RNI No. MAHEN/2007/21778 POSTAL REGN. NO. NMB/154/2020-22/VASHI MDG POST OFFICE The Dynamic Daily Newspaper of PAGES 12 • PRICE ` 1 Navi Mumbai VOL. 13 • ISSUE 222 January 2020 WEDNESDAY 22 NEWS IN BRIEF Minor boy threatens to circulate objectionable video of a girl on social media A 17-year-old boy from Koperkhairane area has allegedly extorting Rs 2.5 lakh from a minor girl by threatening to make a vid- eo go viral on social me- dia. Police have arrested the boy under the charges of IT Act, POCSO Act and rape. The young boy is said to be the son of a pol- itician from Koperkhairane. (More on page 5) Electric poles in the city in bad condition Most of the electric poles under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s (NMMC) jurisdiction are either very old or have been rusted and pose dan- ger to the pedestrians and the motorists, say the resi- dents. The residents say that some of the poles have been corroded to such an extent that these may fall and can cause serious in- juries to the people. (More on page 3) Director General of Information visits Konkan Bhavan The Director General and Secretary of the Depart- ment of Information and Public Relations, Dilip Pan- dharpatte visited Konkan Bhavan on Tuesday. Deputy Director (Informa- tion) Dr. Ganesh Mule welcomed him with a bou- quet. (More on page 3) NAVI MUMBAI: The City and Industrial De- velopment Corporation (CIDCO) will be hold- ing the draw of the re- maining 76 Houses of CIDCO's Vastu Vihar, Celebration and Unnati schemes On January 22, 2020 at CIDCO Bha- van, seventh Floor, Au- ditorium at 10:00 AM. The draw will be com- puterised. During the draw, Suresh Ku- m a r , Former Dep- uty Commis- sioner, Gov- ernment of Maharash- tra and Moiz Hussain Ali, Deputy Director, National In- formatics Centre will be present. The plan was an- nounced on November 28, 2019. Under this scheme applications were accepted online till January 7, 2020. The total number of appli- cations received for this scheme was 4151.T There are a total of 45 houses - 1 RK, 1 BHK and 2 BHK in Vastu Vihar and Cele- CIDCO to hold computerised draw for the remaining 76 houses today bration, while in the Unnati housing project there are 31 houses of 1 RK and 1 BHK. The process of com- puterized draw will be monitored under the supervision of the Su- pervisory Co mmit- tee. Three applicants present will be selected as witness. As the draw is computerized, the entire process will be transparent, easy, very simple, convenient. The results of the draw will be aired live through webcasting. The list of success- ful applicants will be posted on the CIDCO's website at https:// cidco.maharashtra.gov.in. Similarly, a complete list of drawings will also be made available at https://lottery. cidcoindia.com. By Meena R. Prashant VASHI: The con- struction of the senior citizen centre at Meenatai Thackeray Udyan in Sector 17, Vashi will resume soon, said the ward corporator Dayawati Sampat Shewale, who recently held a meeting with the Navi Mumbai Municipal Commissioner along with her husband and former corporator Sampat Shewale and Stalled construction of senior citizen centre at Sector 17, Vashi to commence soon The proposed model picture of the centre few senior citizens. The construction of the centre had been stalled due to opposi- tion from few resi- dents. Image of the proposed Senior Citizen’s Centre Contd. on pg. 2 By Meena R. Prashant NAVI MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai Munici- pal Corporation (NMMC) which has begun free cancer screening camp for women under its juris- NMMC’s free Cancer Screening camps receives overwhelming response The camp is being conducted across 8 nodes diction from Thurs- day, January 16th to 31st March, 2020 is re- ceiving good response. More than 646 women have been screened so far. The initiative is un- dertaken by the Navi Mumbai Municipal So- cial Welfare Depart- ment and the camp is being organised by the Indian Cancer Society. Contd. on pg. 5
Transcript
RNI No. MAHEN/2007/21778 POSTAL REGN. NO. NMB/154/2020-22/VASHI MDG POST OFFICE
The Dynamic Daily Newspaper of
PAGES 12 • PRICE ` 1
Navi Mumbai
VOL. 13 • ISSUE 222January
2020WEDNESDAY
22
NEWS INBRIEF
Minor boy threatens tocirculate objectionable
video of a girl onsocial media
A 17-year-old boy fromKoperkhairane area hasallegedly extorting Rs 2.5lakh from a minor girl bythreatening to make a vid-eo go viral on social me-dia. Police have arrestedthe boy under the chargesof IT Act, POCSO Act andrape. The young boy issaid to be the son of a pol-itician from Koperkhairane.
(More on page 5)
Electric poles in thecity in bad condition
Most of the electric polesunder the Navi MumbaiMunicipal Corporation’s(NMMC) jurisdiction areeither very old or havebeen rusted and pose dan-ger to the pedestrians andthe motorists, say the resi-dents. The residents saythat some of the poles havebeen corroded to such anextent that these may falland can cause serious in-juries to the people. (Moreon page 3)
Director General ofInformation visitsKonkan Bhavan
The Director General andSecretary of the Depart-ment of Information andPublic Relations, Dilip Pan-dharpatte visited KonkanBhavan on Tuesday.Deputy Director (Informa-tion) Dr. Ganesh Mulewelcomed him with a bou-quet. (More on page 3)
NAVI MUMBAI: TheCity and Industrial De-velopment Corporation(CIDCO) will be hold-ing the draw of the re-maining 76 Houses ofCIDCO's Vastu Vihar,Celebration and Unnatischemes On January22, 2020 at CIDCO Bha-van, seventh Floor, Au-ditorium at 10:00 AM.The drawwill be com-puterised.
D u r i n gthe draw,Suresh Ku-m a r ,Former Dep-uty Commis-sioner, Gov-ernment ofMaharash-tra and MoizHussain Ali, DeputyDirector, National In-formatics Centre will bepresent.
The plan was an-nounced on November28, 2019. Under thisscheme applicationswere accepted online tillJanuary 7, 2020. Thetotal number of appli-cations received for thisscheme was 4151.T
There are a total of45 houses - 1 RK, 1BHK and 2 BHK inVastu Vihar and Cele-
CIDCO to holdcomputerised drawfor the remaining76 houses today
bration, while in theUnnati housing projectthere are 31 houses of1 RK and 1 BHK.
The process of com-puterized draw will bemonitored under thesupervision of the Su-pervisory Co mmit-tee. Three applicantspresent will be selectedas witness. As the draw
is computerized, theentire process will betransparent, easy, verysimple, convenient.The results of the drawwill be aired livethrough webcasting.
The list of success-ful applicants will beposted on the CIDCO'swebsite at https://cidco.maharashtra.gov.in.Similarly, a completelist of drawings willalso be made availableat https://lottery.cidcoindia.com.
