The Thane city police claimed to have a major catch when they arrested
an alleged agent of the Inter Sevice Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan on
September 29 from Mumbra. The arrest is a major breakthrough as accused
is said to be a close associate of hijackers of the Indian Airlines fight
IC 814 hijacked in 1999.
According to the available information the police received a tip off that
Ayub Mohammed Nisar alias Mohammed Ayub Yunus alias Mohammed Faheem was
a Bangladeshi citizen residing illegally in the country. The police team
tracked down the accused from a hideout in Mumbra.
Interrogation of the accused revealed that he hailed from Bangladesh and
had come to India on a tourist visa in 1999. "His visa expired in
December 2000 but the Bangladeshi national continued to stay in the country
with a fake name. He even obtained bogus public documents including a
driving
Licence to claim he was an Indian", an official of the crime branch
said. The official also added that some incrimination documents were seized
from his possession. The documents pointed out that the accused was an
associate of a group of hijackers who had seized the airbus from Nepal
and taken it to Afghanistan to swap for Kashmiri militants. The official
however did not give details of the seizure. Two agents of the Regional
Transport Office (RTO) were also arrested in this connection.
Interestingly Intelligence sleuths had been keeping a watch around mosques
and public places in the suburb ever since the terrorist attack in the
United States on September 11. The cops even anticipated the arrest of
some of the accused involved in the US terror attacks from Mumbra.
The cops are now probing for a possible link between the accused and the
terrorists involved in the US attacks.
In another crackdown the police arrested thirteen activists of the Students
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) from different parts of the city. The
organization was banned by the central government recently. Two of the
accused including a 70-year-old man were arrested from Mumbra last week.
Notably SIMI has no office in Mumbra or anywhere in Thane.
LOCKOUT AGITATION IN MUMBRA
Asadullah Hanfi/Mumbra
Rural folks from the 23 villages under the Thane Municipal Corporation
(TMC) last week held a lock out agitation in Mumbra to press for the reversion
of their villages back to gram panchayat system of governance. The agitators
demonstrated under the banner of the Agari Yuvak Sanghatana (AYS), which
represents the rural community.
The activists forcibly evicted the staff of the TMC from the Diva and
Sheel civic offices on Friday afternoon and locked the premises as part
of the agitation. No untoward incident was reported during the agitation.
The demonstrators dispersed peacefully after an hour long agitation. The
activists threatened an everyday rasta roko agitation from the near future
if their demands were not met by the state government.
The AYS is fighting for an end to civic rule in the 23 villages for the
last three years. The Sanghatana has held a series of similar agitation
in the past including mammoth morchas to civic headquarters to press for
their demands.
The villages are situated under Mumbra Zone office and centred around
Sheel Phata and Diva. The agitators claim a raw deal from the corporation.
They claim that they are derived of all civic benefits and subjected to
high rates of taxes.
The claims hold true to a large extent. After eighteen years of its existence
the TMC took up the first ever construction of a 900 metre road in the
rural belt last year. The road links the highway to Sheel village.
The TMC had offered a series of sops to the villagers to persuade them
to remain under its jurisdiction. The sops included lesser taxes and liberal
repairs and reconstruction rules. The villagers are however not satisfied
with the concessions.
The Sanghatana is a part of the Sarvapakshiya Gramin Sangharsh Samiti
(SGSS) which has waged a united agitation for an end to civic rules in
the 63 villages from the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC)
and the New Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC). The Samiti demands an
independent gram panchayat for the 63 villages.
The state government has recently yielded to the demands of the Samiti
and villages under KDMC and NMMC have been reverted tog ram panchayat
system of governance.
FIRST OPEN SCHOOL OPENED
Asadullah Hanfi / Mumbra
The rural suburbs of Mumbra and Kausa witnessed the opening of their first-
ever Open School last week. The institution would function from the premises
of the Shoeb High School and Junior college, Kausa.
"People of the suburbs had a long pending demand for such an institution
so we decided to implement the proposal", Shoeb Khan, the principal
of the School said while inaugurating the function. Local social workers,
educationists as well as students were present during the function.
The institution titled as the National Open School (NOS) offers Secondary
School Certificate (SSC) as well as Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC)
clearing opportunities in English as well as Urdu mediums to the local
students and school dropouts.
With this the Shoeb High school has become the first such educational
institution to offer Urdu medium under the NOS in the entire district
of Thane. While a number of other colleges offering NOS courses exist
in the district, there are no institutions to impart education in Urdu
so far.
