CM8217;s Sunday service

MUMBAI, September 23: On a Sunday morning if perchance you want to get in touch with Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, check out on...

MUMBAI, September 23: On a Sunday morning if perchance you want to get in touch with Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, check out on a site which you think should have a flyover, and you might just be lucky. For the C M has decided to lay foundation stone for one flyover every Sunday morning, beginning October 5, in the city and the extended suburbs.

The successive governments over the years had planned 55 flyovers in the city and the suburbs. Work must start at the earliest8217;, is the spirit with which Joshi has reworked his engagement diary for Sundays for the month of October.

On the first Sunday the chief minister will lay a foundation stone on the Western Express highway, near Andheri. The following Sunday will see him at Konkan Bhavan, Navi Mumbai and the next at Vashi. The last is booked for the foundation stone of Chembur-Mankhurd flyover. He has urged for more foundation stones to be laid.

About the foundation stone ceremony for the Mumbai-Pune Express highway, Joshi said the stumbling block was the Union Government. fereAcirc;not;Utacirc;euro;ordm;hAAcirc;frac14;Ttacirc;euro;ordm;n a revolver and a pistol decides who is to get a gallantry award,8221; a bitter Thakur stated in his resignation letter. Thakur was promised a gallantry award and a reward of Rs 1 lakh for his act of bravery by the then police Commissioner Srikant Bapat.

On the night of September 12, Thakur was posted on guard duty alongwith a head constable and two constables in ward 18 of the JJ hospital where two notorious criminals, Sailesh Haldankar and Bipin Shere, were admitted. At 3.40 am, nearly six gunmen, heavily armed with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols, entered the ward and sprayed bullets killing Sailesh Haldankar and two constables on duty.

SI Thakur retaliated, firing six rounds from his .38 police revolver, injuring three gangsters, one of them seriously. It was these wounds caused to the gangsters that subsequently unravelled much of the case, bringing to fore the gangster-politician nexus which helped smuggle the injured gangsters out of the state.

The killing was allegedly arranged at the behest of Dawood Ibrahim as a retaliation for the killing of his brother-in-law Ibrahim Parkar.Thakur was hurt by the attitude of the administration when the gallantry award and Rs 1 lakh reward was truncated into a cash award of Rs 25,000 in 1994.