• RNI No. MAHEN/2007/21778 • POSTAL REGN. NO. NMB/154/2020-22/VASHI MDG POST OFFICE

• VOL. 15 • ISSuE: 3 • WEDNESDAy, 5 MAy 2021

PAGES: 8 PRICE : 2.00

www.newsband.in

By Indrani Basu

With an aim to make the node of

Kharghar greener and beautiful, Future Green World Foundation has started a unique initia-tive ‘Tree parenting’ un-

der which the trees are being nurtured like one’s own child. The Founda-tion has been parenting more than 5000 trees across Kharghar node which were planted in between 2019-2020.

Shambhaji Devkar along with few like-minded urbanites started the venture of tree pla-nation in 2019. “While it is easy to plant trees,

Kharghar residents undertake ‘Tree parenting’ drive

Patient’s kin vandalize Patel

Hospital in PanvelAshwini Thawai

(36), a woman lawyer who was admitted to Patel Hospital in Pan-vel, died on Sunday evening. Following her death, the relatives broke into Patel Hos-pital and vandalized it, alleging that Ashwini had died due to wrong treatment by the doc-tors…

(More on page 8)

Builder Nalin Shah and four others

charged for cheating retired naval officers

Vashi police have registered a case of fraud against Na-lin Shah, a well-known builder from Navi Mumbai, and his as-sociates for cheating four retired naval offi-cers by offering them 20 per cent interest on their investments and extorting Rs 1 crore 8 lakh from them…

(More on page 3)

Rendering Help in times of need

Disturbed by the constant news of the kin of Covid 19 patients struggling to get beds, medicines, oxygen and other medical facilities for their patients, four young enthusiasts from Navi Mumbai have developed an app ‘Helping India’, which provides valuable in-formation on Covid related queries...

(More on page 8)

Row over naming of Navi Mumbai Airport

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CIDCO’s unilateral proposal to the state government to name it after Balasaheb

Thackeray is being widely opposedBy Vikram gaikwad

The unilateral deci-sion taken by the

Board of Directors of the City and Industrial Development Corpora-tion (CIDCO) to send a proposal to the state government to name the Greenfield Navi Mumbai Airport after late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray has not gone down well with the Project Affect-

ed People (PAPs) and the leaders of the vari-ous political parties.

“The project victims have great respect for Balasaheb Thackeray and do not oppose Bala-saheb's name for the airport, but we do op-pose the hasty manner in which the decision was taken by the state government and the CI-DCO without consult-ing the project affected people”, said Manohar

Patil, Chairman, Navi Mumbai MIDC Project Affected Action Com-mittee.

For many years, the project-affected organi-zations have been ex-pressing that the Navi Mumbai’s Greenfield airport should be named after D.B Patil who has worked tirelessly for the welfare of the project affected people.

BJP's North Raigad

district president MLA Prashant Thakur, while calling this hasty deci-sion as “shocking’ said, “We do not oppose Balasaheb Thackeray's name for the airport, but no major project in Navi Mumbai has been dedicated to late D B Patil who had fought for the welfare of the farm-ers all his life. When the CIDCO had acquired

Nurture more than 5000 trees across Kharghar node

By Ryhea george

Taking cue from the Brihanmumbai

Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Navi Mum-bai Municipal Corpora-tion (NMMC) is also thinking over the idea of start-ing a drive-in vac-cination center in its jurisdiction. A meeting in this re-gard was held on 3rd May, 2021.

BMC has start-ed the first drive-in facility for vaccinating 45+ specially-abled peo-ple and immobile senior citizens. This facility has been set up in a public

parking lot in Dadar area for people above the age of 45 years.

Speaking to News-band, NMMC chief, Ab-hijit Bangar said, “Many

places including Bhopal, Indore and of course BMC have started this initiative. We are also trying to start the drive-in

vaccination facility. The place is being finalised. Along with that we will also be starting mini bus services for the senior citizens and the physi-

cally challenged citizens. They will be provided with pick and drop fa-cility in the mini buses which will be of NMMT.”

Chief health of-ficer, NMMC Dr. Dhanvanti Ghadge said, “Before start-

ing any new facility, a lot of things need to be taken into consideration.

NMMC plans to start drive-in

vaccination centre

For representational purpose only.

Future Green Foundation group

2 Wednesday, 5 May 2021

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atteNtIoN ReadeRS: While every effort is made to check the genuineness of party/parties inserting ads in this paper, we cannot be held responsible for the truthfulness of its contents. The publishers, Editor and/or the staff cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage due to transactions that they may enter into guided by the ads.

Uran Medical Welfare Association to provide free services at Covid Centre

By dinesh Pawar

The number of Corona patients is increasing day by day in

Uran taluka. Uran Medical Wel-fare Association has decided to provide free services to help the doctors of Covid Centre (Dedi-

cated Covid Health Centre) at Uran Bokadvira, said Uran Medi-cal Welfare Association Secretary, Dr. Satyanarayana Thackeray.

In this connection, Tehsildar of Uran Bhausaheb Andhare called a meeting of Uran Medical Welfare

Association and requested for ser-vices at Covid Hospital. Similar-ly, all the members of Uran Medi-cal Welfare Association agreed to provide free services. About 40 doctors will be benefited from the free services.

On behalf of Maharashtra Nav Nirman Mathadi Sena, State Vice President Ganesh Mhatre, snacks are being distributed daily to the needy. MNS Airoli Deputy City President Nilesh Bankhele, Divisional President Vishwanath Dalvi, Kalpesh Belose, Deputy Divisional President Rakesh Pawar, Sachin Mhatre and MNS workers are providing support to the initiative (By Chan-drashekhar Hendve).

By Siddhesh Waykar

All the practical and online driving tests

that have been put on hold following the cen-tral government’s direc-tives, will be resumed only after it gets green signal from the Minis-try of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Delhi.

