Kandivli school’s noon schedule upsets parents

MUMBAI: Thakur Public School's decision to change the hours for its primary section from the coming academic year seems to have upset the parents, more than 100 of whom converged on the campus on Thursday to express their dissent. According to a directive issued by the Kandivli institute on January 29, the school will start at 11am instead of 7.45am and end at 5pm instead of 2.45pm.

The parents are opposed to the afternoon session as that would disturb their schedule. "On their way to work, many drop their kids to school and ask the domestic help to pick them up in the afternoon. If the schedule changes, working parents will have to depend on the help for both times," said a parent. Collecting signatures, guardians hope the school would consider their request. "We have time to discuss and the school is ready to address our issues," said a parent.

The circular also declared the school's plan to shorten the timings for the primary section from seven to six hours. Signed by principal Reetu Duggal, the circular had 10 points, including helping students with more sleep, exclusive buses for the kids, possibility of eating home food for lunch and more activities for the kids. Duggal could not be reached.

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EX-MD of Birla firm held in cheating case

MUMBAI: The economic offences wing on Thursday arrested PVR Murthy, former managing director of Birla Power Solutions Pvt Ltd, for his alleged role in a cheating case registered against several directors of the company.

The Marine Drive police on December 30, 2013, registered a case against Birla Power Solutions for allegedly duping a Worli businessman, Bhavin Seth, of Rs 1 crore by not repaying his FD investment on maturity.

Additional commissioner of police Rajvardhan Sinha confirmed Murthy was arrested late on Thursday. "Illegal transfer of funds from Birla Solutions to other companies took place when Murthy was the chief financial officer. He was mainly responsible for the transfer," said Sinha.

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From 2015-16, schools in Maharashtra need to admit RTE students first

PUNE: The admission process in 2015-16 for 25% reserved category under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, will be conducted first followed by admissions to the remaining seats, education commissioner S Chokallingam said.

As for the 2014-15 academic year, schools have been conducting the process for 75% seats from October 2013. The state education directorate has stated that admissions for 25% reserved seats would be held two months before schools open in June.

"The schedule for the admission process for RTE seats would be announced soon. Schools will have to follow the schedule for applications, submissions, lists and the final allotment," Mahavir Mane, state director of education (primary) said. Many students who are eligible for 25% reserved seats have secured admissions fearing they may lose out on a year if they do not apply in the desired schools.

Sonali Kunjir, RTE activist said several parents have admitted their wards to schools as soon as the admissions opened. "They feared that the 25% admission process later may not help. However, despite taking admission, parents have said they will apply under 25% reserved seats and if they get admission under this category, they will withdraw the earlier application," she added.

Chokallingam said they had chalked out a well-thought out plan for 2015-16 admission. "We will be announcing a schedule for both 25% reserved and 75% open seats at the beginning of the academic year. All schools under the RTE Act, irrespective of their boards, will have to follow this schedule. By conducting 25% admissions earlier, we will ensure that maximum students eligible under this category benefit," he said.

The state directorate of education has also decided on an online and centralized admission process for the 25% reserved seats. The website to carry out the procedure is under construction and the schedule dates will be declared soon.

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BMC to kickstart Marine Drive resurfacing project today

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to begin the resurfacing of the iconic Marine Drive on Friday night.

Crack-mapping will be done on parts of the existing Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Road. The civic body will first fix the cracks on the surface of the road. The BMC will start the resurfacing work from Tambe Chowk to Princess Street to minimize traffic disruptions. Work on the central part of the road will be done during daytime.

This is the second time since 1939 that the five-km stretch of Marine Drive will be resurfaced.

"There are vertical cracks on Marine Drive. It was first resurfaced in 1939. It has been extensively repaired several times and a lot of patchwork has also been done. Previous resurfacing has outlived its capacity. Now, cracks will be mapped, filled and then actual work of relaying of road will begin," said S V R Srinivas, additional municipal commissioner.

In between the cracks, geo-synthetic mesh will be placed that will be covered with a layer of bitumen. "We are also planning to take central two bays along the median of Marine Drive. Most of our work will be done during night time but work on the central portion of the road will be done during daytime," Srinivas said.

As per the plan, 70% of the stretch from Girgaum Chowpatty to Madame Cama Road will be resurfaced with mastic asphalt, while the rest will be concretized. This is expected to increase the road's lifespan by five to seven years.

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Siblings can’t identify teacher who locked them up in storeroom

MUMBAI: A day after a girl and her brother claimed they were locked up in their school's storeroom for almost three hours as punishment, the children on Thursday failed to identify the female teacher who they alleged had confined them. The police have also found several holes in the kids' version. Their father, however, maintained the siblings were indeed locked up, but relented that the woman might have been a parent.

