National Society for Equal Opportunities for the Handicapped (NASEOH) is organising a ‘JOB FAIR FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES’ on Saturday from 9.30am to 2 pm.

The Job Fair will be held at Naseoh, Postal Colony, Behind Fine Arts Auditorium, Chembur East.

More than 25 companies are presenting career opportunities for the blind, physically handicapped, deaf, mute and slow learners.

Where: Naseoh, Chembur East
When: December 19
Time: 09:30am-02:00pm

An unidentified person/s burnt a total of eleven motorbikes in Antop Hill area in the wee hours of Tuesday. An FIR has been registered in connection with the incident and the police is on the lookout for those responsible.
The incident came to light early on Tuesday after a local resident saw the motorcycles on fire. While nine motorbikes were completely charred in the fire, two sustained more than 50 per cent damage. Most of the victims live in Motilal Nehru Nagar, a nearby slum and park their motorbikes in the area.
Police sub inspector Shivaji Mohite said the motorbikes were parked illegally on a land owned by the Central government. They were parked in the CGS quarters area in Sector 7. Mr Mohite said that he had not come across any information where people from the area raised objection over the parking.
One of the victims Gopal Gupta (28) said, “I am a resident of Motilal Nehru Nagar which is at a distance of five minutes from the spot. My motorbike was a Honda Unicorn, which was gifted by my parents just 10 months back. I have been parking my bike there for 10 months. The residents used to object about the parking only during festivals.”
“I have no idea who burnt my bike. I have no enmity with anyone. A local resident told me that one person first took out the petrol from the bikes and then used it to burn them. He was also taking out petrol from bikes in the nearby area when the resident screamed at him. The unidentified person then ran off,” added Mr Gupta.
The Honda Activa of Abdul Razak (30), another resident of Motilal Nagar, was charred in the incident too. Mr Razak had bought it just three months ago. “I have no idea who did this. I have no enmity with anyone,” he said.

Thousands of Muslims in India have joined nationwide rallies to protest derogatory remarks against Islam’s founder by a self-proclaimed Hindu activist.

The protests were sparked by a press note from Kamlesh Tiwari, who claims to be a member of a right-wing group called Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM). The note, which was released on Nov. 30, stated that Prophet Muhammad was homosexual.

The demonstrations by members of India’s largest religious minority kicked off in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Dec. 2, and have gradually spread to other parts of the country, although ABHM has denied that Tiwari is affiliated with it.

Large-scale rallies have also taken place in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir over the past two weeks, with thousands of Muslim protestors demanding the death penalty for Tiwari.

Tiwari was arrested on Dec. 2 hours after the protests erupted.

Police sources told BenarNews that Tiwari was charged under the stringent National Security Act of 1980 (NSA) on Dec. 10 on the directive of state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, adding that he was being held in a prison in Lucknow, U.P.’s capital.

The NSA, which is used mainly against hardened criminals and terrorists, allows detention of up to a year without trial or other rights.

During a press conference in Lucknow last week, Tiwari’s supporters said he had issued the press note in response to comments made by the state’s Minority Welfare Minister Azam Khan days earlier. The minister had said that many members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were single because they were homosexual.

Religious attacks are new low

Analysts opined that political parties’ practice of targeting people’s religious sentiments to take jibes at each other is in bad form.

“While Tiwari’s remark is factually incorrect, it marks a new low in Indian politics,” Maidul Islam, a political science professor at Kolkata’s Presidency University, told BenarNews.

In his view, Muslims were overreacting.

“I understand the comment may have hurt them deeply, but they could have ignored it because it is factually unfounded,” Islam said.

Sabir Ahmed of the Pratichi Institute, a Kolkata-based research institute, agreed.

“(Tiwari’s) remark may appear to be a stray one. But it must be seen in perspective. The present political environment has given legitimacy to such remarks.

“While the comment is certainly condemnable, Muslims must not get carried away. They would be better off in the long run if they choose to channel their energy toward demanding better education, health care and employment opportunities,” Ahmed, one of India’s leading Muslim activists, told BenarNews.

Muslim rallies bring arrests

In a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yadav, Rabey Hasan Nadwi, chief of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), warned that Tiwari’s statement would generate strong reactions from Muslims across the country.

Uttar Pradesh-based Naresh Tikait, who heads a union of farmers in India, said that while he condemned such hateful statements, the mass protests by Muslims had the “potential to instigate full-blown riots.”

During a rally in Karnataka’s Hubballi town on Monday, some 3,000 protestors clashed with police after they were prohibited from marching on the road.

Ten people, including two police officers, were injured when police “retaliated with batons to disperse the stone-hurling crowd,” a police official requesting anonymity.

Mild tremors of 4.2 magnitude were felt in parts of Bihar and Jharkhand today morning. People reported feeling mild tremors in Gaya, Jamui, Banka and Bhagalpur in Bihar and Deoghar, Banka and Dhanbad in Jharkhand at about 8.35 am.
Tremors were also felt in Jharkhand capital Ranchi. No loss of life or damage to property has been reported yet.
In April, a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Nepal had killed 38 people over 120 injured in bordering areas of Bihar.
The April 25 earthquake killed nearly 10,000 people in Nepal and over 25,000 were injured.

For a Decade Now, Mumbai’s Sitting on its Reduce Cars Plan
Mumbai | Written by Ankita Sinha | Updated: December 08, 2015 01:46 IST
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For a Decade Now, Mumbai’s Sitting on its Reduce Cars Plan
Mumbai is yet to act on the expert panel recommendation that it cut down cars on the road by 20 per cent.