“Following the di-rectives from MoRTH, the driving and online tests for all kind of li-censes have been put on hold. The entire system is controlled through a server by the main office in Delhi. We are waiting

for further orders after which we can resume our license work. Due to the grim covid-19 situa-tion, it is unpredictable to say when it is likely to resume”, said He-mangini Patil, Deputy DY RTO Vashi.

Hundreds of appli-cants in the city have to wait for months before they get an appointment for a driving test. “As of now, I am not sure about the numbers and how many of them are kept on hold as the allotment is done and controlled by the main server in Delhi itself”, said Patil.

Driving license tests to resume only after government’s nod

Tree parenting at Kharghar

it is equally important to nurture it afterwards. We found that many trees wilted due to lack of wa-ter and care. Hence, we decided to conduct ‘tree parenting’ drive,” said Devkar.

They selected play-grounds and started planting trees at the pe-ripheries of the ground with the expense from their own pocket. Dur-ing last one year they have completed 9 play-grounds and planted around 5600 indigenous trees.

“In every playground plot there is a 6 feet gap in-between the boundary wall and jogger's track. We selected that portion for planation to increase greenery. To nurture trees is a real challeng-ing task and we needed many hardworking peo-ple who are in love of nature for this. I started a WhatsApp group in the name of 'tree par-enting' to look after the trees. There was an overwhelming response from people from all walks of life who were interested to extend their helping hands in this na-ture related cause."

Devkar informed, "The parenting actually

includes five steps -Pre-pare the base by dig-ging the land, watering, de-weeding, fertilizing, providing support to the young trees with sticks and bamboos. Groups were formed and they happily enjoyed the ac-tivity of parenting trees two hours early in the morning from 6.30-8.30 am daily. In the begin-

ning the major hurdle was collecting water. We requested construc-tion sites to provide us with water. We then car-ried water in big cans of 3000 liters and reached those cans to the plana-tion site in small trolly or vans. Later we tried borewell water, but that was not fit for trees as it is more saline. Pres-ently, CIDCO has grant-ed us permission to use the water from sewage treatment plant located in sector 15, Kharghar. Our volunteers collect

the water from sewage treatment in big cans and then the cans are trans-ported in vans to each of those 9 playgrounds and gardens located at sector 21, 15, 12 in Kharghar. Some popular play-ground and garden are Sachin Tendulkar gar-den, Atre Garden, Ga-ondevi garden, Shivaji Raje Garden. On an

average 500 trees were planted in each garden during 2019-2020 by the Foundation.

The recent scenario is little different. Due to Covid triggered lock-down, there is dearth of manpower recently, but Sambhaji along with 4 or 5 volunteers have been looking after those trees during the week-ends. "We have dug up the base and made deep base around the periph-ery of the plants and trees. We then fill those dug up bases with water,

so the plants can survive nicely. Supporting ten-der plants with bamboo sticks is one more im-portant work under par-enting. For that purpose, we procured 1000 bam-boos recently,” he says.

He informed that ac-cording to recent audit parenting of each tree costs Rs. 85 and the ex-penses are mostly borne as crowd funding.

The active volunteers include Dr. Swaminath Dhawale,Syam S Ra-vikant, Vinod Shingan, Sachin Deshpande, Har-ish Oja, Tushar Shitole, Prakhash Palkar, Nana Kawade, Pore , Subhash Patil, Mrs. Khatri , San-dip Gore, Ajay Saraswat, Shyam Phadnis, S.P. Singh, Mhaske among many others.

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KHaRgHaR ReSI-deNtS uNdeRtaKe...

Tree parenting

3Wednesday, 5 May 2021

Two arrested for money launderingBy Crime Reporter

Ravindra Mandal (35), a resident of

Panvel area, was beaten to death by three of his acquaintances for ex-changing money who also tried to kill him by throwing stones at his head. Ravindra Mandal was critically injured in the attack and was ad-mitted to JJ Hospital in Mumbai for treatment. Police have registered a case of assault against the three and have ar-rested two of them.

The youth, who was

critically injured in the incident, was identified as Ravindra Mandal alias Lalya. He had a dispute with Raju Kun-war over payment. He had misspent the money he had given to Raju Kunwar in drinking. Therefore, on Sunday evening, Raju Kunwar, Raju Vishwakarma and their third accomplice stopped Ravindra in Mirchi galli in Panvel and assaulted him. Rav-indra was critically in-jured in the attack and the three assailants fled

from the scene.After getting infor-

mation about the inci-dent, the police rushed to the spot and rushed the injured Ravindra to JJ Hospital in Mumbai for treatment. After that, Panvel city police filed a case under section 307 against the three in the incident. After that, the police got information about the two assulters and arrested Raju Kun-war and Raju Vishwa-karma. Police have now launched a search for his absconding accomplice.

Blood donation camp held

By Chandrashekhar Hendve

Bandhilaki Pratish-than and Nirdhar Sa-

majik Sanstha organised a blood donation camp at Ganesh Mandir, Ka-lamboli on Sunday. A to-tal of 71 people donated blood during the camp. MGM Blood Bank and Navi Mumbai Blood Bank assisted the camp. The camp was sup-

ported by Ashtavinayak Mitra Mandal, Sid-dharaj Housing Society. President of Bandhila-ki Pratishthan Pallavi Nimbalkar, Treasurer Vishal Kavere, Deputy Secretary Swapnil Mut-ke and members Ashok Ghadge, Varsha Mote, Gitanjali Sawant, Som-nath More, Sriganesh Rupanwar, Pratiksha

Kapre, Shraddha Wagh-mare, Siddhi Waghmare, Rahul Chavan.