By Meena R. Prashant
VASHI: The con-struction of the seniorcitizen centre atMeenatai ThackerayUdyan in Sector 17,Vashi will resumesoon, said the wardcorporator DayawatiSampat Shewale, whorecently held ameeting with the NaviMumbai MunicipalCommissioner alongwith her husband andformer corporatorSampat Shewale and
Stalled construction of seniorcitizen centre at Sector 17,Vashi to commence soon
The proposed model picture of the centre
few senior citizens.The construction ofthe centre had beenstalled due to opposi-
tion from few resi-dents.
Image of the proposed Senior Citizen’s Centre
Contd. on pg. 2
By Meena R. Prashant
NAVI MUMBAI: TheNavi Mumbai Munici-pal Corporation(NMMC) which hasbegun free cancerscreening camp forwomen under its juris-
NMMC’s free CancerScreening camps receives
overwhelming responseThe camp is being conducted across 8 nodes
diction from Thurs-day, January 16th to31st March, 2020 is re-ceiving good response.More than 646 womenhave been screened sofar.
The initiative is un-
dertaken by the NaviMumbai Municipal So-cial Welfare Depart-ment and the camp isbeing organised by theIndian Cancer Society.
A 20 word classified in NEWSBANDwill cost you only Rs 200/- + GST
for direct buyers and sellers.For details, call :
20870513, 27815380
ATTENTION READERSWhile every effort is made to check the genuineness ofparty/parties inserting ads in this paper, we cannot be heldresponsible for the truthfulness of its contents. The publish-ers, Editor and/or the staff cannot be held responsible forany loss or damage due to transactions that they may enterinto guided by the ads.
Printed and owned by Kailash Shankarlalji Gindodia Published by Shiv Kailash Gindodia Editor : Varda Sharma Printed at Siddhakala Print Media & Publications
Pvt. Ltd. Plot No. W-230, T.T.C. Ind. Area, MIDC, Khairane, Navi Mumbai – 400 710 and published at 1313/1314, 13th Floor, Real Tech Park, Plot No. 39/2,
Sec. 30A, Vashi, Navi Mumbai 400 703. • RNI No. MAHENG2007/21778 • Postal Regn. No. NMB/154/2014-16/Vashi MDG Post Office
Dayawati Shewalesaid, “Some residentshad raised objectionover the constructionof a toilet within thecentre as well as theheight of the centre.We have decided not tobuild a toilet facilitywithin the centre.Also, as per the plan,the height of thecentre will not bemore. Hence, theresidents need notworry that due to thiscentre, they wouldmiss the view of thegarden.”
Speaking about thefacility, formercorporator SampatShewale said, “Thecentre will be aniconic place and willhave a contemporary
look with glass walls.The 500 sqft centrewill have in-houseindoor games and willalso have a library.We are planning tokeep old classicliterature in variouslanguages and dailynewspapers in all thelanguages.” Hefurther said, “Theconstruction willrecommence after theSwacch BharatSurvey is complete.”
The constructionhas been sanctionedby the NMMC TownDepartment and isscheduled to becomplete before thedeadline of February,2020. Around 100-150visit the park duringthe peak hours of 7-10am and 6-10 pm, sothe Centre will beopened in the morningand evening.
Stalledconstruction.
Contd. from pg. 1
Tata Steel BSL plants 25,000 trees usingMiyawaki technique at its Khopoli plant
The Japanese technique makes thicker tree cover in smallpatches of land • Grows 10 times faster, and is capable ofCO
2 absorption 30 times more than conventional forests
PANVEL: Tata SteelBSL, formerly BhushanSteel, has launchedMIYAWAKI PlantationProject within its plantpremises located at Sar-voli, Khopoli in Raigaddistrict of Maharashtra. The new afforestationproject, launched withtechnical support of En-viro Creator Foundation,is spread over 2 acres ofland with 25,000 trees be-longing to 29 local treevarieties.
The project waslaunched by Mr. RajeevSinghal, Managing Di-rector, Tata Steel BSL inthe presence of Mr.SanjibNanda, Chief FinanceOfficer, Tata Steel BSL,Mr. Kapil Modi, Execu-tive Plant Head, TataSteel BSL(Khopoli&Hosur), Mr. VBindoo, VP, ProductionLDP, Mr. Abhishek Sin-ha, Head Finance andAccount Control alongwith the company’s envi-
ronment team. DrRadhakrishna Nair, Co-Founder of Enviro Cre-ator Foundation wasalso present at the occa-sion.
Miyawaki is a verypopular afforestationtechnique developed byJapanese scientist AkiraMiyawakito grow denseplantations in a shorttime. Compared to theconventional method ofafforestation, Miyawaki
forest grows 10 timesfaster, is 100 timesmore biodiverse and cov-ers 30 times greenersurface area. Miyawa-ki method also enablesup to 30 times or moreCarbon -Dioxide absorp-tion as compared to con-ventional forests. Theprocess followed is 100%organic and is self-sus-taining and requires nomaintenance after 2years.
The Miyawaki forestcover will support 29native species includingas Jamun, Sitafal,Neem, Karanj, Asho-palav, Kaju, Mohda,BangaliBavar, Saru, Ar-jun, Bamboo, Aritha,Putranjeeva, Behda.Drumstick, Belpatta,Garmala, RaktaChan-dan, Badam, Jackfruit,Peru, SeetaAshoka, Ka-jolia, Sewan, Samdi, Gul-mohar and Amla, etc.
Inter-School Sports Festival of Uran MunicipalEducation Department Schools held
By Dinesh Pawar
URAN: The UranMunicipal EducationDepartment organisedan Inter-school SportsFestival on Tuesday(January 21) at Maha-rashtra Bhushan Dr.Narayan Vishnu Dhar-
3 participated in vari-ous programmes. Vari-ous sports events arebeing organized duringthe three days sportsfestival which will beheld from January 21stto 23rd. The prize cere-mony will be held onFriday evening.
m a d h i k a r iSchool No.1and 2.
The sportsfestival was in-augurated bycity presidentSaily Mhatre.Students ofgrades 1, 2, and
NAVI MUMBAI: The Director General andSecretary of the Department of Information andPublic Relations, Dilip Pandharpatte visitedKonkan Bhavan on Tuesday. Deputy Director(Information) Dr. Ganesh Mule welcomed him
Director General of Information visits Konkan Bhavan
with a bouquet. Information Assistant in Charge, Mrs. Vanita
KOPERKHAIRANE :World GeographyDay was celebratedby the Department ofGeography at F GNaik College, Ko-perkhairane. Thechief guest of thisevent was R JCollege, GhatkoparGeography ProfessorDr. Kamlini Bande-kar, FG Naik CollegePrincipal PratapMahadik. On thisoccasion, teachers ofGeography, Prof.Kavita Pawar, Headof Economics Depart-ment, DattatreyaGhodak and teachersand non-teachingstaff were present.
