TIMES CITY * THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2010 6

Akhtar faces flakfor Deoband views

Mohammed Wajihuddin | TNN

Mumbai: A group of clerics have trainedtheir guns on noted poet-lyricist JavedAkhtar for his allegedly anti-Deobandfatwa comments. Addressing the mediaat the press club on Friday, the maulvissaid that since Akhtar was not an au-thority on Islam, he should not commenton Islamic affairs.

Javed Akhtar had strongly opposedthe Darul Uloom Deoband’s fatwa,which called women’s earnings haraam

(forbidden) and asked them not to workwith men.

On a news channel, he had apparentlycalled the muftis (those who issued fat-was) “mad and insane”.

“Akhtar may be a good poet, lyricistand scriptwriter. He is not an authorityon Islam and has no right to insult ule-ma (Muslim scholars) and muftis. Hemust apologise for his outrageous com-ments against our revered clerics,” said

Maulana Meh-mood Daryaba-di, general sec-retary, All In-dia UlemaCouncil. “Weare pained andhurt by his ut-terances.”

Daryabadialso defendedDarul UloomDeoband andsaid that theinstitution hadclarified that itnever issued afatwa askingwomen not towork outsidetheir homes. “Afatwa is issuedin a given ques-tion and itshould be seenin that contextalone,” he said.

The clericsalso attackedthe media,which oftenapproaches in-

dividuals such as Javed Akhtar for com-ments on Muslim affairs.

“Akhtar is a communist, but he nev-er loses an opportunity to speak about Muslims and Islam. Just like you don’tapproach an electronic engineer if youwant to know about civil engineering, Iask you not to consult a known anti-Mus-lim like Javed Akhtar for comments onIslamic matters,” said Maulana Mus-taqeem Azmi, general secretary ofJamiatul Ulema-e-Hind, an organisationof nationalist clerics formed in pre-in-dependence era.

This is not the first time that Akhtarhas come in the line of fire of clerics forhis free, frank and liberal views. Whencontacted, he said he would react to themaulvis’ latest salvo latter.

CST STATUE GETS A FACELIFT

GLORIOUS VISION: The freshly scrubbed statue of progress atop the CST station,which was under wraps for restoration work, is back in public view

Muslim bodiesplan campaignagainst fatwa

Chavan tolook into

Bagwe case

Kurla-Thanestretch will gettwo more lines

Convocation over,but no certificates

Cyber sleuths willalert common man

S Balakrishnan | TNN

Mumbai: A national campaignwill be launched against the fat-wa issued recently by the Dar-ul-Uloom, Deoband, which pro-hibits Muslims from celebrat-ing Eid Miladun Nabi or theProphet’s birthday. In a state-ment issued here at a press con-ference on Friday, MaulanaMansoor Ali of the All IndiaSunni Jamiatul Ulema and Mo-hammed Saeed Noorie of theRaza Academy said this fatwahas been rejected outright bythe Muslim masses.

They alleged that the Dar-ul-Uloom, the Wahhabis and theAhle Hadees have been askingMuslims not to celebrate hisbirthday. “These sects are freeto stay away from the celebra-tions of the birthday. But theycannot impose their views onthe rest of the community,’’Noorie stated.

Maulana Mansoor Ali saidthe fatwa has created a “majoruproar’’ in the entire commu-nity. He said there was a regu-lar move by the heretics to un-dermine the beliefs of the AhleSunnat whose followers were ina majority.

Just a few weeks ago, a Wah-habi Maulana Meraj Rabbani at-tacked the sacredness of Sufisaint Hazrat Khwaja GaribNawaz, Ajmer. “We have in ourpossession a CD of his talk inwhich he exhorts his followersto destroy the holy dargahs,’’Noorie said.

“If Deobandis are adamanton this fatwa, we from the AhleSunnat are ready for a debate inwhich we shall prove that it isnot only allowed, but it’s a greatreward to celebrate Eid e Mi-ladun Nabi,’’ they added.

All India Sunni JamiatulUlema, Raza Academy and oth-er prominent sunni organisa-tions have started chalking outprogrammes to challenge these“corrupt beliefs’’ of these sects.“We demand the immediatewithdrawal of this fatwa or elsewe shall expose the corrupt be-liefs they have been propagat-ing,’’ Noorie added. Farid Bat-atawala of the Bombay AmanCommittee also denounced thefatwa and called for its imme-diate withdrawal.

Mumbai: The Congress onFriday asked chief ministerAshok Chavan to ascertainthe veracity of 19 serious of-fences registered against Ma-harashtra minister of statefor home Ramesh Bagwe inPune, which also led au-thorities to put on hold hispassport's renewal.

A senior police official inPune has said there were 19criminal cases registeredagainst Bagwe, out of which15 are cognisable and fournon-cognisable.

After surfacing of the re-ports, the Congress leader-ship has asked Chavan to in-quire into the matter andsubmit a report on the same.

“The party has taken cog-nisance of the issue and hasasked Maharashtra chiefminister Ashok Chavan toenquire into the matter andsubmit a report,” a seniorCongress leader said.

