Mumbai citizens “humbly request” Anna to hold his fast on the outskirts of Mumbai

Several prominent citizens of Mumbai under the banner of the Citizens Action Forum have ‘humbly reqested’ Anna Hazare to hold his fast and protest on the outskirts of Mumbai instead of the MMRDA grounds at Bandra or the Azad Maidan in southern Mumbai city.

Flynn Remedios, spokesperson for the Citizens Action Forum said, “Mumbai is already congested and most Mumbaikars find it very difficult to reach their place of work on time. The local train network is already choc-a-bloc and lakhs of commuters who come in from as far as Virar and Ambernath on the Central and Western Railway lines are packed like sardines during the peak hours.  If thousands of people gather at the Bandra Kurla grounds or even Azad Maidan for the protest, the local train network will snap. Mumbaikars – who fully support Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement – will be greatly inconvenienced and this could also hamper the protest as the Government may find it an excuse to put restrictions on Anna’s campaign. There will be a law and order problem, besides drinking water and sanitation requirements are not available at both the venues. We request Anna to reconsider his decision to hold the protest and fast in Mumbai and instead move the venue to the outskirts of Mumbai or some other adjacent place. Since Mumbai is high on the list of terrorists, a large number of people gathering at one venue adds to the security threat to the city.”

BMC Elections 2012: MP Milind Deora’s official website has no contact details

Youth leader very difficult to reach, say many.

By Flynn Remedios – MumbaiWire.in

Dynamic Minister of State for Communications and IT, youth leader and South Mumbai MP Milind Deora’s official website at milinddeora dot com does not have any contact details or office address. MumbaiWire.in tried contacting Milind Deora for an interview regarding the forthcoming BMC elections in Mumbai but in spite of three days of effort trying to track Milind Deora we were unable to reach him. We understand that as MoS for Communications and IT, Mr Deora is very busy meeting the likes of Mukesh Ambani and others, but we wish Mr Deora had mentioned at least an email id on his website which we could communicate with him on. Even the Youth Forum option on the website does not work, unless one is logged into Facebook.

Comparatively, older and senior Congress leaders were more ‘reachable’ than the younger lot, MumbaiWire.in has found out in its pre-poll research.

MumbaiWire Ms & Mrs Mumbai to be held on Dec 23

The glamour event MumbaiWire Ms & Mrs Mumbai beauty pageant and fashion show will be held at a 5-star hotel at Goregaon on the 23^rd December and will be graced by the who’s-who of the fashion and film industry in Mumbai. Announcing this event, Flynn Remedios of MumbaiWire said, “We have been associated with the Miss Mumbai event for the last 20 years, which was originally started by media baron Nari Hira of the Magna group. It used to be sponsored by Island magazine – where I worked and have very fond memories of – and we wanted to revive the glamour event. This year we will have two categories one for married and one for unmarried contestants. The age range for the unmarried category is 17-27 years while that for the married category is 18-38 years.” The glamour event is being organised by http://www.MumbaiWire.in, a news blog and portal for and by Mumbaikars with an eye on the BMC Elections 2012.

Sources said that top Bollywood actors and former actors including Sonali Bendre, Bipasha Basu and Madhuri Dixit have been approached to grace and judge the beauty pageant.  Elaborating on the event, Flynn Remedios said, “Since the BMC elections are scheduled to be held in February 2012 and Mumbai has 227 wards, we will request each of the 227 wards to send two contestants – one in each category for the event.”

Fashion designer and stylist Umair Zafar is the official stylist for the event. More details will be released shortly, said Remedios adding that the entire event will be filmed and telecast on a TV channel at a later date. A Reality Show wherein the 20 finalists will be “jailed” together will also be part of the event.

MumbaiWire.in report finds MP Gurudas Kamat most “people friendly”

Online Media to play a major role in forthcoming BMC elections 2012

By Frank Franklyn – MumbaiWire.in

Member of Parliament from the Mumbai North West constituency Gurudas Kamat is one of the most “people friendly, proactive and approachable” politicians, a MumbaiWire poll has revealed. Surprisingly and contrary to expectations, the newer and younger lot of politicians does not fare well in the MumbaiWire poll. “Younger politicians are not as approachable and proactive as may be expected. Probably, they lack the farsightedness of a seasoned politician and leader like Gurudas Kamat,” said Flynn Remedios of MumbaiWire.  As part of its special citizen awareness initiatives for the forthcoming BMC Elections 2012, MumbaiWire announced that it will present a “Report Card” on each MP, MLA and Corporator in Mumbai.

“We are working with about 20 NGOs and other Civic Action Groups and have over 2000 activist-volunteers who are helping us in this exercise. These 2000 volunteers who are from different wards in Mumbai and cover the entire gamut of 227 seats will report their findings to our central “Evaluation Committee” which will then prepare a “Report Card” on each person.