Candidates aspiring to appear for the two exams would be subjected to
entrance tests like in other universities. Students clearing their exams
would be eligible for admissions to colleges affiliated to the University
of Mumbai or any other university in the country for their further studies.
The initial response to the event was encouraging as two students enrolled
for the studies under the NOS on the very day of inauguration itself.
Both the students want to clear their HSC examinations.
Aspirants of the NOS had so far no choice but to seek admissions to distant
educational institutions to carry on with their correspondence courses.
According to available estimates around 240 such candidates from Mumbra
and Kausa are completing their studies from the Indira Gandhi National
Open University (IGNOU) and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Open University
(JNONU). The candidates find it inconvenient to travel to other cities
for their exams.
MUMBRA MAY TURN SINGAPORE
EX ENGINEER PROPOSES UNIQUE PROJECT TO END HAWKER'S WOES
Asadullah Hanfi/Mumbra
The tussle between the Thane Municipal corportion (TMC) and hawkwrs outside
the Mumbra railway station and nearly places seems to be over for the
moment. The burning quwstion of rehabilitation of the hawkers however
remains as unresolved as ever. The corporation has pulled hawkers stalls
from near the railway station offer a lot of criticisms. The hawkers have
preferred to be workless but do not want to move to the alternate rehabilitation
site.
NY Bhaldar, a retired civil engineer from Mumbra has proposed a revolutionary
way of acccomodating the hawkers. His proposal not only takes care of
the rehabilitation of the hawkers but also the convenience of the public,
the commuters and above all, the corporation itself. The proposal, if
implemented can turn the Mumbra railway station into a supermarket on
the lines of Singapore. The suggestion was warmly accepted in principal
by the local civic officials some two months ago but no formal start has
been given to it so far.
The hawkers and the TMC are at loggerheads following the road widening
last year. The corportion had constructed a market at the MEK Industrial
estate premises to rehabilitate the 130 hawkers from the railway station
and nearby areas. The hawkers have however turned down the plan claiming
loss of business and returning to their old site of business.
Detailing and his plans the engineer says that the corporation should
use the - autorikshaw stand adjoining the railway platform no.2. the area
belongs to the Railways and will require its consent. "The stalls
should be constructed on a slab twenty feet above the stand and matching
the height of the roof of the platform and the level of the Foot Over
Bridge (FOB)", he says. His plan porpose connecting the overhead
market to the FOB for the convenience of commuters as well as providing
a staircase from the road end for the use of common public.
"The TMC should construct stalls on both sides leaving walking space
in between for the customers. A section should be left for the hawkers
also." He says.
Replying to a query he says that the corporation should charge the cost
of construction from the stall owners themselves. "The monthly maintenance
chargss can be levied on the stall owners and hawkers", Bhaldar said.
The engineer worked as civil engineer at the Saby Siddik Engineering collage
for eight years before going to the Gulf. He visited many Asian countries
including Singapore and is impressed by their shopping arcades and centres.
Now he is a member of the Lions club of Thane- Kausa.
Bhaldar put up his plan before top civic and police officials including
the then police commissioner Bhujangrao Mohite. The meeting was called
to discuss the rehabilitation of the roadside hawkers and thret to law
and order arising therefrom.
The civil officials welcome the proposal in principle but expressed reservation
about its success. "We will have to consult the railways for its
permission", an official said commenting later on.
The district administration and a cable operator from Mumbra are engaged
in a war off the screen over the issue of illegal cable connections in
the suburbs of Mumbra and Kausa. The administration has kept the licence
renewal application of the operator pending and the operator has suspended
the payment of taxes to the authorities from September 2000 in protest.
The issue is deadlocked in the Mumbai High court at the moment.
The trouble broke out after Iqbal Ismail Shaikh, the proprietor of the
National Dish Antennae Services, a cable operator from Kausa lodged complaints
of massive manipulations by fellow cable operators in paymnet of Entertaiment
Tax (ET) to the government. He had maintained in his complaint filed with
the collectorate that the concerned officials were abetting theft of taxes
by cable opertors which resulted in revenue losses worth Rs 2.7 crore
per annum to the state exchequer. He also claimed victimisation from the
authorities as well as threats from fellow cable operators in response
to his complaint.
Cable operators have to pay Rs 30 per cable connection (known as point)
per month to the state government in the form of ET. The taxes are charged
from them on the basis of declaration of points filed by each operator.