Authorities at Pune pass-port office have indicatedthat Bagwe’s passport rene-wal application could beprocessed if he submits a co-py of the court order statingthat he has been absolved fr-om the pending cases. Agencies

15-yr-old boyrapes girl atGhatkopar

Mayank Soni | TNN

Mumbai: Officials of Gha-tkopar police station have ar-rested a teenager for allege-dly raping a 10-year-old girlat the Tekripada slum inGhatkopar West.

According to the police,the 15-year-old accused worksin a general store in the area.The incident happened onThursday afternoon whenthe girl had gone to the storeto buy biscuits.

A police officer said, “Theaccused took her to a desert-ed spot behind the store andraped her. He threatened toharm her if she spoke aboutthe incident.”

The terrified girl ran ho-me, but did not reveal any-thing. She kept crying un-controllably and only saidthat she was bleeding and inpain. Her mother took her tothe doctor, who confirmedthat she had been raped.

Somit Sen | TNN

Mumbai: The Supreme Court willset up a new bench to hear the Mum-bai forest land case. Newly ap-pointed Chief Justice of IndiaSarosh Homi Kapadia on Friday re-cused himself from hearing the for-est land matter, stating that he wasa former employee of Nanabhoy Jee-jeebhoy—a construction firm whichis enlisted as one of the petitionersin the case. “Since I have previous-ly worked in this company, I will notbe hearing the case,’’ he told lawyersrepresenting the petitioners.

Justice Swatanter Kumar, whois also on the SC bench, had heardthe forest land case in 2008 whenhe was heading a division benchof the Bombay high court. He hadthen rejected the petition of bui-lders and residents, and given averdict in favour of Maharashtragovernment by declaring nearly1,000 acres of land in Mulund,Nahur, Thane, Borivli and Kandi-vli as “forests”. He too has recusedhimself from the case, therebypaving way for a new bench.

A lawyer told TOI, “The benchwill be constituted in the first weekof July. Besides, the CJI has alsoseparated the Godrej group casefrom the petition of residents andbuilders.” It will be heard sepa-rately after the vacation.

Petitioner Prakash Padikkalsaid that the Godrej case, which in-volved dereservation of severalacres of land in Vikhroli area, waspurely a CRZ case and had to bedelinked with the forest land case.“We now have nearly two monthsfor the next hearing. The state gov-ernment should expedite theprocess of submitting list of thosewho paid the net present value(NPV) in Mulund and Nahur areasto the ministry of environment &forests,’’ he said.

He stated that the state cannotdelay the submissions for “lack oftranslators.” The TOI had reportedon Friday how the state faced amammoth task of translating sev-eral property documents fromMarathi to English and this was thereason why it had delayed in sub-mitting the NPV list to MOE&F.

New SC bench willhear forest land case

Roana Maria Costa | TNN

Mumbai: If Central Railway(CR) officials are to be believed,almost a decade after work to layadditional lines between Kurlaand Thane began, it will be fi-nally completed over the nextthree months.

Even better, this would trans-late in the introduction of newservices and improved punctu-ality on the mainline. CR offi-cials, though, are quick to add adisclaimer: All this is subject tothe availability of new rakes.Rakes would be given on a pri-ority basis to the DC-AC con-verted sections, to replace oldrakes, increase 12-car servicesand augment nine- to 12-car serv-ices between Thane and Panvel.

Senior CR officials told TOIthat the work, which will be car-ried out in two phases, was ap-proved in 1995-1996 (the 10-kmKurla-Bandup stretch) and 1997-98 (the 7-km Bandup-Thanestretch). The work started a yearlater on land that was not en-croached upon. A total of 121 le-gal tenements were also reha-bilitated by the MMRDA.

K K Sharma, chief adminis-trative officer (construction), CR,told TOI that the project’s com-pletion is subject to traffic blocks.“Work to lay the fifth and sixthlines has been completed alongthe entire stretch, except at VidyaVihar. Points and crossings alsoneed to be inserted,” he said. Headded that although the projectwas approved more than a deca-de ago, work in “right earnest”started only a year and a half agoafter the encroachments wereshifted out.

Sources said that the workwould need around two monthsafter permissions are granted,which they said, they expect ina month’s time. “The lines sho-uld be ready by August-end.”

S C Mudgerikar, chief PRO,CR, said work to link the tracksto LTT and Vidyavihar would bedone only after summer as spe-cial trains scheduled would getaffected. Services could be start-ed only after October after allthe safety tests were conducted.

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: More than a monthago, the University of Mumbaipromised all its graduates thatthey would receive their convo-cation certificates by the firstweek of May. Half way into themonth, though, thousands ofgraduates are yet to lay theirhands on their certificates. Ma-ny of them who wish to pursuehigher studies or apply for jobsare waiting for their arrival.

This is the first year that theuniversity has decided againstgiving out certificates on theconvocation day; instead, it infor-med graduates that they couldcollect the same from their in-dividual colleges. The universi-ty had said that certificateswould reach colleges within aweek of the convocation.

