Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Dashrath Bhagat strongly supports PAPs' that was published in Newsband

Dashrath Bhagat strongly supports PAPs

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Congress leader Dashrath Bhagat has once again come out in strong support of project affected persons (PAPs). His protest during the general body of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), led the mayor to withdraw its proposal for appointing only two contractors for sanitation work in the satellite city. Instead, the proposal for appointment of Project Affected Persons (PAPs) and locals from the city to carry out sanitation work in 118 units was supported and cleared.

Dashrath Bhagat minced no words while totally opposing the original proposal to appoint only two contractors (for zone 1 and 2). This is not the first time that he was opposing the ruling party’s tendency to deprive locals and PAPs of their right to employment and livelihood. He said that if only two contractors were appointed for carrying out sanitary work, the PAPs who were doing the cleaning work earlier would be rendered jobless.

Dashrath Bhagat referred to PAPs as the sons-of-the-soil and he said that NMMC should be thankful to PAPs for winning so many prestigious awards like the Sant Gadge Baba sanitation prize at the national level. He questioned as to why now these PAPs should be rendered jobless when they have been doing an excellent job?

Bhagat spoke against the contractors appointed by NMMC in the past. He also condemned the functioning of present contractor. He said that these contractors had failed to perform their duties up to the satisfaction of the residents in Zone 1 of NMMC extending from Belapur to Vashi and zone II extending from Koperkhairane to Digha. Hence, he said, these works should be given to the locals or PAPs.

Mayor Sagar Naik was totally convinced with Dashrath Bhagat’s argument and he without hesitation amended the proposal for appointment of two contractors and cleared the proposal for appointing contractors in 118 units. The proposal will cost NMMC Rs 54.35 crore. He asked the NMMC authorities to call for the Tenders for zones 1 and 2 for a period of five years. Thus it was a victory for Dahsrath Bhagat. 

Dinesh Kamath's news item 'AAP versus railway authorities' that was published in Newsband

AAP versus railway authorities

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Navi Mumbai, under its convener Ravi Srivastava, displayed its opposition to the surcharge of Rs 5 imposed by suburban sector of Central Railway (CR). They expressed their anger and frustration at the Vashi railway station few days back. They had the backing of many railway commuters. AAP is determined to organize similar protests at other railway stations of Navi Mumbai in the near future.

The railway authorities have given their reason for hiking the price of the rail ticket. According to them, CIDCO and Railways had constructed the Vashi creek bridge in 1995. This construction had cost them around Rs 100 crore.  CR now intends to recover that amount with interest and hence it first imposed a surcharge of Rs 2 per ticket. A few days later, the cost of the ticket was again raised by Rs 1 more. This surcharge was still again increased to Rs 5.

The result was that the cost of second class railway ticket from Vashi to CST is now Rs 15. On the other routes it is only Rs 10 for the same distance. When a Navi Mumbaikar wants a return ticket, he has to pay Rs 10 extra.

It is alleged that Central Railway (CR) has already recovered hundreds of crores from the public in last 18 years from sale of tickets. The question asked is why are they still continuing to collect surcharge? Even the first class passengers have to pay the surcharge.

Srivastava had even corresponded with Minister of Railways, Pawan Kumar Bansal and also to Railway Board chairman, protesting against the surcharge, but in vain. He at last took resort to Right To Information Act and asked CR to hand him the details relating to this matter.

AAP has now planned to collect a huge number of signatures from railway commuters all over Navi Mumbai who oppose the surcharge imposed by the railways.

Dinesh Kamath about Sunny Leone who is the most searched Bollywood celebrity

Sunny Leone was searched online on Google 3.5 crore times in December 2012, making her the most searched Bollywood celebrity in the world.

Ever since shifting base to India and Bollywood, Sunny Leone has consistently found a place in most popularity polls.

Sunny Leone, whose popularity is growing with leaps and bounds, started her career with Pooja Bhatt’s Jism 2 and is currently busy shooting for Ekta Kapoor’s Ragini MMS 2.

Sunny will feature in her first ever Bollywood item number in Sanjay Gupta's Shootout At Wadala.

The rehearsals of the dance sequence are already underway and the item number is being choreographed by Ahmed Khan.

Sunny will be seen in a typical Indian costume for the first time on screen surrounded by over 50 male dancers.

This item number will only add few more million fans to the already existing ones.  

Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Transfer of cases embarrasses Navi Mumbai police?' that was published in Newsband

Transfer of cases embarrasses Navi Mumbai police?

