Minutes of REVIVE BOMBAY - Tenth Meeting
Time: SUNDAY JANUARY 12th, 5 PM AT CHINA GARDEN
Next meeting : Feb 23rd, at Fire n Ice, Phoenix Mills Compound - 4:30pm

Hello everyone,

These are the minutes of the tenth meeting of the organization. Ten meetings people! Good going!

-WINS!
-Organisation Update
-Team Updates 
-New Projects Proposals
-Miscellaneous

WINS!!!STOP PRESS!!!
MUNICIPAL CORPORATION PASSES A.I.D BILL!
The A.I.D Team has gotten a MASSIVE WIN! A.I.D & Municipal Corporator and Revive Bombay member Puran Doshi had BMC legislation passed for all new footpaths, restaurants and entertainment centres to be accessible to the physically disabled, as per the Development Control Rules. The resolution has gone to the Municipal Commissioner for signing and then will go the Ministry for Urban Development for final approval.

The BOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME Team met with the Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal and he likes the idea of the Walk of Fame! We are finalising our design with Architect Hafeez Contractor before we send the final proposal.

1) Organisation Update:

None.

2) Team Update
Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities (A.I.D)
Pet-a-Tree
Make-a-Wish
Truck pollution
Ambulance Services & Emergency Phone line
Heritage Statues
Bollywood Walk of Fame

1) Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities (AID) (Manish Maker - manish.maker@makers.co.in):

Karan Ahluwalia informed that in regards with the footpath/side work redevelopment programme, BMC is about to undertake a massive project of rehabilitation of existing plumbing lines from under roads to under footpaths. For this project there is massive redevelopment of Mumbai sidewalks. We see this as a tremendous opportunity for providing potential slope curve project for the wheelchair access as well as for smooth footpaths for early horizontal movements of the wheel chair. Letters are in the process of drafting to the Mumbai Commissioner and we hope to be on the foot walk redevelopment committee also. This will be done with the help of Mr. Darshan Hiranandani and Mr. Puran Doshi who is one of the BMC corporators in Mumbai.

He also informed that the change in the development Regulation Control of Mumbai, the bible for the construction activity is being proposed. This entails sufficient modification of Development Regulation Control so that all new proposed utility buildings and construction for entertainment centers, etc. We now require ramps and disability access. The notice of motion in the house will be proposed in the next week by Mr. Puran Doshi, after which the matter will be motioned to Commissioner’s levels and to the Urban Development Department of the Government of Maharashtra.

He said that he has been in regular touch with Mr. Javed Abidi who is responsible for subsequent legislative amendments for Delhi for the responsibility of individual disability. He is coming to Mumbai towards the end of January. We will get in touch with him for support and guidance for the similar amendments in Mumbai. As regards, we also propose to refer to people with disability act with him to see whether we may jointly formulate the plan of action for better implementation. As regards, we have also identified the department of social welfare for the guidance and rehabilitation.

Now with the Revive Bombay letterheads, we can send formal letter to the various agencies, hotels, restaurants and other organizations so as to formally approach them. We have also been able to get appeal letters from noted people like Mr. Atul Desai to support our cause and effort in tackling each of these areas where AID can be achieved.

Article on construction industries and aspect relating to Handicap accessibility now written by Hina Oomer (RBT Member) for the construction journal. But this is temporarily on hold as her editor asked her to delay the article for the backlog reasons.

2) Pet a Tree (Rishi Tejuja -rishitejuja@utisel.com):

Praniti Shinde informed that trees between Mahim to Bandra junction are in the process of BMC permission. We plan to have a Charity show in Fire-n-Ice to raise funds for this. We are going to get some models/actrors and actresses and we would make money for RBT through the entrance charge. Ketan Kadam of Fire & Ice has been kind enough to extend this gesture of goodwill towards us. There will be a free welcome drink to the crowd. We have gotten an RBT member, Akshay Sahgal who's going to help us with the passes.

Publicity: In regards to publicity Ketan is helping us with all the restaurants, Bombay Times and Mid-day and any other means.
Mr. Sunil Bijlani had an idea that there could be a gift for everyone i.e., every one goes with something or could be complementary Dinner (5 couple) at China Garden etc, free tickets to some place etc, were discussed. 

3) Make-a-Wish (Shraddha Thacker -  shraddhathacker12@yahoo.com)

They have approached the Make-a-Wish foundation, who are looking towards us to raise funds for them and get some volunteers. They would like us to step into the market for Rs. 50/-, 100/- so on which could be from schools etc., A presentation can be given in schools and some gifts can be given to students who get 1st rank in the class. For all this we have to wait till 25th January as we don’t have pamphlets etc. They are also going to help us with the training programme so that we will be educated when we go to schools.