In the introducto-ry speech, thePrincipal of theCollege, Mahadik,interacted with thestudents. He ap-pealed to all the
students towards theprotection of theenvironment”.During the event thestudents also partici-pated in variousGeography Dayprogrammes such asquiz, Model Making,Rangoli Competitionon EnvironmentalConservation.
The Chief Guestof the programme,Dr. Kamlini Bande-kar explained to thestudents how geogra-phy is linked to all
other subjects. Shealso spoke aboutglobal warming,rising pollution andits remedies, environ-ment conservationetc. She also ex-plained to the stu-dents on how toincrease one’s self-confidence as well asvalue development ofpersonality.
The program wasmoderated by Prof.Seema Shinde, Headof the Department,Marathi.
Electric poles in the cityin bad condition
By Crime Reporter
NAVI MUMBAI: Most ofthe electric poles underthe Navi Mumbai Mu-nicipal Corporation’s(NMMC) jurisdictionare either very old or
have been rusted andpose danger to the pedes-trians and the motor-ists, say the residents.The residents say thatsome of the poles havebeen corroded to such anextent that these mayfall and can cause seri-ous injuries to the peo-ple.
In the Navi MumbaiMunicipal Corporationjurisdiction there aremore than 25,000 elec-tric poles on differentroads in the city. Someof these electric poles
have been installed bythe City and IndustrialDevelopment Corpora-tion (CIDCO) and havebecome very old. Few ofthe electric poles by theNMMC are also morethan 10 year old anddue to poor mainte-nance, have begun torust.
Six months ago anaccident occurred whenan electric pole sudden-ly fell on a four-wheel-er in Vashi. Luckilythere were no casualtiesin the accident.
Speaking to News-band, Surendra Patil(City Engineer) NaviMumbai Municipal Cor-poration said, “Inspec-tion of all the electricpoles in the city hasbeen started. The cor-roded poles will be re-placed and the processis underway”.
A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealedthat 7.5 per cent of the Indian population suffers from some formof mental disorder. Mental illnesses constitute one-sixth of allhealth-related disorders and India accounted for nearly 15% ofthe global mental, neurological and substance abuse disorder bur-den. WHO also predicts that by 2020, roughly 20 per cent of Indiawill suffer from mental illnesses. The figures are startling espe-cially when we realise that we have less than 4,000 mental healthprofessionals.
Researches conducted worldwide also reveal that there is adifference of perception when it comes to mental health in com-parison to physical health. While most of us are aware of what is tobe done and what precautions that need to be taken with regardsto physical health including the workouts, super foods, diet etc.,not many are aware of steps that need to be taken with regards tomental health. Worldwide, more than 70% of young people andadults with mental illness do not receive any mental health treat-ment from health care staff. The reasons are manifold: lack ofawareness, the stigma associated with it, lack of trained profes-sionals, inadequate funding and the low priority given in the health-care budget.
It is disheartening to note that till date, due to lack of aware-ness, ignorance, shame and stigma, people suffering from mentalhealth shy from reaching out to health professionals. There is aneed to end the stigma and empower the people suffering fromvarious mental health issues. Steps can also be taken to connectthe people suffering from such diseases with each other by form-ing a network, such that no one feels alienated or alone. This willalso give the strength and the will to fight. Steps should also betaken to train and sensitize the community/society to deliver im-mediate mental healthcare intervention to the patients. Nothingelse but timely intervention, awareness about the issue, availabil-ity of professional help and adequate policies will bring down thenumbers.
Further, there is a need that more and more professionals aretrained in this field to decrease the ever increasing gap. Also, tilldate a meagre percent of India’s health budget is devoted to men-tal health. This needs to be changed and a significant amount needsto be allocated on primary level care of the mentally ill patients.
It won’t be an exaggeration to state that India indeed is staringat a mental health epidemic. It is imperative to understand thatpeople with mental illness deserve to live their lives with dignityand confidence. This can be done if all of us join hands and helppeople suffering from any mental issues by talking to them, bygiving assurance and by taking them to health professionals. It istime we review our current mental health scenario, identify vari-ous policy implementation gaps, learn from success stories in oth-er resource-constrained settings, and accordingly, shape mentalhealth-care services.
Everything in thislife is highly tempo-rary and is created tolast for a short span oftime. The mother na-ture has created abso-lutely nothing which ispermanent. Everycreation by mothernature is to serve abeautiful purpose. Allseasons, events andeffects are confirmingimpermanence in na-ture. Mother nature istrying hard to teach allliving beings that “Ev-erything I give you inlife is temporary andare subjected tochange”. She says ac-cept that the change isa reality. Sadly,this reality isaccepted by allthe living be-ings except hu-mans.
Desire andefforts of hu-man beings tobring stabilityand create per-manent thingsare one of the majorreasons of distress,trauma and difficul-ties. Non acceptance of“Impermanence” isconstantly making lifetougher.
Some insights tolead a more meaning-ful life in:1. Family & Relation-
ships:a. Win over your
EGO. You are notthe Boss. If you aredoing too well thenit becomes evenmore important tokeep a check onEGO.
b. Acknowledge thatall relationshipsmust go throughgreat changes andtransformationswith the passage oftime and changingdynamics. Only
Impermanence in Naturethose who manageEGO are able to han-dle and deal with nat-urally changing dy-namics of relation-ships easily.
c. A simple statementthat all relationshipsare highly temporaryin nature, triggersanger and irritationsin people. This is abitter truth that ev-ery relationship isbased on certainterms & conditionsand expectations. Themoment these termsand conditions are vi-olated, even the clos-est relationships col-lapse or go throughdifficulties.
2. Performance: Perfor-mance is most natu-rally aligned with im-permanence. The per-formance of students,professionals or any-one is always highlyconditional. In sportsgreat players havealso been out of theteam. Today their
names do not figureanymore in interna-tional, national or do-mestic teams. Manystudents performingvery well in their ini-tial stages of academ-ic life i.e. say upto 8thstd are found to bestruggling later.Many a times stu-dents who have expe-rienced deep difficul-ties in their initialstages of learning inschools are found tobe doing very well intheir academics lateron.As a mental health
professional, I have sometips to make life happier:1. Accept that change is
the only reality. Nonacceptance can onlymake life more trau-matic.
2. The moment you ac-
cept that every-thing is temporary,you will start feel-ing lighter. Whenyou are goingthrough bad patch-es of life, you knowthat this phase toohas to come to anend, and it is notgoing to last life-long.
3. Accepting imper-manence in lifehelps in goingthrough the motionof life aligned withnature with ease.
4. Prepare with hon-esty to deal withchallenges and dif-ficulties by con-stantly investingon self-develop-ment under ablementors. This willhelp you to remainagile, active andalive through thethick and thin oflife.I have observed
that most of the pa-tients walking in my
healing center are pre-dominantly goingthrough psychologicalor behavioural difficul-ties, because at somestage in their life theyrefused to accept thereality of imperma-nence in everything.