"An identification parade was held for all our teachers on Thursday. But the children could not point out who had locked them up. I'm certain they were never confined at all," said principal of the secondary section P K Tiwari.

Students of classes VIII and V in the Hindi-medium section of Sheth Nihalchand Laloochand High School in Malad, Ritu Singh (14) and her brother Ganesh (11) live in the vicinity with their parents. Their father, Anil, is an electrician with the defence forces at INS Hamla.

According to the siblings, Ritu was skipping in the school ground during the recess on Wednesday when a schoolmate got hurt from the rope. He apparently complained to a female teacher from the Gujarati-medium section and she allegedly asked Ritu and Ganesh to fetch their bags from their class. Around 3.15pm, she confined the two to a classroom, used for storage, and then forgot about them, the children said. "Ritu said after a long time, through the crack of the door, she spotted PT teacher Sujeet Surve pass by and raised an alarm. She said Surve let them out around 6.15pm. But Surve has refuted it," said investigating officer Vinod Patil. "Moreover, the storeroom keys are kept with principal Tiwari, and he was the last to leave at 6.10pm."

The siblings claimed the teacher wore a pair of jeans, but only formal clothes are allowed for staffers. CCTVs on the ground also did not capture anything.

Tiwari said the children could have cooked up the story. "I learnt around 4pm on Wednesday that Ganesh was not in his class and his teacher called up his father about it. Later, I learnt that Ritu was also absent and assumed that the two might have left together. The two possibly made up the story to evade a scolding by their parents for missing class," he said.

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Nation’s first monorail to zip through skies in Mumbai on Sunday

MUMBAI: Sunday will change the way Mumbaikars commute. The country's first monorail will roll out of Wadala for an 8.8-km run till Chembur. With its air-conditioned coaches, access to which will be through smart-card tickets, lifts and escalators at overhead stations, it promises to change the way Mumbaikars travel. A month later, a Metro train will hit the tracks between Versova and Ghatkopar. Work on the Metro began earlier than on the mono, but it is also a more elaborate project.

The inauguration of the monorail will be on Saturday by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan at an event in Chembur. "Initially, the service will be operational between 7am and 3pm. The frequency of the trains and the number of coaches will be increased gradually, depending on demand," said MMRDA commissioner UPS Madan.

The monorail will be extended to a 20-km corridor, with work on the remaining stretch—Wadala to Jacob Circle—expected to be completed by March 2015. The Phase I stretch has seven stations, with fares ranging between Rs 5 and Rs 11. "A person will be able to travel by mono by buying tokens or smart cards at every station," Madan said.

Mumbaikars are also awaiting the launch of the Metro. Work on the first phase—Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar stretch—began in February 2008. "Trials are underway, after which approval of the commissioner of metro rail safety (CMRS) will be sought," said a senior MMRDA official.

The project has missed several deadlines, but authorities maintain that the delay is on account of an absence of right of way and the wait for the CMRS's clearance. The Metro passes from above railway tracks in Andheri.

An MMRDA official said there can be no comparison between the Metro and mono projects. While the Metro is a mass rapid transit system (MRTS), the mono is a light rapid transport system (LRTS). Also, the mono has been built on a relatively less congested stretch, while the Metro has been constructed on one of the busiest stretches of Mumbai. Also, the Phase I mono does not pass above railway tracks, unlike the Metro.

Additional metropolitan commissioner Ashwini Bhide said efforts have been taken to ensure bus connectivity with every station through feeder routes. Auto and taxi stands, too, will be provided.

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RTO’s online licensing system drives out touts; new issuance drops 62%

MUMBAI: Before the new transparent online system of issuing driving licences was launched , the city seemed to have been overrun with illegal motor vehicle schools and unscrupulous agents who did not think twice about forging documents to procure licences for candidates in exchange for money.

But realizing the criminal impact corruption had on society—people with zero knowledge of driving or traffic rules hold driving licences, putting citizens' lives at risk—the regional transport office launched a crackdown on illegal schools and started a new licensing system that completely bypasses agents and touts. The RTOs' drives seemed to have yielded results with 200 unauthorized driving schools in the western suburbs being shut down in two years. Now, the stretch has only 150 schools, and even the number for new driving licences being issued annually has dropped from 4 lakh to 1.5 lakh.

"We have repeatedly exposed a racket at driving schools. Agents would forge seals and signatures of RTO inspectors. During the application for a driving licence, they would submit papers with the forged signatures and seals to get the clearance of fake documents, such as a candidate's residence proof and education certificate. After our crackdown and the new licensing system, agents are not required and there has been a decline in such applications," a senior RTO official said.

