News

IndianExpress: It was the British who installed it in the quaint Camp area outside the General Post Office around 1860. Today, the century-and-something old ‘zero stone’ is fighting a battle for survival as the Pune Municipal Corporation is threatening to bury this piece of history under a footpath. Thus, in a matter of weeks, this historic slab of stone will be consigned to oblivion.

The stone slab, which was, till recently easily visible to those going to the GPO, now stands partially submerged. The sorry state has come to pass with the PMC recently laying interlocking blocks on the footpath and raising its height, resulting in the ‘zero stone’ getting all but buried under.

According to author of ‘Encyclopedia Pune’ S G Mahajan the milestone is not just another stone slab. “The carving of the zero stone is very typical. It is carved out of a single stone and is at least one tonne in weight,’’ he said, adding that when N V Joshi wrote ‘Pune Shaharache Varnan’ in 1868, the distance from Pune railway station to the GPO was measured with this milestone as the reference point

IndianExpress: The wait is over for those seeking a 24-hour national Marathi radio channel. Worldspace has launched Surabhi, channel no 110 on the its satellite radio network.

The aim of Radio Surabhi is to capture the cultural ethos of Marathi tradition as well as poetry, literature and theatre. The channel will broadcast Marathi music with a strong repertoire of film and non-film music with various genres enjoying equal popularity. The channel will have special shows for bhavgeet, abhangas, powadas, natyasangeet, lavani and lokgeet among other exciting programmes.

Worldspace India managing director Shishir Lall, commenting on the launch, says, “Surabhi is our latest offering and the country’s first-ever 24-hour Marathi channel.

IndianExpress: Pune could be the next stop for the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies (MBTA) that has already rolled into five cities in the past 11 months.

“Pune is certainly one of my priority cities,” said Bhupathi, adding that Hyderabad and Chandigarh were the other two likely destinations before he turned his attention to the south.

On his choice of Pune, Bhupathi was clear: “There’s no doubt that Pune is one of the hot-beds of tennis in the country,” he said. Pune has given its share of players for India’s Davis Cup campaign — Nandan Bal, Gaurav Natekar, the Kirtane cousins — Sandeep and Nitin. Rohan Bopanna and Pralhad Srinath, though not from the city, chose to train here while shaping their careers.

IndianExpress: Senior citizen forums have threatened to come together to protest against crater-sized potholes.

Prasad Ganu of Senior Citizen Forum, Prabhat Road said that most senior citizens are hindered from using the footpath by broken stretches. He added that the condition of footpaths on Bhandarkar and Prabhat Roads have become terrible and despite informing the PMC about it, no action has been taken so far.

Senior Citizen Forum, Prabhat Road chairperson Dr Rekha Inamdar warned of a stir.

IndianExpress:  Crime Branch sleuths on Saturday claimed to have solved 11 cases of senior citizens being robbed with the arrest of a youth from Vishnu Kripa slum at Shivajinagar. Stolen gold ornaments worth Rs 3.90 lakh too have been recovered from the youth.

The alleged robber, Mohsin Shabbir Shaikh (22), operated mainly in the city’s suburban areas. According to the police, Shaikh would pose as a policeman on a nakabandi exercise on the street and tell his victims that the area was prone to crimes like murders and thefts.

He would then advise his victims to remove their jewellery, tie it in a handkerchief and put it in their handbag. Winning their confidence, Shaikh would steal the jewellery on the pretext of helping the victims put it “safely’’ in the handbag.