President of Nirdhar Samajik Sanstha Nilesh Aher, Vice President Shubham Walke, mem-bers Mangesh Shinde, Anil Kumbhar, Abhishek Shinde, Pankaj Salve, Rupesh Date, Anuja Mane, Kisan Mane were present.

City NGO provides ration to 200 families of Gharapuri

By Chandrashekhar Hendve

Parth Pawar Founda-tion, a social orga-

nization distributed food grains to the villagers living on the island of Gharapuri (Elephanta). Over 200 families on the island were benefited.

“The Corona crisis began and hit the tour-ism sector along with other important sectors.

For the last one and a half years, the tourism business on Gharapuri Island has been com-pletely closed, which is causing great difficulties to the families living on the island. Hence, with an aim to render a help-ing hand, free rations were distributed by Parthdada Pawar”, said Ramesh Patil, villager.

“We had earlier re-ceived help through the Parth Pawar Foundation. At present, when our fi-nancial situation is bad, once again Parthadada came to our aid. We were given free rations. We are very thankful to Parthadada and Parth Pawar Foundation for this”, said Laxman Patil, a villager.

A blood donation camp was organized by Yuva Vicharmanch in Kharghar on 1st May, on the oc-casion of Labour Day. A total of 95 youths donated blood. To make this camp a success, Arjun Ghatge, Amol Deshmukh, Amol Pawar, Ajay Ingle, Pravin Awhad, Shankar Kadam, Swapnil Mo-hite, Akash Patil, Ganesh Sawant, Nilesh Mane , Vinay Jadhav, Mayur Shilimkar, Mangesh Pawar and Amit Rane worked hard (By: Chandrashekhar Hendve).

Covid warriors felicitated

By dinesh Pawar

Anil Kasare, Prakash More, Naresh

Khedu, Nitin Kasare, Santosh Deore, Dhanesh Kasare, Kashinath Waghmare, Kailas Rathod, Shidhodhan Jadhav, Ramesh Kam-

ble, Nitin Mohite, Rav-indra Kamble, Naresh Pawaskar, Dilip Gaik-wad, were felicitated for their untiring services during the pandemic.

Mayor Sayali Mha-tre, Deputy Mayor Jay-vin Koli, BJP Uran City

President and Corpora-tor Kaushik Shah, Cor-porator Meraj Sheikh, Health Chairman Yasmin Gas, Corporator Meraj Sheikh, BJP Uran City Youth President Nilesh Patil and staff were pres-ent on the occasion.

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NMMC PlaNS to StaRt dRIVe-IN...

The nitty-gritty includes finding the location, ad-equate space for such a facility and also the for-mation of a team for the drive-in vaccination.”

Lauding the initiative, a resident of Navi Mum-bai Hardik Patel said, “Drive-in vaccination for the physically challenged and elderly citizens is an apt solution. As they are the most vulnerable

sections of the society, drive-in vaccinations would be a sigh of relief for the relatives as well as the vaccinator, who will be the only one to be in contact with the per-son getting vaccinated. NMMC should start such initiative at the earlier.”

Hargauri Arun Nikam, a Koperkhairane resident said, “The drive-in vaccination will make it much easier for ev-eryone who is in need. But the drive-ins should

be allowed only for the needy ones. If it is thrown open for all, there will be utter chaos and the pur-pose will get defeated. The civic body needs to structure and analyze how the drive-ins will be conducted. They should make it a point that the exit and entry are lo-cated on different sides and there should be no contact with anyone else other than the vaccinator and the person getting vaccinated.”

4 Wednesday, 5 May 2021

By Chandrashekhar Hendve

Chief Minister Ud-dhav Thackeray

has said that all agen-cies should work in a coordinated and careful manner to anticipate natural calamities in the coming monsoon and ensure timely noti-fication to the citizens. He was speaking at a pre-monsoon survey of all the districts in the Konkan region. The meeting was chaired by Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the meteorological depart-ment should ensure that the administration re-ceives up-to-date infor-mation on rains, storms

and other calamities and that the system can be alerted so that rescue operations could be started immediately. Fishing boats should be contacted dur-ing this period and they should also be kept informed. Care should also be taken to ensure that the power resistance sys-tem and the control room of the district are functioning prop-erly.

He also directed all the concerned agencies to ensure that the maintenance and repair of the dams is done properly. “Peo-ple of the surrounding villages should also be alerted and alternative

arrangements should be made for them in case of a flood,” he said. The Chief Min-ister also said that

the system should be vigilant as a series of small earthquakes had started in Palghar

during the monsoon season last year.

At the beginning, Konkan Divisional Commissioner An-

nasaheb Misal made a presentation. Last year, the department had received 3173 mm of

rainfall. There are 371 flood prone and 223 flood prone villages in the division. Disaster control rooms have

been set up in every district and will be open 24 hours a day. In addition, lifeboats, jackets and other supplies are available. The National Disaster Response Force has been requested to be deployed at Chiplun, a mock drill has been conducted and 100 per cent compensa-tion has been paid for the nature of the cyclone, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Director, Meteorologi-cal Department, K. S. Hosalikar said that Ma-

harashtra is expected to receive above average rainfall this year. He said that new radars would be set up at four places in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Vasai soon so that the weather forecast could be more ac-curate. Further, since 2017, cyclones like Okhi, Vayu, Kyaar, Nisarg have caused a lot of damage to the coastal areas. Stating that the risk of light-ning strikes is higher in April and May than in the actual monsoon season, Hosalikkar said that with the develop-ment of new technol-ogy, accurate weather forecasting has become possible.

