Corporators of Dadar oppose hawking zones After the traders and the hawkers union, it is the corporators who are up in arms against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's decision on forming hawking zones.Cutting across party lines, corporators from the G-North ward (Dadar) made their opposition clear last week when council member in charge of markets and garden Rajesh Sharma visited the ward to get the reaction of the local people on the implementation of the hawking zones. They also supported the people who had gathered in large numbers to oppose the formation of hawking zones near their homes.All the 13 corporators including eight from the Shiv Sena were together in their opposition, arguing that the hawkers' plaza should be able to accommodate all hawkers and there was no need for additional hawking zones. The work on the construction of plaza has already started and it is likely to be completed in a year's time.Sena corporator Ganesh Mahale told Express Newsline that theBMC should allow the hawkers to carry on their business till the work on the plaza is complete. According to him, they should be shifted directly to the plaza instead of the zones first and then the plaza. He feared, ``Once, the zones are vacated by the hawkers, they will be taken over by another set of hawkers and the whole purpose of the plaza will be defeated.''Sharma admitted that the corporators had opposed the zones but quickly added that he would convince them to have the zones. He added that the BMC was acting on the directions of the Supreme Court and like the other wards, the hawking zones will also be formed in Dadar. Mayor Nandu Satam, who has also received complaints from the corporators on the hawking zones, said``Majority of the corporators are supporting the civic plans on setting up hawking zones and regarding the 10 per cent who are against, we will try to find why are they opposing it.''Advani endorses deportation Union Home Minister L K Advani stated that theMaharashtra government has every right to deport foreigners who do not possess a valid passport. He was speaking to reporters on his first visit to Mumbai after taking over as the union cabinet minister.``The state government was bold enough to take the decision and had adopted a pragmatic approach towards the problem of illegal foreign residents,'' he said when asked if he endorsed the policy of deporting alleged Bangladeshi nationals. ``I find nothing wrong with this. Moreover, the delegation of MPs which later visited Mumbai did not object to the state government's modus operandi.'' When asked if the state government had deliberately decided to deport since majority of the Bangladeshis were Muslims, Advani said, ``An illegal stay in the country is wrong, whether by a Hindu or Muslim. I am happy that the government was not guided by pseudo-secularist considerations. '' Advani refused to comment when asked if the state government rejected the Justice Srikrishna report on the ground that it was`anti-Hindu'.New laws for aged must: experts Medical and legal experts called for a new legislation on care of the aged in India.On the concluding day of the two-day seminar on the `Ageing Brain' today, it was suggested that the Rs 500 ceiling on parental maintenance should be removed while allowing medical allowance to the aged. Senior Advocate P R Vakil said that the provisions available under the Hindu Adoption & Maintenance Act should be extended to all communities. ``Though law by itself will not be of much use to bring relief to the deserted parents, yet an effort should be made in that direction,'' he added. The first steps to chalk out the details of a legislation regarding the legal and medical aspects of the care of those affected with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia were discussed at the seminar.
