Tag: sitaram kunte

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CM allows music up to midnight during Ganeshotsav

But cautions that sound norms may not be flouted; Ganesh mandals have requested that norms be relaxed during the festival.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Ganesh mandals meet with the CMGaneshotsav comes to the city on September 9 this year, and mandals across the city are gearing up to welcome the elephant god. A meeting yesterday between mandals and the Chief Minister of the State, Prithviraj Chavan, was held to discuss various issues related to the festival, prominent among those being the relaxing of sound norms during the 10 days of the festival.

While the Government gave no immediate assurance on this front, the CM is learnt to have allowed mandals to play traditional music “within reasonable sound limits” till midnight for all 10 days of the festival. Recently, the BMC too, had issued an appeal to mandals to not play music beyond midnight on any of the 10 days of the festival.

Overall, Chavan is learnt to have taken a soft stand against Ganpati mandals in the city. “There were mandals that met with police trouble last year, over law and order problems and over noise pollution norms. If such mandals write to the Government appealing that the charges against them be dropped, the Government will look at the case sympathetically,” he reportedly said. Chavan is also equally sympathetic about new Ganpati mandals mushrooming in the city after Ganeshotsav 2012, and has asked the BMC Commissioner Sitaram Kunte to consider each new case.

Apart from these, Chavan has asked that all mandals help in spreading awareness about the issues, especially terrorism, that currently plague the city. He also wants the BMC to set up CCTV surveillance of visarjan areas, that police train each of the major idol sites in safety, and that monitoring agencies should immediately apprehend those selling spurious mawa and milk during the festival.

(Pictures courtesy DGIPR and mmclaughlin11.wordpress.com)

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What the BMC’s planned for the city this year

Surplus budget announces ‘Banner Free Mumbai’ and a 24/7 helpline for the mentally distressed, among a slew of other things.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has several designs on the city this year, and it announced its plans for Mumbai through its Budget 2013-2014 today at the BMC headquarters. BMC chief Sitaram Kunte presented the surplus Rs 27,578 crore budget; this is the highest municipal corporation budget in the country.

Budget 2013-2014 exceeds the previous budget by over Rs 1 crore.

The following are some of the announcements for this fiscal year:

– Rs 6,443.76 crore has been assigned for water supply and drainage works.

– Rs 45 crore has been proposed for the widening and cleaning of Mithi and other rivers.

– Road concretisation and building of new flyovers will get Rs 2,650.74 crore.

– On the health front, the BMC Commissioner announced such ambitious measures as the setting up of a 24/7 helpline for the mentally distressed, a Rs 20 crore corpus for a state of the art diagnostics facility at KEM Hospital, and the setting up of a University of Health Sciences, among other things.

– 26 new fire brigade stations will be set up in the next five years. The Fire Brigade’s equipment is also to be upgraded.

– It is proposed to set up four new water tunnels on the Malabar Hill-Cross Maidan, Powai-Vairavli Maidan, Maroshi-Ruparel via Vakola and Gundavli-Bhandup routes. This will cost Rs 1,069 crore. Two new water tunnels are also proposed from Chembur to Trombay and Chembur to Wadala.

– Rs 82.11 crore to be set aside for beautification and development of gardens.

– The BMC proposes to set up a permanent laser show display at Powai Lake.

– An entertainment and activity centre for senior citizens has been proposed.

– The BMC chief has announced a ‘Banner free Mumbai’ and a continuation of the zero garbage policy for the city. Instead, the BMC is mulling the idea of designated zones for hoardings and banners.

(Picture courtesy scamsleak.blogspot.com)

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Shiv Sena gives in on memorial issue

The Chief Minister didn’t relent. The BMC chief remained firm. Other parties attacked the idea. Shiv Sena now gives in.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

It started as a raucous free-for-all, even before the ashes of the late Bal Thackeray could be immersed in the ocean and a reasonable period of time could elapse after his death, for a controversy using his name to begin and burn harder by the day. But a controversy did erupt, about making the makeshift memorial dedicated to Thackeray a permanent site, and as the days passed, the Shiv Sena’s stubborn demands began to be viewed with annoyance.

Now, after the State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Sitaram Kunte remained firm on their stand that the makeshift memorial would have to be removed – the CM even refused to grant permission for a permanent memorial at Shivaji Park citing ‘legal issues’ – the Shiv Sena has reluctantly agreed to dismantle the makeshift memorial.

Replying to the December 3 notice that Kunte had sent to Sena MP Sanjay Raut and mayor Sunil Prabhu, asking them to remove the temporary structure at the earliest, Raut has now agreed that the Shiv Sena will remove the structure and level the ground over which it stands before handing it over to the Government.

This comes days after hundreds of Shiv Sainiks arrived at the spot to ‘guard’ the memorial from BMC action, in day-and-night shifts. The party had previously sworn to guard the memorial come what may, and that if the BMC tried to forcibly remove the memorial, Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said, “there could be law and order problems in the city.”

Earlier this week, as news of BMC’s vans being readied at their Worli garage to arrive at Shivaji Park did the rounds, six vans were vandalised by Sainiks. The BMC chief then called for the vandals to be suitably penalised, while holding firm on the notice sent to the Sena on removing the memorial.

 

 

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