Our Manifesto

A TWO-YEAR PROGRAMME FROM THE
PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE

I offer our opponents a bargain: If they
stop telling lies about us, I
will stop telling the truth about them.

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ADLAI STEVENSON

The PDA gave you a brand new Clubhouse and has made the Club an important and respectable platform for journalists. Remember, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh specifically preferred the Press Cub of Mumbai over other bodies to launch the MHADA Housing Scheme. He realized it represents the entire profession in the city.

Now we will give you a new team for the new term that will combine the old and new. That is youth and vigour with experience and maturity. As we have always said, we don’t believe in tall promises; but we deliver what we promise.

A 12-POINT MANIFESTO FOR 2008-2010

• HI-TECH CONFERENE HALL : Complete the refurbishment of the Club that will include rebuilding/repair of the Conference Room. The old Mhada barrack has reached the end of its tether and a larger and better equipped Conference Room will add an important revenue stream to the Club. Ajit Joshi, who played a key role in the reconstruction of the main Clubhouse, will be PDA’s point person to execute this project.
• ROOF FOR FIRST FLOOR : Provide a high quality, all-weather, tensile fabric canopy for the terrace so that you can enjoy our seating-in-the-sky at all times. Also, completion of the ‘Exhibition Corner’ so that photo-journalists and other Artists have space to exhibit their creative work. Godrej has sponsored this ‘Artists Niche’ and a great design is already in the process of being implemented. PDA’s Devendra Mohan has personally taken upon himself to see this through.
• GRAND PHOTO CONTEST : Launch of a much larger Photo Contest that will give a great platform to our photo journalists for displaying their creative work. We have given you two rounds in the past. The Third Mumbai Photo Contest, delayed because of the Club’s reconstruction, will be bigger and better. Santosh Bane, G.S.Bhadeker and Fauzan Hussain will coordinate and build it to be a regular Annual Event.
• MHADA HOUSING SCHEME : Ensure that the final allotments for the MHADA Housing Scheme, cleared as a policy decision by the Chief Minister in our last term, are completed before the year is over. This is expected to benefit as many as 300 of our journalist members. Gurbir Singh, Pratap Asbe, Praful Marpakwar and Prakash Akolkar, who have been working on this, will put renewed efforts for early allotments to our applicants.
• INSTITUTE OF JOUNALISM : Start an advanced journalists training academy with experienced corporate bodies so that we help in raising professional standards and provide employment to our senior members. Senior members Pradeep Shinde and Deb Varam, who have offered to help in devising a syllabus, will be associated with the programme.
• JOURNALISM AWARDS : Begin the process of setting up a professional platform for recognizing excellence in journalism in print, television and the electronic media and to constitute awards for that purpose. Swati Deshpande and Santosh Andhale have committed themselves for this project.
• SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES : Provide a social and cultural and social platform for informal and organized journalist groups like the Network of Women in Media (NWM), Business journalists and Gujarati and Hindi networks to meet and interact.
• KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM : Create ‘Knowledge Platforms’ for lectures and training sessions by eminent business and social personalities to improve the professional skills of our members. Also organize seminars, kavi sammelans and symposia on issues that concern media and other important issues of the day. Ninad Sidaye, O.P. Tiwari and Sunil Shivdasani will coordinate these efforts.
• SPORTS FESTIVALS : Develop sports activities. After the Inter-Media Football Tournament was a runaway hit, members have been increasingly demanding that the Press Club coordinate more sports events including Inter-Media Cricket, and Pool and chess tournaments. Gordon D’Costa and Edwin Fernandes, who have performed well in the past, will continue to develop the sports programme too.
• FOOD AND TECHNOLOGY : Raise the standards and facilities in the Club. This would include improving the variety and quality of food through so that dining at the Club becomes a major attraction. Improving our level of computerization to include swipe cards, billing and payment on the net and a web magazine are all targets we will work for. Technical wizkid Rajesh Mascarenhas, who has contributed to upgrading the club’s systems will coordinate these efforts.
• ENTERATAINMENT & FESTIVALS : Celebrate events like New Year’s Eve, Navratri, Baisakhi as well as food festivals to develop camaraderie and a community spirit among our members and their families. We have been giving you great events like the STAR New Year Eve Party, the ‘Sony Mumbai Moments Party’ and the Navratri ‘Garba Raas’ and Gujarati Food Festival. These will be bigger and better in the future and will be coordinated by Devendra Mohan and Ajit Joshi.
• CARE FOR OUR MEMBERS : We will work to develop the Journalists Welfare Fund so that those in situations of emergency can turn to the Club for loans and grants. Medical services and emergency help for hospitalization and operations are a nightmare today. Santosh Andhale, who has been doing yeoman’s service in this regard will coordinate these facilities

Annual General Meeting : July 25, 2008 at 2.00 PM
Elections : July 26th, 2008 from 12 Noon to 7.00 PM