THE TIMES OF INDIA ePAPER Mumbai: The second edition of the Joint Entrance Exam- ination (main) for admission into various engineering courses was not a smooth af- fair for many who attempted the offline test on Sunday. While students in a few cen- tres claimed that they got 15- 25 minutes less to attempt the paper, some perceived errors in the physics section stumped the students. Many found the paper, especially the physics and mathematics sections, tough and lengthy. Around 11.85 lakh students registered for the offline ex- am conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Educa- tion (CBSE) across the coun- try. Teachers from coaching institutes claimed that none of the choices given for at least one question each in physics and mathematics were right. Two questions in the physics section again, had the wrong units, claimed some students and coaching institutes. A student from a CBSE school said that he wasted a lot of time in finding the right value. “In the end, I did not get enough time to complete the paper and I had to blindly mark the options,” he said. Another student from Thakur College said that the physics and mathematics sec- tions were tougher as com- pared to last year. Praveen Tyagi from II- Tians Pace, said, “In another question all options given had positive values, but the cor- rect answer should have a negative value. It is a national level exam conducted by the CBSE. The paper-setters should ensure that the papers are error free and do not puz- zle students.” Ramesh Batlish from FIIT-JEE said that though the error in the units would not affect the value, stu- dents would wonder if their answer was indeed correct. While each question carries 4 marks, there could be ques- tions of 8-16 marks, which raised doubt among students. CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi said that the expert team of the board took due care to ensure the papers are error free. “But students who have queries can write to us and we will look into it,” said Joshi. Meanwhile, students at a couple of centres alleged that the invigilator gave 15-25 min- utes less to complete the pa- per. A student who got a cen- tre at an engineering college in Bandra, said, “We were giv- en the question paper and the OMR sheets around 9.30am, when in other colleges it was handed over to the students at least 10-15 minutes earlier” Teachers also pointed out that the question papers were heavily based on the NCERT syllabus followed by the CBSE and hence they seemed tougher for the state board students. Yogita Rao TNN Errors, time constraint trip up JEE candidates THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI * MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014 3 TIMES CITY Mumbai: The victims of the milk tanker mishap had trav- elled on the same vehicle to their native place in Sangam- ner and hitched a ride back af- ter spending a week there. The senior-most victim, Abdul Shaikh, lived in Malwa- ni, Malad (W). The other four victims who died on the spot were identified as Shaikh’s daughter-in-law Sameena (33), granddaughter Sara (4), daughter Shayana (56), and her son Irfan (32). Those injured are Shaikh’s daughter-in-law Nasreen (29), and her kids Alina and Arsa- lan (both 5), driver Navnath Gite (26) and cleaner Anand Gaikwad (27). They have all been admitted to Sheer Gov- ernment Hospital in Nashik. Nasreen was not told about her daughter Sara’s death, a fam- ily member said. The Shaikhs were all seat- ed in the front cabin next to the cleaner’s seat at the time of the incident. The police said they are yet to verify if it was a case of drunk driving. While Abdul lived in Azmi Nagar in Malwani, Sameena resided in a squatters’ colony in Goregaon, from where the bodies were taken for burial. Residents of Azmi Nagar woke up to the news of the deaths when the Kasara police called up Abdul’s daughter Khalida to inform her about the accident. Aarif Khan, one of the vic- tim’s husband, told TOI, “As the tanker’s driver comes from our village to supply milk in Malwani, we take a ride in his vehicle to avoid travelling by ST buses. He would drop us near our home but we never thought it would turn out to be so dangerous.” Sandhya Nair & Pradeep Gupta TNN THE DECEASED ➤ Abdul Shaikh (93), Malad resident ➤ Sameena (33), daughter-in-law ➤ Sara (4), granddaughter ➤ Shayana (56), daughter ➤ Irfan (32), grandson DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY On Sunday, around 1.45am, a milk tanker heading to Mumbai from Sangamner in Ahmednagar