Sponsorship: can be in terms of cash or a wish like a cycle, computer. 

4) Trucks & Lorries pollution (Hem Tejuja - htejuja@hotmail.com)

Mr. Hem Tejuja spoke to Mr. Ravi Gupta of Ashok Leyland regarding that moving the exhaust of trucks away from the side of the truck. He spoke about Euro 2 compliant engine. They had also gone to Telco. This process will take some time as the companies have to research how this will impact their costs, their manufacturing process etc. The key thing here is as most new trucks are Euro 2 Compliant, its actually the older trucks that are really the polluters. We need to find a way to work with the older trucks.

5) Ambulance Project - (Hina Oomer - hinao@hotmail.com & Hemanth Rao -hemanth@hemanth.net)

Mr. Hemanth Rao said that we had the entire list of ambulance services and hospitals in Mumbai. Most of them must have noticed that when we try 101, nobody picks it up or it is always engaged. The Rotary Club of Mumbai has set us a heart phone line - 105 and we would like to tie up with them. The Somaiya trust has promised 2 ambulances to Revive Bombay. To set up a phone line like that of 105, there are some logistical issues involved, the most important being that of the cost. Basically for every call coming in, there are 4 to 5 calls outgoing calls. As Call center's charge on a per phone basis, the problem comes with the hoax calls. That is the problem here as they have got 400 hoax calls per day! 

We are writing to the Shri Digvijay Khandvilkar, Ministry for Health and Family Welfare, where we would like him to make this a government provide, NGO monitored phone service, where we would work as a co-ordinator body. 

When we spoke to the Rotary Club of Bombay, they told us that the problem is with taxis being so easily accessible, many times by the time the ambulance gets there, the patient has already gone to the hospital. Therefore the only time that ambulances are required are with instances like heart patients, pregnancies etc. 

Finally if we have an ambulance taking a patient to a hospital, then that hospital has to guarantree a bed and service to the patient. So all these logistics need to be worked out and coordinated with various bodies and government agencies. We are looking to the minister's committment to this project, which would move things quickly, hopefully off-setting our costs.

6) Saving 2 Heritage statues (Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net)

We seem to be coming to a close on the heritage statues project. We have ascertained that no government body owns them and therefore the BMC can appropriate these statues. We are now going to be approaching the Municipal Commissioner to appropriate the statues and hand them to Revive Bombay for restoration and safe keeping. We in turn hope to showcase the history of the statues as a tourist attraction either through the NGMA or through our own means.

7) Bollywood Walk of Fame (Hemanth Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net):

Mr. Karan Ahluwalia has made the proposal that we will be submitting to the Government on this project. Mr. Hemanth Rao & Mr. Darshan Hiranandani met Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal a few weeks back and he likes the idea very much. Now he wants a proposal from us with many illustrations to show what we want to do. Once that is there, we will visit the site along with him. There were some ideas he brought up which is going to take us back to Hafeez Contractors office for redesigning theWalk of Fame.

3) NEW Project Proposals:


The NGO AGM (Hemanth Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net):

What we want to do is have an Annual General Body Meeting for all the NGOs working in the city. Every NGO today is working in its own sphere. If all these NGO's got together, the impact that the whole body AS ONE could have is enormous. 

To do that, Revive Bombay would like to spearhead the first Annual NGO Meet, calling together NGOs' from across the city to come together and share their ideas and thoughts, their goals and visions, their accomplishments and pitfalls so that everyone together can learn from each other and see where one can partner with each other. We want NGO’s involved to work together.

4) Miscellaneous
Citywatch paper: The citizen newspaper published by Sylvester da Cunha was distributed to all that came.

Revive Bombay policy is such that we do not give out personal information such as emails and mobile numbers of members for raising funds. RBT will approach the members directly and ask for their help for any cause, but will not give away information to non-members and outside organisations. 

Sponsors are tax exempt as RBT is tax exempted for itself and for donors.

NOTE: If you are receiving RBT Minutes in error, or would like to stop receiving these emails, kindly reply with the words "Remove" in the subject heading.

Thank You! 
We ended the meeting with a BIG Thank You to Nelson & Edward Wang, the owners of China Garden, and their team headed by Mr. Daniel, for making this meeting possible. Edward's personally chosen snacks were sampled and devoured by the hungry many quite quickly! 

Next Meeting!
The Next Revive Bombay meeting will be on FEBRUARY 23rd, 2003 at FIRE & ICE, at Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel - Courtesy of Ketan Kadam. 

A lot of people say "I want to get involved but I'm just not able to find the time." We've given you notice now.. Make sure you make the effort to come to the next meeting. 

Looking forward to seeing you all there! 

RBT.

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