BMC’s Universal Footpath Policy 2023 modified

Mumbai: To push forward with its ‘Pedestrian First’ campaign launched earlier this week to remove all encroachments from footpaths, BMC has dropped certain provisions of Universal Footpath Policy 2023 that allowed some structures to be set up and vehicles to be parked on pavements on a temporary basis “in isolated and rare cases”.The modifications are part of a set of guidelines issued for implementation of the campaign. The guidelines retain the provision that all forms of footpath encroachments must be removed following the due process of law, but they remove detailed clauses governing permissions for parking and temporary structures.The modifications apply to footpaths that have been identified as per these guidelines.Listing informal commercial activities such as vending stalls, hawkers, feeder pillar boxes of electricity and telephone utilities, and parking of vehicles as “common but undesirable features”, the guidelines said these sometimes make footpaths inaccessible/unusable. “For assuring increased comfort, uninterrupted access, optimum footpath width; encroachment of all forms on footpath shall be removed by following due process of law. The subsequent text covering temporary parking on footpaths shall stand omitted,” stated a section.Under the 2023 policy, parking on footpaths was described as dangerous for pedestrians, but it allowed licences or permissions in isolated and rare cases for a maximum of 15 days with reasons recorded in writing and with the prior approval of the additional municipal commissioner. The policy prescribed a minimum 1.2m width for pedestrians in such cases.These provisions now stand deleted.The 2023 policy also said that no temporary permission should be granted to erect structures on footpaths without the prior approval of the additional municipal commissioner or the municipal commissioner, while requiring a minimum 1.5m width for pedestrian movement. This, too, has been omitted in the modification.The detailed six-page guidelines also assign responsibility across departments for making footpaths obstruction-free. Licence and encroachment officials will be responsible for removing unauthorised structures and hawkers, enforcing a zero-tolerance approach towards shopkeepers displaying goods on footpaths, and removing unauthorised banners, hoardings and advertisements.Phase 1 of the ‘Pedestrian First’ campaign will cover 320km of footpaths. BMC chief Ashwini Bhide, along with senior civic officers, inspected footpaths in high footfall areas of Andheri West and Goregaon on Thursday, with priority given to S V Road-Ram Ganesh Gadkari Marg stretch leading to Cooper Hospital that seeks heavy pedestrian and ambulance movement.

The Bombay high court has framed a timeline for the criminal prosecution

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday fast-tracked their trial and granted bail to Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre and three other accused who were behind bars for allegedly assaulting doctors, including a woman, at Dombivli’s Shastri Nagar Municipal Hospital on July 6. All four accused are to remain outside Maharashtra till the criminal trial begins.Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad imposed the stringent condition after Mhatre’s senior counsel Aabad Ponda submitted that for his release, the 73-year-old, who has “learnt a lesson”, has offered to reside in any other state till the filing of chargesheet.The four accused, who were housed in a Kalyan jail, after release will shift to Goa temporarily. Mhatre gave the address of a north Goa resort, while Ramesh Pawar, Pramod alias Prakash Nikam and Akshay Karande, represented by advocate Sana Raees Khan, would be at a guesthouse, not far. “Mhatre will have company,” the ACJ said in jest.The HC framed a timeline for the criminal prosecution. It directed that the voice and video samples be sent to the state forensic lab in three working days. The report is to be submitted in 15 days from or by Aug 22, post which, in 10 days, the chargesheet is to be filed, and then within five days, the court should frame charges — the last pre-trial step. The HC directed the state to appoint within 15 days a lawyer with “large experience” as special public prosecutor as the case is “very important’’ and specifically directed that such SPP should not be replaced without the court’s nod.The endeavour should be to complete trial in three months once charges are framed, the HC said.ACJ Ghuge, dictating the order in open court, said, “In a democracy an elected representative is by the people and for the people. If the elected representative is accused of assaulting his own voters, such a situation is bound to dent the fabric of democracy in this country and erode public confidence.”Police had arrested Mhatre on July 8 for allegedly slapping and punching a doctor and assaulting a resident medical officer. A local court granted him bail on July 14, while he was in a hospital. He was released, but on July 18, the HC took up the matter suo motu and put a stay on the bail order for all four, directed Mhatre to surrender. He did so on July 19.The HC had, in its July 18 order, said, “…in the labour ward of Shastri Nagar Municipal Hospital, Dombivli, a lady doctor and two male doctors were physically brutally assaulted by persons, namely, Ramesh Mhatre, Ramesh Pawar, Pramod alias Prakash Nikam and Akshay Karande… There has been an uproar from the masses… to the beating of doctors on duty.’’ And had said the crime was “more grave because a lady doctor was also assaulted and it is reported that she has resigned out of fear”.Senior counsel S U Kamdar for Indian Medical Association (IMA), which had given a strike call and withdrawn it after the HC suo motu took up the matter, said the female doctor as well as the first informant doctor, be given police protection. Both have tendered their resignations, which the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation hadn’t accepted, the HC was informed. The court asked the municipal corporation to ensure they are protected.Public prosecutor Shishir Hirey, on videoconferencing, and additional public prosecutor K V Saste said chargesheet would be filed soon, but three witness statements are yet to be recorded before a magistrate and would be done soon.Senior counsel Ashok Mundargi had earlier submitted that the trial be expedited to ensure that common citizens are assured that the system works, especially in high-profile cases. The HC thus directed its registry to appoint, in a week, a judge from Kalyan courts to preside over a fast-track court in the case.State government shall ensure that adequate police protection is granted to the victims and the witnesses whenever required during the investigation or the trial, the HC directed.Bail conditions imposed:– The accused cannot tamper with the investigation and won’t influence the witnesses, before or during trial when they are permitted to stay in their own homes– ⁠They won’t leave India without prior permission of the court– ⁠Mhatre will surrender passport, other three said they don’t have a passport– ⁠ ⁠They should not commit any similar offence and should not prolong or delay the trial– Neither the defence nor prosecution should seek unnecessary or trivial adjournments