MUMBAI: As Delhi plans to limit vehicles with either even or odd number plates to alternate days of the week, Mumbai is worried about what it should to control air pollution.

‘I think twice before going out for a run in the morning now as the air isn’t healthy anymore’ said a resident.

Mumbai was warned over a decade ago by a committee set up by the Bombay High Court to cut one in every five vehicles on the road. But, despite this warning, the State Government is yet to implement any policy to give the committee’s recommendation effect.

“One of the recommendations of the committee was that there was a need to reduce the number of private cars on the roads. We had suggested a 20 per cent reduction in vehicles on trial basis. Which meant that on a Monday, vehicles ending with number plates 1 and 2 would be prohibited, Tuesday 3 and 4 would be banned and so on,” said environmentalist Debi Goenka.

Air quality data collected by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board shows that annual Nitrogen Oxide concentration in Mumbai has doubled over the past decade. Experts believe vehicular traffic is the main reason behind this.

“When you have to drive during peak traffic hours, stopping again and again and driving only in 4-5 km per hour speed, we have conducted an emission count for that time and it jumps seven to eight times. Here the pollution level is equal to that in Delhi,” said Ashok Datar, a Transport Analyst.

Solutions like carpools and improving frequency of public transport could avert further damage, experts say.

Mumbai being a coastal city has an edge over Delhi when it comes to keeping a check on the pollution levels because breeze from the sea disperses air pollution. But, experts But experts are now asking, how much more can the sea take in before it reaches its saturation level?

NAGPUR: Slum-dwellers occupying land around Mumbai’s international airport will be rehabilitated in the same region, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the Legislative Assembly in Nagpur today.

Replying to a calling attention moved by Parag Alwani of BJP, Mr Fadnavis said the government has framed certain rules and regulations for “in situ rehabilitation”, and slum-dwellers will be resettled in the same area.

He said the Civil Aviation Minister A Gajpathi Raju had given “in principle” nod for rehabilitation.

The Chief Minister said the government was constructing houses to accommodate slum-dwellers.

“Until the houses are ready, they will be accommodated on a temporary basis. Those residing in Sahara and Vile-Parle localities (nearby the airport) have been served with notices which caused panic, and therefore they (slum-dwellers) should be accommodated in Chakala area,” Mr Fadnavis said.

The Chief Minister informed that Defence and Railway ministries have agreed to provide additional surplus land to state government for rehabilitation.

In a written statement, Mr Fadnavis said the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) has signed an agreement to appoint Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) as developer for the rehabilitation project.

“Accordingly, 27,814 housing units are being constructed in seven places including Kurla, Mulund, Andheri-East and Mahul.

“About 18,000 housing units were ready and a meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister was held on March 30 this year. These housing units will be handed over to MMRDA,” the statement said.

It stated that a provision existed for rehabilitating slums for the vital public project as per the provisions of the Greater Mumbai Development Control rules.

“The MIAL and the MMRDA have agreed to rehabilitate the slums from the land of Mumbai international airport,” the statement said.

The Additional District Collector of Mumbai (Encroachment) was authorised to identify the eligible slum-dwellers for allotment from the restricted aeronautical area of the international airport, as per the statement.

Buenos Aires: At least 43 policemen were killed after the bus they were travelling in rammed through a bridge into a dried-up riverbed in Argentina on Monday, authorities said. The bus belonged to Argentina’s military police force, and was travelling between the towns of Santiago del Estero and San Salvador de Jujuy, according to Xinhua news agency. Early reports from emergency response teams in the Salta province said the bus was carrying 51 people and eight have been hospitalised, Gustavo Solis, mayor of Rosario de la Frontera, told the press that the stretch of road where the accident happened was notoriously bad. “The road is completely deteriorated. We try not to travel through the area at night,” he was quoted as saying. Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri sent his condolences to the families of the victims, and added that the thoughts of all Argentinean people were with them.

Dismissing rumours on social media, the Reserve Bank said all notes including those with scribbling will continue to be legal.

“As I understand, one of the topics trending on WhatsApp is the statement that at the end of the year notes with writing will not be accepted. This is absolutely false. Those notes continue to be a legal tender,”RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in an audio message.

“RBI has had the policy in the past of disfigured note being withdrawn from circulation to be replaced by clean notes. That does not mean that they are not legal tender, they can be used everywhere, they can be accepted everywhere. There is no terminal date for acceptance, so please disregard those rumours, they are not correct,” he said.

RBI denied having issued a communication circulating on the social media alerting members of public that banks will not accept currency notes with scribbling on them from January 1, 2016.

All currency notes issued by it are legal tender and banks and members can freely and without fear accept them in exchange for good and services, RBI said in a statement.

RBI also stated that in pursuance of its clean note policy, it keeps requesting banks and members of public not to write on the currency notes it defaces them and reduces their life.

As a mark of tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on his 91st birthday, Indian Railways is all set to launch a train connecting his ancestral village Bateshwar to Agra district on December 25.

This will be a passenger train. However, any more details about the train, dates or frequency aren’t known yet.

The Additional Division Railway Manager, Sheelendra Pratap Singh, said that the new train is a gift from Indian Railways to the former prime minister.

According to the report, locals say, after Vajpayee was arrested in August 1942 for 23 days during the Quit India Moment, he never quite forgot the difficulty he had to face to reach his village. Since then, he always wanted to connect the city with the village by the way of a train.