News

IndianExpress: FOUR months after it was first detected in Pimpri-Chinchwad, chikungunya cases have made deep inroads in the twin industrial township. Of the 217 samples sent by the PCMC health department to National Institute of Virology (NIV for testing, as many as 43 have tested positive for chikungunya.

“Since June, 43 persons have been affected by chikungunya, while 44 dengue cases have been reported since January. The latest report received from NIV has confirmed the rise in chikungunya cases,” PCMC medical director Rajshekhar Iyer told Newsline on Friday.

IndianExpress:  A MALARIA scare has spread over the NIBM Road area in Kondhwa with doctors recording over 50 confirmed cases of Plasmodium Vivex Malaria_a mild form of the disease_ in the past ten days. The rising incidence of the vector-borne disease has caused civic authorities to start spraying and fogging activities to destroy the breeding grounds .

Private practitioners in the area said there has been a spurt in the number of cases with people from societies like Hill Mist Garden, Brahma Majestic, Sarvodaya Society, Kausarbagh and Parmar Garden coming for treatment.

IndianExpress: A Pune conman, who allegedly duped a number of people including Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai and Jackie Shroff, has been arrested by the Pune rural police along with two accomplices in a cheating case filed at Dehu Road police station.

SP Vishwas Nangare Patil said the conman _ Vivek Ananta Kaichi _ and his accomplices Prasad Dhananjay Barve alias Pankaj Gangadhar Phadke and Sooraj Vikas Chaughule are suspected to have duped people in Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Goa and Allahabad

IndianExpress:  With the garbage segregation programme in the city struggling to pick pace, the Pune Municipal Corporation has hit upon the idea of forming an independent cooperative society of ragpickers for better co-ordination and accountability of garbage collection and segregation.

Municipal Commissioner Nitin Kareer has mooted a proposal to the Standing Committee where the PMC plans to assist the society for five years. In the first year, it would provide Rs 2.33 crore and from the second year it would grant Rs 1.64 crore.

IndianExpress:  A FEW months after the proposed greenfield airport at Chakan was grounded, another name has now cropped up as a possible site for Pune’s very own civilian airport. Over 1,800 acres of land near Shiroli Chandus village, six km north from the Chakan site, has been identified as a probable site for the airport.

“Technical clearance has been obtained. MIDC will prepare the feasibility report taking into consideration various factors like displacement of inhabitants, their proper rehabilitation and environmental clearance. The Government of Maharashtra will then formally send the proposal to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for final clearance,’’ Pune Airport director Shastri informed.

IndianExpress:  HOMEMAKER Kirti Pathak is appalled at the state of the road outside her house in Bibvewadi. “The stretch near Shani Mandir is completely washed away and accidents are frequent. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had repaired the road a few days ago, but the road is just as bad as it was,’’ she said.

But the PMC believes that not a single road contractor has done any shoddy work in the past three years in areas under the Bibvewadi ward office . In addition, the civic body has not seized the deposit of any contractor for failing to do his job properly. This information was given by the civic administration to leader of Opposition Anil Shirole who sought it under the Right to Information Act.

TechTree: An e-tracking system for vehicles named ‘Smart’ has been launched in Trichy recently that reportedly will help record details about vehicles, like the registration number, owners’ name and address, and engine and chassis number, through a computer data-base etc.

According to the police officials, the system would certainly help in reducing the present delay in verifying details. This would enable the public to easily verify with the police all details about a vehicle in case of an accident or theft or even before purchasing a pre-owned vehicle.

TechNewsWorld: Palm took the wraps off its first entry-level smartphone at the DigitalLife trade show in New York on Thursday.

The Treo 680’s design aims to broaden the appeal of feature-rich smartphones beyond business clients to attract everyday users who like to listen to music, take pictures and surf the Web. The new Treo is Palm’s fourth new product launch this year.

The Treo 680 will be available via 20 or more carriers around the world by the end of the company’s fiscal year, June 1, 2007, Palm said.

TechTree: Samsung has launched the world’s first 10 megapixel mobile phone “SCH-B600″ in the Korean market.

The SCH-B600 6mm thinner and 10g lighter as compared to the 7 megapixel camera phone SCH-V770 was first unveiled at CeBIT in March.

Designed as a bar-type mobile phone, the SCH-B600 sets itself apart from its previous camera phones by combining mobile TV capability in Satellite standard. Users can watch live TV picture through Satellite DMB function