Provide timely information to citizens in the event of a natural disaster: CM Thackeray

Ingredients • 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spoon & levelled) • 3/4 cup (65g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder • 1 and 3/4 cups (350g) granulated sugar • 2 teaspoons baking soda • 1 teaspoon baking pow-der • 1 teaspoon salt • 2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional) • 1/2 cup (120ml) canola or vegetable oil • 2 large eggs, at room tempera-ture • 3/4 cup (180g) full fat sour cream, at room temperature • 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk, at room temperature* • 2 teaspoons pure va-nilla extract • 1/2 cup (120ml) hot water or coffee • 2 (15 ounce) cans dark sweet cher-ries in heavy syrup • 2 Tablespoons cherry li-quor

Chocolate Ganache• 1 cup (240ml)

heavy cream or heavy whipping cream • two 4-ounce semi-sweet chocolate bars (226g), finely chopped

• optional: 1 Table-spoon light corn syrup

Whipped Cream• 2 cups (480ml) cold

heavy cream or heavy whipping cream • 1/4 cup (30g) confection-ers’ sugar • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

InstructionsPreheat the oven to

350°F (177°C). Grease three 9-inch cake pans, line with parchment paper, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans.

Chocolate cake: Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and espresso pow-der (if using) together in a large bowl. Set aside. Using a Kitch-enAid stand mixer fit-ted with a flat beater, beat the oil, eggs, sour cream, buttermilk, and vanilla together until combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add the hot

water or coffee, and beat it all until the batter is completely combined.

Divide batter evenly between 3 pans. Bake for 21-25 minutes. Bak-ing times vary, so keep an eye on yours. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and set on a wire rack. Allow to

cool for 30 minutes in the pans, then remove cakes from pans and set on a cooling rack. Be careful and use two hands when handling the cakes.

After the cakes have cooled, use a large ser-rated knife or cake lev-eller to slice a thin layer off the tops of the cakes to create a flat surface.

Discard (or crumble over ice cream!).

Prepare the syrup: Drain the cherries, re-serving 3/4 cup (180ml) of the heavy syrup. Set cherries aside. Simmer syrup and cherry liquor in a small saucepan over low heat until reduced down to 1/4 cup (60ml). Brush reduced syrup all over the cakes, reserv-ing any leftover syrup.

Slice the cherries in half, leaving a few whole cherries for gar-nish. Set aside.

Make the ganache: Place chopped choco-late and corn syrup, if using, in a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it begins to gently sim-mer. (Do not let it come to a rapid boil– that’s

too hot!) Pour over chocolate and let it sit for 2-3 minutes to gen-tly soften the chocolate. Slowly stir until com-pletely combined and chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes as you prepare the whipped cream.

Make the whipped cream: Using a Kitch-enAid stand mixer fit-ted with a whisk attach-

ment, whip the heavy cream, sugar, and va-nilla extract on medi-um-high speed until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes.

Assemble the cake: Place 1 cake layer on your cake stand, cake turntable, or serving plate. Spread 1 heaping cup of whipped cream evenly on top. Dot with

half of the halved cher-ries and drizzle with a spoonful of reduced syrup. Top with 2nd cake layer and evenly cover the top with 1 heaping cup whipped cream, the remaining halved cherries, and an-other drizzle of reduced syrup. Top with the 3rd cake layer. Spread the remaining whipped cream on top and all around the sides in a thin layer using an icing spatula. Use a bench scraper to smooth out the whipped cream on the sides of the cake.

Pour chocolate ga-nache on top of the cake. Spread to the edges of cake allowing it to gen-tly drip down the sides. Top with whole cher-ries. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Cover and store left-over cake at room tem-perature for 1-2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Nidhi agarwal is the founder of

‘Cake N Bake’ and can be contacted on

7017625598 for orders

Delectable recipes: Chocolate Cake

Nidhi agarwal

5Wednesday, 5 May 2021

Happiness is a feel-ing of content-

ment, satisfaction, completeness and calmness.

Happiness is some-thing we all look for. Actually, most of our actions & activities are motivated by the desire to find happiness.

We shop, we go to restaurants, we travel. We put in all the effort to be successful, we seek to possess our as-sets, everything is mo-tivated with the pur-pose of enjoying more happiness.

Sometimes these pursuits make us feel happy, but sometimes they don’t, because true happiness comes from within, and seek-ing it from external sources isn’t always possible.

Happiness and joy are within your reach. You just need to be aware and you need to keep trying to avoid the thoughts that make you feel low or unhap-py. Happiness always exists around you in some form or the oth-er, you just need to dis-cover it.

# Be happy in your daily life

You can always choose to make your life happier. It might seem to be impossible in the first place. This is because we all may problems in life and we might feel that we just cannot be happy. But this is wrong. You can be happy even in diffi-cult times if you don’t leave being with your positive thoughts and repeatedly disallowing the negative thoughts which make you feel down.# You need to choose

to be happyYou need to make

happiness a choice and stand by it. You can ac-cept to be unhappy or to choose to feel hap-

py. Happiness often, seems to be the result positive events, but ac-tually, it comes from the inside, triggered by outside events. It usually seems to be temporary, but when you learn to choose to be happy in your life, it gradually becomes permanent.

You can choose to keep dwelling on some unpleasant experience all day long. You may also choose to refuse to think about it, and fo-cus on other things that make you feel happy and make you smile

You cannot change other’s behaviour, but you can control the way you respond.# Change your atti-

tude, make happiness your habit

Happiness to a great extent is matter of attitude and state of mind. It does not and of course should not depend on people, cir-cumstances or events. Giving yourself hap-piness at the mercy of other people or circum-stances every time, is not a good idea.# Look for happiness

in the small things around you

Do not wait for something extraordi-nary to happen, to make you feel happy. Such events do not happen every day, but you can enjoy the abound small things around you. You can find many simple activities you can enjoy, which will make you feel happy. Like Cooking, taking a walk, spending time with children.# Take out time to

be out in natureBeing out, close to

nature, you experience a sense of peace, tran-quility and joy, which are the main ingredi-ents of happiness.# Be in the company

of good friends

Try to enjoy every moment when you are with your friends. Fo-cus on joy and fun# Avoid being jealous

Instead of be-ing jealous of other people’s success, be inspired by it. Learn from them. Every-one including you is unique. So, there is no need to be jealous of anyone.