Life is a wonderfulgift and a wonderfuljourney. When we ac-cept impermanence ineverything then wecan go through the upsand downs with asmile and without los-ing the mental bal-ance.
The writer is aconsulting councellorand Psychologist at
The Department ofSocial Welfare, NMMChad contacted the In-dian Cancer Societyand requested to con-duct cancer screeningfor women living in themunicipal area andhad conducted a pilotcancer screening in2018-19.
“Following successof the pilot project, wehave now decided toconduct such campsacross the 8 nodes,”said Deputy MunicipalCommissioner, Depart-
Schedule of the CampCamp No. Date Place
1 25th January Turbhe Gaon Anganwadi/ Samaj Mandir Sector 29 Agroli,Urabn Health Centre Nerul Phase 1.
2 26th January Chandrabai Chaugule School Chinchpada Airoli.
3 27th January Corporator Dr. Jayaji Nath's dispensary sector 4 CBD Belapur,Karave UHP ward no 110 and Dr. D'Souza Clinic Khairene ward 42.
4 28th January Dr. Katkar Clinic Khairne (Ward 43), Urban Health CenterNerul Phase 1 (ward 88) and Senior Citizens BhavanSector 11 Nerul (ward 90).
5 29th January MCH Turbhe (ward 66), Terana Clinic Turbhe Store (ward 70)and Urban Health Center Chinchpada (ward 08).
6 31st January Ramnagar Anganwadi, Prabhodhankar ThackreVidyalaya Ilthanpada and Yadavnagar Buddh Vihar.
eight different types ofcancers. The campwill be beneficial for allthe women, especiallythose from the econom-ically backward classas they don’t have reg-ular health check-ups”, said Patil.
The free cancerscreening camp waslaunched on Thursday,January 16th and wasinaugurated by MayorJaywant Sutar, Com-missioner AnnasahebMisal, Deputy MayorMandakini Mhatre,Standing CommitteeChairman Navin Ga-vate and other seniorofficials.
ment of Social Welfare,Kranti Patil. She fur-ther said, “We havealso chalked out the
details for the camp tobe held in the monthsof February andMarch. The venue and
the date of the campswould be releasedsoon.”
“The camp will be
conducted in 111wards of the civic body.During the camp wom-en will be screened for
The rubbles from the dilapidated building in sector-9, Vashi have started falling. It isfeared that the concrete pieces may fall over the pedestrians and may cause seriousinjuries. The building has been vacated but few residents are still occupying it.
Navi Mumbai: Airoli Corporator Hemangi Sonawane along with the citizens performedpuja of the sit out area at Kalu Ragho Sonawane Park, Sector 4, Airoli. (By Chan-drashekhar Hendve)
By Crime Reporter
NAVI MUMBAI: A 17-year-old boy from Ko-perkhairane area hasallegedly extorted Rs2.5 lakh from a minorgirl by threatening tomake a video go viralon social media. Policehave arrested the boyunder the charges of ITAct, POCSO Act andrape. The young boy issaid to be the son of apolitician from Ko-perkhairane.
The victim and theyoung man knew eachother and on the pre-text of loving her he al-legedly sextually as-
Minor boy threatens tocirculate an objectionable video
of a girl on social mediasaulted her and filmedthe act on mobile andlater he demanded mon-ey from her afterthreatening to makethe video clip of the in-cident viral on socialmedia. Afraid, the vic-tim agreed to give Rs.2.5 lakh. After receivingthis amount, the youngman bought variousitems and had fun withfriends. But then hestarted asking for moremoney from the victim.
Frustrated, the vic-tim left home last week.The parents then reg-istered complaint atthe Koperkhairane po-
lice station where thepolice registered acrime of abduction. Af-ter being informed thatthe victim was in Va-dodara, the policebrought the victim toNavi Mumbai. The po-lice then questionedher and she informedthem about the inci-dent. Accordingly, theyouth was taken intocustody under the ITAct and POCSO Sec-tion, according to policeinspector NishikantVishwakar. The girlwas produced before ajuvenile court in Bhi-wandi.
By Crime Reporter
NAVI MUMBAI: NeevBuilders & Develop-ers, who are develop-ing a housing projectnamed Sai Prerana atKaranjade Sector-2area of??Panvel, havebeen found guilty ofselling one flat to twopersons and cheatingthem. Followingwhich the Khandesh-war police havelaunched a probe intothe case againstBharat Ramawat, apartner of the devel-opment firm.
Bharat Ramawatand his other part-ners, who have beencharged in the case,
Police file cheating case against Panvelbuilder for selling single flat to two people
had set up a houseplan in Sai Preranain Karanjade Sector-2of Panvel. MeenakshiJadhav, who lives inChembur met theNeev Builders &Developers partnerBharat Ramawat andbooked a 350 sq ft flatin this home project.Meenakshi Jadhavpaid the entireamount of Rs 15 lakhto Ram Ramawat whoalso registered theflat in the sub-secondary registrar'soffice. When construc-tion of the buildingwas completed in2015, MeenakshiJadhav asked Rama-
wat for the possessionof the flat, but he saidthat the flat could notbe given due to lack ofoccupancy certificatefrom CIDCO. Howev-er, whenever Meenak-shi contacted him, hestarted giving variousreason and did notgive possession of theflat. Therefore,Meenakshi visited thebuilding in April-2019and learnt that theflat which she hadbooked was sold toVinayak Bhosale.
Debutant Hurisa & Co Leads Ethiopian Domination In SettingNew Course Record At Tata Mumbai Marathon 2020
Defending Champion Sudha Singh registers third title in a row.
By Ashok Dhamija
MUMBAI: A topnotch performance byEthiopian runners inthe 17th edition of theTata Mumbai Mara-thon, not only sawthem book five of thesix spots on the podi-um (Men’s and Wom-en’s Full Marathoncategory) held earlythis week at Mumbai.Ethiopia’s debutantDerara Hurisa ledfrom the front as healong with his fellow
Hon. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who flagged off the Dream Run, waves to the 19,707 raceparticipants in presence of various dignitaries which included Union Minister of State for SportsKiran Rijiju, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil, Food And CivilSupplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Sports Minister Sunil Kedar, Environment Minister AdityaThackeray, Tata Sons Brand Custodian Harish Bhat and TCS VP & Country Head - IndiaBusiness Ujwal Mathur (Photos by Author).
(L to R) 43- year old international marathoner Shivanand Shet-ty and Ultra Marathoner Rahul Jadhav who overcame drugaddiction lead by example in their quest to Be Better by complet-ing the full marathon
Over 100 senior citizens from Mumbai and Panvel participatedunder the banner of Help Age India
Olympian and Arjuna Award-ee Sudha Singh who won theGold Medal in the Indian wom-en’s category poses with hercompatriots Jyoti Gawate andShyamali Singh who came insecond and third respective-ly.
