News

IndianExpress: For the first time in the country, a fully-automated four-storied structure to trade, auction and showcase horticulture products will come up in Pune in a year’s time. The mall-like building to be built over 3.5 acre at a cost of Rs 32 crore will give access to nearly 350 traders under the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC).

Currently, 170 floriculturists and traders operate from a crammed 80 sq ft space provided by the APMC at Market Yard in Gultekdi. With the new structure coming up in a year, these traders would be able to use the high-tech space for not only handling of products but also to showcase it in the 350 stalls that will be set up in the building.

IndianExpress: Pune Municipal Corporation is open to the idea of transport operators parking their trucks at the terminus on Satara Road. Top civic officials on Friday said the administration would not ‘‘object to the terminus being used for truck parking’’.

On Thursday, the Maharashtra Rajya Pravasi Va Mal Vahatuk Mahasangh, a state-wide transporters’ organisation, had threatened a morcha if the terminus was not handed over to it in a week.

IndianExpress:  Picture this. A classroom where teachers use a hi-tech plasma screen, students take assessment tests at the click of a remote control, classroom lessons replete with audio-visual aids including title music, colourful images and exciting animations.

This scene is a reality for over 100,000 students across schools in India, the USA and Singapore, courtesy educational company Educomp, which has developed digital learning solutions like the Smart Class Programme to make teaching and learning a more multi-sensory experience.

IndianExpress: Mayor Rajni Tribhuvan has kept her promise of ‘keeping all employees happy’. Civic employees will get 8.33 per cent bonus and an ex-gratia payment before this year’s Diwali.

Moreover, an agreement has been signed with the Pune Municipal Corporation’s workers’ union to provide ex-gratia payment and bonus for the next five years. ‘‘There will be a rise of Rs 130 in the ex-gratia payment every year,’’ said Tribhuvan. These decisions were taken unanimously by all party leaders on Friday.

IndianExpress: Cash and other valuables, estimated to be worth over Rs 3 lakh, were stolen in three separate burglaries from various parts of the city on Thursday.

Cash, jewellery and a digital camera, estimated to be worth over Rs 1.42 lakh, were stolen from the residence of Samir Sakharam Palkar (36) at Sukhwani Complex in Vallabhnagar area of Pimpri.

IndianExpress: The potholed, bumpy old Katraj tunnel will soon get a concrete road that will make travel easier. The Public Works Department (PWD) wants to start paving it even though the road is being tarred at present. Officials said the tarring will be complete once the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) opens the new twin tunnels for traffic on October 15.

Plans are to give the old tunnel a facelift. ‘‘We will pave the road, and construct a storm-water drain to stop waterlogging inside the tunnel. We will take three weeks to finish paving it,’’ PWD executive engineer D V Pisolkar said.

IndianExpress: While international research has shown that HIV positive women are more prone to cervical cancer, a study has now been undertaken jointly by National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), B J Medical College (BJMC) and Vanderbilt University to identify simple techniques that can diagnose the cancer at an early stage.

Dr Sanjay Mehendale, deputy director, senior grade, NARI and the principal investigator of the project that the US-based National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) will fund the study. Dr V L Yemul, dean, BJMC and Sassoon Hospital said 300 HIV positive women will be recruited for the study.

IndianExpress: BARELY 12 km from Pune, at Matalwadi in Bhugaon village, is a one-teacher school with a difference. Recognised by the Zilla Parishad, it was set up two years ago to teach 54 children orphaned and living with HIV after other schools in Bhugaon and Pirangut refused them admission as villagers feared their own children would be infected.

Even though a legislation to end discrimination against people living with HIV is on cards according to Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, Manavya (humanity in Marathi), a private NGO that plays home to the 54 HIV orphans, had no option but to start an exclusive school to cater to these children

IndianExpress:  MAYOR Rajani Tribhuvan, who has been repeatedly expressing satisfaction about the civic administration’s effort to fill potholes, got furious when women corporators from Opposition parties gifted her a pair of spectacles to see the road conditions clearly on Thursday. Angered, she snapped, ‘‘I don’t need the spectacles to see.’’

The protest was staged by corporators Ushatai Kelkar, Hirabai Pawar and Sugandha Kurlekar. A fuming Tribhuvan refused to accept the gift and said that political parties should not protest in such a way just because elections are coming close.

IndianExpress: PUNE’s tryst with the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JN-NURM) project continued with the Centre approving Rs 365.19 crore for its slum rehabilitation. While Pimpri-Chinchwad will get Rs 225.19 crore, Pune’s share will be Rs 140 crore.

Earlier, the Centre had approved Rs 99 crore under the first phase of slum rehabilitation project to be implemented at Hadapsar for constructing 6,000 houses. With the approval of the second phase of the project, Pune is the only city in the country where the slum rehabilitation project has been sanctioned.