Gear up for Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation

So 53 villages along with four municipal councils of Vasai, Navghar-Manickpur, Virar and Nallasopara from the Vasai-Virar subsection are all set to be merged as a Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC).

Here is the notification: http://maharashtra.gov.in/data/gr/marathi/2009/07/03/20090707181255001.pdf

Formed nearly three years after it issued a notification announcing its intent to form such a civic body, the VVMC is the 23rd municipal corporation in Maharashtra.

Kishor Barde has been appointed as the first Municipal Commissioner of the VVMC. The VVMC is expected to be headquartered at Virar.

The state had issued a notification on July 3, 2009 that the municipal councils of Nallasopara, Virar, Navghar-Manickpur and Vasai along with 53 adjoining villages would be merged to create the new municipal corporation of Vasai-Virar.

Forty-nine of the 53 village panchayats that have unanimously objected to the merger, have now launched an agitation for their villages to be left alone. Regional leaders of Vasai-Virar cutting across all party lines have joined the campaign to save the villages, last remaining green belts of the Vasai, from urbanisation that is eminent after being merged into the municipal corporation.

Batti Bandh Gul

Batti Bandh is an entirely voluntary event taking place on the 15th of December between 7:30 & 8:30 p.m. This event is aimed at requesting all of Mumbai to stand up for a cause that is greater than all of us. All you need to do is switch off lights and appliances in your home, shop, office, school, college or anywhere you are for 1 hour to take a stand against global warming. Just 1 hour.

This was supposed to be a voluntary event, but not for us in Vasai, it turned out to be a forced Load Shedding schedule with the current lost from 5:30in the evening to 8:30 at night that coincided with the campaign. So in terms, we managed to be a part of the campaign.

But what was the actual cause of the campaign? Regions in Maharashtra still face power cuts under the pretext of Load Shedding while Mumbai continues to shine in all its glitter. I am not jealous of the status that Mumbai is getting – It is a global city and it deserves to shine. But on the other hand, why should we suffer.

Earlier, there was Load Shedding scheduled only on Fridays, later as time progressed, the Fridays became alternate and then moving towards no Load Shedding at all. Then suddenly we started to have Load Shedding every single day.

What was the reason? The state dosent have enough electricity for all its people. How can we accept that when we can make day of night with huge lights.

Pray, please answer MSEB…

Load Unload

Vasai is still a developing town and hence there is this notion for the Government that it can apply all the loadshedding that it can on it. The problem of shortage of electricity has been created by the government and now it is haphazardly imposing the loadshedding on soft targets like Vasai. We are currently facing a loadshedding of 7 hours daily. There would be more hours added to the tally soon as per the government notification.
But the question still arises in my mind – “Why us?”. Mumbai by far has escaped the lot of places facing this power cut and when we see big flashing lighting and all the electronics running without any one to attend them, feel so frustrated like picking up a stone and hurling at the lights and mouthing some really foul words at the MSEB (Maharahstra State Electricity Board) that supplies the power to the state.
This is the new schedule for loadshedding in Manickpur are with effect from the 14th of February, 2007.

Day	Time
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday	06:30am – 10:00am & 01:30pm – 05:00pm
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday	10:00am – 01:30pm & 05:00pm – 08:30pm

But then the time is not bounding to the people at MSEB, they can cut the current any time they wish.

Romping in Nasik

Been to Nasik for the feast of Infant Jesus yesterday. We started at 5:15 am from Manickpur in a mini bus with all our natak mandali (Members of Rasik Ranjan Natya Mandal). On our way we met many of our counterparts travelling the same journey from Manickpur as well as the entire of Vasai. The journey started on a great note but was slowed down by the traffic generated by travellers to either Nasik (for the feast), Shirdi (for veneration) or to Malegaon (for Ijetama religious congregation). The entire ghat was jam packed with cars, buses and trucks carrying loads of people and material to these places. Our bus was a bustling place of activity where everyone was in a different beat of travelling together as a huge family. Soon we started singing wedding and other songs making it sound that the buss was going to a great picnic.

My main aim to do all that travelling to a crowded place (I hate crowded places) were:

• A distinct possibility of meeting my friend Frankline (Franky) who’s a novice with the Jesuits.
• And ofcourse since all of us were going together, I could not resist the temptation.

So, after all that slow crawling on the Western Ghats, we finally reached the shrine at 12:10pm. I immediately began a hunt for Franky. After mass we finally spotted him and was overjoyed to see him after almost one and a half year span. We talked a lot about his life and my life in all these years.

After a quick lunch of delicious Chicken Biryani, we were off to take a stroll in the fair, where some of us made some silly purchases. After that we were off to the ghat of Panchwati where the Kumbh Mela is held. I clicked a few pictures while most of us shopped for raisins and grapes.

Then we were off to home, this was about at 06:30pm when we left for home, we were expecting to reach home by 11pm after eating at a roadside dhaba, but once again the crawling traffic caught us and we were stuck in that mad rush to get home. Finally after crossing the ghats, we got into a dhaba and ate to our heart’s content.

We reached home at 01:30am the next morning. So we almost had a 20 hour journey to Nasik. But since both my aims were fullfilled, I have no problems about the journey. The entire journey was marked with us singing loads of songs and having a great time together in the bus. I would possible think about going there once again the next year.

Photos uploaded to Flickr!. Check them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mloclam/