Minutes of REVIVE BOMBAY - Third Meeting
Time: 5:00pm Sunday April 7th, 2002 Liquid Lounge
NOTE: SEE YOU SUNDAY APRIL 28TH, 5 PM AT FIRE N ICE (THREE WEEKS)

Hello everyone,

These are the minutes of the third meeting of the organization.
As promised, we started on time and the meeting was done by 6pm, after which the Teams split up into their own groups allowing people to take part, and also get some very useful work done.

1) Membership
Aditi Jagtiani led this decision. The organisation decided that at this
point we would not charge members a membership fee. We would be taking members and we distributed information sheets which everyone filled. The form will be available on the organisation's website before the next meeting. Membership fees would be decided at a later date, especially once the organisation has proven itself.

2) Organisation Structure
The organisation will have a hierarchical structure as decided at the second meeting. However, it will be a Core/Central Committee that will serve that purpose. The committee will have about 5 people who will meet and their purpose is to ensure the smooth running of the meetings, setting of the agenda, follow-up with all the Team Leaders, and generally serve the purpose as a President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. They will meet separately like any other team and will fill in whatever roles need to be filled in to keep the organisation functioning smoothly. We are accepting applications for this committee. Those interested please email me at hemanth@hemanth.net

3) Miscellaneous:

Website:
We have now registered our own website - www.ReviveBombay.org and
www.ReviveBombay.com

The website will be jointly developed and maintained by Binoy Khimji,
Chaitanya Rajani and Hemanth Rao Binoy has offered to help design the site and host it, while Chaitanya has offered to maintain the site.

Ward map
How many of you know which Ward you belong to? We now have a map of the city from which you can see which ward you belong to.
The map will be available on the website whereby you can click on where you
live and will be taken to your ward office information! The website will
have a lot of other useful information such as Important numbers at BMC,
your corporators names and information, list of the NGO's in the city and a
host of other things. Suggestions are welcome to the website developers.

EGroups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/revivebombay
We have started a Yahoo EGroup where everyone is invited to join. This will
allow anyone to email the whole organisation. It is a useful tool, which
needs to be used. So please sign up. Once you have signed up, you can email revivebombay@yahoogroups.com to access everyone. This EGroup will be monitored to check any abuse. Please use it responsibly.

City Watch
The citizen paper City Watch, published by Mr. Sylvester da Cunha was
distributed and everyone took home a copy. It highlighted the other work being done in the city by alert citizens, organisations and NGOs.

Hotmail problems
Many members are not receiving their email from Revive Bombay. These are primarily the members using Hotmail. If you have your Junk Mail filter turned on, then a mass-mail such as this will be sent to your Junk Mailbox immediately. To correct this, please check your Junk Mailbox regularly and chose emails from the organisation as "Not Junk Mail".

4) Team Project updates

WASTE MANAGEMENT
Neha Mehta(neha@idfc.com_
(This team has tied up with Dustbins, another Fast Track project that was headed by Akshay Sahgal) The reason was because dust bins and waste recycling -all of it falls under one broad heading and it was easier to integrate the two and work in stages. They have discussed the project and decided on various stages of action. Their plan is to attack our own societies and neghbours, find out how much waste seggregation is practised and then meet up with BMC on PLAN OF ACTION. They are in the process of finding an advisor for the team, have a few people in mind but nothing final as yet.

TREE PLANTATION
Sravanya Rao(sravanya@hotmail.com) -(Excused Absence)
Sravanya was unable to make the meeting. However she has found a sponsor who has promised Rs 30,000 for planting trees in the Dr. Annie Besant Road area. They have not yet worked out the exact logistics of where (ie, footpath, centre of the road etc) but they will have this information soon.

FOOD DRIVES
Chirag Doshi(ccdoshi@walchand.com) -(Excused Absence)
They already have three top restraunters in this organisation and are
working on the logistics of Food distribution. Akanksha had done this before with the Oberoi, so they wish to find out if that model could be replicated, and how.

PROJECT CLEAN AIR
Puneet Khurana(puneet_k@yahoo.com)
Sponsoring Taxi's & Autorickshaw who are converting their vehicles into CNG, helping to keep city pollution free.The idea is to help them reduce that conversion cost burden may be through corporate advertising on taxis and Autos Conversion into CNG Petrol Taxi - Rs. 32,000(appox)
Autorickshaw - Rs. 22,000 (appox) Visited Mr. A L Quadros of Bombay Taxi Union dt. 21st March 02 in reference to the above subject. Currently almost 26000 taxis are running on CNG in the city. He also pointed out problems taxi drivers are facing going in for corporate advertising type of customers using taxi's i.e. gangster, small traders who would like to go unnoticed They got a few names of banks but need to get more details . Taxi's are receiving bank loans of 75% by giving HP on vehicle Meeting with Mr. Pramod Ghone , Secretary autorickshaw Union he was quite receptive to the idea and gave the following details.