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Two high-profile murder cases, those of builder Sunil Kumar Lahoria and Sandhya Singh, were transferred from the Navi Mumbai police to the Mumbai crime branch. This has hurt the ego of many policemen of Navi Mumbai. These policemen feel that this development has affected the image of Navi Mumbai police.

Since the murder victims were influential persons, their respective families could get this transfer of cases done by wielding political influence. It would be wrong to say that this transfer of cases were due to inability of Navi Mumbai police to carry out an in-depth investigation and go into the root of these cases.

In fact before the transfer of the cases, Navi Mumbai police had done a remarkable job and had come up with some interesting clues and leads that are helping the Mumbai Crime Branch to get a firm grip on both the cases.

One cannot underestimate the investigating powers of Navi Mumbai police since had they been so bad in the matter of investigating, then how could they detect the murder case of the CIDCO clerk, Atul Mhatre, in Panvel recently and also mastermind the arrest of Dattatray Rokade (53), who had raped and killed a five-year-old girl? So, it is not that the Navi Mumbai police are unable to conduct probes properly.

That is the reason why the top police in Navi Mumbai are feeling embarrassed about the fact that the two high-profile cases were snatched from their hands and handed to their Mumbai counterparts. Navi Mumbai police are criticized for its poor informer network and also lack of modern technological tools for better investigations. They are also accused of their casual attitude towards local crimes. If they have to win the confidence of the public they will have to cultivate a clean image and have effective local police stations. It is not that they are incompetent but they should admit that there are many important criminal cases that have gone unsolved by them. Another thing is Navi Mumbai police tend to bow down to political pressures. On the other hand, their Mumbai counterparts are too tough and cannot be easily bought by top politicians.

Navi Mumbai police were instrumental in arresting three persons in the Lahoria case, including retired encounter specialist Emmanuel Amolik. Even in the Sandhya Singh case, the Navi Mumbai police did plenty of ground work which their Mumbai counterparts are finding extremely beneficial.

But this setback caused by the transfer of cases has made the Navi Mumbai police absolutely determined to do something drastic to give tremendous boost to their image. 

Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Many banks duped by a gang of scamsters, a developer badly cheated' that was published in Newsband

Many banks duped by a gang of scamsters, a developer badly cheated

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Scamsters have created havoc in Navi Mumbai. Banks are mostly targeted by these scamsters and hence all the banks in Navi Mumbai have found the necessity to be extremely alert every moment. But here is a unique case. A group of scamsters targeted a Navi Mumbai based developer and a number of banks and by taking fake housing loans duped them to the tune of at least Rs 5 crore.

These members of the gangs first paid the initial booking amounts and bought houses in Lilavati building in Kharghar. They then made the duplicates of the original agreements with the developer, after which they applied at around 15 banks for loans. The loans were sanctioned after which these scamsters opened fake accounts in developer’s name and withdrew the money.

It took some time for the officials of these banks to realize that the account opened by these individuals were fake. They immediately contacted the police and lodged complaints against the scamsters. An in-depth investigation was carried out. Four FIRS have been registered in different Navi Mumbai police stations.

The builder who was victim of the scam is Rohit Zaveri He is the partner in Sweet Home Builders and Developers. He is a civil engineer and has been in the construction business for 37 years. It was his identity which was faked to open bank accounts.

He was approached by five persons at different times and they booked one flat each. They paid the booking amount after which the registration of the agreement was done. All that was left for them to do was they had to pay the balance amount for which they were to apply for home loans. But they disappeared after that.

Zaveri came to know from one of the banks that he was being cheated by a buyer whose name was Anil Pande. It seems that Pande had stopped paying the EMIs. It was found that Pande had made the duplicate of the registration document with government stamps and faked Zaveri’s signature. With the help of this fake document, he obtained loans from at least five banks. The cheques were issued in the name of the developer. He opened fake accounts in Zaveri’s name. He also made bogus PAN cards in Zaveri’s name, but with someone else’s photograph.

The home loan cheques were deposited in the fake bank accounts and the scamsters cleared out the accounts in the next few days.

These scamsters had targeted at least 15 banks and duped them to the tune of above Rs 5 crore.

Pande and four other customers, who booked houses in Zaveri’s building have indulged in similar scams.

Two FIRs are registered at Kharghar Police station. It is become clear that a big gang is involved in this major scam. The police are trying to trace as to who is Pande. Zaveri had to record his statement in many police stations. He personally lodged a complaint against the scamsters at NRI Seawoods Police Station. The police registered criminal cases of impersonating and forgery.  