Representatives of the Ma-harashtra Navnirman Vidyart-hi Sena met university officialsregarding the issue, and theywere assured that the distribu-tion work would be hastened.

University insiders, though,suspect the certificates neverreached the university on time.Their doubts are not baseless.According to Subhash Athwale,a former senate member, the uni-versity selected a printing press— Manipal Press — that hadbeen blacklisted earlier by theSNDT University for late deliv-ery of marksheets. “This con-tract with this press from Mani-pal was discontinued by SNDT

University because it did not de-liver their convocation certifi-cates on time. I am shocked thatChandra Krishnamurthy, the act-ing vice chancellor (and SNDT’sVC), never pointed out the ineff-iciencies of this printing press,and went ahead and awarded thecontract for the Mumbai Uni-versity’s convocation certificatesto the same press.”

When TOI contacted VilasShinde, the controller of exam-inations, he said that he had al-ready dispatched the mark she-ets of various courses. “But I doacknowledge that there is morework to be done. We need to dis-patch the mark sheets of sever-al other courses.” To date, theuniversity has already sent theconvocation certificates to all en-gineering students and LLBgraduates as many of them flyabroad for further studies. “Wehave also dispatched the mark-sheets and certificates for allMSc and BSc and BSc (IT) stude-nts as well as those who clearedtheir BEd and MEd. But therehas been a lot of pressure amongthe staff which has been busyconducting exams,” said Shinde.

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: After a three-yearbreak, the city police and Nass-com have organised a CyberSafety Week from May 24 to May28. During this period, sleuthsfrom the cyber crime investiga-tion cell (CCIC) will visithousing societies tocreate awarenessamongst resi-dents about un-secured WiFinetwork andmisuse ofcomputers.

The Mum-bai police washanded over ar-ound 598 compla-ints of cyber crimein 2008 and 553 in 2009.

Police commissioner DSivanandhan on Friday statedthat the programme began in2003 and continued till 2006, butafter a break of three years, thepolice was ready to celebrate cy-ber safety week this month. “Theterror organisation, Indian Mu-jahideen, on two occasions usedthe unsecured WiFi network andsent terror emails. Our intentionis to make the net users aboutthe misuse of such equipments.Our personnel will conduct lec-

tures, discussions and pro-grammes for the masses,’’ saidthe police chief. The other part-ner in the programme is Data Se-curity Council of India and itwill be supported by the ministryof information technology.

The programme will includea discussion amongst doc-

tors, professionals andpolicemen, use of

technology in datamining, analysisand integrationfor use in fi-nancial fraudinvestigation,interactive kio-

sks, what Mum-bai thinks of cy-

ber crime, cybersafety for social and

corporate citizens, cyberterrorism, e-commerce securi-ty for travel industry and so on.These programmes will be or-ganised at the Bombay Stock Ex-change, police gymkhana, hous-ing societies, various malls, AzadMaidan police hall, Welingkar’sInstitute of Management and YB Chavan auditorium.

Vijay Mukhi of Nasscom said,“Our target is reaching out to theyounger generation and inform-ing them about the do’s and don’tsof computers.”

Akhtar may be agood poet,lyricist andscriptwriter. He is not anauthority onIslam and has noright to insultulema (Muslimscholars) andmuftisMaulana MehmoodDaryabadi | GENERAL

SECRETARY, ALL INDIA

ULEMA COUNCIL

Prashant Nakwe

Extra WR tracks havemeant better serviceThe third and fourth line

between Borivli and Virar was

started on July 7, 2007. Soon

afterwards, 20 new locals

were started. Currently, on an

average, 90 mail and express

trains, including holiday

specials and 94 suburban

trains, use this path daily.

While on all four lines, 417

locals are run, including the

12- and 15-car services. The

rest of the services are 12

cars. The extra lines have led

to more punctuality and

increased and faster services.

Mahesh Benkar

aman ki ashaT HE FIRST ST EP

taproot indi�

SOMETIMES , WATER ISTHICKER THAN BLOOD.Water , it can be argued , links India and Pakistan more than even blood.

The eternal source of all life , it flows through rivers linking two cv il izatio ns , two

nations and lately, two enemies as well . And even as the man hu e dam and canal

proj ects on these rivers stand as proud symbols of our new economic progress ,

the fact is , they control the destinies of millions in Pakistan. Worse , even as we head

towards our own water reserve crisis Pakistan faces a dire socio-economic crisis

inching towards an annual ‘water stress ’ limit of 1000 cubic metres per person.

This is no longe r about political gains but human morality. We don ’t manufacture water ,

nor does Pakistan. It is therefore only more humane to put man-made differences aside

and cherish nature ’ s blessin gs as fairl y as we can. The water conflict and other hard

issues are some of the answers that Aman Ki Asha ’ s CONFRONTING HURDLES seeks

to answer. With a renewed push for both nations to start talkin g about the larger

conflicts that fester within our hearts . And call on our leaders , who have already

started talking, to find lasting solutions. Before water turns to blood.