Now, the dishonest practices might have been cut down on but not quite rooted out. One such case was detected on Tuesday . "In the learner's licence section , the applicant bypassed the first stage of getting documents verified and went to pay the licence fee. That is where he was caught," an official said. An FIR was lodged against the manager of the driving school, who officials said, sent the applicant with papers bearing bogus seal and fake signature. Andheri RTO chief P G Bhalerao said staffers now also scrutinize the papers at different levels, throwing out applications that do not confirm to the rules ; it has brought down the number of licences being issued. The RTO's drive against illegal schools is still on. "Driving schools operated out of paan shops and travel agencies. We have shut them and our drive is still on," an official said.

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Malad schoolteacher locks 2 girls in class, forgets to let them out

MUMBAI: A teacher from a Malad school locked two girls inside a classroom as punishment on Wednesday and forgot to let them out, even after the school hours.

The girls, aged 13 and 9, were locked in around 3 pm during their physical education period.

The school shut around 5.45pm. The girls, who were locked in, kept banging the door to draw the attention of their PT teacher, who finally let them out around 6.15pm.

The girls' parents approached the Malad police station to file a complaint against the school authorities late at night. The police were recording their statements at the time of going to the press.

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Mumbai granny recalls shots that killed Gandhi

MUMBAI: A Mumbai grandmother recalls the sound of Nathuram Godse's bullets 66 years ago to a day. The daughter of an Indian civil servant who once served Pandit Nehru, Indira Patel grew up in a sprawling bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi. Her father's home on Janpath was a stone's throw away from Birla House, the spot where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated.

Aged four-and-a-quarter, Patel was playing in the garden around the bungalow when Gandhi was gunned down. The first thing she recalls after the sound of gunshots was the sudden flutter of birds as they rose to the sky in fear.

Though Patel was too young to understand what was going on, she remembers the chaos and confusion outside her house the evening Gandhi was killed. There was much commotion in her driveway, and a mad scramble on the road outside. She couldn't see her father around at the time and remembers being pulled into the house by her mother.

Much of that day was a blur. The next thing Patel knew (on what must presumably have been the following day), a man in uniform picked her and put her onto an army truck as Gandhi's funeral procession passed by her house, giving her a ringside view of one of the darkest moments of Indian history. Pandemonium is the word she uses to describe the scene at the time

This is the first time she has shared her story with the media. Gandhi's assassination remains a traumatic childhood memory for her, one that marked Patel's first encounter with death. "This was the first incident in my life where I was witness to such utter chaos. It was very traumatic for me. I knew that somebody had died and a funeral procession was going past my house. My father had the habit of explaining things to me at an early age, so I knew who Gandhi was," says Patel.

Looking back, she can now see just how intricately her childhood was bound to the early years of India's Independence. Saturday afternoons, for instance, were spent playing in Jawaharlal Nehru's house. As principal private secretary to the first Prime Minister, her father, HVR Iengar, was called to work on Saturdays, but protested as that was the day he promised he'd spend with his daughter. Nehru, known for his love of children, asked Iengar to bring his little girl along. Patel recalls Nehru picking her up, propping her on the banister at the top of the stairs in his house and watching her slide down at full speed.

Many years later, as an adult, Patel understood the significance of Nehru and Gandhi for India, something she was a tad too small to know when, at the age of four, she saw a funeral procession pass by her door.

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Rooftop travellers hold up Western Railway train for 20 minutes

MUMBAI: Two rooftop travellers held up a Western Railway local for 20 minutes and delayed other services on Wednesday morning, as they refused to come down despite authorities pleading with them. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) had to act with caution to ensure the duo didn't end up singing themselves. The two men were nabbed after a chase and penalized.

The duo, Lalji Gautam, 20, and Ajit Pandey, 23, were seated on the rooftop of an Up local illegally. When the train arrived at Borivali station around 9.25 am, someone reported them to the railway authorities. The train was detained while uniformed RPF personnel walked up to the compartment over which the duo was seated.

The RPF pleaded with Gautam and Pandey, even roping in other travellers to convince them to get down. A large crowd soon gathered at the spot. "We can't be too pushy in these cases as the crowd might just turn against the man in uniform," a source from the RPF said.

"As it was morning peak hour, the situation was growing chaotic. On noticing that the fast line on platform 5 was held up due to the rooftop travellers, office-goers started rushing towards the slow line on platforms 2 and 3. The narrow foot overbridges were teeming with people. Women commuters had a tough time as they were pushed around. People were shouting because everyone was getting late," said a media professional who witnessed the goings-on.

Witnesses said the RPF was preparing to climb onto the rooftop, when Gautam and Pandey finally began to descend. They tried to run but the RPF gave chase and nabbed the duo. They were booked under section 156 of the Railway Act and penalized Rs 500 each.

"Six trains were delayed due to the rooftop travellers' antics. On an average, trains were delayed by 10 minutes," said a WR spokesperson.

While Gautam is a Kandivali East resident, Pandey stays at Mira Road.

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