Residents of four Ulwe villages want polling booth in new school

› Residents proposed to have the polling booth at the new school in Ulwe as it had all facilities. The old school premises lack basic facility. DATTATREYA NAVALE , Returning officer

NAVI MUMBAI : Around 1,400 voters from four project-affected villages of Kombadbhuje, Targhar, Ganeshpuri and Ulwe have asked the tehsildar official to allot the new school at Ulwe as the polling booth for Assembly elections.

All the four villages come under Uran constituency.

Returning officer Dattatreya Navale said, “Residents proposed to have the polling booth at the new school in Ulwe as it had all facilities. The old school premises lack basic facility.”

Many project-affected residents have shifted but some are still living in the village.

Sitting MLA Manohar Bhoir from Shiv sena and PWP candidate Vivek Patil are in the fray election from this constituency.

Pundalik Mahatre, who is heading the coordinating committee of four villages, said, “The old school building is not demolished but it lacks basic facilities. We proposed to change the polling booth to the new school.”

“There are 1,400 voters in these four villages hence we need facilities at the polling center,” said Mahatre.

“During Lok Sabha elections, the constituency was big and we had no choice but to vote in old school,” said Brajesh Patil, 42, a resident of Ulwe.

The residents from projectaffected villages had earlier planned to boycott elections to protest against City and Industrial Development Corporation’s (Cidco) failure to provide better facilities.

They have now decided to be a part of the democratic process and take up their issues with Cidco after elections.

Avinash Patil, 38, a resident of Ulwe, said, “We need to follow the democratic process to ensure that our demands are heard. Hence, we have decided to cast our vote. We will follow up our demands with the elected representative after elections.” THANE: More than 2,000 idols and 8,737 kalash (puja items) were immersed in the 15 lakes and immersion ghats in Thane on Dussehra, which marks the end of Navratri and Durga Puja. However, the immersion processions were noisy, with sound decibels as high as 100 decibels.

A TMC official said, “A total of 10,754 idols and ghat (kalash) were immersed. These include 2009 idols (1,728 household ones and 281 public idols) and 8,737 ghats were immersed. Naupada and Wagale Estate witnessed the most immersion processions while it was lowest at Panchpakhadi.”

Activist Mahesh Bedekar, said, “The decibel levels were high throughout the evening on Tuesday. The most affected was Ram Maruti area opposite Masunda lake. At 9pm, the noise level at Ram Maruti Road was 100 decibels, followed by 95 decibels at Shivai Nagar and Vartak Nagar.”

Bedekaraddeddrumsandtraditional bands being played at theprocessionscausednoisepollution. Some immersion processions also had a DJ. The noise levels were high till 11pm.

However, thetoll-freenumber given by TMC to register noise pollution complaints did not receive any complaints.

Seventy idols of Goddess Durga were immersed in Kalyan- Dombivli area on Tuesday. Immersions is carried out at two major spots.

“Immersions was carried out smoothly on the last day of the festival and there were no violations reported. Most idols were of public organisers and all rules were followed,”said a police officer from Kalyan zone 3.