district overturned near New Kasara ghat on the Mumbai-Agra Highway, killing five members of a family. Three other members of the same family, the tanker driver and cleaner suffered grievous injuries and were admitted to a hospital in Nashik THE INJURED | Shaikh’s daughter-in- law Nasreen (29), her kids Alina & Arsalan (both 5), driver Navnath Gite (26), cleaner Anand Gaikwad (27) The mangled tanker near Kasara Victims hitched ride to native place & back on milk tanker Mumbai: An EMU failure near Mumbra on Sunday evening led to bunching of trains on Central Railway. With trains moving at a snail’s pace, inconvenienced commuters preferred to jump on to tracks and walked to the nearest station. CR public relations officer A K Jain said an “unit defect” led to the bunching of trains. “It led to three trains stopping on the tracks. But we ensured that the track was cleared and services normalized at the earliest.” Commuters said trains on the Main line were delayed by 20-30 minutes. “We were stuck inside the trains for a long time,” said Arvind Singh, who was travell- ing from Kalyan to Bhandup. Harbour line commuters were inconvenienced earlier in the day due a megablock. Though the blocks ended arou- nd 4pm, it caused a cascading eff- ect and bunching of trains conti- nued, a source said. An official said, “There was a huge rush of passengers as schools have shut and families are planning outin- gs or going to tourist spots on Su- ndays. We had issued a megabl- ock advisory two days ago.” Snag in train near Mumbra derails CR MEGABLOCK ADDS TO COMMUTERS’ WOES TIMES NEWS NETWORK Mumbai: In the seventh acci- dent involving Indian Navy ships and submarines in the Western Command in the past nine months, a fire broke out in INS Matanga, an ocean-go- ing tug, on Sunday afternoon. The tug was undergoing repairs at the naval dockyard when the fire broke. Welding work was being carried out by a private firm in the sewage treatment plant compart- ment, when insulating materi- al in the adjacent compart- ment started smoldering and emitting thick smoke, the Na- vy said in a statement. Fire ten- ders were rushed to the spot. No casualties were reported, but the Navy is probing the ex- tent of damage. A board of in- quiry has been ordered to in- vestigate the incident. The 68-m tug was commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1983. Since August 2013, 21 naval employees have died in nearly 13 mishaps across the country. Fire on naval tugboat at dockyard, no casualty IN TROUBLED WATERS ➤ On August 14 last year, INS Sindhurakshak sank after blasts ripped through its torpedo section. All 18 pers- onnel on board were killed ➤ Last year, a fishing trawler sank after colliding with INS Talwar near Ratnagiri ➤ In January, INS Sindhughosh ran aground at the naval harbour in Mumbai ➤ Early this year, INS Betwa, ran aground at the Mumbai harbour ➤ On February 26, two sailors died in a fire that broke out on submarine INS Sindhuratna ➤ Recently, a toxic gas leak killed a senior officer, commander Kuntal Wadhwa, on board a destroyer, INS Kolkata, at Mazgaon Docks INS Matanga is capable of towing two large vessels TIMES NEWS NETWORK Mumbai: Creators of a suc- cessful public service project in Singapore, which equips its citizens with updates on dengue, will soon be design- ing a prototype for the city. Through the service, Mumbaikars can receive text and email alerts, if there are cluster of dengue cases near their homes, schools or work- places. The Singapore initiative, X-dengue, was launched in 2011, and has gained lakhs of subscribers following a col- laboration with the govern- ment. The X-dengue creators recently won $10,000 to de- sign the programme to com- bat dengue in India. They were one of the participants in a contest announced by Breakdengue, a global initia- tive, which supports tangible and innovative ideas. “The pilot project is going to be based in Mumbai. We are looking at collaborations with the BMC and central health authorities,” said phy- sician Dr Pratit Samdani, one of the minds behind Breakdengue. “X-dengue is based on the idea that the gov- ernment spends a lot of effort on gathering information on fresh outbreaks and dengue clusters but that does not al- ways reach people in time,” said Samdani, adding that the project itself had come in- to being after one of the co- founders suffered from den- gue in 2011. “It is a simple idea that can make a lot of dif- ference. Dengue is preventa- ble disease after all,” he said. Prevention from