Dahisar residents’ forum cleanses surroundings

Association has been instrumental in saving 425 acre of mangrove forest

DNA NEWSPAPER

Published Date: Feb 15, 2014

PAGE 6 TK Unnikrishnan @dna

Borivli: When Harish Pandey, 48, a resident of Prithvi Palace CHS in Dahisar, decided to fight the nuisance created by a hookah parlour next to his building, he never thought that he will be kick-starting a movement which could even influence the Bombay high court to pass a judgment banning hookah parlours all over the city.

“When the nuisance from a hookah parlour next to our building became worse, we decided to fight it out. We put up a big banner in our building announcing our open fight against the parlour,” said Harish Pandey, secretary of the New Link Road Resident’s Forum (NLRRF).

After seeing the hookah parlour case success, NLRRF took up fight against many other social evils like milk adulteration, water and power thefts, and destruction of mangroves. When a builder in collusion with some authorities started construction activities by destroying mangroves in their vicinity, they took up the matter with the concerned ministry. Due to their action BMC and could save about 425 acres of mangroves

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Chairman of NLRRF, Dr S P Mathew, a leading cardiologist of Borivli, feels that their forum which has acquired lot of strength is moving in the right direction and have many challenges in front of them. “We want to make sure that all our members are in contact with each other,” he said. “Another problem which we are taking up now is the menace of burning of tyre and plastic in public. The smoke is very harmful and can cause cancer. Though a Pune court has recently ruled that those who burn tyres in public can be slapped with a fine of Rs10 crore and imprisonment up to three years, the same is looked upon very lightly in our city.”

When D-Mart opened their store on the link road, the residents were happy hoping that their shopping woes will be soon lessened. But their joy was short-lived as the roads started getting jammed with vehicles parked by D-Mart customers.

NLRRF took up the matter with D-Mart, and found out that though the basement which was available for the customers’ vehicles parking, was being used by them as a warehouse.

Published Date: Feb 15, 2014