# Learn to accept things

as they areIt is tough to be

content with life and accept it, especially when you face prob-lems. However, if you accept things as they are, you make peace with yourself, and this will take away resent-ment and unhappiness. This in no way means that you should not try to improve your life. On the contrary, do your best to improve it. Your sincere efforts will bring you a sense of content, inner peace and happiness.

You definitely don’t need anyone to tell you how wonderful you are you feel. You can always be happy irre-spective of the situation and people around you. The sooner you real-ize and accept this, the sooner happiness will become a habit in your life and you would ex-perience it more often. When you are happy, you feel free, and for a while, you forget about your troubles and en-joy inner peace. Stay Happy!(the author is Pgd (guid-

ance and counselling), M.Sc (Counselling)

THE MIND DIARy : Happiness- Make it your choice

By Kamna Walecha

Seven Standard Crazy Buddies Group conducts disinfectant drive

By dinesh Pawar

Seven Standard Crazy Buddies Group car-

ried out disinfectant drive in Gowthane vil-lage on Saturday (May 1) from 7 am to 5 pm.

“Our group carries out various social activi-ties throughout the year but at present the whole village is sprayed with disinfectant keeping in view the need to protect the people from deadly Covid 19 virus and to create awareness among the people”, said Naren-dra Vartak, President of the group.

Narendra Vartak-Group President, Praveen Patil, Nayan Vartak, Sujit Mhatre,

Udayraj Mhatre, Kishore Mhatre, Yogesh Mhatre, Prakash Mhatre, Sanjay Mhatre, Manoj Gawand, Suresh Mhatre, Machin-

dra Mhatre, Nitin Mha-tre, Ghanshyam Vartak, Baliram Mhatre, Dhar-mendra Mhatre, Anand

Mhatre, Mahesh Mhatre, Nitesh Patil, Ramanand Vartak and other mem-bers of the group and villagers were present.

Shri Ganesh Vaishnavi Sanstha President and NMMC solid waste management worker Ganesh Basutkar celebrated his birthday by distributing masks and carrying out social activities and distributing food to orphanage in Digha (By: Chandrashekhar Hendve).

By Ryhea george

Laughter is de-clared as the

universal language of love and bonding, which can easily turn a negative situation into a positive one. In the present scenario, when there is gloom and negativity every-where, the Mumbai police is trying to make people chuckle with their hilarious tweets. They recently shared a post with real-life excuses or events they have heard from those who were try-ing to break the ongoing restrictions and lockdown norms in the city.

Some of the excuses included “Medical emergency to get a band-aid” to “Sir I am eating paan (betel leaves with spices) and wearing a mask will only soil it.” According to the post, these were the excuses used by the people to get out of their house,

during the lockdown imposed in Maha-rashtra to curb the spread of the covid-19 pandemic. An-other excuse given for coming out was buying battery as the IPL was going on and Mumbai Indians were playing.

The post was cap-tioned, “Disclaimer: All the characters and events depicted

are real. Any resemblance to a person living or dead is purely intentional.” The post was complete with different hashtags like #ExcuseNotOKPlease, #HeardOnDuty, #CasualForReal, #TakingOnCorona and #WorldLaugh-terDay.

Many residents feel that posts like these by officials not only make them feel light-hearted but also go a long way in removing the harsh image of Mumbai Police among the masses.

Mumbai Police’s hilarious posts on social media make citizens giggle

6 Wednesday, 5 May 2021

EditorialISSue: 3 5 MaY, 2021

In its recent verdict, the Supreme Court on Monday said that educa-

tional institutions must reduce fees as the schools have been conduct-ing online classes for more than a year now and the running costs of the institutions have come down. This decision has been hailed by the parents, who had been demanding a consideration in this regard since long.

Right from the onset of the pan-demic, the schools and other education-al institutions have been conducting online classes. After initial hitches, this became the normal practise and not only classes but even co-curricular activities and examinations began to be conducted in a virtual mode. However, while the parents and the institutions cooperated with each other in conducting online classes and other activities, there was a discord regarding tuition fees. The parents opposed the idea of paying full fees as, in their opinion, since the classes were held online, it was incorrect to charge for the facilities

that were not being used by the stu-dents. The educational institutions, however, had different views. They stressed that there was apparently no change in the manner the classes were being conducted and hence they were justified in demanding the full fees.

The recent verdict, has now put at rest this ongoing tussle. During the

pandemic, many fami-lies are reeling under financial crunch due to the imposition of lockdown, curfew and closure of es-

tablishments. In such a scenario, it is essential

to have a sympathetic ap-proach which ensures that no one

is over burdened financially. There is no denying the fact that teach-ers have played a very crucial role as also the educational institutions to ensure that there is no disruption of classes during the challenging times, but the financial difficulties of the parents too, during such harsh times, cannot be overlooked. This is not the time to make profit but to ensure that the future of the students does not get affected.

School fee rowBy ashok dhamija

The much-awaited league match be-tween two of the most decorated

Indian Premier League (IPL) teams saw Mumbai Indians (MI) snatch a thrilling four wickets win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the final ball of the match at the Arun Jaitley stadium in New Delhi last weekend.

