Minutes
of REVIVE BOMBAY - Sixth Meeting
Time: Sunday 28th JULY, 5 PM, The Mexican Room, Pool Level, The
Oberoi Towers
NEXT MEETING : SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 8th(ie, this weekend!), 4:30PM
AT OLIVE.
Hello
everyone,
These
are the minutes of the sixth meeting of the organization.
-Organisation Update
-Team Updates
-Hits
-New Projects & Proposals
-Miscellaneous
1)
Organisation Update:
Our
quest for being chartered as an organisation continues. We have
put an ad in the paper as a public announcement that is a requirement
from the Charity Commissioners office. So if anyone has any problem,
we basically give them a 30 day notice. We took the cheapest ad
possible, and that was in a Marathi newspaper. So August 16th
would be our hearing but since the guy who evaluates all applicants
is out of town, our hearings been postponed to August 27th.
We
are also welcoming a host of new members today - they have joined
the organisation because they heard about us from the Times of
India article.
2) Team Update
Bollywood
Walk of Fame (Hemanth Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net):
At our last meeting, we mentioned that Hafeez Contractor has agreed
to doing the layout of The Bollywood Walk of Fame. We showed the
proposed layout and design. The approximate cost of the Walk will
be about Rs. 85 lakhs. We are working out how we would like to
fund this project - either through corporate donations or from
the actors themselves. This will be debated further. We are presently
working on the presentation for MSRDC. Once we get the location
given to us, we hope to tie up with some major organisations including
the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corp.
Food
Drives (Chirag Doshi - ccdoshi@walchand.com):
No Update
Tree
Plantation (Chetna Mahadik - skye123@rediffmail.com):
Met the landscaper Sneha working for Hiranandani Constructions.
She gave a list of trees, suitable for the climate of Mumbai,
dividing them into crowning trees, straight growing trees and
sea side trees. Our interest area right now is Marine drive, specially
the stretch across the Gymkhanas. The pavement across the four
gymkhanas, also used as parking space, currently has barely a
few trees, planted few and far between or destroyed. Also the
Gymkhanas have been trying to erect a barbwire barrier between
the ground and the pavement, which has been vetoed by the BMC.
Our suggestion was to plant trees that have a thin bark, so that
they did not take too much of the parking space, but with a good
foliage to be planted across the gymkhanas at regular intervals.
And a green hedge between the trees to act as a natural barrier.
Sneha suggested the a tree called Calophyllum Enophyllum, which
would not only meet the requirements but would be perfect to handle
the sea wind which is terribly harmful for the common trees. For
the green hedge she suggested a plant called Ficus Panda. She
also promised to send me a list of contractors who plant the trees
for you, for a cost ofcourse. As for watering these plants, we
need to hire tankers and then ensure that they water the trees
twice every week.
After
the meeting, Puran Doshi promised that all we need to do is to
identify a site, get the saplings in place and the BMC would get
the plantation done. Since saplings have been promised by Hiranandanis,
basically it is the post-plantation care and identifying a sight
had to be done. More soon!
Waste
Management (Neha Mehta - neha@idfc.com):
Waste Management studies are now on the website on how waste disposal
works and how to manage waste in your house. 15th August is the
start of the Zero Waste BMC drive. Have met with Puran Doshi to
see the plans that the BMC has for Waste Management.
Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities (AID) (Manish
Maker - mrmaker@makersinternational.com):
Manish wasn't in town, so Lalita Ramesh(lalitaramesh@hotmail.com)
and Karan Ahluwalia(karan.ahluwalia@bom.rabobank.com)
gave an update on AID.
*HIT:
We got a hit when the article of Pramod Navalkar came in
the Bombay Times on how he is now going to make parks for people
with disabilities. This was primarily due to the efforts of Sangita
Maker and Nageen Aslam and them pushing Navalkar to pursue this.
Unfortunately, neither their names nor the organisation's name
was mentioned in the article.
AID
will be working with some legal advisors to formulate legislation
to be passed in the BMC, or to get a circular passed by them for
buildings new and old to have accessibility for individuals with
Disabilities. The existing Physical disability Act has no penalty
for not complying with the requirements of the act. The Oberoi
is working closely with the AID team and they have some excellent
rooms that cater to people with disabilities. The problem they
face in making the entire Oberoi user-friendly for people with
disabilities is the red-tapism at the BMC -planning, permissions
etc. AID will be working with them to get through this problem
they are facing. They have agreed to putting a temporary ramp
once we give them a letter requesting so. Also, the Trident Hotel,
the new Oberoi hotel coming up near the Bandra Kurla Complex will
involve these issues in their planning. Spoke to the Theatre Owners
Association. Trying to get them to come around. As of now, it
is not commercially viable for the older theatres. That is why
the BMC ruling would be important. RIght now, even hospitals are
not easily accessible. To do that, we need to start writing letters
to the management of these hospitals. Please contact Manish, Lalita
or Karan on this. The Maker Towers F accessbility ramp construction
is on.
