The final journey

The manufactured cloth is being transported to the market.

Giving the last touch to the product

The raw material has been manufactured and a worker is making the arrangement for keeping the cloth in organized system.The cloth will be pressed, labeled and then sent to market for selling. A Photograph by Aasif Ansari

Woman at Work

This woman is working on a machine called Tarashan. It manufacutres raw material which is in turn used for Powerloom.

Woman at work in Malegaon

Powerloom is the prime economy of this town. Women are equally hard working in this town as men. A woman in this picture is seen working on a machin called Tarashan. The woman earns Rs 500 a week. A tarashan machine, which is the first step towards weaving cloth, costs between Rs 20,000 and Rs 60,000. A photograph by Aasif Ansari

Malegaon's Urdu Library

This 60-year-old `Urdu Library, in Malegaon has a collection of well-known Urdu writers ranging from literature, humour, fiction, poems, history, civilizations to education, medcine, health etc. This is considered to be the most modern and well equipped library. A photograph by Asif Ansari

Malegaon road naming runs into a dead end

Slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare who probed the 2008 Malegaon blasts

Cops Haven’t Issued NOC To Civic Body

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Malegaon: The Malegaon Municipal Corporation’s plan to name a road after slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare is pending for a year because the police has not issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC).

The police, in its letter to the civic body, stated that if something (referring to the law and order situation) went wrong, then the corporation would be held responsible.

Residents of the textile town had expressed their wish to name a road after Karkare. The road goes from Bhikku Chowk to Nehru Chowk, the spot where an RDX bomb exploded on September 29, 2008, killing six and injuring 101. Karkare and his team had arrested 11 persons belonging to Abhinav Bharat. The suspects included Indian army’s serving Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, shankaracharya Swami Dayanand Pandey and sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

The proposal to name the road after Karkare was sanctioned by the 72-member corporation, including BJP and Sena corporators, in December 2008.

The then house leader, Rasheed Seth Yeolewale, sent a letter to the police asking for an NOC. However, the police did not respond. “We sent three letters to the police seeking an NOC, but they replied only to the third letter,’’ said Yeolewale. He added that advertisements were placed in Urdu and Marathi newspapers asking for people’s opinion on the proposal. “Not a single person objected to this plan,’’ he added.

The police letter to the corporation stated that this was not their prerogative. “You take your own decision,’’ the letter stated. Yeolewale, however, is not satisfied. “We want a clear answer. We don’t know why they are doing this,’’ he said.

Sanjay Patil, additional superintendent of police, said they did not refuse to issue an NOC.

“We never said we would not issue an NOC. It’s the corporation’s prerogative. If they want to implement this proposal, they can go ahead with it,’’ said Patil.

mateen.hafeez@timesgroup.com

(The story was printed in The Times of India, Mumbai, on December 7, 2009 edition)

Malegaon films- India Reborn

The local film industry, which started in 1998, has hit the headlines internationally. Youngsters belonging to several play group had this innovative idea and the first film they made was the re-make of India's all time hit, Sholay. The movie was re-made with the budget of merely Rs 40,000 with local accent and raised this town's issues.

The Canada Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had sent a five-member team led by Jacqueline Corkery recently to Malegaon as part of their project entitled as “India Reborn”. "Malegaon ka Superman", was awarded the Best Documentary at Asiatica film mediale, Italy’s biggest event dedicated to Asian films, towards the end of 2009.