Such a peaceful day...

Yesterday (22nd April, 2008) the Auto Rickshaws were off Mumbai's roads. It was such a peaceful day driving around. It almost felt that the city had gone to sleep.

I could get from home at Mira Road to my office at Dahisar in 10 minutes flat. There were no traffic snarls at the Octroi Check post, no traffic at the toll naka and absolutely no waiting at traffic signals. In fact the traffic signals were put on the blink as there was practically no need to control the non-existing traffic!

All this was in protest against the State Governments decision to implement Electronic Meters in Taxi's and Auto-Rickshaw's. The drivers and owners do not want to have anything with this scheme. They say it is an unnecessary financial burden. The real reason may be that they will not be able to tinker with these meters once installed. I am sure there must be a host of companies that would stand to benefit it the decision was to be implemented.

I am also sure the common people would also stand to benefit it this decision was implemented. The Government is tasked with the responsibility of protecting the interest of common people, but then which government has actually done this!

It would be such a relief if these ugly tripeds were to disappear for ever, but that is wishful thinking. I am sure, bus travel would be cheaper, safer and environmentally better if the scrounge was to be removed from the suburbs of Mumbai.

People complain about rising prices but when it comes to them, they do not think about walking to a nearby destination but chose to jump into a waiting auto-rickshaw.

Anyway, other than Mumbai, Pune and some other parts of Maharashtra, the auto-rickshaw's and taxi's do not follow any meter system at all, therefore it makes no sense to insist on electronic meters in the first place.

Dear Chief Minister, please ensure that people charge by meters first before thinking of taking the next step of going electronic!

Thane worst affected by Forest Land Issue

According to a report appearing in DNA, Mumbai edition of 27th March 2008, Thane seems to be the worst hit by the Bombay High Court ruling that has termed many housing societies to be on forest land. As many as 25 prominent housing projects are likely to be affected, forest department records show.

Some of the schemes that will be affected are Rutu Enclave, Neelkanth Towers, Vanashree, Sai Krupa Complex, Whizkids, Suraj Water Park and Hiranandani Estate .

Sources in the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) say most of these housing projects were served stop work notices, which the builders ignored.

The TMC has records of all the stop work notices that were issued. Since the notices were issued when the buildings were still under construction, the builders cannot claim that they did not know that the constructions were coming up on forest land, said a senior TMC official. The government can therefore demolish all such projects, the official added.

Residents who have bought flats by shelling out hefty prices are now panicking, but builders and brokers from Thane district are confident of finding a solution to the problem.

The latest observation of the Bombay High Court pertains to about 1,500 hectares of land in Thane city, Kalyan, Murbad, Ulhasnagar, Ambarnath, Navi Mumbai, and Vasai tehsils of Thane district.

Update on Forest Land Issue in Mumbai

This is the list of survey numbers issued by the collectors office for those affected by the recent forest land issue in Mumbai.

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.