Chasing a huge target of 219, reign-ing champions powered by an unbeaten 87 off mere 34 deliveries by all-round-er Kieron Pollard, following his two wickets burst earlier, saw the defend-ing champions MI achieve their high-est ever run chase in the history of IPL. The foundation however was laid by MI openers – Rohit Sharma and Quin-ton de Kock who scored 71 for the first wicket, before skipper Rohit failed to keep one down and was caught at Point off Shradul Thakur in the eighth over

Earlier impressive half centuries by opener Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu saw table toppers CSK score 218 for 4 in their allotted overs. Ambati provided the final flourish with an unbeaten 72 off 27 balls as he and Ravindra Jadeja showed scant respect for MI bowlers including Jasprit Bum-rah (1/56) who finished with his worst figures. The duo added 102 for the fifth wicket off mere 48 balls, with Ravin-dra scoring 22 off 22 balls.

Brief Scores: Chennai Su-per Kings: 218/4 (Ambati Rayudu

72* (27b:4x4s, 7x6s), Moeen Ali 58 (36b: 5x4s, 5x6s), Faf du Plessis 50 (28b:2x4s, 4x6s); Kieron Pollard 2/12, Trent Boult 1/42) lost to Mumbai In-dians: 219/6 (Kieron Pollard 87* (34b: 6x4s, 8x6s), Quinton de Kock 38 (28b:

4x4s, 1×6), Rohit Sharma 35 (24b: 4x4s, 1×6), Krunal Pandya 32 (23b: 2x4s,2x6s); Sam Curran 3/34, Moeen Ali 1/1)) by 4 wickets. Man of the Match: Kieron Pollard (Mumbai In-dians).

Pollard’s all-round ballistic powers MI’s final ball win over CSK: IPL 2021

Mumbai Indians Kieron Pollard makes a brief prayers before being besieged by his team mates following his all-round exploits against Chennai Super Kings.

Covid 19 and IPL suspension: Opinion by fans By Siddhesh Waykar

The Indian Premier League (IPL) takes new turns every day with its

super entertaining matches and records, but the current situation has brought it to the knees and proved why conduct-ing the tournament amid a pandemic was a bad idea. The IPL 2021 has been suspended by the BCCI amid rising covid19 cases and after a few players tested positive. On May 3 2021 The match be-tween SRH and KKR in Ahmedabad was cancelled after few members of KKR test-ed positive including spinner Varun Chakra-varthy. From March 4 2020, BCCI Vice President, Rajiv Shukla announced the suspension of the IPL 2021.

Were players’ pulling out of the IPL a few days back hints to suspen-sion?

The virus has created a tense situa-tion in the country and nonetheless in the bio bubble as well, resulting in few foreign players returning home. Vet-eran spinner R. Ashwin had also pulled

out of the tournament due to covid19 reasons. “Australia’s Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson pulled out of the tournament fearing increasing covid cases. They had seen it coming despite being in the bio bubble. The spread of the virus in the country is so strong that no matter how much you take precau-tions, it can infect you if it’s meant to be. Zampa and other cricketers made a

smart move by moving out in the beginning”, said Omkar Mhatre.

BCCI could have opted for an outside venue for hosting

Like last year, BCCI could’ve arranged the full-fledged IPL 2021

in UAE where the cases are not severe. “The last year’s IPL was successful de-spite tough situations. BCCI could’ve arranged the same for this year as well because anyways the matches were being played behind closed doors. I would say ISL was planned perfectly, as they had chosen only one state for all the matches. BCCI should think twice before announcing the resumption”, said Nitant Gaikwad.

RHA distributes ration kits to the needy

By Ryhea george

The Robin Hood Army has been pro-

viding essential goods to the needy people in the City. Around 500 fami-lies have been provided aid by the RHA since the restrictions have been imposed by the govern-ment of Maharashtra. Following the Covid-19 protocol, the RHA vol-unteers have been dis-tributing ration and es-sential items in a group of four. The RHA teams have been providing ra-

tion kits which includes 5 kg rice, 5 kg wheat flour, 2 kg Sugar ,2 kg of pulses, Masala, salt etc. to the villages com-prising of daily wage earners like labourers, vendors, housemaid who have lost their jobs during the restrictions and other needy people as well.

Head of RHA Mum-bai, Deepak Singh said, “We are distributing these kits since 15th April after the restric-tions were imposed.

We ensure that all of us follow all the Covid-19 protocol while distribut-ing the essential items to the needy people. The daily wage earners are facing difficult time due to restrictions and hence we are trying to reach out to them. We will be continuing the distribution till there are restrictions in the state. Many Housing societies are also rendering help and providing kits and funds to buy the essen-tial goods.”

7Wednesday, 5 May 2021

By ashok dhamija

Central Railway (CR) have de-cided to extend the run a fully

reserved Special Trains from on ‘Spe-cial Charges’ from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) / Dadar / Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Mumbai and various destinations in order to clear extra rush of passengers as per the following details given be-low:

A) Train no. 01109 LTT-Mandua-dih Special (Saturday) extended upto 8th May, 2021 & Train no. 01110 Manduadih-LTT Special (Sunday) ex-tended upto 9th May, 2021

B) Train no. 01423 Pune-Bhagalpur Special (Saturday) extended upto 8th May, 2021 & Train no. 01424 Bhagalpur-Pune Special (Monday) extended upto10th May, 2021

C) Train no. 01105 LTT-Gorakhpur Special (Tuesday) extended upto 4th May, 2021 & Train no. 01106 Gorakhpur-LTT Special (Wednesday) extended upto 5th May, 2021

D) Train no. 01257 Dadar-Praya-graj Chheoki Special (Tuesday) ex-tended upto 4th May, 2021 & Train no. 01258 Prayagraj Chheoki-LTT Special (Wednesday) extended upto 5th May, 2021

E) Train no. 01053 LTT-Gorakh-pur Special (Tuesday) extended upto 4th May, 2021 & Train no. 01054 Gorakhpur-LTT Special (Thursday) extended upto 5th May, 2021

