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IndianExpress: When the 33,000-odd people in Lonavla will be at the polling booths this Sunday to cast their votes to elect their representatives for the 24-seat Lonavla Municipal Council (LMC), some 1,300 citizens in Gawliwada area will be busy with celebrations. None of them will queuing up outside the booths to collect the ballot paper to mark it. Their absence is not a protest. They are through with the election process and Congress candidate Raju Gawli has already been elected unopposed a month ago.

Sticking to a 30-year-old tradition, Gawliwada, in every civic election has just the lone candidate who is selected by the village elders who are all members of the Shri Ram Nagri Sahakari Pathasanstha Maryadit. The entire village votes for the chosen one.

A fortnight before announcing the name of the selected candidate, the panel of elders conducts interviews of those who want to represent Gawliwada. Each candidate is called to the local Ram Mandir where he is grilled. The one who comes across as hardworking and most keen on working for the people is selected and remains the final choice.

IndianExpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation, in its comprehensive transport policy for the Pune Metropolitan Region, has said the sky bus project is not a viable one. “At this time, in spite of political insistance, the sky bus project seems unfeasible on technological, technical and financial grounds.” The report was prepared by the additional city engineer (projects) to chalk out the vision, policy and recommendations to be included in the city’s Development Plan that will be prepared next year.

On MP Suresh Kalmadi’s insistence, the civic administration had approached the Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) for studying the sky bus project. NGOs like Nagrik Chetna Manch and traffic planners had found the project wanting. However, the objections raised thereafter on the project were symbolic of the shoddy planning that goes into major projects in the city, the report states. These included inadequate and outdated data, no justification of various assumptions, inflated performance claims, over-estimation of travel demand and under-estimation of costs to make the project appear financially viable, incomplete assessments of infrastructure needs, non-standardised testing and the absence of a safety certification authority and contradictory statements and figures within a single document.

IndianExpress: Community portal Orkut, an Internet social network service run by Google, has landed itself in trouble for posting derogatory remarks on Chhatrapati Shivaji. The police have initiated proceedings against the portal and work of lodging a First Information Report was going in till late on Friday evening.

The community, where the derogatory remarks have been posted, was started on October 29 and has at least 101 members. Some community members have registered online protest on the message board.

The Pune police began proceedings after some National Students Union of India workers complained on Thursday night. Additional commissioner of police (Crime) Rajendra Singh said the police have already written letters to the Delhi-based Controller of Certification Authority, Delhi and Orkut.com asking them to delete the derogatory remarks immediately.

IndianExpress:  Shakuntala Krishna Dhavale, a 74-year-old resident of Sadashiv Peth, was found murdered at her residence on Friday morning. Dhavale’s daughter-in-law Neeta claimed that jewellery worth Rs 1.28 lakh was stolen from the house.

Dhavale lived alone in her flat at Vishal Apartments near Nagnath Par while her son Uday (52), who owns a phone booth, lives in Perugate area. They have been living at separate places for the last four to five years.
 
The police said Shakuntala was manning Uday’s phone booth till 8.30 pm and returned home after that. That was the last time she was seen alive.The murder came to light when, around 9 am, a neighbour, Sachin Abhyankar noticed the flat door partially open and alerted Uday.

IndianExpress: Pune’s reputation as a preferred business destination has now made it a much-sought after hub for design as well. With over 570 million square feet of construction activity underway across the city, Pune’s design industry is valued at Rs 9,000 crore, according to a recent survey conducted by ICICI Bank and Ishanya mall.

Speaking at the Pune Design Festival organised by the Pune Design Foundation on Friday, I S Narula, president and CEO of Ishanya — it is the only design mall in the country — said: “With the boom in construction activity in different parts of the city and a thriving industrial and service sector, the design industry has had a natural impetus to grow.” To give an added boost to this growing sector, Ishanya will also house a separate training wing which will conduct specialised training programmes for architects, craftsmen and consumers on different aspects of design.