Bollywood superstar and Face of the event Tiger Shroff posesfor a selfie even as International Event Ambassador, Gymnasticlegend, Seven-Time Olympic champion and nine-time worldchampion, Shannon Miller cheers the participants
Specially- abled participants showcased that disability was nobarrier to pursuing sports
An aerial view of the Dream Run which wit-nessed a record 19,707 participants
Decked in tricolour Naresh Taliya a 72 yearold fitness instructor from Surat does a headstand during the Dream run
Participants spread social message to supportunderprivileged children in their quest for edu-cation 30-year-old Manas Kumar a software Engi-
neer from Hyderabad highlighted the risingrape instances in the nation and tried to focuson how both police and the judiciary cannotbring the numbers down.
Thousands of Police officialsand members of the state com-mando group ensured that theproceeding went of peaceful-ly
Contd. on pg. 9
country mates Ayele Abshero and Birhanu Teshome broke the courserecord off Kenyan marathonerGideon Kipketer timing of 2:08:35set in 2016 en-route the Men’scrown. On the other hand Ethio-pia’s Amane Beriso came backstrongly after a 15-month injury-induced sabbatical from competi-tion to win the Women’s crown
with a timing of 2:24:51. Kenya’sRodah Jepkorir andEthiopian Haven Hailu wereplaced second and third respective-ly.
Auto Expo conducted at Pillai CollegeBy Ryhea George
NAVI MUMBAI: Auto Expo is one ofthe biggest Automobile Extravagan-za Motor show conducted in the state.Many of the latest bikes and highquality two wheelers as well as fourwheelers are displayed for the con-venience of the consumers. For thebenefit of the students, Pillai Collegeof Arts, Science and Commerce hadorganised their first Auto Expo at thecampus itself under the banner ofAlegria and also for the celebrationof completing 50 years of MahatmaEducation Society.
Before the Auto Expo started,
some bikers performed stunts at thepassage of the campus. The showstarted at around 11 am. The firstcar to make its appearance was thehand painted sports car which hadthe theme of this year’s Alegria thatis ‘Dreamland’ over it. Then came alot of sports bikes which includedsome of the beautiful luxury beastssuch as Hayabusa, r15, and manymodified and painted bikes. Super-bikes such as Ninja H2 and the Hon-da Africa were also showcased at thecampus. After all the sports bikesand superbikes came in, all of themwere parked in a lane for the show.Students were allowed to click pic-tures with the superbikes. Many oth-er bikes such as Honda Gold Wing,Fz6, Benelli, Interceptor werepresent in bulk.
Then the motor show moved ontowards cars and one by one many
cars came inside the campus. TheMercedes came in with Alegria andDreamland written all over it. Manyother super cars such as Porsche,Mustang, BMW, Fiat Vintage, Accordand Honda Civic were also displayed.Superbikes such as Ducati, SuzukiFireBlade, Kawasaki zx10r and Su-zuki Speed Monster came in a set ofsquad near the walkway of the cam-pus. Bikers from all over Navi Mum-bai were present during the AutoExpo to showcase their love for auto-mobile. The crew of Riders of Mum-bai were also present during the Expoand performed many stunts. Vasude-
van Pillai, the founder of MahatmaEducation Society, was also presentduring the Auto Expo Event.
The event ended at around 4.30pm. After the Motor Show, the bikesand cars were kept on display.
“It was so much fun to watch allour dream cars and superbikes outthere. Being the very first year ofAuto Expo in Alegria, it was a greatexperience to meet people with suchpassion and love for automobiles.Hearing them speak about their pas-sion for bikes and cars was reallyfun,” remarked While one of the stu-dents of PCE, Tomcy.
The Creative Head of Alegria, Dis-ha Thakur who herself was excitedfor the event said, “It was an amaz-ing experience as usually we do notget to see such beautiful massivebeasts everyday. It was indeed a feastfor all the car and bike lovers.”
NERUL: Started in2003, Frames FilmFestival is an initiativetaken by the BMM stu-dents of SIES College,
Nerul. Touted to be oneof the largest under-graduate film festivals,it spread across threeconsecutive days start-ing from the 9th of Jan-uary. The theme forthe festival this yearwas ‘Naqaab: See theUnseen’ which por-trayed Frames belief inExperiencing the artand vision behind FilmMaking. This year thefestival was powered by‘Zee5’, co-powered by‘MTV Beats India andVH1 and co-partnered
Frames Film Festival
embraces New Horizons
by KalpaTaru’.The Guest of Ho-
nour for the inaugura-tion was the yesteryearactress Poonam
Dhillon. She expressedher gratitude for the
overwhelming enthu-siasm received by thecollege and wished theparticipants luck forthe festival.
Nearly seventy percent of the ailments that people sufferfrom are psychosomatic in nature: Viveck Shettyy
MUMBAI: The LionsClubs InternationalConference for Region6 was truly an engross-ing event with ViveckShettyy taking centrestage as the KeynoteSpeaker. He was spe-cially invited to speakon “Friends, Enemiesand Frenemies”, a top-ic that is extremely rel-evant to the age andera that we live in.
The Chief Guest forthis event was Dr. AjeetJain and it was organ-ised under the dynam-ic leadership of ShilpiRastogi. Viveck Shet-tyy opened the addressin his trademark stylerequesting the audienceto completely be in themoment and then set-ting the tone and tenorby explaining the vitaldifference between ourpsychological truthsand existential truths.He further elaboratedthat the more we livewith our psychologicaltruths, the more rest-less we remain. Heurged the audience to
operate life with thisperspective to ensurethat relationships are ajoyful experience.
He went on to ex-plain how our mindand system respondsand behaves when weclassify an individualas an enemy, despitethere being no seriousthreat to our life by himor her. He opined thatit triggers a series of re-actions that ensuresthat our immune sys-
tem is compromised,our digestive systemalso is not at its peakand even memorystarts failing. The Hu-man mind is always inthe habit of puttingpeople in boxes, label-ling them and dissect-ing them. But Exist-ence according toViveck Shettyy func-tions as a whole andnot in parts. There inlie the secrets of exis-tential intelligence.
Viveck Shettyy add-ed that our real friendsare Sun, water, earth,air and space. These el-ements, he asserted,continue to invest inevery human being,despite our fallaciesand irresponsible be-haviour towards them.No life on the planetcan be sustained with-out these forces of na-ture. The least that wecan do is have an atti-tude of gratitude.
Viveck Shettyy fur-ther observed, “The realenemy is when our ownintelligence startsworking against us.And this is a widespreadphenomenon. Nearlyseventy percent of theailments that peoplesuffer from are psycho-somatic in nature. Thisis clearly disease for thepeople, by the peopleand of the people.”
He concluded byurging all to bloom like
a rose flower and notworry about how longthe bloom will last andbe least perturbed bywhat people think ofthem. Simply bend inthe direction of light.That is existential in-telligence at its verypeak.
