Mumbai Underground: ‘Space’ mission

'We are hoping that MHADA will relent if the state government pushes its case a bit further.'

mumbai underground, Housing Regulatory Authority and Tribunal, MHADA, GT Hospital, Devendra Fadnavis, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Shiv Sena, CVV, NDPS

Around 1,000 school children dressed up as ‘trees’ participate in a rally to spread awareness on ‘Save Environment’ at CST on Sunday. (Source: Express Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

For the past six months, in an irony befitting Mumbai’s unaffordable property market, the state housing department has been on a futile hunt for space to set up the Housing Regulatory Authority and Tribunal, the state-level apex real estate regulatory body. With the lower floors of the Mantralaya building under renovation, the housing department itself has been shifted to the GT Hospital premises for several months now and has been in talks with various state and private agencies for an affordable 2,000 sq ft space to lodge the regulator. Finally, at their wits’ end and unable to meet the demand for high rentals from every quarter, the department decided to make the best of space available at their in-house Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (MHADA) premises in Bandra. However, even MHADA, the only agency that provides affordable spaces for beleaguered home-buyers, has now demanded rent that’s a tad too steep. “We are hoping that MHADA will relent if the state government pushes its case a bit further else our search will have to start all over again,” said a flustered state government official.

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On ‘record’
This Holi, don’t be too surprised if Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis calls you and introduces himself. Officials of the state pollution control board assure it is not a prank, but a recorded message of Fadnavis meant to be broadcast to all mobile phone users in the state, wishing them a safe and green Holi. Earlier, the board had roped in former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to record a ‘safe and green’ Diwali message in a similar fashion. Interestingly, officials say, a former chairman of the board, despite knowing about the recorded message, assumed that it was an actual call from the Chief Minister. “He actually stood up when Chavan introduced himself on the phone and tried in vain for about ten seconds to ‘respond.’ It took him a while to realize that it was not the chief minister calling, but a message recorded in his voice by the very organization he heads to broadcast to the general public, wishing them a safe Diwali,” an official said.

‘Queen’ of all dreams
Long speeches are common to most politicians but last week, Shiv Sena corporator Avkash Jadhav went a step further. Raising a notice of motion on the floor of the house in the civic body, he launched into what appeared to be a fable. “I had a dream just a day before the meeting,” he said. “The city’s queen told me that her necklace has been stolen,” he added. The corporator was referring to a recent initiative of the Bharatiya Janata Party of changing all street-lighting on the Marine Drive promenade to LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). The Shiv Sena has strongly opposed this, saying it has stolen the heritage precinct’s charm. Like in every fable, Jadhav also ended his narrative with a ‘moral of the story’. “The BMC should not create a situation where the queen complains of her stolen necklace again,” he finished.

Light in the end…
In the evenings, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus looks spectacular decked in an array of lights with tourists going to the station especially to see the illuminated structure and passersby stopping for photographs. However, state government officials say that to get even a simple thing like a key heritage structure of the city illuminated, they had to go through an intense bureaucratic rigmarole. “It took a long time for the Centre to first approve the project and sanction funds for it. Then when the finances were sanctioned, the Central Railway, custodian of the structure, sat on the project for nearly two years,” an official said. After some problems with tendering for a contractor, the Central Railway returned the funds to the Union government, he said, adding that to revive the project it took another six months and two visits by the Maharashtra chief secretary to Delhi.

Home affairs
It is uncommon for families of police personnel to become victims of the crimes they fight, on a daily basis. But given such a situation, it is even rarer to find a cop who chooses to let it go. A case in point is an inspector posted in south Mumbai after his wife fell prey to a banking fraud. The woman received a call from an unidentified person claiming to represent a nationalised bank. After the caller verified her account credentials, he tricked her into revealing the Card Verification Value (CVV) number on her debit card. Almost instantly, about Rs 7,000 was siphoned off from her account before she could block it. However, instead of registering an FIR, the policeman chose to let it go, choosing to use this opportunity to teach his wife the advantages of being more careful. “I am glad there wasn’t much money in that account. Even though we lost a little money, I hope it has come at the cost of my wife getting some sense,” the cop laughed.

Mephedrone ‘mania’
Seven months after a request from the Mumbai Police, the Centre recently banned the substance mephedrone and listed it as a psychotropic substance under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985. This has led to a competition among police stations across the city to be the first to arrest mephedrone users or peddlers. So, a week after the notification banning the substance, it’s still unclear which police station or officer beat the others. Over the past two days, messages from various policemen have landed in journalists’ phones, all vying to be the ‘first to arrest and bust mephedrone rackets’ in the city.

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