Maharashtra government's Mangrove Cell will begin an eviction drive of some 1,000 houses from October allegedly encroaching notified mangrove area in Mumbai."The Cell, being an authorised body, can initiate action of demolishing the encroachment on mangrove area. We are waiting for September to get over as monsoon season is going on. The eviction is not initiated on humanitarian grounds," Chief Conservator of Forest, N Vasudevan told PTI.
"The Cell had already identified 4,000 such houses which have encroached the area. It had initiated action and these houses and constructions have been razed. We will start the next course of action from October," he said.
The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms came into effect in 1991 mandating restoration of the mangroves to pre-1991 status.
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*Mumbai rains. Pic/Twitter user*
On the Western Express Highway south bound traffic was moving very slowly right from Kandivli till Kalanagar till 2 pm in the afternoon.
While cars moved at a snail's pace, till Bandra, the route between Kandivali to Andheri and Santacruz airport to Bandra on the highway was affected till 4pm.
Motorists who avoided WEH by taking the Link Road on the western suburbs also had to struggle as it was congested too, including all the short-cuts.
The situation on SCLR also reported slow movement. Water logging affected many parts of Ghatkopar especially near PVR, Kurla. There was bumper-to bumper traffic near Sion on the Eastern Wxpress Highway.
Congested traffic near Lalbaug Flyover, Sion Flyover, Vashi Panvel Highway, BKC, along with potholes on the WEH and EEH added to the woes of commuters.
@RidlrMUM #traffucked bumper 2 bumper traffic from ghatkopar signal s/b till chedanagar flyover. 30 min for 1.5kmð pic.twitter.com/lGibP9RkIP
— $N€H@.. (@SnehaBodas) September 20, 2016
Bumper to bumper traffic on eastern express highway towards sion....@RidlrMUM @smart_mumbaikar pic.twitter.com/zfDtfJZuOF
— ashwini singh (@ashwinisingh123) September 20, 2016
@RidlrMUM @mumbaitraffic @mumbairoads Manhole kept opened in Andheri (e).Water logged outside P&G office.heavy trffc pic.twitter.com/jfpbDcUU3t
— Suheil Merchant (@suheil_merchant) September 20, 2016
@RidlrMUM water logging Akruli rd kandivli east #workers on job pic.twitter.com/abMH88M69U
— RAJESH ASHAR (@rajeshashar) September 20, 2016
Yup. Pouring. WEH packed. Going to be a long tiring drive home @RidlrMUM #mumbairains #traffic pic.twitter.com/H0hMfYHex1
— sharon (@sharonpicardo) September 20, 2016
@TrafflineMUM @RidlrMUM @powaiinfo @h_communities do we need underpass or flyovers in #powai RT with Yes or No pic.twitter.com/0IqxMqMWjN
— Sitz (@sitanshu1976) September 20, 2016
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A so-called engineering marvel, constructed by the Western Railway, to allow for seamless movement of autorickshaws and commuters at the Andheri East station, has done nothing, but burnt a R10 crore-hole in the Railways’ pocket.
The elevated deck, which directly connects the foot overbridges to the main road, was built in 2013 to enable commuters to flag autorickshaws right after alighting from trains. However, with the spot being used for everything else, except for the purpose it was meant for, WR authorities are now busy looking for alternatives to salvage the project.
After clearing illegal vendors and shops that had stationed themselves near the deck, the WR is now planning to set-up ATM machines, build a food plaza and arrange for a two-wheeler parking lot at the same spot.
"We will be setting up ATM machines and ticket booking office on this elevated auto deck," confirmed R Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway. Senior railway officials also said that there are plans to set up a food plaza on this elevated portion, which is being looked into by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
The fact that R10 crore, which was spent on the project, has been flushed down the drain is not lost on the Railways. "The deck has become a nightmare for us as far as its utilisation is concerned. We are fighting against encroachers namely the vendors and hawkers," said a WR official.
