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CHANDIGARH: Muslim leaders of the city on Sunday condemned the Islamic State
orchestrated terror attacks in Paris, terming it a cowardice act. A special meeting of
heads of all mosques of Chandigarh was held at Noorani Mosque, Sector 26.
Maulana Ajmal, imam of Jama Masjid, Sector 20, said, "The gruesome killing of more
than 129 people is an act of terrorists and has nothing to do with Islam. Such acts
are only destroying the image of a religion of harmony." Mufti Mohammed Intizar
Kasami of Noorani Mosque said IS has nothing to do with Islam. About 100 people
attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, the police on Sunday again checked all sensitive locations, including bus
stands of sectors 17 and 43, prominent hotels and shopping malls.
BATHINDA: To commemorate Golden Jubilee of its raising, Shatrunash Engineer
Regiment undertook a cycling expedition from Bikaner to Bathinda. This expedition
led by Captain Brijesh Singh had started from Bikaner on Nov 5 and was received at
Bathinda Military Station by Lieutenant General DR Soni, General Officer
Commanding, Chetak Corps on Wednesday.
The expedition covered a distance of 561 km via passing through Kelan, Mahajan,
Vijaynagar, Gajsinghpura, Keshrisinghpura, Sri Ganganagar, Kishanpura and
Dabwali. The team had challenging exposure of the rugged desert terrain during
course of the expedition. The initiative was to inspire youth for joining Armed
Forces. The team en route had also met and enquired about well being of the exservicemen and veer naris in various villages.
DR Soni emphasized the importance of adventure activities as an essential facet of
military life. He said "the adventure activities not only supplements the military
training but also develops and enhances important attributes such as leadership,
mental toughness and determination in the troops".
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LUDHIANA: In a city like Ludhiana, where people don't hesitate to spend big money
on their pets, there are no takers for zoo animals up for adoption. Since Punjab
government approved the animal adoption scheme on June 15, 2009, there have
only been two cases of animal adoption, that too by a city based school. In 2010
and 2011, Kundan Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines adopted a tiger, black bucks and birds
for two years. But no one came forward to adopt the animals after that. Adoption

entails bearing expenses of food and upkeep of the animal.

Zoo officials spend lakhs on the diet and medicines of animals, but due to lack of
funds, the department fails to pay contractors feeding animals. The state
government has passed zero budget for forest and wildlife in the assembly, so the
department has no money to feed their animals and take care of them.
District Forest Officer (DFO), Surjit Sahota said, "It would be great if citizens come
forward to adopt zoo animals, because funds are always limited. They should join
this good cause. Adoption can be for one year and for one month too. Anybody can
adopt an animal. The person adopting will have to pay a fixed amount."
Sandeep Jain, president, People for Animal (PFA), Ludhiana said, "There should be
awareness about this scheme. People do not know they can adopt zoo animals.
Secondly, there should be direct public involvement and transparency. People in
Ludhiana are sensitive to animals and can willingly adopt animals. All that is needed
is awareness."
Principal, Kundan Vidya Mandir, Navita Puri said, "We adopted a tiger, birds and
black bucks for two years. But we did not adopt any other animal due to a few
issues. Our students enthusiastically raised funds for the animals. They used to give
their pocket money too."
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MUMBAI: Mumbai now officially has 3,293 slum clusters. The Slum Rehabilitation
Authority (SRA) has, for the first time, carried out a Geographic Information System
(GIS) mapping of slums across the city, which shows that slum clusters are spread
over 9,008 acres or 36.45 sq km.
The highest density of such clusters is in the K-East ward (Andheri) 332 clusters
spread over 299 hectares while the C-ward (Marine Lines) has only two slum
clusters spread over 0.04 hectares. As per Census 2011, 41.5% of the city's
population lives in the slums. There are around 12.5 lakh slum households in the
city.
The cluster exercise has been done to enable slum rehabilitation with proper town
planning norms, said SRA CEO Aseem Gupta.
While earlier a builder would demarcate a slum area, obtain consent and apply for
redevelopment, the SRA through this demarcation will decide how a slum is to be
redeveloped.

"A developer takes up a slum area for development where he is confident of a 70%
consent from slum-dwellers. This often results in odd-shaped slums. It then
becomes difficult not only to rehabilitate all the slum-dwellers on the site but also
provide for the sale component and social amenity. This results in large-scale
concessions which is not in the overall interest of the city and compromises on the
quality of life for residents," said Gupta.
Developers will now have to take up these clusters, which are contiguous areas,
demarcated by the SRA. The authority will also map out civic infrastructure which
will be in sync with the rest of the neighbourhood infrastructure.
P K Das, who had done the first slum mapping of the city, including the master plan
in 2011, said it was a welcome step. "The government has finally recognized that
this is the only way to develop Mumbai, create affordable housing from the sale
component and prevent further slumification of the city," he said.
If comprehensive town planning norms are applied, it is possible to house all slumdwellers in ground-plus-seven to ten-storey buildings. "One of the most amazing
outcomes of such town planning will be the reduction in density," Das said, adding
that the density will be reduced to 650 tenements per hectare as against 1,200
tenements per hectare through today's slum rehabilitation scheme.
"Land that will be freed on account of such planned SRS will help create 25% of
open spaces and 10% land for social amenities, besides roads as required. This is a
huge gain for the city. All reservations that are currently encroached will be freed,"
he said.
Sitaram Shelar, member, Hamara Shahar Mumbai campaign, said the SRA must
publicize the maps and indicators used to demarcate slum clusters. "There must be
transparency and community participation. Often these schemes result in people
from different areas being brought together, resulting in tensions and conflicts," he
said.
Wards with the highest number of slum clusters
K- East (Andheri East) - 332
L - ward (Kurla) - 299
M-East (Deonar, Mankhurd, Trombay, Anik) 243
P-North (Malad/Dindoshi) - 224

K-West (Andheri West) - 195

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