vector- borne diseases also remains one of the main highlights this World Health Day, where the World Health Organiza- tion’s slogan is ‘Small bite, big threat’. Mumbai, much like the rest of the country, had witnessed 120% increase in dengue deaths last year. Luckily, incidence of ma- laria has been going down in the past three years record- ing a 34 to 50% dip in cases as well as deaths. “This city has a problem of non-slum in- door breeding of mosquitoes. Awareness of citizens can put an end to their spread,” said Dr Mangala Gomare, epidemiologist, BMC. Soon, get real-time alerts on dengue Sumitra Deb Roy TNN ➤ ‘X-dengue’ is an existing public service system in Singapore that disseminates real-time information on dengue clusters or cases ➤ Citizens have to sign up on a website or download a cellphone app and create an account ➤ Each account can log up to eight different addresses and for each address there can be five cellphone nos. registered ➤ Users receive alerts on new cases in areas that concern them such as their homes, schools, workplace ➤ People will get text/ email alerts if they reside/work within 150m of a dengue cluster ➤ Local health authorities are roped in, but users themselves can share cases in their homes or neighbourhood ➤ The idea is to encourage users to take preventive steps MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK WORLD HEALTH DAY Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed virtual planning of public amenities, in a major shift in policy. BMC will not mark a reser- vation on a plot of land, but it will be proposed in the develop- ment plan (DP), and when an ar- ea undergoes redevelopment, the civic body will demand that a particular size area be made available to develop the amenity. Civic officials said physical holding of land was necessary for civic infrastructure such as roads, storm water drains, playgrounds, gardens and parks. But amenities such as hospitals, balwadis, dispensar- ies and schools could be created when an area goes in for redevel- opment. “The state government is keen on an urban renewal mas- terplan for the city, for which the city has been divided into 151 clusters of one acre each. When an area goes in for redevelop- ment, BMC can demand these amenities if marked on the DP for that cluster,’’ officials said. They said this would reduce litigation and acquisition costs, and there will be no danger of encroachment. BMC preparatory studies showed space demand estimat- ed for education amenities is 1,549 hectares, medical ameni- ties 365 hectares, open spaces 2,357 hectares and social ameni- ties 349 hectares. Arguing for virtual plan- ning, BMC said that during im- plementation of the 1967 DP, it encountered land acquisition problems in terms of scale of compensation and rehabilita- tion of affected persons. P K Das, civic activist, archi- tect and town planner, said BMC cannot complain of failures and relinquish planning. “Virtual planning is speculation. While there is not enough vacant land for all amenities and redevelop- ment can provide amenities, BMC must do detailing on what would be plotted on the ground and what can be made available through built-up ar- ea,’’ Das said. Public amenities may be ‘virtually planned’ BMC Plan Will Reduce Litigation, Acquisition Costs Clara Lewis TNN NOW YOU WILL HAVE A SAY We have been able to compare census and slum data, do a lot of number crunching, and create models with ease owing to technology Sitaram Kunte | MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER BMC must do an analysis of the impact of policies on Mumbai such as slum redevelopment, transfer of development rights and mill land redevelopment. It is important for a city to know if policies have had a positive or negative impact, and if they must be continued or discontinued P K Das | ARCHITECT, TOWN PLANNER & ACTIVIST NEW DEVELOPMENT PLAN It will hear the local community’s voice when redevelopment is being done. It will not physically reserve land for public amenities that may be required. Land will be reserved in the new plan only for infrastructure that is on the ground, like roads and playgrounds HOW IT WILL HELP Besides letting users decide what they want, BMC will not be required to reserve plots for future public amenities and save it land acquisition litigation Mumbai: Preparation of the city’s development plan (DP) is technology-driven. The use of technology has helped the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) collate and analyse data and enabled greater