This election, online media and social viral networking will play a major role and social networking sites like Facebook will be extensively used to reach out to younger voters, explains Remedios, stating that SMS messaging has already been used in the past with candidates shooting out lakhs of messages to voters in the earlier elections. Sadly most corporators and MLAs do not have their own websites and whatever data is available on their work is only on sites run by NGOs. Corporators should focus on online media and put updates of their work online. Given the fact that mobile internet is very cheap in Mumbai with special schemes offering unlimited mobile internet access for as little as Rs 50 a month, candidates should go online, and create micro sites for their constituency. It is very easy and simple to create a micro site or a simple blog-driven website that can be used to highlight the work done by a sitting corporator. Unfortunately, politicians prefer to put up big (and illegal) hoardings in their constituencies with their mugs glaring at viewers but will not spend some money on online media,” laments Remedios.

MumbaiWire will host micro updates from local Mumbai corporators on its Facebook page and Twitter accounts to keep Mumbaikars updated of the work done by their corporators. It will also similarly report on citizens complaints of promises unfulfilled and false commitments made by corporate on its news blog to give citizens a crystal clear picture of each corporators performance.

BMC Elections 2012: BMC to buy its way into LBS road-widening

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has finally cleared the decks for widening the congested LBS Marg, that stretches from Sion to Mulund, by deciding to buy out at ready reckoner rates the over 100-year-old structures.

The LBS Road or the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg is the biggest and the most congested road stretch in the eastern suburb with many a structure limiting the road’s width to a mere 60ft-90ft. In fact, these structures had been posing as the main hurdle in the road’s widening. However, the civic body, which aims to increase the road’s width to 120 ft, could not begin work as the structure owners were reluctant to shift to areas offered by the BMC.

According to the BMC, there are over 1,200 structures that need to be removed. Many of the authorized structures are over 100 years old and the BMC must rehabilitate all. In face of stiff opposition by structure owners, the BMC has now made a provision of Rs300 crore for the structure owners in lieu of their structure space. “While 80% of structures are commercial, the rest are residential and the BMC doesn’t have that much alternative houses or shops to rehabilitate the occupants,” said a senior civic official.

“The procedure of buying out the owners will begin under the state policy of 1995 that concerns land acquisition for road-widening purposes,” said another official.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had abandoned the project after eight years and in 2008, they handed over the road to the BMC for maintenance. Also, the MMRDA had surveyed the structures and submitted a report to the BMC, which the latter rejected, saying “it did not match the records”.

Source: DNA

Jigna Vora is a split personality – a Jekyll and Hyde case says Flynn Remedios

 

Senior crime reporter Jigna Vora who was arrested recently by the Mumbai Crime Branch is a split personality, said a former colleage and senior journalist Flynn Remedios who was Jigna Vora’s colleague and senior at the Free Press Journal. “She is stupid at times and can be slightly revengeful but with due respect to her she is not a murderer. The Mumbai Crime Branch’s charges that she fed information to Chotta Rajan could be partly true, but I don’t think Jigna Vora had murder in mind. She must have done it to ensure that Rajan didn’t speak to J Dey in future or didn’t share information and news with him. But I wonder why she would send photographs of Dey’s motorbike to Rajan?”

Speaking about his former colleague, Flynn Remedios who is currently working on a book on Bollywood’s nexus with the Underworld says, “When we worked together in 2006 at the Free Press Journal, Jigna was a trainee. Yet she tried to “compete” with people many years her senior and would vie for a front page byline. And to do it she came up with sensational stories about extradited gangster Abu Salem and Monica Bedi. I remember one such story where she wrote that Abu Salem tried to send flowers to Monica Bedi on her birthday. It was something that could not be substantiated and there was no way for anyone to verify that. Maybe her “split personality” is due to the stress she has faced in her personal life. She is a single mother and I was one of the very few journalists who must have had the opportunity to visit her at her home. She was very ambitious and would go to any extent to get a front page byline. Jigna has gone through a lot of stress and turmoil in her personal life and nurses a deep instinct to excel, to be the best and to get way ahead of others much senior to her. Probably this was her motive and maybe she wanted to get some exclusive stories from Rajan by “bartering” some information on another journalist. Maybe she was used by Rajan or maybe there was some miscommunication. But I am sure Jigna Vora never had any intention of causing any sort of physical harm to anyone. She must have wanted Rajan to sever links and friendly ties with Dey. She probably wanted to get closer into Rajan’s inner circle. And that precisely turned out to be her Waterloo. She didn’t anticipate to what extent an underworld and insecure don like Rajan would go to when fed with negative information on someone whom he considered to be his friend. Jigna initially was a good friend but we kind of drifted apart when she ‘tried to compete’ with me,” says Remedios.

Flynn Remedios who has covered politics, business and crime in Mumbai for almost two decades will release his book titled Bollywood romances the Underworld in January of next year.