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IndianExpress: THE new draft housing policy unveiled by the State government on Wednesday may have made buying a house easier, but it comes with no monetary difference for the buyer. For, to compensate for the revenue loss due to ban on including built-up or super built-up area, the builders will increase the rate per square foot of the carpet area.

“To adjust the revenue loss, the builder will simply increase the rate per square foot,” Lalit Kumar Jain, convener, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) and Kumar Builders chairman, said.

IndianExpress: THE Pune Municipal Corporation finds itself on the horns of a dilemma — while the Bombay High Court has laid down November 30 as the deadline for completing repairs of all city roads, the contractors are giving a cold shoulder to tender notices issued for road works. Moreover, the problem is aggravated as the civic staff is also reluctant to work at night time in the wake of the recent attack on a team of PMC employees repairing roads in Kothrud area by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena workers.

Development Engineer (Roads) Madhav Latkar conceded that no contractor has bid for 68 road works, costs of which range between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh over the last five months. These works, for which financial provisions have been made in the civic budget for the current fiscal, include resurfacing of roads, construction of footpaths and other road repairs.

IndianExpress:  FINALLY, the work on the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) pilot project started on Thursday and MP Suresh Kalmadi used the occasion to deliver poll talk for the oncoming civic elections. Promising a complete infrastructure facelift to the city in time for the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2008, Kalmadi said the BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena were “speed breakers on Pune’s road to development” and asked Puneites to give clear majority to the Congress for the city’s development.

Giving a broad hint of engaging global consultants McKinsey for preparing Pune’s blueprint if the Congress came back to power, he said: “Pune is developing rapidly and the city needs infrastructure facelift. Pune Municipal Corporation officials do not have a broad perspective. Therefore, a global company is required to be engaged to prepare blueprint of Pune’s development. We would bring McKinsey & Company for the purpose after the elections.”

IndianExpress: THE Pune Cantonment Board has decided to sell the vermi-compost generated in its garden over the past one year. A decision to sell the same, starting November 5, was taken at a specially convened general body meeting held on Wednesday evening. According to PCB president Brig NM Rasquinha, the vermi-compost stored in JJ Garden, Rani Laxmi Bai Udyan and Hamara Garden will be sold at the rate of Rs 3 per kg for those people purchasing vermi-compost up to 25 kg. ”For bulk purchases above 25 kg, the compost will be sold at Rs 2 per kg,” Brig Rasquinha added.Those interested can file an application before the CEO and make direct purchases with immediate effect from Nov 15.

IndianExpress: SEVEN years ago, 55-year-old Ambanath Malekar was told that he had cancer of the bladder. When doctors told him that the cancer had become muscle-invasive and the only option would be surgical removal of the bladder, he decided to take recourse to Ayurveda. Today, Malekar lives a normal life, and his cancer is as good as cured.

Indeed, a cure for dreaded diseases like cancer, kidney failure, and autoimmune disorder is now no longer a distant dream, thanks to breakthroughs reported by Ayurvedic experts at the Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth (TMV) . Through their project — Triskandha Koshah, the team at TMV, headed by the Head of the Ayurveda Department D P Gadgil, has devised a scientific method of diagnosis and treatment of such diseases, sans surgery.

IndianExpress: THE city police on Thursday evening carried out major raids and search and rescue operations on various brothels in Shukrawar and Budhwar Peth areas. The raids began at about 6 pm and continued till late in the night.

The police rescued five minor girls.
 
“We are still doing the paper work and final details will be known only later. We have rescued five minor girls so far,” police inspector Satish Jadhav said.