public participation. The last DP was overtak- en by so many changes on the ground that BMC had to keep pace through amend- ments to development con- trol regulations, resulting in haphazard growth of the city, changing the character of the DP. This time, civic officials said, the DP department has used the geographical infor- mation and global position- ing systems to carry out land surveys and accurately mark how land is being used in the city on a base map, as well as trace underground utilities. Satellite images and Google Maps have been super-imposed on the base map to understand how a plot of land has been devel- oped over a period of time. Satellite images are avail- able from 2006 to 2012, and Google Maps since 2000. “This has helped us analyse an area, fix property bounda- ries and a quick search with property numbers enables us to see temporal changes on the ground,’’ a civic offi- cial said. This easy super-imposi- tion of images, as well as ability to compute numbers, has helped BMC divide the city into 151 sectors and plan for each one. Civic officials, for instance, can do a time- distance analysis of public amenities such as a school, hospital and playground in a one-km radius. When BMC uploads data on its website, residents can see what it has planned on their plots and in the vicinity. Tech to the rescue Clara Lewis TNN Mumbai: The Charkop police arrested an employee of a pa- thology laboratory in Malad on Sunday, who allegedly is- sued a false HIV-positive re- port to a man. The cops are also probing the role of another staffer of the lab in the case. On Saturday, the police had registered a cheating case against the accused, Rajendra Mehra and his accomplice Geeta Mehra of Pacific Lab. The complainant, Joel Chet- tiar (38), is a real estate con- sultant. Last month, he had sub- mitted his blood sample at the lab. He was shocked when the report revealed that he was HIV-positive. Chettiar was very worried and after an argument at home, he decided to get anoth- er HIV screening done where he tested negative. To be sure, Chettiar got a third screening done, which too was negative for HIV. He then approached a so- cial worker and subsequently contacted the Charkop police . After an initial investigation, the police had registered an FIR on Saturday under sec- tions 467, 468, 420, 34 of the IPC against the Mehras. Lab employee held over false HIV+ report TIMES NEWS NETWORK COMPLAINTS GALORE ➤ Students at three centres in the city claimed they got 15-25 minutes less to attempt the paper ➤ Students and coaching institutes said there were more than two errors in physics and mathematics sections ➤ Students found the physics and mathematics sections tough and lengthy Students come out of a JEE centre after taking the test Pic: Anil Shinde T he husband of a constable, Sumedha Chavan, who hanged herself on Thursday, was arrested on Sunday. Chavan’s father has claimed that the accused, Rakesh, had been torturing his daughter and demanding a motorcycle. Chavan, a Vikhroli resident, had left behind a suicide note, stating no one should be held responsible for her death. TNN Husband of constable who hanged self held T he mother-in-law and sister-in-law of a 30-year-old woman, Vinita Potole, were arrested on Saturday for alleg- edly attempting to kill Potole by setting her on fire. The incident took place at a slum in Borivli on Saturday. The victim is in critical condition, the police said. In-laws arrested for setting woman on fire T hree persons were arrested for allegedly accepting bets on the Twenty20 final cricket match bet- ween India and Sri Lanka on Sun- day. The arrests were made after the police raided a flat in Walkes- hwar. One of the arrested accused, Naresh Shah, is the main bookie, cops said. As many as nine landline phones, two cellphones, a laptop and a computer were seized. T20 betting: 3 nabbed
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THE TIM
ES OF IN
DIA eP
APER
Mumbai:The second editionof the Joint Entrance Exam-ination (main) for admissioninto various engineeringcourses was not a smooth af-fair for many who attemptedthe offline test on Sunday.While students in a few cen-tres claimed that they got 15-25 minutes less to attempt thepaper, some perceived errorsin the physics sectionstumped the students. Manyfound the paper, especiallythe physics and mathematicssections, tough and lengthy.Around 11.85 lakh studentsregistered for the offline ex-am conducted by the CentralBoard of Secondary Educa-tion (CBSE) across the coun-try.