F) Train no. 01097 LTT-Darbhan-ga Special (Monday) extended upto 10th May, 2021 & Train no. 01098 Darbhanga-LTT Special (Tuesday)

extended upto 11th May, 2021G) Train no. 01319 LTT-Mandua-

dih Special (Tuesday) extended upto 4th May, 2021 & Train no. 01320 Manduadih-LTT Special (Wednesday) extended upto 5th May, 2021

H) Train no. 01093 CSMT-Gora-khpur Special (six days – except Tues-day) extended upto 10th May, 2021 & Train no. 01094 Gorakhpur-CSMT Special (six days – except Thursday) extended upto 12th May, 2021

I) Train no. 01189 CSMT-Danapur Special (Daily) extended upto 10th May, 2021 & Train no. 01190 Dan-apur-CSMT Special (Daily) extended

upto 11th May, 2021J) Train no. 01129 CSMT-Gorakh-

pur Special (Tuesday) extended upto 4th May, 2021 & Train no. 01130 Gorakhpur -CSMT Special (Thurs-day) extended upto 6th May, 2021

There will be no change in existing composition, halts and timings of these Special trains. Bookings for extended trips of these fully reserved Special trains leaving from LTT, Dadar and CSMT, Mumbai have commenced at all computerised reservation centres o n website www.irctc.co.in.

Only passengers having confirmed tickets will be permitted to board this Special train and are advised to adhere all norms, SOPs related to COVID19 during the boarding, travel and at des-tination.

CR to extend the periodicity of following additional Special Trains

Panvel District NCP youth Congress help Covid Warriors

By Ryhea george

With the help from Parthadada Pawar Foundation, under the

guidance of State President of NCP Mahbubbhai Sheikh, Panvel District NCP Youth Congress volunteers dis-tributed vitamin C and D pills, ORS energy drinks, biscuit boxes, water

bottle boxes to Kalamboli police sta-tion, Kamothe, Kharghar traffic po-lice station. During the distribution, Nationalist Youth Congress President Pramod Bagal, working president Shahbaz Patel, Tushar Patil, Ranjit Narute, Prashant Ranavare, Vinod Pa-til and activists were present.

For representational purpose only.

Shivbhojan Thali crosses 4 crore mark on Maharashtra Day

By Chandrashekhar Hendve

As per the instruc-tions of Chief Min-

ister Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Bhojan Yojana, an ambitious programme of the Mahavikas Aghadi government, has been launched to ensure that the needy in the state do not go hungry. Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer

Protection Chhagan Bhujbal informed that from January 26, 2020 to May 1, 2021, over 4 crore people in the state have benefited from Shivbhojan Thali.

The scheme was launched on January 26, 2020 in the state. Accordingly, Shiva Bhojan Thali was made available to the poor

citizens of the state for a nominal price. However, with the cases surging in the back-drop of second wave of Covid 19, the meals under the scheme are being provided free of cost. The Shivbhojan Kendra which used to distribute 100 thalas a day is now distributing 150 thalis.

Covid 19: Charges filed against bride, groom and their families for violating rules

By Crime Reporter

Panvel taluka police has registered a

case against a total of 9 persons, including the bride, groom, their parents and other rela-tives for violating the government's prohibi-tion order.

In the backdrop of rising Covid 19 cases, the state government has imposed restrictions across the state. Despite this, Dharma Chowd-hury from Karambeli village in Morbi in Pan-

vel taluka had arranged the wedding of his son Vasudev Dharma Chow-dhury around 1.30 pm on Monday.

Police Naik Sagar Rasal and police con-stable Masal, who were on patrol, observed that the Chaudhary family and the relatives who had come for the wed-ding had not kept any safe distancing and had gathered without wear-ing masks. Cases were filed against Dharma Chaudhary (60), his

wife Dhrupati Dharma Chaudhary (45), his son Vasudev Dharma Chaudhary (25), daughter-in-law Sujita Dattatreya Bhagat (19), Dhuri Dattatreya Bhagat (45) and Dattatreya Narayan Bhagat (19).

Lahu Hiru Chowd-hury (65), Changu Iru Chowdhury (42) and Baban Kanha Kadali (45) have also been booked at Panvel Ta-luka Police Station for violating the restraining order.

CoNtINued fRoM Page...1

RoW oVeR NaMINg of NaVI MuMBaI...

land in Navi Mumbai for construction of the city, Patil had led sever-al protests for farmers. At an agitation in 1984, four farmers died and eventually the 12.5% scheme of the CIDCO was launched for farm-ers, and now it is appli-cable across the State. Hence, it would be ap-propriate to name the

Navi Mumbai airport after him.”

To discuss the mat-ter, a meeting of all party leaders was organized at Chhatrapati Shivaji Ma-haraj High School and DB Patil Junior College at Jasai. All the parties demanded that the air-port should be named after DB Patil, who sac-rificed his life in fighting for the rights of the local villagers. The meeting was attended by former

MP Ramsheth Thakur, BJP's North Raigad district president MLA Prashant Thakur, MLA Mahesh Baladi, MLA Balaram Patil, former MLA Manohar Bhoir, businessman J. M. Mha-tre, Congress leader Mahendra Gharat, MNS district president Atul Bhagat, labour leader Suresh Patil, Bhushan Patil, Dashrath Patil of the project affected and others.

letteR to tHe edItoR

Covid-19 has changed the world completelyCovid-19 has changed the world completely. Millions of peoples have lost

their lives in it and those who are alive are suffering due to lack of jobs and food. The third wave which is on its way, is said to be far more dangerous than the second wave. India has crossed over 16 million cases and thousands of cases are increasing on a daily basis.

Over 60 lakh people have died worldwide waiting outside hospitals due to lack of oxygen and shortage of beds and there is a long queue of families wait-ing to perform the last rites of their lost loved ones.