Dr. ShashikantModh of Lions Clubstated, “Viveck Shettyyhad the entire audiencemesmerised by histalk”.
Viveck Shettyy Being Felicitated by Dr. Ajeet Jain . Other dignitaries on stage are ShilpiRastogi , Mudassir Khwaja and Dr. Shashikanth Modh
Viveck Shettyy addressing the gathering as the KeynoteSpeaker at Lions Clubs International Region Confer-ence
Frames FilmFestival...
Contd. from pg. 7
The screening cate-gories for the first daywere Internationalshort films for whichentries were sent fromover 115+ countriesand over 1000+ entriesfor National shortfilms. Following everyscreening, the judgesgave their feedbacksand expressed how theentries were so wellcrafted and full of en-ergy. “I am extremelydelighted that theyoung generation iscoming up with con-tent and coming hereand witnessing it wasa great experience”,said Zoya Husaain.
A new CategoryTheatre was intro-duced this year in theefforts of exploring newfields. The acts wereportrayed on politicalissues, serious issueslike rape and based onthe theme of the festi-
val. The judges DollyThakore and ArvindKaur were really ap-preciative and gaveguidelines to the par-ticipants.
The second day com-menced with thescreening of Documen-taries. The screeningsranged from protectionof bee's to Galatasa-ray's 21 year old pro-tests. Numerous col-leges had sent acrosstheir entries for Con-tingent Short Films.The content rangedfrom topics like equal-ity, self-defense andsustainability whichwere judged by Har-man Singha, AbhinavShukla and PranayPachauri. The eventeven marked the pres-ence of Shri P Set-huraman, the vicepresident of SIESTrust.
A panel discussionwas arranged with thecrew of ‘The Letter’.The team included di-rector Deeshak Patra,
c i n e m a t o g r a p h e rAnkur Hinge, writerRasika Kushte andlead actor GauravAlugh. They viewedthe short film wherethe story revolvedaround one’s affectionwith their homes.
Rasika revealed thereason for choosingthis topic was thathome is a place whichhas seen and experi-enced every joy and sor-row of an individual.“This quality turns ahouse into a home”,she added.
The last screeningfor the day was AdFilms. The films weredivided into two differ-ent categories- publicservice ads and com-mercial ads. DirectorVivek Kamath who wasthe judge also spokeabout the current me-dia situation and thefuture of advertising.
The third day beganwith the screening ofAnimation films. Theywere amazed by certain
works like ‘The Unsu-al Suspect’ which wasa humour mystery and‘A Little Blue’.
The last screeningfor the festival wasMusic Videos, judged byartists Shahid Mallya,Naitik Nagda and Paw-ni Pandey. They inter-acted with the audienceand gave tips to aspir-ing musicians in theroom. Judge PawniPandey added, “The in-dustry needs keen au-dience to magnify thetalent in India”.
The final segment ofAwards Ceremony sawsome great victories bystories that capturedhearts and were lovedby the judges. The fac-ulty awarded the film-makers and stated themark made by Frames2020 in delivering someof the finest works fromaround the globe. Thewinners were felicitat-ed and inspired to makemore films on topicswhich need to be heardin present times.
he confessed to soldthis flat to VinayakBhosale and promisedto give her another575 sq ft flat in thesecond housingproject in the samearea started by thename Sai Darpan.However, as theproject was still inthe nascent stage,Meenakshi demandedRamawat's possessionof the booked flat or toreturn back themoney. Ramawat,however, refused togive either the posses-sion of the flat or pay
back the money.Ramawat had
allegedly sold flat no.405 to Ramjit Bhard-waj and sold the sameflat to at Rs.5 lakh 50thousand to anotherbuyer identified asAnandrao Shinde.Following whichAnandrao Shinde,Meenakshi Jadhavlodged a complaint atKhandeshwar PoliceStation. Accordingly,the police havestarted investigatingthe case by filing acheating case againstBharat Ramawat.
Police file cheating case...Contd. from pg. 1
For inserting advertisements
in NEWSBANDDivakar - 9867529915 Vijay - 9867529919
by the elite nationalathletes over the clas-sic distance withArmy man SrinuBugatha aided by twopacers and defendingChampion SudhaSingh of Central Rail-way saw them finishfirst amongst the In-dian runners in theMen and Women’sFull Marathon catego-ry respectively with atiming of 2:18:44 and2:45:30 respectively.The CR Sports Officerand Arjuna AwardeeSudha Singh in theprocess registered ahat-trick of titles andfourth overall at theMumbai Marathon.
As a reward for hismaiden Full Mara-thon success in theface of the strongestMen’s marathon fieldever assembled in In-dia, and running thefastest time over42.195 km ever seenon Indian soil, Hurisawas rewarded withhis career ’s biggestever pay day cheque ofUS$45,000 in additionto a US$15,000 courserecord bonus. Thiswas more than he hadpocketed across hisentire previous career.Prior to Sunday, the22-year-old Hurisawho ran with in bor-rowed racing shoes, most notable achieve-ment was taking thesilver medal in the Af-rican Cross CountryChampionships U-20race four years ago. “Imislaid my shoeswhile travelling fromAddis Ababa to Mum-bai earlier in the weekso I borrowed someshoes from my friendAbraham Girma (whowas also in Tata Mum-bai Marathon) so I onlytried them on for thefirst time on the raceday,” shared Hurisawho surged aheadaway from his countrymates with 3 Km tothe finish line. Earli-er Cosmas Lagat(Kenya) who returnedto big time competi-tion after a yearlonginjury break aim ofretaining the title
evaporated after hesuffered injury ataround 14kilometers mark.
Ehtopia’s Berisowho won the Women’soverall title to takehome US$45,000 win-ner’s cheque, on theother hand lived up toher top billing as thefastest athlete in hercategory who was nev-er challenged despiteher tiredness on hersuccess shared “I wasnervous to start withbecause I had spent solong without racingbut I started to feelingconfident at about 31kilometers mark andwas certain I could winfrom about 36 kilome-ters. With akilometer to go, tired-ness got the better ofme despite my (male)pacemaker SylvesterKiptoo inputs that Icould still get thecourse record”.
Commenting onher fourth title atMumbai MarathonArjuna Awardee andOlympian SudhaSingh said, “My aimwas to make a hat-trick this year in theback drop of the Fe-mur Fracture whichhas just healed, Ididn’t want topressurize myself .Even though the routewas also good and Ilead the Indian ath-letes from the 25 km mark upward, the hotand humid climate af-fected my timing.However one will wit-ness and improvedtiming during theforthcoming Seoul In-ternational Marathonschedule on 22nd
March 2020 as part ofthe Tokyo Olympics2020 preparations. Iwould also want tothank my coach,Surender Singh, forguiding me through-out.”