Teachers from coachinginstitutes claimed that noneof the choices given for atleast one question each inphysics and mathematicswere right. Two questions inthe physics section again, hadthe wrong units, claimedsome students and coachinginstitutes. A student from aCBSE school said that hewasted a lot of time in findingthe right value. “In the end, Idid not get enough time tocomplete the paper and I had
to blindly mark the options,”he said. Another student fromThakur College said that thephysics and mathematics sec-tions were tougher as com-pared to last year.
Praveen Tyagi from II-Tians Pace, said, “In anotherquestion all options given hadpositive values, but the cor-rect answer should have anegative value. It is a nationallevel exam conducted by theCBSE. The paper-setters
should ensure that the papersare error free and do not puz-zle students.” Ramesh Batlishfrom FIIT-JEE said thatthough the error in the unitswould not affect the value, stu-dents would wonder if theiranswer was indeed correct.While each question carries 4marks, there could be ques-tions of 8-16 marks, whichraised doubt among students.
CBSE chairman VineetJoshi said that the expertteam of the board took duecare to ensure the papers areerror free. “But students whohave queries can write to usand we will look into it,” saidJoshi.
Meanwhile, students at acouple of centres alleged thatthe invigilator gave 15-25 min-utes less to complete the pa-per. A student who got a cen-tre at an engineering collegein Bandra, said, “We were giv-en the question paper and theOMR sheets around 9.30am,when in other colleges it washanded over to the students atleast 10-15 minutes earlier”
Teachers also pointed outthat the question papers wereheavily based on the NCERTsyllabus followed by theCBSE and hence they seemedtougher for the state boardstudents.
Yogita Rao TNN
Errors, time constrainttrip up JEE candidates
THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI *MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014 3TIMES CITY
Mumbai: The victims of themilk tanker mishap had trav-elled on the same vehicle totheir native place in Sangam-ner and hitched a ride back af-ter spending a week there.
The senior-most victim,Abdul Shaikh, lived in Malwa-ni, Malad (W). The other fourvictims who died on the spotwere identified as Shaikh’sdaughter-in-law Sameena (33),granddaughter Sara (4),daughter Shayana (56), andher son Irfan (32).
Those injured are Shaikh’sdaughter-in-law Nasreen (29),and her kids Alina and Arsa-lan (both 5), driver NavnathGite (26) and cleaner AnandGaikwad (27). They have allbeen admitted to Sheer Gov-ernment Hospital in Nashik.Nasreen was not told about herdaughter Sara’s death, a fam-ily member said.
The Shaikhs were all seat-ed in the front cabin next to thecleaner’s seat at the time of theincident. The police said theyare yet to verify if it was a case
of drunk driving. While Abdul lived in Azmi
Nagar in Malwani, Sameenaresided in a squatters’ colonyin Goregaon, from where thebodies were taken for burial.
Residents of Azmi Nagarwoke up to the news of thedeaths when the Kasara policecalled up Abdul’s daughterKhalida to inform her about
the accident.Aarif Khan, one of the vic-
tim’s husband, told TOI, “Asthe tanker’s driver comes fromour village to supply milk inMalwani, we take a ride in hisvehicle to avoid travelling byST buses. He would drop usnear our home but we neverthought it would turn out to beso dangerous.”