Autorickshaw's are
getting loan facilities from schedule banks at (appox) 15% rate
Down payment of Rs4,300 service charges (Rs.1600 insurance, Rs. 300 RTO charges, Rs 2400 Bank processing charges ) Rs 1,560 / month for 18 months CNG vehicles is just another way I could see to reduce pollution problem in B'bay . Other alternatives and way to reduce pollution are also welcome By the end of his report, Mukul Deora offered his services to find those advertising firms to speed up this process.

BOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME
Hemanth Rao(hemanth@hemanth.net)
We have invited Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani to be our Advisor. He has accepted and has been very helpful in making us meet the right people. We have zoned in three locations and are meeting with the authorities that own the area. We have discussed options such as having the BWOF near a studio to give it that nostalgic link. However due to the location of most studios such as traffic problems, width of road available etc, distance from they city, we had to opt for a location that will serve a more practical purpose.We have all our things in place in terms of who to invite to be on the Bollywood Walk of Fame Association. We are just waiting on a finalisation on the location. We are unsure about when this will happen, but hope it will happen quite soon.

ROAD SIGNAGE
Kunal Chandra(kunal25@hotmail.com) -(Excused Absence)
Kunal was unable to be here. They will give a report at the following
meeting. However, a point was made that was brought to people's attention. Mr. Rahul Mehrotra, author of Bombay, The Cities Within and well know heritage conservationalist, and director of UDRI (Urban Design Research Institute) told us that they have worked with BMC in making a very comprehensive book on Road Signage - exact specs of signs, where the ads can be placed etc, and making the process more Sponsor-friendly. This book should be coming out this week or so. And he can put the committee in touch with the right people as well.

SPECIAL ACCESS
Manish Maker(mm340@hotmail.com)

· Shanoor Forbes:
Had a meeting with Shanoor Forbes to get an insight into the life,
obstacles, needs and suggestions of a quadriplegic. Although completely wheelchair bound, she has a job with Gulf Air, enjoys the theatre, concerts, lectures, art galleries, museums, clubs etc. Shanoor gave us some great leads-names and numbers of persons and organizations who are actively involved in our cause or similar causes. She also had a number of useful suggestions, from what we should start with, to what areas we should immediately target, etc. We will be in repeated tough with her. I did read out a letter she had writted to the Director, National Gallery of Modern Art, about the totally inhuman experience she had at the Gallery when she visited the Picasso Exhibition. · Statistics: Approximatly 6% of our National population is "disabled". That is an astonishing 60 million persons! Where are these people? Why do we hardly see them around? Is it possible that they are simply prisoners in their own homes because there simply aren't facilities to accommodate them in the outside world i.e. the city they live in? Which brings us to our next point:

· Facilities in Schools: Have any of you ever noticed a special student when you went to school? Did your school even have the facility or infrastructure to support such a child? Is it possible that the reason we don't see wheelchairs around is simply because schools do not have the facilities to cater to even their basic needs, and therefore do not even consider giving them admission? Can we start spreading the awareness and help schools to be a little more accessible so that special persons can start mixing and studying with the rest of us?

· Meeting with the GM of Oberoi:We met with Sanjeev Malhotra and Trevor Saldana. This is what we got to know: * There are no laws which compel hotels to provide any kind of accessible facilities for their guests. Just because The Oberoi or other hotels provide any such facility they don't get any brownie points, they do it on their own. * Accessibiliy does not figure in the ratings for hotels to get recognised. There is a code which the hotels follow in their constuuction and
accessibility does not feature in it. So it really doesn't matter what
services they provide to special persons. After meeting them, we went to see the two HA rooms they have. Very impressive--state of the art bathrooms and even the furniture is especially made.Sanjeev was very supportive with the idea of building a ramp for easier access to Frangipani/India Jones. He would be happy to assist us in which ever way he can. He did warn us about the beaurocracy that would be involved if changes are to be made and that was the main reason why people would be reluctant. According to him most of the Oberoi hotels are equipped to have wheel-chair guests. · Meet with the Dpty. Commissioner of Police in charge of Airports: Mr. Sanjay Barve was very interested. He had 4 main suggestions: *Amending the Bulding Proposals for new Public Utility Buildings, so that all new Public Utility Buildings that submit plans for approval, will NOT be approved unless they have a ramp and an elevator that will accommodate paraplegic persons. *Formation of an NGO that deals exclusively with furthering the cause of paraplegics in the areas of Footpath conversion (smoothening and sloped to the road at certain points) *More accessible toilets *Much more Accessible Parking around the city and at strategic locations He is also going to form his own NGO-Patriots, that will further the cause of street children, and of cyclists-to attempt to create cycling paths that are smooth and sloped from the road level at certain points so that cyclists can easily get on them from the road. He was very excited about the perfect synergy that existed between what needs to be done for cyclists and for wheelchair-bound persons, as far as this is concerned. As far as starting with Accessibility issues at the airport, he suggested we draft a letter to the Director, Airports Authority, demanding more Ambulifts (there is only one today) and more Special Parking spaces (again, only one), which he will edit, and with which he will accompany us to the right person to talk with.