Winner of the Indi-an Men’s Eltite catego-ry Srinu who trains atArmy Sports Institutein Pune expressed hisgratitude to the orga-nizers Procam Inter-national for providing
Debutant Hurisa & Co LeadsEthiopian Domination...
Contd. from pg. 6
pacers for their help onhis request. “I am hap-py but I feel I wouldhave clocked a bettertiming than this. Mypace dropped at thelast kilometre and Icouldn’t make a prop-er recovery from that.Regardless, I am look-ing forward to perform-ing better in my up-coming marathons.” Added Srinu whoseranking was 13th over-all, with a gap of 10:35seconds between himand Derara Hurisa,the winner of the Inter-national Elite FullMarathon.
Earlier the raceday event was gracedby Bhagat Singh Ko-shyari Governor Govtof Maharashtra, Hon.Chief Minister UddhavThackeray who flaggedoff the Full Marathonand Dream Run re-spectively in presenceof Kiren Rijiju –SportsMinister, Govt of Indiaand other State Minis-ters, Harish BhatTata Sons Brand Cus-todian, Ujwal Mathurand TCS VP & Coun-try Head - India Busi-ness among others.Cheering all the par-ticipants from the side-lines were Internation-al Event Ambassador,
Gymnastic legend,Seven-Time Olympicchampion and nine-time world champion,Shannon Miller alongwith Youth Icon andFace of the event andBollywood super starTiger Shroff.
Overall Results: # Full MarathonA) Elite International
Smoking is respon-sible for severaldiseases, such as lungcancer, long-term(chronic) respiratorydiseases and heartdiseases as well aspremature death.
Recent studies havefound that smokerscan undermine thehealth of non-smokersin some environments.‘Cigarette smoking isinjurious to health’.This is a tag linewhich is printed on allcigarette packets. Weall read them; evensmokers read them,but they ignore thiswarning. Why?Because they do notwant to give upsmoking as they havegot habituated towardsit. They also know thatcigarette not onlycauses pollution butpose health hazardstoo. It is one of themain causes behindlung cancer. Thesmoke of a burningcigarette is verydangerous. Not onlythe smoker is indanger, but it ishazardous to thehealth of the otherperson who is standingnear him. This is
Give up smoking completely
called passive smoking.All smokers know
and understand thisperfectly well, yet thereis something thatprevents them fromquitting smoking.Smoking is harmful foreach and every organ ofthe body. Nicotine is ahighly addictive drugfound in tobacco. Whena cigarette is burnedand inhaled, a drug isreleased into the bodywhich is called nicotine.It is a pleasure enhanc-ing drug and peopleeasily get addictedtowards it. The intakeof this drug stops your
body growth andresults in causingvarious diseases. Thegovernment cannot banthe sale of cigarettesand other tobaccoproducts becausebanned items some-times become moreattractive to people andthey will not quitsmoking. It also earnsmassive revenue fromthe sale of cigarettesand other tobaccoproducts.
Giving up smokingis not an easy job but it
can be done. Thechoice is yours howyou want to quit, whatkind of help you need,which option you wantto choose and where togo for help. Every timeyou attempt to quitsmoking, you becomeaware about thefavourable and un-favourable situations.You have to make-upyour mind and changeyour nearby environ-ment if you want toquit this habit. Dis-pose all cigarettes andashtrays from yourworkplace, car andhome. Your family and
friends can also helpyou to achieve thistask. Don’t allowanyone to smokearound you (it may notpossible but at leasttry to avoid thecraving when you seeothers smoking infront of you). Prayerwill also help you giveup smoking. Ask thealmighty to help youquit this habit and Hewill definitely hearyour prayers.
The writer isfreelancer
Nadda- A National leaderHaving led the national success of BJP, Home
Minister Amit Shah has finally stepped down asparty in favour of his understudy Jagat PrakashNadda.
Nadda as number 3 in the party, enjoys thetrust of both PM Modi and Shah and political observers ruled out thepossibility of him emerging as the third power centre in Modi-Shah dis-pensation. Amit Shah's success story showed him standing tall in theemergence of BJP as a National party. Recent set backs and reverseswere the only black marks in an otherwise illustrious role of Shah asPresident of the party. Now Nadda has to take up the lead as a nationalleader and lead the team to greater heights in the years to come.
MUMBAI: Data com-piled by DocsApp- anonline doctor consulta-tion platform shows asignificant rise inawareness amongIndian women to-wards infertility andpregnancy concerns.This has led to an in-creased number ofonline doctor consul-tation calls across21 cities in the coun-try. The data spreadover two months saw19,639 (8%) consul-tations related topregnancy of the to-tal consultations re-ceived across varioushealthcare segmentsreceived during theperiod.
As per the data, 324women consulted onthe platform duringthe two-month period,which indicates an av-erage of around 60-oddconsults per womenduring the period. Thedata also reveals thata maximum num-ber of consults werereceived for gener-ic gynaecology con-sultation, followedby irregular &missing periods,PCOD, Thyroid,Uterine related issues,and post-pregnancy is-sues.
Mr Satish Kannan,Co-founder and CEO,DocsApp, “We are con-tinuously striving tooffer quality healthcareand going beyond geo-graphical boundaries.We have seen a rise ininfertility issues,which are often ne-glected due to privacyor accessibility con-cerns. With DocsApp,our patients can restassured that theirhealthcare needs willbe addressed in a time-
Indian women seeking onlinemedical consultation on infertility /
pregnancy issues on the risely and effective man-ner.”
The 21 cities fromwhere the app prima-rily received calls in-
Trivandrum andVi s h a k h a p a t n a m .Among the cities, Del-hi held the top positionby accounting for 31patients followed byBengaluru at 25 andMumbai at 22 whileKanpur and Vishakha-patnam had six pa-tients each.
Sharing her experi-ence, Shreya (namechanged) from Benga-luru said, “We weretrying to conceive for avery long time. Sadly,we were facing troublewith the same and wecouldn’t do much about
it. My husband is al-ways travelling be-cause of his work andwith his busy schedule,reaching out to a spe-
cialist seemed im-possible. I cameacross DocsAppwhen I was lookingfor doctors online. Ichecked their appand it seemed genu-ine, so I consultedonline on DocsApp. Iwas instantly con-nected to “Dr RituChaudhry” and a fewmonths down theline, I was expect-ing. The doctor wasso helpful that weconnected on a per-sonal level & I evendelivered my little
one at her clinic. Con-stant support from thedoctor made me feelsafer”.
Since its inceptionin 2015, DocsApp hasbeen positively impact-ing the lives of patientsby making healthcare
accessible to anyoneand everyone acrossthe country by facilitat-ing online consulta-tions in 20 specialitiesincluding like Paediat-rics, Dermatology, Sex-ology among severalothers. The seamlessconsultation processprovides a clear diagno-sis and an e-prescrip-tion in the country,which has the lowestdata prices for connec-tivity, while the patientneeds to travel for 5-10km to reach primaryhealthcare clinics indistant rural areas.