Sandhya Nair & Pradeep Gupta TNN
THE DECEASED ➤ Abdul Shaikh (93), Malad resident ➤ Sameena (33), daughter-in-law ➤ Sara (4), granddaughter ➤ Shayana (56), daughter ➤ Irfan (32), grandson
DEATHON THE HIGHWAY
On Sunday, around 1.45am, a milk tanker heading to Mumbai from Sangamner in Ahmednagar district overturned near New Kasara ghat on the Mumbai-Agra Highway, killing five members of a family. Three other members of the same family, the tanker driver and cleaner suffered grievous injuries and were admitted to a hospital in Nashik
THE INJURED | Shaikh’s daughter-in-law Nasreen (29), her kids Alina & Arsalan (both 5), driver Navnath Gite (26), cleaner Anand Gaikwad (27)
The mangled tanker near Kasara
Victims hitched ride to nativeplace & back on milk tanker
Mumbai: An EMU failure nearMumbra on Sunday evening ledto bunching of trains on CentralRailway. With trains moving at asnail’s pace, inconveniencedcommuters preferred to jumpon to tracks and walked to thenearest station.
CR public relations officer AK Jain said an “unit defect” ledto the bunching of trains. “It ledto three trains stopping on thetracks. But we ensured that thetrack was cleared and servicesnormalized at the earliest.”
Commuters said trains on theMain line were delayed by 20-30minutes. “We were stuck insidethe trains for a long time,” saidArvind Singh, who was travell-ing from Kalyan to Bhandup.
Harbour line commuterswere inconvenienced earlier inthe day due a megablock.Though the blocks ended arou-nd 4pm, it caused a cascading eff-ect and bunching of trains conti-nued, a source said. An officialsaid, “There was a huge rush ofpassengers as schools have shutand families are planning outin-gs or going to tourist spots on Su-ndays. We had issued a megabl-ock advisory two days ago.”
Snag in trainnear Mumbra
derails CR
MEGABLOCK ADDS TOCOMMUTERS’ WOES
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: In the seventh acci-dent involving Indian Navyships and submarines in theWestern Command in the pastnine months, a fire broke outin INS Matanga, an ocean-go-ing tug, on Sunday afternoon.
The tug was undergoingrepairs at the naval dockyardwhen the fire broke. Weldingwork was being carried out bya private firm in the sewagetreatment plant compart-ment, when insulating materi-al in the adjacent compart-ment started smoldering andemitting thick smoke, the Na-vy said in a statement. Fire ten-ders were rushed to the spot.No casualties were reported,but the Navy is probing the ex-
tent of damage. A board of in-quiry has been ordered to in-vestigate the incident. The68-m tug was commissioned in
the Indian Navy in 1983.Since August 2013, 21 naval
employees have died in nearly13 mishaps across the country.
Fire on naval tugboat atdockyard, no casualty
IN TROUBLED WATERS ➤ On August 14 last year, INS Sindhurakshak sank after blasts ripped through its torpedo section. All 18 pers-onnel on board were killed
➤ Last year, a fishing trawler sank after colliding with INS Talwar near Ratnagiri
➤ In January, INS Sindhughosh ran aground at the naval harbour in Mumbai
➤ Early this
year, INS Betwa, ran aground at the Mumbai harbour
➤ On February 26, two sailors died in a fire that broke out on submarine INS Sindhuratna
➤ Recently, a toxic gas leak killed a senior officer,
commander Kuntal Wadhwa, on
board a destroyer, INS Kolkata, at
Mazgaon Docks
INS Matanga is capable of towing two large vessels
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: Creators of a suc-cessful public service projectin Singapore, which equipsits citizens with updates ondengue, will soon be design-ing a prototype for the city.
Through the service,Mumbaikars can receive textand email alerts, if there arecluster of dengue cases neartheir homes, schools or work-places.
The Singapore initiative,X-dengue, was launched in2011, and has gained lakhs ofsubscribers following a col-laboration with the govern-ment. The X-dengue creatorsrecently won $10,000 to de-sign the programme to com-bat dengue in India. Theywere one of the participantsin a contest announced byBreakdengue, a global initia-
tive, which supports tangibleand innovative ideas. “Thepilot project is going to bebased in Mumbai. We arelooking at collaborationswith the BMC and centralhealth authorities,” said phy-sician Dr Pratit Samdani,
one of the minds behindBreakdengue. “X-dengue isbased on the idea that the gov-ernment spends a lot of efforton gathering information onfresh outbreaks and dengueclusters but that does not al-ways reach people in time,”
said Samdani, adding thatthe project itself had come in-to being after one of the co-founders suffered from den-gue in 2011. “It is a simpleidea that can make a lot of dif-ference. Dengue is preventa-ble disease after all,” he said.
