Why buildings on Forest Land in Mumbai should go.

In 1956 Government of Maharashtra reserved land in Mumbai for forests and acquired private lands adjoining the National Park from private parties. What it failed to do was to amend the land records changing the user and purpose of the land so acquired.

The same land was then sold once again by the owners to private builders. Therefore logic says that the land owners were very much aware that their land has been acquired and classified as Forest Land by the government of Maharashtra. They thus committed a fraud on the builders and developers who acquired these plots of lands. It goes without saying that most of the so called builders and developers must be aware of the status of these plots as it is their profession's calling to ensure that they develop on land that is free from all litigation. But, because they had a pliant bureaucracy at their disposal and the cost was peanuts, they decided to take their chances.

Today more than 500,000 families risk losing their homes due to the sharp practices of builders and acts of omission and commission of the local governing body. This is because of the ruling against such buildings given by the Bombay High Court.

The question is should these buildings remain or go. As this directly affects the future of 500,000 families one would take a sympathetic view of the situation and seek some kind of regularization of the buildings. But does such an approach do justice to the other residents of the city? Should the government not punish the original land owners who committed a fraud on the builders and developers? Should the builders and developers not be punished for constructing even when being completely aware of the fate that awaited such development?

My take on the issue is that all these buildings should go. The builders and developers who constructed on such deemed forest land should be penalized by asking them to provide free housing of the same size to the affected residents. Government should provide land at alternate place for such development free of cost and residents should not be asked to pay for the cost of construction.

Forest land should be restored. If the government takes the above route, it will send a strong message to all people concerned. Builders and developers will be forced to take a hit on the massive profits they have made at the cost of the state and no one will ever dare to break the law.

The suggestion of the government of date of creating forest elsewhere in the state is a futile suggestion. Then why not use the entire National Park for housing and create forest some where else Mr. Chief Minister?

In the Game of Business, Playing Fair Can Actually Lead to Greater Profits

In the Game of Business, Playing Fair Can Actually Lead to Greater Profits

Published: March 13, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton

Tune into "The Apprentice," and you get an all-too-common view of business. Every week, all of the wannabe moguls try to impress Donald Trump by preening, cajoling and conniving. In this world, toughness is the measure of every CEO, and the boss glories in firing people and squeezing every penny out of suppliers.

Yet according to John Zhang and Jagmohan Raju, both Wharton marketing professors, and Tony Haitao Cui, a University of Minnesota marketing and logistics professor, many people aren't purely mercenary in their business dealings. They care about fairness -- and they should, the researchers say, because doing so can maximize their profits.

A manufacturer and a retailer can both end up making more money if they are fair minded, setting prices with an eye to achieving an equitable outcome in their joint marketing channel as opposed to merely maximizing their individual profits, Zhang, Raju and Cui argue in a paper recently published in Management Science titled, "Fairness and Channel Coordination."

Read the complete article here http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1916

The Makadwala Gang

The Makadwala Gang.

What happens when the poorest of the poor want to borrow money? They often are illiterate, downtrodden, living on the margins of the society and have no recourse to institutionalized lending organizations such as bank. Therefore they have no option other than to approach a money lender for help.

One such racket that has been in existence for the last 15 to 20 years is being run in the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai by people who reside in a place called the ‘Makadwala Chawl’. These people are locals from the state of Maharashtra and are working in the corporation as sweepers or in other such positions. In the year 2001, police raided this chawl and recovered cash to the extent of 80 lakhs from one such unauthorized lender.

The story is available on the Indian Express Website and is excerpted below

With loanshark’s arrest, BMC workers heave a sigh of relief

Express News Service Mumbai, May 24:

THE arrest of Nagrao Malgo Shinde, the civic sweeper from whose home in Makadwala Chawl Rs 80 lakh was seized, has been greeted with a sigh of relief by casual labourers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s ‘L’ ward (Kurla). Many of them had been in the stranglehold of Shinde and other loan sharks — the fearsome Makadwallas. Shinde was the ringleader of the ‘‘Makadwalla gang’’; a loan shark homing in on municipal employees. Shinde loaned money at 12-15 per cent and would thrash his victims to recover his loot, say police officials. His fiefdom extended to several municipal wards in the city. He worked with others who ran ‘‘errands’’ for him. Their brief: to terrorise civic workers in lieu of Shinde’s rich pickings. Police say Shinde cornered as much as 20 to 40 per cent of his victims’ monthly wages and there was little they could do about it. Some were not even in debt, police say.

As usual nothing good came out of this arrest and the gang is very much back in action.