All India BankOfficers’ Confederation(AIBOC), the apexbody of the BankOfficers’ trade unionwith over 3,20,000members, is thelargest trade union ofsupervisory cadreemployees in thecountry and has beenplaying a pivotal rolein the banking space ofthe country. AIBOChave been repeatedlystressing the pointthat the mergers andacquisitions of publicsector banks are not inthe interest of anystake holder – be itbanks or customers oremployees and officers,or the common citizenof the country.
Bankers today say
Next to Army bank employees carry out their best services
“We are all working forsalaries and we are notdoing any charitablework. What we requireis decent payment forthe work we aredoing.” We all areaware that now-a-daysbanking industry isincreasing withchallenges and risk.The banking industryin India witnessed sea-change throughnationalization ofbanks in the years1969 and 1980 withthe sole aim of promot-ing small savings forself-sufficiency and forutilizing the banks ascatalytic agents foreconomic growth.AIBOA opposes themove to merge nation-alized banks as themerger would result in
reducing staff size andnumber of branches ofassociate banks in thename of rationalizationof operations.
The functioning ofPSB has been criti-cized by those whowant complete privati-zation of PSB. Nodoubt privatization ofbanks will lead to theprofit driven approachfor short time but onthat path would it bepossible to implementfinancial inclusionand other Governmentschemes which is oneof the top agenda ofRBI? Indeed bankemployees are paidlower than manyother central andstate govt jobs.Current salary of anewly joining Proba-
tionary Officer is moreor less same as a 2800grade pay central govtjobs where as PO jobis an officer level joband a 4600 grade payjob is a clerical job forthe government. Here,my point is that thewages of PSU bankemployees which wereonce perceived asquite high, have overthe years evened out,and no longer hold thesame allure or attrac-tion of those headydays.
Bank Officerscarry on with thebusiness continuouslydespite the presence ofso many demotivatingfactors encountered inmaking credit deci-sions in order to keepthe Industry vibrat-
ing. The pulls andpressures on theofficers working inbranches and at theTop Management is awell known phenome-non. The bank em-ployees particularlythe officers who aregiving their blood andsweat to ensure thatall plans and agendaof the government arepushed through withhonesty and commit-ments, despite alladversities. Bank staffis one of the mostwork-loaded and leastcorrupt work forces.The government’spolicies are aimed atweakening the basicstructure of bankswhich have withstoodthe turbulent econom-ic situation mainly
due to the concept ofnationalization. Bankemployees, logisticsand support staff aredoing their best,putting in a lot ofeffort and workingtirelessly to bringback normalcy asquick as possible.Banks are the back-bone of the nationaleconomy. Next toArmy, they carry outtheir best service tominimize the stress ofanguished public. Allpraise to bank employ-ees is always ready toface any critical issuein the interest ofnation, right fromtheir placement, awayfrom home/childrenetc.
“In a male dominated country like In-dia, it is necessary to make your own im-age that is when we can call ourselves equalin all senses,” says the state as well as Na-tional level Ball Badminton player Akan-sha Sharma. She has played state level com-petitions for 17 times and many nationallevel matches. After completing her school-ing from St. Joseph’s High School inKalamboli, Akansha is now pursuing hersecond year in the degree of B.M.M fromPillai College, Panvel. This 19-year-old girlhas already taken her baby step in the fieldof Ball Badminton and is rearing to soarhigh to achieve her dreams. Along with BallBadminton, Akansha is also a black beltin Taekwondo. She started playing sinceshe was in Grade 5 and is still pursuingher dreams to reach heights. While speak-ing with Ryhea George, an intern reporterat Newsband, Akansha talks about chal-lenges and the major support in her career.
Newsband: Why did you choose ball bad-minton as your career and how is this sportdifferent from other sports?
Akansha Sharma : I chose ball badmintonas a career because I personally feel that ballback not only teaches you to play the sport butalso teaches us the meaning of life and how tosee this world from a different angle.
Newsband : Since how long you have beenplaying ball badminton and which teamshave you represented so far?
Akansha Sharma: I joined ball badmintonwhen I was in 5th grade and it has been 8 yearsand still I am learning new techniques each and
every day. I basically play for Raigad team whichI have represented at the State level and at Na-tional level, I have represented both Mumbai andMaharashtra.
Newsband : Is there any specific Associa-tion or Board which looks after ball badmin-ton at the National level?
Akansha Sharma : Yes there is MaharashtraBall Badminton Association at the State level andNational level. It is called the (BBFI) that is BallBadminton Federation of India.
Newsband : What changes do you expectin the growth of ball badminton in our coun-try?
Akansha Sharma: In our country ball badmin-ton still hasn't got that much popularity becausethis game was basically invented in the South, thatis, in Tamil Nadu and so they didn't bring this gameout to people. But now the game has been devel-oping and even in the Northern parts of our coun-try, people are showing keen interest towards thissport.
Newsband. How often do you play tourna-ments in a calendar year?
Akansha Sharma: Basically, in a year thereare 3 State level events and 3 National level eventsand 1 intercollegiate in their respective Universi-ties, which then select their team for an individualUniversity. For example, Mumbai University forAll India Nationals. And then there are nationallevel events like BBFI gold cup, West zone Na-tional & Youth Nationals. There is going to be the1st International event for ball badminton in Co-lumbia in the year 2020.
Newsband : Can you please tell us in de-tail about the sport?
Akansha Sharma: Ball Badminton was in-vented during the time of the British rule and theyused to play this game on a regular basis. Afterthe end of the British rule, this game became pop-ular only in the southern states of the country.
Newsband : What other sports do you playapart from Ball Badminton ?
Akansha Sharma : I have played table ten-nis, badminton and I am a black belt in Taekwon-do, I even teach Tekwondo.
Newsband: How supportive are your par-ents about your sports career?
Akansha Sharma : As my father passedaway when I was 9, my mother made sure that Imake my career in sports and hence she sup-ported me immensely. She is my only family andhas never been hesitant about me playing ballbadminton. My mother even changed my schooltwice as those schools did not have sports infra-structure. Along with my mother, my coach hasbeen very supportive and encouraging. He hascomplete faith in me and sees potential in me.Whatever I am today is because of my motherand my coach, Sougat Dutta.
Newsband : Have you ever faced genderdiscrimination while playing? Do you thinkIndia is a Cricket dominant country?
Akansha Sharma : Yes I do feel that Ballbadminton is considered inferior in comparisonwith the other well known sports. Being a girl alot of my friends for that matter tell me that thereis no career in this field, but that is how it works.There is bound to be reactions, counter reactions,suggestions etc. It all depends on you- how muchyou want to get affected by it?
My mother changed my school twice as those schools did not supportsports, AKANSHA SHARMA (State and National Level Ball Badminton Player)