The police are trying to go to the root of this case and other builders are become very cautious while selling houses to the customers. They are now insisting that the buyers give maximum details about themselves before making any kind of agreement with them.

Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Common man cannot afford Alphonso mangoes' that was published in Newsband

Common man cannot afford Alphonso mangoes

By Dinesh Kamath

APMC: Alphonso mangoes are entering the market in big number but the common man finds them too costly and can’t purchase them. The minimum cost of these mangoes is found to be more than Rs 2500 a dozen. Hence for a common man there is no point in even bargaining. The price of these mangoes do show promise of coming down after half a month or so. But if these mangoes have to be within the reach of common man then he will  have to wait for the season to come almost to an end.

These mangoes are arriving from Ratnagiri. The scent coming out from these mangoes makes one’s mouth water. This fruit is not exactly round. It is kind of oval in shape. It is yellowish and sometimes orange in colour. The reason for these fruits arriving on time was that the rainfall did not occur at the wrong time and the fruits got enough time to bloom.

The mango-sellers at APMC Market have a hectic time. They have to clean, sort, pack and dispatch the mangoes. There has been no problem in the matter of obtaining these fruits on time. But the fruit merchants feel sorry for the buyers who find the price of these mangoes too high and hence unable to afford them.

The buyers are waiting for cheaper mangoes to enter the market. Alphonso is not within their reach. So they are waiting for the entry of kesar, mankurad, mulgoa and pairi. The fruit sellers have assured them that cheaper and affordable mangoes will start pouring into the market within few weeks. Sometimes the mangoes come in small shape and this is when their prices become less and they become affordable for common man to buy and relish. The buyers who try to purchase mangoes directly from APMC market many a time feel discouraged when they find the whole stock having been purchased by the retailers. These buyers then have no choice but to buy these mangoes from retailers at extra price. It is also found that the Navi Mumbai retailers have to compete with their Mumbai counterparts while buying the stock from the wholesalers in APMC market. Navi Mumbai merchants then make an issue of it by saying that local sellers should get preference over the outsiders while buying the mangoes in wholesale from APMC Market.  

However, the business at APMC market is not bad as compared to last year and before that when it comes to mangoes. Other fruits are never a problem since most of them are available all the year round.

There are many fruit sellers who prefer to sell other fruits rather then sell Alphonso mangoes which, according to them, have no takers owing to their high rate. They find it risky to buy Alphonso since if the people don’t buy them they get rotten and it is the sellers who suffer a loss.

Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Some buyers of houses near proposed airport feel cheated' that was published in Newsband

Some buyers of houses near proposed airport feel cheated

By Dinesh Kamath

PANVEL: The very moment the public got the news that an international airport was to come up in Navi Mumbai, many of them booked their houses in complexes or high-rises around the area where airport was proposed to come up. The authorities had marked this area as Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) intensified zone. But these buyers of flats have not yet got the possession of their flats for the simple reason that the developers have not yet obtained occupancy certificate (OC) from the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

When the AAI authorities were queried about this they pointed to the guidelines which prevents them from issuing an OC to any building falling within the radius of the traffic route of the NMIA and that too if the structure is not more than ground-plus-seven floors.

Now the problem is that some high-rise are failing to meet this guideline and hence people who have put in their life savings are still waiting to get possession of their homes. They fear that they may lose their hard-earned money.

Also a certain area near the proposed airport falls within the traffic route of the NMIA. So the people who have purchased the flat over here are also in trouble. The developers in this region had played a trick with the buyers. They lowered the rates of the houses in this region. This attracted the buyers to these spot. They purchased the houses here and now they find it difficult to get possession of the houses they have booked. The developers blame the Airport authorities for the delay in handing over the possession.

There are some residents who have booked the houses more than a year ago and they have not yet got possession of the flats in spite of the fact that their buildings adhere to AAI’s guidelines. In certain cases, the developer has not even started the construction work and hence people who have booked these houses cannot even think of getting possession. The developers just give the lame excuse that they have not yet got clearance from the AAI and the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO).

The buyers of the flats over here have now realized that it’s extremely difficult to get possession of the flats which doesn’t stick to AAI’s prescribed standards.

Some buyers were of the opinion that CIDCO has the power to issue OC but when they clarified they realized that CIDCO was only a planning authority and that AAI was the controlling authority of all the airports and hence the buildings would have to stick to AAI’s guidelines for AAI to issue the OC.     

But the strange thing is that in spite of the fact that many buyers of the flats here are feeling cheated, there are other developers who go about promoting their new projects in the vicinity of airport.