We at Credit Consumers Association of India were approached by a widow lady who is working in the K Ward at Bandra and had the misfortune of borrowing a small sum of 10,000 from one such lender. This lender, Anand Shinde, works in the ‘K’ Ward as a labourer. He owns and drives a Maruti 800 to work and pays ‘Dasturi’ to the duty Mukadam every day to an extent of 50 rupees. Once he has done this and signed the register, he walks to the nearby BMC Bank near Babha Hospital and joins a group of men who are all into illegal money lending. These people wait for BMC employees to withdraw their salaries and once they do this they pounce on them and take away most of the cash.

In this specific case that we have taken up, the lady had taken the loan more than 4 years back and was paying interest at the rate of 10% per month. She got only 9000 as the money lender deducted 1000 as the first installment while giving her the money. She then continued to pay him 1000 per month for the next 3 years. She paid 36,000 as interest on a principal of 9000 in these 3 years. Then as her salary dropped, she paid 500 per month for the next one year. The money lender not satisfied with all this loot took her thumb impression on a money receipt for an amount of 50,000. Having done that he approached the city civil court and filed a summary recovery suit against the lady.

The court in a classic case of miscarriage of justice passed an order against the lady for attachment of her salary till the time the money due along with interest was not recovered by the money lender.

The money lender was approached by us as we wanted to get to the bottom of the truth and reach an amicable settlement between the two parties based on the truth that would emerge.

In the meanwhile, the money lender approached Dharavi Police Station and lodged a complaint against the association saying that we were threatening him and sought the arrest of all such people who were behind the threats.

We approached the Dharavi Police Station on our own the day of the complaint and explained the circumstances to the Duty Officer.

During this exchange it became clear that Mr. Anand Shinde did not hold a license for money lending. He also did not hold a power of attorney which authorized him to indulge in money lending on behalf of the license holder. Also, Mr. Anand Shinde disclosed that the money lending operation was happening from his home and that the money lender was operating from his home.

All along Mr. Anand Shinde was denying that he had ever given any money to the lady. In the police station he admitted that he was the go-between in the transaction.

We thus call upon the Dharavi Police Station to arrest Mr. Anand Shinde under the Money Lenders Act for indulging in the business of Money Lending without any proper license. We also urge Dharavi Police Station to book Mr. Anand Shinde on the charges of cheating the borrower because he has obtained her thumb impression on a money receipt of 50,000 whereas the money receipt is in English, a language that the illiterate lady does not understand. Also there is no witness to the thumb impression of the borrower lady rendering it useless as evidence of the alleged borrowing of 50,000.

During our interaction with Mr. Anand Shinde at the Dharavi Police Station he was accompanied by a bunch of people including a lady who threatened to call State Home Minister R.R. Patil to intervene in the matter. Also the lady managed to contact some DCP (name unknown to us) and get him to speak on behalf of Mr. Anand Shinde to the Duty Officer such as to exert pressure on us. On our part our President and Senior NCP leader Mr. Vijay Kamble also spoke with the duty officers.

This goes to demonstrate the extent and reach of these money lenders.

Our association now under the able guidance of our President Mr. Vijay Kamble, members Mr. Anil Gaikwad, Mr. Pradeep Harmalkar has taken up this fight against the illegal money lending operations of the Makadwalas and will only stop once the scourge has been completely eliminated from the city once and for all.

One good deed begets another

Yesterday while returning from Bombay Central on a local train home I noticed a gentleman standing next to me who was holding on to one packet too many.

Often I have been in a similar situation and have regretted consolidating my belongings into one handleable package before boarding the train. And I have always ended up with pain in my arm and shoulder.

I decided to help him out by giving him a plastic carry bag from the collection that I normally carry with me.

He was pleasantly surprised and in a gesture of his appreciation he gave me a pack of two DVD's. I told him that he need not do that, but he insisted.

Neither of us knew each other nor it is likely that we will ever meet again. I don't even know his name nor does he know mine, but the simple act of doing good does still yield good results.

In school, we learned that in our day and on a daily basis we should do a good deed. Boy scouts would do their share of good deed and add a knot to their scarf leaving us in an envious position.

But we don't need to be boy scouts to help anyone.

So, go ahead, do your daily good deed and life will often surprise you.

Woman V/s Woman

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (with apologies to Charles Dickens) for women in India.

For the first time in the history of independent India, a woman was about to be elevated to the post of president of the country. After a bitter fight to this high office a woman was elected to the office of the president of the country. The main opposition did not spare any effort to tarnish her image in the press and went to town about how this person was not at all qualified to become the president. The main party stuck to its guns and it had numbers in its favor thus they cooked a snook at all the slander that went around and ensured in a typical give-n-take (with the Communists) managed to bring a woman as the 13th president of the country. It was the best time for women of India.