Prevention from vector-borne diseases also remainsone of the main highlightsthis World Health Day, wherethe World Health Organiza-tion’s slogan is ‘Small bite,big threat’. Mumbai, muchlike the rest of the country,had witnessed 120% increasein dengue deaths last year.
Luckily, incidence of ma-laria has been going down inthe past three years record-ing a 34 to 50% dip in cases aswell as deaths. “This city hasa problem of non-slum in-door breeding of mosquitoes.Awareness of citizens canput an end to their spread,”said Dr Mangala Gomare,epidemiologist, BMC.
Soon, get real-time alerts on dengueSumitra Deb Roy TNN
➤ ‘X-dengue’ is an existing public service system in Singapore that disseminates real-time information on dengue clusters or cases
➤ Citizens have to sign up on a website or download a cellphone app and create an account
➤ Each account can log up to eight different addresses and for each address there can be five cellphone nos. registered
➤ Users receive alerts on new cases in areas that concern
them such as their homes, schools, workplace
➤ People will get text/email alerts if they reside/work within 150m of a dengue
cluster
➤ Local health authorities are roped in, but users themselves can share cases in their homes or neighbourhood
➤ The idea is to encourage users to take preventive steps
MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK
WORLD HEALTH DAY
Mumbai: The BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)has proposed virtual planningof public amenities, in a majorshift in policy.
BMC will not mark a reser-vation on a plot of land, but itwill be proposed in the develop-ment plan (DP), and when an ar-ea undergoes redevelopment,the civic body will demand thata particular size area be madeavailable to develop the amenity.
Civic officials said physicalholding of land was necessaryfor civic infrastructure such as roads, storm water drains,playgrounds, gardens andparks. But amenities such ashospitals, balwadis, dispensar-ies and schools could be createdwhen an area goes in for redevel-opment.
“The state government iskeen on an urban renewal mas-terplan for the city, for which thecity has been divided into 151clusters of one acre each. Whenan area goes in for redevelop-ment, BMC can demand theseamenities if marked on the DPfor that cluster,’’ officials said.
They said this would reducelitigation and acquisition costs,and there will be no danger ofencroachment.
BMC preparatory studiesshowed space demand estimat-ed for education amenities is1,549 hectares, medical ameni-ties 365 hectares, open spaces2,357 hectares and social ameni-ties 349 hectares.
Arguing for virtual plan-ning, BMC said that during im-plementation of the 1967 DP, itencountered land acquisitionproblems in terms of scale ofcompensation and rehabilita-tion of affected persons.
PK Das, civic activist, archi-tect and town planner, said BMCcannot complain of failures andrelinquish planning. “Virtualplanning is speculation. Whilethere is not enough vacant landfor all amenities and redevelop-ment can provide amenities,BMC must do detailing on what would be plotted on theground and what can be madeavailable through built-up ar-ea,’’ Das said.
Public amenities maybe ‘virtually planned’BMC Plan Will
Reduce Litigation,Acquisition Costs
Clara Lewis TNN
NOW YOU WILL HAVE A SAY
We have been able
to compare census and slum data, do a lot of number crunching, and create models with ease owing to technologySitaram Kunte | MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER
BMC must do an analysis of the impact of policies on Mumbai such as slum redevelopment, transfer of development rights and mill land redevelopment. It is important for a city to know if policies have had a positive or negative impact, and if they must be continued or discontinuedP K Das | ARCHITECT, TOWN
PLANNER & ACTIVIST
NEW DEVELOPMENT PLANIt will hear the local community’s voice when redevelopment is being done. It will not physically reserve land for public amenities that may be required. Land will be reserved in the new plan only for infrastructure that is on the ground, like roads and playgrounds
HOW IT WILL HELPBesides letting users decide what they want, BMC will not be required to reserve plots for future public amenities and save it land acquisition litigation
Mumbai: Preparation ofthe city’s development plan(DP) is technology-driven.The use of technology hashelped the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation(BMC) collate and analysedata and enabled greaterpublic participation.
