PIL against illegal property sale
A PIL in the Bombay High Court has alleged that flats allotted to slumdwellers who were living inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park are being illegally sold. The slum dwellers who were evicted from the flats were given National Park flats under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority’s scheme in Chandivali in North Mumbai.
However, Janhit Manch, an NGO, has alleged in the petition that these flats are being sold off though the scheme bars sale or leasing of …
Bar dancers find new employment
After a ban shut down Mumbai’s dance bars, many bar girls turned sex workers while others left the city in search of livelihood. But some others have found better ways to live here, thanks to the Sanmitra Trust initiative.
Prabha Desai, a professor at Patkar College who runs the NGO, started the initiative in 2002, to create awareness about HIV among commercial sex workers. In 2004, she …
Court raps civic body, MHADA over inaction
Upset over the never-ending public interest litigations (PIL) concerning checks over illegal and unauthorised constructions, the Bombay High Court has asked the BMC and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to specify the attempts made to curb this.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by city-based NGO Disha in 2006 seeking action against illegal structures on the plush Andheri-Versova-Jogeshwari belt. The PIL has sought demolition of rampant unauthorized structures in the belt.
The HC …
Citispace activist threatened again
Citispace activist Neera Punj has claimed to have received another threatening call from the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). She had allegedly been threatened shortly before her colleague Nayana Kathpalia’s house was shot at on January 8.
Police said the caller rang from a PCO booth located in Dongri and said, “Withdraw all the SRA related writ petitions that you have filed. If you do not comply, you …
Mobile medical units for needy patients
Wockhardt Foundation and the Sanjay Nirupam Helpline, run by MP Sanjay Nirupam, have started a mobile medical programme for poor patients in North Mumbai.
Under the programmes — Right to Vision (RTV) and Mobile Health Reach (MHR) — over 10 ophthalmologists from the foundation will cater to people from Malad to Dahisar once a week through three mobile medical units. “Government initiatives do not reach these areas. …
NGO challenges vice-chancellor post nominations
Four days after a governor-appointed committee shortlisted five candidates for the post of vice-chancellor of Mumbai University, the Forum for Fairness in Education has challenged the nominations.
The NGO has sent a legal notice to Governor SC Jamir, the Chancellor of the University and Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. It has also has said that if the current nominations are not scrapped it will file a public interest litigation.
The NGO termed the process of short-listing of candidates …