Mumbai: Juhu police on Friday said they had solved the murder of a 35-year-old watchman, Mohan Yadav, who was on night duty at the Abhijit residential building in Vile Parle (West) on August 1. Five people have been arrested in the case, including the cook employed by a businessman couple living in the building and the driver of a renowned Bollywood film director residing in Juhu.Police said the accused had allegedly conspired to rob and kill the businessman, his wife, who also runs a business, and their daughter, who lived on the sixth floor of the building. The plan was to steal cash and valuables that the cook, Jogeshwar Mallik (38), a native of Madhubani in Bihar, claimed to have seen inside a cupboard. The valuables allegedly included Indian and foreign currency, diamond and gold jewellery, and gold bricks.Police said Mallik was the mastermind behind the conspiracy. Employed by the businessman for the past 10 years, he allegedly procured duplicate keys to the family’s flat and spent nearly two-and-a-half years planning the robbery with Vijay Gonjare (41), the driver of a renowned Bollywood film director. Investigators said the two stopped communicating over mobile phones six months ago to avoid detection and instead met in person every night after signing off from work around 9.30pm at locations in Juhu.To execute the plan, Mallik allegedly asked Gonjare to recruit three more accomplices — Sharad Yerudkar (43), his brother Mahadev Yerudkar from Kolhapur, and Aniket Bornak (30). According to police, it was agreed that Mallik would receive 50% of the stolen valuables, while the remaining half would be divided among the other four accused.“When we picked up Mallik, his employer came to his rescue and even stood by his side, insisting he could not have been involved in the murder, unaware that the conspiracy was actually to rob and kill the family as well,” said an officer from the Juhu police station.Police said Mallik and Gonjare knew each other because Gonjare had earlier worked with his employer in the same Juhu building where the film director resides, before relocating to Vile Parle (West). Investigators said the conspiracy gathered pace last week after Mallik handed over the duplicate keys to Gonjare.According to the investigation, Gonjare introduced the three accomplices to watchman Mohan Yadav on Friday, a day before the crime, and even gave him Rs 500 to gain his confidence while telling him they would return the next day for a party.On the night of August 1, the four accused gathered at the building and drank with Yadav. Police said they had spiked his drink, but when they realised it had little effect on him, they allegedly strangled him to death. His hands were tied behind his back before his body was dumped into a water tank and the lid was shut.Around 4.30am on August 2, Gonjare and the three accomplices, who were allegedly drunk, went to the sixth floor and attempted to enter the businessman’s flat using the duplicate keys. When they failed to unlock the door, Sharad Yerudkar continued trying for some time before the group eventually abandoned the attempt and fled. Police said the accused had also carried hammers to facilitate the robbery if required.Investigators said both Mallik and Gonjare have confessed to having planned the crime for nearly two-and-a-half years.Police registered a murder case on Aug 2, after the relieving security guard discovered Yadav’s body and alerted the police.The investigation was supervised by Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Zone-2) Mohit Garg. Multiple teams worked on the case under Assistant Commissioner of Police Vinod Gaonkar; senior inspector Bapurao Gawade; inspectors Santosh Jadhav and Atul Mali; assistant inspectors Ranjit Chavhan, Yash Palwe and Kumbhare; sub-inspectors Balasaheb Pote and Suryakant Omase; along with other staff members.Police said the investigation initially hit a dead end. Teams recreated the crime scene and found that even loud screams from the watchman’s location could not be heard elsewhere in the largely vacant building.The breakthrough came after investigators spotted Gonjare in CCTV footage in Juhu allegedly making inquiries about purchasing operation gloves. Police said technical analysis helped track Gonjare, which in turn led investigators to Sharad Yerudkar before they arrested Mallik and the remaining accused.According to police, the accused believed they could execute the robbery without being detected because only three families occupied the 10-storey building. While the first two floors housed commercial establishments, most of the residential floors were vacant after flat owners had vacated the premises for an upcoming redevelopment project.