The last DP was overtak-en by so many changes on theground that BMC had tokeep pace through amend-ments to development con-trol regulations, resulting inhaphazard growth of thecity, changing the characterof the DP.
This time, civic officialssaid, the DP department hasused the geographical infor-mation and global position-ing systems to carry out landsurveys and accuratelymark how land is being usedin the city on a base map, aswell as trace undergroundutilities. Satellite images
and Google Maps have beensuper-imposed on the basemap to understand how aplot of land has been devel-oped over a period of time.
Satellite images are avail-able from 2006 to 2012, andGoogle Maps since 2000.“This has helped us analysean area, fix property bounda-ries and a quick search withproperty numbers enablesus to see temporal changeson the ground,’’ a civic offi-cial said.
This easy super-imposi-tion of images, as well asability to compute numbers,has helped BMC divide thecity into 151 sectors and planfor each one. Civic officials,for instance, can do a time-distance analysis of publicamenities such as a school,hospital and playground in aone-km radius.
When BMC uploads dataon its website, residents cansee what it has planned ontheir plots and in the vicinity.
Tech to the rescueClara Lewis TNN
Mumbai: The Charkop policearrested an employee of a pa-thology laboratory in Maladon Sunday, who allegedly is-sued a false HIV-positive re-port to a man.
The cops are also probingthe role of another staffer ofthe lab in the case.
On Saturday, the policehad registered a cheating caseagainst the accused, RajendraMehra and his accompliceGeeta Mehra of Pacific Lab.The complainant, Joel Chet-tiar (38), is a real estate con-sultant.
Last month, he had sub-mitted his blood sample at thelab. He was shocked when thereport revealed that he wasHIV-positive.
Chettiar was very worriedand after an argument athome, he decided to get anoth-er HIV screening done wherehe tested negative. To be sure,Chettiar got a third screeningdone, which too was negative for HIV.
He then approached a so-cial worker and subsequentlycontacted the Charkop police .After an initial investigation,the police had registered anFIR on Saturday under sec-tions 467, 468, 420, 34 of the IPCagainst the Mehras.
Lab employeeheld over false
HIV+ reportTIMES NEWS NETWORK
COMPLAINTS GALORE
➤ Students at three centres in the city claimed they got 15-25 minutes less to attempt the paper
➤ Students and coaching institutes said there were more than two errors in physics and mathematics sections
➤ Students found the physics and mathematics sections tough and lengthy
Students come out of a JEE centre after taking the test
Pic: Anil Shinde
The husband of a constable,Sumedha Chavan, who
hanged herself on Thursday,was arrested on Sunday.Chavan’s father has claimedthat the accused, Rakesh, hadbeen torturing his daughter anddemanding a motorcycle.Chavan, a Vikhroli resident, hadleft behind a suicide note,stating no one should be heldresponsible for her death. TNN
Husband of constablewho hanged self held
The mother-in-law andsister-in-law of a 30-year-old
woman, Vinita Potole, werearrested on Saturday for alleg-edly attempting to kill Potole bysetting her on fire. The incidenttook place at a slum in Borivli onSaturday. The victim is in criticalcondition, the police said.
In-laws arrested forsetting woman on fire
Three persons were arrested forallegedly accepting bets on the
Twenty20 final cricket match bet-ween India and Sri Lanka on Sun-day. The arrests were made afterthe police raided a flat in Walkes-hwar. One of the arrested accused,Naresh Shah, is the main bookie,cops said. As many as nine landlinephones, two cellphones, a laptopand a computer were seized.
T20 betting: 3 nabbed
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