His Excellency the Governor S.M. Krishna administered the oath of office to Dr. Shahani at a ceremony held in Raj Bhavan on Saturday, January 5, 2008, in the presence of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. In addition to ministers, bureaucrats and corporates who attended the function; there were a host of principals from various colleges as well as students and teachers from HR College.

Among the distinguished guests present were Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Mrs. Hema Deora, Mr. Keshub Mahindra, Mr. L.H. Hiranandani and former Sheriffs’ of Mumbai Shri F.T. Khorakhiwala, Shri Kiran Shantaram, Dr. B.K. Goyal, Shri Kulwant Singh Kohli and Shri Vijaypat Singhania.

Helpline on new sheriff’s agenda

JAN. 5, 2008  TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Creating a common platform for women’s organisations, entertaining prisoners and facilitating academia-industry partnership are on top of the agenda for Indu Shahani, principal of HR College and the city’s brand new sheriff. Governor S M Krishna administered the oath of office to Shahani at a ceremony held in Raj Bhavan on Saturday. In addition to ministers and bureaucrats who attended the function, there were a host of principals from various colleges as well as students and teachers from HR College.

Shahani, who takes on her new role just days after the Juhu molestation case, wants to create an IT helpline for women in distress after conducting a meeting for NGOs from across the city in the last week of January. (NGOs that want to participate in the meeting can write in to sheriffofmumbai@gmail.com.) “I want the helpline to provide legal assistance for women,’’ says Shahani.

It’s not every day that prison inmates get to meet the city sheriff. In a rather unconventional move, Shahani along with a group of students from HR College, will visit Mumbai Central Prison in Byculla District Prison and the prisoner’s ward attached to J J Hospital on January 21, where students will entertain the prisoners.

That’s not all. Shahani will present all the floral tributes that she will receive over the next few days to the general ward at Bombay Hospital on Monday. The flowers that she has already received from her well-wishers have been distributed to the 30-odd NGOs, the college is associated with.

Shahani, whose expertise lies in academia, hopes to use her position to upgrade teaching standards across the city. “I want to encourage more interaction between industry and academics. I want industries to adopt the colleges situated close to them and provide them with training, guest lecturers as well as faculty-enhancement programs,” says Shahani.
The student council at HR College presented Shahani with a “wishlist’’ for 2008, which includes the setting up of free-of-cost kiosks for citizens with easily-assessable legal information.

“We also want to enforce community service for petty criminals,’’ says Ruzbeh Raja, general secretary of the student council. This is in keeping with the way the college deals with errant students. “Recently, a few boys broke into the refrigerator of the cafeteria and stole some soft drinks. As a penalty, they spent the vacation getting my files in order,” Shahani said.

toireporter@timesgroup.com