· American With Disabilities Act:
This legislation changed with way Americans looked at Special Persons, and millions of lives as well. It was the milestone that led to the accessibility of the nation-all the ramps, accessible-toilets, special buses, accommodation in transport, etc. We have managed to get a copy of the Act, will study it closely in due course, and see what part of this legislation is possible to incorporate into our context. We will also talk to professionals about this and get some serious advice on the level of difficulty and the process involved in getting such a law passed in India.

· Our future plan:
--To contact someone in the BMC
--To contact the Chief Fire Officer for amendments to the CFO Regulations toincorporate the aspect of safety for Special persons from the fire point ofview (which will automatically lead to an amendment in building proposals)
--Find out much more about existing organizations
--Find out about facilities for special children in schools
--Get more specific Statistics, especially relating to children, and our
city in particular
--Get an Advisor
--Our immediate focus will be:
--Theatres/Movie halls
--Airports and Airlines
--Railways
--Any new construction (Natraj, Wellington Mews, Narim Pt multiplex)

· First Hit:
My office building, Maker Tower 'F', is renovating the terrace, and
converting it into a cafeteria and party area. I had a meeting with the
bulding's Secretary and Joint Secretary on the plans. Our lobby is already accessible, with a ramp for a wheelchair. I suggested that if the same were done for the roof, this would be a completely accessible office building. Somehow the wheelchair angle was missed out in future plans, and now it has been re-incorporated. As I said earlier, the key to more hits is a combination of timing and cost. If it doesnt hurt the society, etc. financially, and we target such projects that are going to
renovate/construct anyways, then they would be more than happy to
incorporate these modifications into their plans.

Note: By the end of Manish's report, Mr. Puran Doshi, BMC Corporator(South Mumbai) and Revive Bombay member had
volunteered to see that legislation is put through BMC to ensure that all
new entertainment centres, government buildings be required to have Special access.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MANISH MAKER AND THE SPECIAL ACCESS TEAM FOR THE ORGANISATION'S FIRST HIT!

All this was done by 6pm, after which the organisation split into the Fast Track Teams, and everyone went to the one they were most interested in. The teams that have still not presented their proposals from the 2nd meeting can do so at any meeting, and we are also
open to new ideas and new teams.

5) Thank you to Chirag & Kanika Doshi A BIG THANK YOU to Chirag and Kanika Doshi for offering the Liquid Lounge for the purpose of this meeting. The Liquid Lounge is presently having its Lebanese Festival (with belly dancer and all) so everyone is encouraged to go for it. We even had a taste of what the Festival was going to offer and everyone was VERY interested!

***NEXT MEETING: SUNDAY APRIL 28TH, 5:00 PM. FIRE 'N ICE*******

Ketan Kadam has been most gracious to allow us the use of Fire 'N Ice for the next meeting. Most people were encouraged to spend the Saturday night there to make it for the Sunday meeting..

If someone wants more information on:
i) The meeting as a whole - Please contact me, or a friend that was present
ii) An idea that has been mentioned - Please email the person that will befollowing up on it.
iii) All this information will soon be on www.revivebombay.org

LOST AND FOUND
A pair of glasses was found on the Waste Management team table (Ironic eh)If you are the owner, please contact me.Just a reminder that any project that was mentioned before - Your project can still be a Fast Track project as we have to constantly take on new projects. If there is something you or a group of you are interested in taking up, everyone will have the opportunity at every meeting. We were done - as promised - by 6:30pm. Thank you to everyone that came for a very productive, effective and efficient meeting. While we saw many new faces at the second meeting, we hope that the ones who couldnt make it, will
still try to come for the next meeting! In the mean time, keep doing your own bit for your city.

See you all in about three weeks - SUNDAY APRIL 28TH, 5 PM.

Hemanth.

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