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel and so we have to focus on our future instead of wailing over the past.

Jubel d'Cruz, Mumbai

8 Wednesday, 5 May 2021

By Siddhesh Waykar

Disturbed by the con-stant news of the

kin of Covid 19 pa-tients struggling to get beds, medicines, oxygen and other medical facilities for their patients, four young enthu-siasts from Navi Mumbai decided to render help on a pan India scale. Af-ter working relent-lessly for around three months, Krishna Shukla, Nishant Tale, Vaib-hav Bankar and An-iket Khariwale, all graduates from Pil-lai’s College, devel-oped an app ‘Help-ing India’, which provides valuable information on Covid related que-ries. With just a few taps on the screen, one can connect to get help relat-ed to Oxygen beds, Oxygen refill and cyl-inders, Re-medisivir and blood plasma in any part of the coun-try. The contact details and availability of re-sources are updated on a regular basis so there is no waste of time and only genuine results are

displayed. “The country is

fighting the second

wave of covid19. With surging cases, the pa-tients and their kin are facing shortage of oxy-gen cylinders, remedisi-vir injections and beds in the hospitals. People

have to research and find contacts to check the availability of the

required resources. To cut off the time and save lives due to lack of availabil-ity of contacts, we have come up with this mobile app”, said Krishna Shuk-la, one of the app developers.

The app, which was launched on 28th April, already has 250+ downloads and has helped over 430 people across the country so far.

“I stay in Gora-khpur and was in urgent need of an oxygen cylinder. With the help of the Helping India app, I was able to get the cylinder within 5 minutes. The app is very useful in such severe condition”,

said Aditya Pandey, a resident of Gorakhpur.

“The app is easy to use and provides

quick access through google login. Anyone from any part of India can get access to this app if they are android phone users,” says Nis-hant Tale.

By: Crime Reporter

Ashwini Thawai (36), a woman

lawyer who was admit-ted to Patel Hospital in Panvel, died on Sun-day evening. Following her death, the relatives broke into Patel Hospi-tal and vandalized it, al-leging that Ashwini had died due to wrong treat-ment by the doctors.

Thawai, was admit-ted to Patel Hospital in Panvel following severe stomach pain. While she was under-going surgery on Sun-day evening, doctors at Patel Hospital told her relatives to move her to another hospital. Ac-cording to the relatives, Ashwini was later ad-mitted to Gandhi Hospi-tal in Panvel. However, doctors there declared

her dead on admission. Meanwhile, while Ash-wini was undergoing surgery at Patel Hos-pital, she was given anaesthesia. Doctors at the hospital informed

the relatives that Ash-wini succumbed to her injuries due to exces-sive bleeding. Follow-ing which the relatives stormed Patel Hospital

on Sunday evening and vandalized the hospital, alleging that Ashwini had died due to im-proper treatment at the hospital.

After this incident,

the management of Pa-tel Hospital registered a case at Panvel city po-lice station against the accused for vandalising the hospital premises.

By Ryhea george

The sanitation officers of the Navi Mumbai

Municipal Corporation (NMMC) are gearing up for the monsoon and are undertaking pre-monsoon work. From Belapur to Digha each and every node is getting checked by the officers.

Chief Sanitation offi-cer, Rajendra Sonawane said, “Since the past few weeks, we have been checking the city drainage. As monsoon

can start anytime in May we are ensuring that none of these gutters

or manholes have any chance of overflowing or water clogging which will pose trouble for the citizens. As most of

the heads of the cor-poration are busy with the increasing cases of

the Covid-19 positive patients, we are making sure that no other issues are found in future espe-cially with sanitation.”

Rendering Help in times of need Patient’s kin vandalize Patel Hospital in Panvel

NMMC sanitation officers check gutters and manholes ahead of monsoon

Young Navi Mumbaikars develop app for Covid assistance

By Crime Reporter

Vashi police have registered a case

of fraud against Na-lin Shah, a well-known builder from Navi Mum-bai, and his associates for cheating four retired naval officers by offering them 20 per cent interest on their investments and extorting Rs 1 crore 8 lakh from them.

The complainant in the case, Shailendranath Sikdar, 65, retired from the Indian Navy in 2009 wanted to invest his money with better returns. Shailendranath and his associates met Nalin Shah, head of Shah Group Builders, at a property exhibi-tion held at Sanpada in December 2010. Nalin Shah suggested to the retired naval officers to invest money in his ven-

ture. He also promised to pay interest at the rate of 20 per cent per annum on the amount invested. Shailendranath and his colleagues visited Shah's office in Vashi and ex-pressed their readiness to invest the money with him.

Shailendranath in-vested Rs 18 lakh, while his colleagues Kalachand Das, Balaram Nandi and Pradyut Tarafdar invest-ed Rs 10 lakh, Rs 75 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respec-tively. The retired naval officer insisted on a pa-perwork agreement with Nalin Shah. However, Shah gave them only receipts for accepting the money without any paperwork agreement. After that, Shah initially paid Shailendranath Rs 2 lakh 44 thousand as interest. But gradually

Shah stopped paying interest. Shailendranath and his associates then started demanding Shah to either pay interest or return the amount they had invested.

However, citing vari-ous reasons, Shah and his associates stopped attending phone calls. Hoping to get back mon-ey, Shailendranath did not lodge a complaint against Shah. However, even after following up from time to time, when he did not receive the money, Shailendranath reached Vashi police sta-tion and lodged a com-plaint. According to the police, Nalin Shah, head of Shah Group Builders, Nilam Shah, Nirav Shah and Rahul Masne, di-rectors of his company, have been booked for treason.

Builder Nalin Shah and four others charged for cheating retired naval officers

Fraud of Rs 1 crore 8 lakhs revealed