However, even as plans for parking of two-wheelers is being considered, the Railway Protection Force had mentioned their apprehensions about the parked vehicles being used by terror elements.
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pic.twitter.com/uE0p8c7MrY
— ANI (@ANI_news) September 20, 2016
Karnataka will have to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu from September 21 till September 27, the Supreme Court said today while raising the quantum the fixed by the Supervisory Committee by 3000 cusecs.
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There’s nothing like the fear of losing out to instil a sense of accountability. In the wake of heavy criticism over the state’s depleting green cover, the forest department has now come up with an ingenious idea to buck the trend: compel its own staff to plant more saplings. To ensure that its 28,000 employees do not shirk this responsibility, it has introduced a KRA (key result area) system to appraise their performance. Two of the KRAs deal exclusively with increasing the forest cover.
Even the one IAS officer and over 100 IFS officers on the department’s rolls will not be spared.
Appraisals determine the incentives — pay hikes, promotions and postings — that employees get.
Earlier, there was no fixed parameter for performance assessment. Staffers’ future prospects were entirely in their bosses’ hands, said a mid-rank official from the department. “Everything depended on how good the equations of an employee were with his/her seniors.” The target-specific assessment is expected to level the playing field.
A senior official with the department said employees will have to raise 13 crore seedlings by 2018, besides meeting 11 other criteria (see table).
The move, explained forest department secretary Vikas Kharge, is to increase the green cover, ensure effective wildlife management and tackle the effects of climate change.
The state’s forest cover is around 50,650 sq km (based on interpretation of satellite data from October-December 2006) — around 17 per cent of the total geographical area. “We want to increase it to 33 per cent [by 2018]. To achieve this goal, the department has linked the KRAs of its staff to the targets set by the government,” said Kharge.
Of the 50,650 sq km, around 8,740 sq km is covered with dense forests, 20,800 sq km with moderate forests and 21,000 sq km with open forests.
*Thumbs-up from activists*
Environmental activists laud the plan, but are wary of its implementation. Wildlife conservationist and photojournalist Kedar Bhide cautioned that its success would largely depend on how well the KRA system will be implemented. “Who will monitor or implement it? Regardless, from the point of preservation, it’s a good move,” he said.
Environmentalist Stalin D from NGO Vanashakti said the plan would also boost the morale of grassroots-level staff. “There is hardly any motivation for such forest department staff who are dedicated to preserving the wildlife and increasing the forest cover.”
He is worried that the KRA system might be misused to harass the junior staff. “Besides, there needs to be a proper system that verifies KRAs submitted by officials and approved by his/her seniors,” he suggested.
*Checks in place*
The system, said Kharge, will be foolproof. “The forest department will use geo-tagging technology to track any change in the green cover.”
He said employees’ performance assessment will be a three-tier system to ensure effective and authentic submissions and clearances of KRAs. “First, they will be reporting [by the staff]. Then, they will be a review of the KRAs. The final step will be confirmation (by the highest authority).”
In Kharge’s case, for instance, the IAS officer’s report will be prepared by the chief secretary, reviewed by the forest minister and finally approved by the chief minister, only if he finds his work satisfactory.
The KRA forms will be have to be filled by employees in April and submitted to the superiors for review and approval the next month.
Mantralaya officials claimed that the idea of linking KRAs with targets was the brainchild of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. In 2008, the then Congress-NCP-led DF government had introduced a forest policy to enhance the state’s green cover. But, despite spending over R6,000 crore in eight to nine years on implementing the policy, the results fell short of the expectations — in terms of creating a green fund, taking over private forest areas, notifying private forest and protected/reserved areas, public awareness drives, and monitoring the growth of saplings.