Talking
to INOX Multiplexes and Shringar Films for their support. Atul
Desa, President of the Architects Association of India, who happens
to be physically handicapped is also working in this direction
and the AID team is looking to work with him in pushing their
ideals. The Team is under discussions with the Taj Hotel. They
also have a suggestion where they call important people for a
dinner and meet with them on this and invite the press.
*HIT:
We also had Mr. Jain of INOX Multiplexes, who is a Revive Bombay
member, who promised that all of his theatres would be accessible
to anyone with disabilities.
New Projects & Proposals
Clean
Air - Taxis (Puneet Khurana - puneet_k@yahoo.com)
As you are all aware, they have the Mahanagar Gas Ltd MD as their
advisor. They are trying to help out the taxis by working with
some Coop banks who can fund these taxis to convert to CNG. Lots
was discussed - from the cost of CNG kits, to the availability
of CNG at the outlets. Something else that came up was whether
this team only concentrates on the Taxi angle or other angles.
Puneet Khurana, the team leader confirmed that this is for Clean
Air/PUC which focusses on the pollution caused by taxis and how
to get them to convert to CNG while helping them out financially.
This includes trying to get sponsors for the cars. Each new CNG
kit costs about 25-30,000 Rs.
The
deadline for CNG conversion is August 31st so a lot of the citizens
worries might be addressed by that day automatically by the High
Court's ruling. Puran Doshi suggested we form a strong pressure
group and that every taxi should be RTO Service checked every
three years.
Road
Signage (Kunal Chandra - kunal25@hotmail.com)
No update.
3)
Hits:
AID : Sangita and Nageen getting Pramod Navalkar to open Handicapped
parks
AID : Mr. Jain of INOX Multiplexes promises all his multiplexes
will be accessible to people with disabilities
MANGROVES : Puran - Mangroves issue noticed by the Govt. Now need
a follow up.
AKANKSHA : Puran - Got Akanksha a place in Colaba.
4)
New members:
We welcomed 7 new members at this meeting - all of whom joined
the organisation through the website.
-Miscellaneous
The Society for Welfare of Stray Dogs:
We had Abodh Aras, CEO of the Welfare of Stray Dogs who gave us
a very moving presentation on the state of these stray dogs in
Bombay. Both the presentation and the information on WSD will
be listed on the Revive Bombay website. Some points from that
presentation were:
-Sterilize and vaccinate dogs – reason – garbage
-Rabies control
-Killing did not work – multiplied
-Sterilization
-Mass vaccination
-First–aid programme
-Education – awareness, adoption
-Helen Keller adoption program
How can we help?
-Contribute to corpus
-Sponsor education program
-Sponsor an area (first aid / sterilization) - Monthly sterlisation
sponsorship costs Rs. 500.
-Construction ofd additional kennels
-Buying our products
-Vehicle and maintenance cost for a year
-Helpline – 3 lakhs p.a
- Adopt a Stray
These are the BMC numbers if you want a dog in your area sterilised
:City : 3085118, Eastern Suburbs : 5094161, Western Suburbs-Bandra
to Jogeshwari : 6422672, Jogeshwari to Dahisar: 8808206. Specify
if you want the dogs returned to their exact location. Call WSD
on 3733433 for help with the procedure. You can even bring stray
dogs to our kennels yourself, but make sure that you call first
on 3060275 and check for availability of space. Please remember
no pregnant dogs, puppies under 6 months or house pets.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WSD, email wsd@rediffmail.com.
You can also contact Vrinda Chabbra who has started the Stray
Dogs Team.
Removal
of Team :
Due to the lack of any progress in the Road Signage team in the
6 months, it was decided that this team be removed from Fast Track
group. If in the future the team has done enough work to warrant
them being a focus team, it will be bumped back up.
Addition of Team : STRAY DOGS
Vrinda Chhabra, one of our members has done a lot of work in the
field of Stray dogs and is extremely passionate about their welfare.
Seeing the work that she has done, including getting Welfare of
Stray Dogs to come to the meeting, she convinced the organisation
that we need to start a Stray Dogs team. Some of the poinfs of
focus in this team would be :
Sterilization
and immunization
Medical
help – helpline for dogs – health
Rights
of Animals
Promote
the adoption for dogs and work with Welfare of Stray Dogs.
Imparting
information to those who want to help more in this
After seeing her presentation and work, she is now in-charge of
the Team for Stray Dogs. Congrats Vrinda.
Vrinda Chhabra. Email:
vrinda_chhabra@hotmail.com
Thank You!
We ended the meeting with a BIG Thanks to the Oberoi and to Ms.
Priya D'Cunha for making it possible. The hotel provided some
delicious refreshments which vanished quickly!
Next
Meeting!
Next meeting will be at Olive, courtesy of AD Singh and the Olive
team. We've only had meetings in town and that removes a large
number of members who can't or won't travel into town on the weekend.
So this one's for you guys. So please be there.
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