Now, citizens to fight illegal pubs with RTIs

Veda Ramaswamy, Mumbai,
July 2, 2012 - Mid Day

Members of Citizens for Better Mumbai urged residents to file RTIs in order to check legality of bars and pubs in their areas

Enough is enough: Local residents collected at Juhu under the Better Citizens for Mumbai banner demanding for illegal pubs and restaurants to shut down. Pic/nimesh dave

Angry and fed up of the noise and nuisance that goes with living near a lounge/pub, a group of residents have put their foot down this time and held a meeting asking residents to verify if pubs, restaurants and lounges in their areas were legal and had all the required licences by the using the Right to Information Act.

At a meeting held yesterday at Juhu, residents from Bandra to Goregaon collected under the name of Citizens for Better Mumbai — a forum spearheaded by film personality Ashok Pandit and others like Anandini Thakur — urged other citizens to take an active role in ensuring that pubs in their vicinities were legal.

During the course of the meeting, the members asked residents to file RTIs in order to identify which establishments had flouted rules and which ones were illegal.

Justifying their aim, Pandit said, “We have nothing against the pub culture but it is a nuisance for those who live nearby.”

He added that they had distributed pamphlets to all those who were present at the meet to show them how to use the RTI to their advantage.

Pandit told MiD DAY that once the RTIs were registered and they received the information on the restaurants, pubs and lounges, they intended to compile the information and send it to the local authorities and state government asking them to shut them down.

One such RTI was filed by Aftab Siddique of the 32 Khar Advanced Locality Management (ALM) complaining about Elbo Room, Hawaiian Shack and Firangi Paani in Bandra stating that they were disturbing the peace and order of the area.

“We are attempting to stop all violations by these places. There are several eateries that are illegal or have encroached on public property, said Siddique.

The members of Citizens for Better Mumbai also added that they wanted such eateries and pubs to be shifted to business areas so that locals would not be disturbed.

“We have been complaining for so long about the patrons of these clubs who make a racket outside the establishments and also throw bottles, glasses and sometimes even condoms polluting the area. This is our way of tackling the problem in a legal manner,” said one of the members.  

Link to the original article here.

Local NGOs teach disaster management

Veda Ramaswamy, Mumbai,
June 18, 2012 - Mid Day

With monsoons beginning in the city, local ALMs and NGOs have begun organising disaster management classes for citizens in the area. Kicking it off this Sunday was the AGNI K-East Joint Area Action Group (JAAG).

The class was conducted by Rajesh G Shirke, a certified health and safety auditor from the National Safety Council of India, specialising in damage control and advanced fire fighting.

In three hours, he covered topics like causes, prevention and control of fire. He also threw light on handling kitchen fires, LPG and pipe-gas leakages. He taught various survival and rescue techniques in case of fires and floods, first-aid for burn injuries, heart attacks, bleeding and CPR procedures. In the end, there were practical sessions conducted on how to operate fire extinguishers and douse live fires.

With the arrival of the monsoons, the probability of disaster striking has only increased. Shirke advises Mumbaikars to get their houses surveyed for leakages. “Once leakages are identified and dealt with, electrical fires can be averted,” he said.

Stressing on the philosophy that prevention is better than cure, he added, “Instead of fretting over the price of fire-alarm devices, people should install them. If you wouldn’t have a family to protect in the first place, whom are you saving up for?”

Dhanalakshmi Rao, a resident of Marol who attended the session said, “Despite owning a fire extinguisher, I never knew how to use it. Not only did I learn how to operate one here, I also doused a fire.”

Another attendee, Veronica Miranda, a resident of Dadar, found the class highly informative. “Such sessions should be conducted often. The public should be aware of fire-fighting and damage control techniques, especially during the rainy season when such cases occur frequently,” she said.

Link to original article available here.