The victim, Jayshree Bhanji Parmar, was employed as a sanitation worker with BMC and was two years away from retirement

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport’s (BEST) 79th foundation day celebrations turned sour after a 56-year-old BMC sanitation worker was fatally run over by a bus when she was crossing the road at a traffic signal in Mulund West on Friday afternoon. This is the fourth fatal mishap involving a BEST bus since June.The bus driver, Ravi Bhagvanta Bolij (32), was arrested shortly after he and conductor Shailesh Sudhakar Wagh (26) were taken to Mulund police station.A senior BEST official told TOI that prima facie it is ‘driver error’ and Mulund police, who have registered an accidental death report, were also probing this angle. Police said they are examining CCTV footage, recording eyewitness statements, and collecting other evidence as part of the probe.The incident took place around 2.35pm, when the BEST bus, operating on the Nerul-Mulund Check Naka route, halted at a traffic signal at Maharana Pratap Chowk. As the signal turned green and Bolij started the vehicle, Jayshree Bhanji Parmar, who was crossing the road, came under the front right tyre and suffered grievous head injuries, an official said. She was rushed to the nearby M T Agarwal Hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival. The body was sent to Rajawadi Hospital for postmortem examination before being handed over to her family.Parmar, who worked with the BMC as a sanitation worker and lived in Nalasopara, was two years away from retirement, said her daughter Dipali Waghela.Police said the bus involved in the accident had been wet-leased from private operator Mateshwari.The latest tragedy has reignited debate over the increasing number of accidents involving wet-leased buses. Commenting on the crashes over the past few months, senior BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya alleged that accidents have increased due to inadequate driver training and growing dependence on wet-lease operators. “Such incidents were rare earlier. Wet-lease drivers do not face the same level of accountability and disciplinary action as permanent BEST drivers. They are not governed by any rules of BEST, which is why there is no fear,” he said.While BEST has announced plans to gradually reduce its reliance on wet-lease buses and induct around 5,000 owned buses, Ganacharya urged BMC to provide advance funding to speed up fleet acquisition. “Otherwise, accidents involving wet-lease buses could continue unchecked for the next two to three years,” he warned.BEST committee chairperson Trushna Vishwasrao had recently directed wet-lease operators to ensure drivers were sensitised and buses technically sound. She also said officials from transport and engineering departments had failed to adequately monitor vehicle maintenance, driver training and compliance checks, contributing to the recent spate of accidents.RECENT CASES OF PEDESTRIANS HIT BY BEST BUSES :July 20 : A 62-year-old pedestrian was killed and 10 people, including a BEST bus driver and conductor, were injured after a bus crashed into the railing of the Mankhurd Bridge. BEST officials blamed it on driver error while the latter claimed it was a ‘brake failure’July 10 : Two pedestrians suffered injuries after a wet-lease BEST bus lost control and rammed into 14 vehicles at Amboli naka in Andheri WestJuly 8: A 43-year-old pedestrian was injured after being struck by a BEST bus during a reversing manoeuvre near Konkan Nagar in Bhandup. The incident occurred around 8.30am and involved a wet lease bus operating on Route A-425 from Oshiwara depot. During the manoeuvre, the rear portion of the bus reportedly came into contact with Atul Anant Padave, leaving him trapped between a large tree planter and the busJune 8: A BEST electric air-conditioned bus rammed into multiple vehicles in heavy traffic opposite Plaza Cinema in Dadar, killing a 22-year-old delivery executive and injuring six others. Shivaji Park police registered a case against the driver, Vikas PadaveJune 4: An accident involving a BEST bus on route 440 near Pushpa Park in Borivli claimed the life of a 50-year-old car driver