Last week, a couple of youths, apparently belonging to an auto men’s union, beat up an NMMT driver at Kamothe, abusing him for hitting the three-wheeler business. While commuters here say that the auto rickshaw drivers indulge in Dadagiri and refuse to ply by meter tariff, auto unions say NMMT buses stop in between stops and snatch away their legitimate business. NMMT Chairman Ganesh Mhatre asked bus drivers to halt vehicles only at designated stops.
Talking of infrastructure, here is some good news for Vashi as NMMC will soon beautify the stretch along the nullah between the bus depot and Sagar Vihar – once hovercraft landing point. In a multi-pronged project, the nullah will be covered and an elevated construction over it and parking spaces, a neat path way and a green patch will be developed in the stretch. The concreted portion will be used as hawkers’ zone. Will the area soon resemble the streets of Boston or Berlin? Well, Adivashi will continue to keep an eye on this development. Remember, the stretch from the eastern side of the bus depot till Modern College which has been developed as a parking lot has turned out to be a flop.
NCP dumps Ganesh Naik: Former Minister and Navi Mumbai strongman Ganesh Naik’s photographs which used to be prominent on posters put up by NCP are now missing. Similarly, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s photographs are not seen on Naik’s company posters. This clearly shows that Naik’s parting of ways with the NCP is only a matter of time. An official announcement is expected before the end of this week.
Meanwhile, tremors have begun to be noticed in the Congress circles as the civic polls near. Senior corporator and former CIDCO director Namdeo Bhagat has bid goodbye to the Congress and joined the Shiv Sena. City Congress unit president Dashrath Bhagat feels that Namdeo’s quit apparently for selfish gains. The Sena camp expects that many more from the Congress as well as NCP will soon make a beeline to the saffron party.
A major overseas employment racket has come to light at Vashi. Police estimate that as many as 300 people may have deposited amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh with the hope of fulfilling their dreams of working abroad for prosperity and got nothing in return. The rogue company – Neelkanth Overseas – which advertised in newspapers inviting applications for jobs in countries like Canada and Australia proved to be a fly-by-night operator as the police found the outfit’s office locked.
This is the centenary piece in a series on Navi Mumbai by veteran media professional
B N Kumar, a long time resident of Mumbai’s twin city.
He can be contacted on: samacharfoundation@gmail.com