Parallel to this was the sad development of a highly decorated and capable women officer being denied her due as the top cop of the capital city. Here was a women who is not only most decorated but has succeeded in every position that she has been assigned to but also has one of the cleanest image in the annals of police history. She was conveniently passed over by the same party that went to town about promoting women power. And what did the opposition do, it just sat there and twiddled its thumbs. It was the worst time for women of India.

Tragically both the stories unfolded almost simultaneously in the capital of the country.

What answer do you have to this Madam Sonia Gandhi

A building comes crashing down

In a recent man made tragedy, a seven floor building came crashing down in suburban Bombay. This happened essentially due to the shop owners allegedly tampering with the load bearing structure of the building in an attempt to increase their floor space of jewelery showroom.

The tragedy led to the death of 30 residents and left more than 20 grievously hurt. The death toll may increase as some of those injured lie comatose.

In Bombay, most of the buildings are co-operative societies where the ownership of the building is jointly held. Members carry out renovations and modifications to the structure without taking proper permissions and without doing mandatory structural stability test prior to their actions. They forget that they may be renovating their own homes but when the building comes crashing down, they too will meet the dust.

The need of the hour is for everyone to understand that 'We may have arrived on different ships, but we are in the same boat now" (quote from unknown source).

Wake up ye people of the city before it becomes your final sleep. Wake up ye local governments and other regulatory authorities before the city is reduced to a heap of rubble.

Wearing cotton can save your skin

News
Flamesafe Maxisoft® FR Cotton Knits help save your skin.

Here is an interesting article for all personnel involved in Electrical utilities, Petro Chemical and flash fire industries. It is taken from: Popular clothing off-limits to Marines in Iraq 1st Marine Logistics Group Story by Lance Cpl. Stephen Holt

CAMP TAQADDUM, IRAQ (April 10, 2006) -- Under direction of Marine Corps commanders in Iraq, wearing synthetic athletic clothing containing polyester and nylon has been prohibited while conducting operations off of forward operating bases and camps.

The ban on popular clothing from companies like Under Armour, CoolMax and Nike comes in the wake of concerns that a substantial burn risk is associated with wearing clothing made with these synthetic materials.

When exposed to extreme heat and flames, clothing containing some synthetic materials like polyester will melt and can fuse to the skin. This essentially creates a second skin and can lead to horrific, disfiguring burns, said Navy Capt. Lynn E. Welling, the 1st Marine Logistics Group head surgeon.

“Burns can kill you and they’re horribly disfiguring. If you’re throwing (a melted synthetic material) on top of a burn, basically you have a bad burn with a bunch of plastic melting into your skin and that’s not how you want to go home to your family,” said Welling.

According to Tension Technology International, a company that specializes in synthetic fibers, most man made fabrics, such as nylon, acrylic or polyester will melt when ignited and produce a hot, sticky, melted substance causing extremely severe burns.

The Under Armour company, a favorite among many service members here, advertises that the fabric used to make their garments will wick perspiration from the skin to the outer layer of the clothing allowing the person wearing it to remain cool and dry in any condition or climate. While these qualities have been a main reason for Marines to stock up on these items, the melting side effect can be a fatal drawback, said Welling.

This point was driven home recently at a military medical facility located at Camp Ramadi, a U.S. military base on the outskirts of the city of Ramadi, arguably one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq.

“We had a Marine with significant burn injuries covering around 70 percent of his body,” said Cmdr. Joseph F. Rappold, the officer in charge of the medical unit at the base.

The Marine was injured when the armored vehicle he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device, or IED, causing his polyester shirt to melt to his skin. Even though he was wearing his protective vest Navy doctors still had to cut the melted undergarment from his torso.

For years service members with jobs that put then at a high risk of flame exposure, such as pilots and explosive ordnance disposal personnel, were kept from wearing polyester materials because of the extra burn threat. Now, with so many encounters with IED explosions, the Marines are extending this ban to everyone going “outside the wire.”

A concern among commanders is that service members will down play the problem of wearing wicking materials in combat settings because they think their body armor or uniforms will protect them.

The camouflage utility uniforms are designed to turn to ash and blow away after the material is burned, but the burn hazard is still present, said Welling, who recommends wearing 100% cotton clothing while on missions.

Even Marines who never venture off their base should be aware of the risks associated with wearing the wicking fabrics.

Recently, there was a case where a Marine’s undershirt started smoking when he was shocked by an electrical current. Fortunately, it didn’t catch on fire or melt, but the potential was there, said Welling.

The directive is straight forward and simple.
“The goal is not to bubble wrap the warrior going outside the gate, the idea is to minimize the (hazards) we have control over,” said Welling.