The operator has to provide payment schedule cards to the customers and
furnish the same to the authorities on demand as evidence of connection.
The suburbs are overlooked by the high rise mountains which interrupt
TV transmissions waves. As a result the residents have to depend upon
cable services for viewing TV channels.
"There are 12961 buildings in Mumbra and Kausa but the government
gets tax revenues for 8500 connectins from 32 cable operators. Out of
this 3000 connections spread over 458 buildings are mine only. As a result
the average works out to less tan one conenctin every two buildings",
he said.
According to him there are almost 50000 points operational in Mumbra out
of which 41500 are operating illegally due to the negligence of the government.
He feels that the government can earn Rs 3 crore as ET and lakhs of rupees
by way of income tax from the suburbs every year.
The operator applied for erenwal of his 4 (II B) licence on January 1,
2000 after his licence expired on December 31, 1999. He also gave two
reminders but the administration is yet to reply to the letters or renew
the licence or even give a reason for keeping the issue on hold. The operator
moved the Mumbai High court with a writ petition against the state government
in response and also stopped the payment of taxes from September 2000
till he got his licence renewed.
The administration responded with threatening to seal his office on January
14, this year and compelled him to pay Rs 4 lakh as tax dues. The authorities
served a notice on the concerned cable control room to suspend the connection
of 23 cable operators including the Natinal Dish Antannae services immeditely
or face legal action.
Mukesh Khullar, the district collector was ignaorant about the case when
contacted. He however admitted that there would be something wrong to
keep the licence application pending for so long. He also admitted to
massive manipulations in cable connections. "We have unearthed around
one lakh illegal points from the district in a drive since the last several
months. The concerned cable operators have been issued notices to pay
up the tax or face action", the collector said. He however did not
provide the details of the illegal conections unearthed from Mumbra and
Kausa.
ST CHEAP, TMT COSTLY IN MUMBRA
Asadullah Hanfi/Mumbra
The residents of Mumbra are taken for a ride as far as the services of
the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) are concerned. The residents are paying
much more than what the State Transport charges for the same distance
on the same route. Interestingly this is a unique phenomenon not only
in Thane but anywhere in the state.
As a result it becomes cheaper to travel by ST buses or pay the same to
autorickshaw then to wait for hours for the TMT services. The catch lies
in the faulty fare changing spots.
The fault can be felt from the very fact that a commuter boarding from
Mumbra railway station to Kausa has to pay the fare from Kalva Retibunder
some two kilometres before the spot of boarding. The TMT charges Rs 4
for the two-kilometer journey, which is in fact a four-kilometre journey,
based on the tariff structure. The fare changes from Thakurpada, the first
stop from the railway station.
Similarly the TMT charges Rs 5 for travel between the station and Sheelphata
based on the same system of fare. Most of the commuters do not know of
the situation and so no initiative is taken to discuss the issue with
TMT administration.
The tariffs are almost the same as far as the other means of public transports
are concerned. Autorickshaw charges between Rs 4 to Rs 5 per seat for
Kausa while the six seater autos charge Rs 5 for the journey.between the
station and Sheelphata.
The ST buses however charge only Rs 3 for journey to Kausa and Rs 4 for
travelling up to Sheelphata.
Ironically the ST fares are almost Rs 1 more than the comparative fares
of the transport of the local self-governments. This is due to the fact
that the ST is sinking deeper into the reds every year while the other
transports manage to cut down their losses due to grants from their respective
civic bodies.
The move of the TMT is shocking considering the fact that the TMT is in
to the reds to the tune of Rs 32 crore every year. The faulty tariff structure
and poor services have compelled the commuters to shy away from using
the services.
A section of the residents even feel that the fault is deliberately done
to benefit the 4000 odd automen in the twin suburbs at the cost of the
TMT.
Mumbra and Kausa have only one bus route on their five-kilometre map.
The service connects Khidkali near Manpada, Dombivli to CIDCO junction,
a good half a kilometre away from Thane railway station. Most of the time
the services are up to Bharat Gears only.
As a result the rural folks have to heavily depend on other public transport
including the New Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) and the Kalyan Dombivli
Municipal Transport (KDMT) for travelling even within the limits of the
thane Municipal Corporation (TMC). The NMMT and KDMT operate between Dombivli
and Vashi passing through the five kilometre stretch of TMC limits between
Khidkali and Sheelphata.