*6*
*No. of national parks in state*
*48*
*No. of sanctuaries*
*6*
*No. of tiger reserves*
KRA Target
Plantation of forest and non-forest areas 462.29 L seedlings 40,757 hectares
New villages to be adopted under Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Yojana
150
Proposals on eco-sensitive zones to be submitted 10
No. seedlings of to be raised for plantation in 2017 and 2018
13 crore
No. of villages to be rehabiliated from protected areas 4
(a) Sanction of notification to declare reserve forest 300 sq km
(b) Completion of enquiry and sanction of final notification 350 sq km
Tri-partite agreements with industrial houses and NGOs to increase green cover
5
Uploading of digitised maps on diverted forest area and compensatory afforestation
30
(a) Proposals on draft working plan report 12
(b) Preliminary working plan reports 10
(a) Digitisation of land records and uploading of notifications
3,800
(b) Validation of land database 20,000 sq km
Tree credit scheme to plant and protect trees on private land
Policy decision to be taken
Disposal of matters pertaining to legislature Not fixedMinisterSpeak*Sudhir Mungantiwar, Forest minister
*
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While the rest of the city's Ganesh idols were immersed on Anant Chaturdashi last week, Andhericha Raja, as per tradition, was immersed on Tuesday. The three-and-a-half kilometre stretch took 21 hours to reach Versova Gaon, where the visarjan takes place after a traditional aarti by fishermen.
Thousands of devotees lined the streets in and around Andheri on Sankashthi Chaturthi to bid farewell to their favourite god. “This year, the visarjan saw lakhs of devotees compared to last year. The visarjan yatra began after a pooja at 5.45pm on Monday evening at the mandal at Veera Desai Road in Andheri (West). We started off the visarjan yatra around 6.30pm and reached Versova Gaon by 1pm where Koli community performed a pooja. The Visarjan follows after that. The whole procession takes anywhere between 19 to 21 hours,” said Uday Salian, spokesperson for the Andhericha Raja Mandal.
The Andhericha Raja procession started from Azad Nagar and went through Azad Nagar, Veera Desai Road, Amboli and J P Road, S V Road, Andheri Market, Apna Bazar, Indian Oil Nagar Junction, Four Bungalows, Seven Bungalows before reaching Versova Gaon.
A devotee present at the visarjan yatra said, “I have been at the visarjan yatra since 6pm and we walked the whole night. We do this every year.”
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*Representational picture*
The 30-year-old lady works with a private company and was driving a Honda City when she collided with an Ola cab and a scooter. The Ola cab driver Shekhar Ramachandra, 35, and the scooterist Farhan Ahmed alleged that the woman was kissing another woman sitting next to her and did not stop or say sorry after the collision.
The cab driver then filed a police complaint. A case of rash and negligent driving has been registered against the woman.
The woman rubbished the claims stating that she was not kissing her co-passenger, but merely blowing air into her eye as her eye had irritation in it.
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A 26-year-old man was allegedly assaulted by the staff of a hukkah parlour in a mall in Nalasopara after his friends accidentally broke one of the hukkahs there. The police have registered a case of assault against the four staff members, and two were arrested on Monday.
According to the police, Jayesh Dharma Patil, a small-time transport businessman, who lives at Vasai East, had gone to Broadway Carnival Mall at Evershine area with his three friends Yogesh Dalvi, Ritesh Patil and Sanjay Kurde on Friday night.
The police said Patil and his friends had gone to the hukkah parlour on the second floor of the mall. While smoking the hukkah, Ritesh accidentally broke one of them. This led to an argument between him and the parlour staff. Things were eventually sorted out, but later one of the staffers again came and started arguing with Patil. Three more staff members joined him and a heated argument ensued.
Patil, in his FIR, stated, "One of the staffers punched me in the face and abused me. When we left the mall, the four even started assaulting me and my friends outside. One of them hit me with an iron rod on my back and hand.”
Locals and friends took Patil to the IASIS hospital. The police were informed and after recording Patil’s statement at the hospital, registered a case against the four unidentified men under sections of the Indian Penal Code.
On Monday morning, the police arrested two accused Sohan Negi and Vikrant Patil and are looking for the other two. Reported by Mid-Day 6 hours ago.