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indianexpress: A Water pipeline being laid by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) that cuts across ILS Law College hill has raised the hackles of environmentalists, who suspect it would lead to a larger environmental disaster in the form of the proposed Balbharti-Paud link road, which has been stayed by the Bombay High Court.

The PMC though maintains that the pipeline had nothing to do with the controversial link road proposal and was merely a replacement to an existing pipeline that was beyond repair.

A site visit revealed that the entire hill stretching around 700 metres from the SNDT reservoir to Symbiosis Chowk on Senapati Bapat Road has been dug up by the PMC for laying the 800 mm diameter pipeline.

“The old pipeline had been leaking for long and was beyond repair. In fact, we had written a letter to this effect to the Law College authorities, under whose jurisdiction this land falls,” said PMC development engineer Anil Talathi.

However, environmental activists claim the work is not in alignment with the old pipeline. “The old pipeline runs in a totally different direction, at an angle of 40-45 degrees to the new line being laid,” said environmentalist Dr Uday Kulkarni.

Activists have contended that the PMC is aligning the pipeline on the assumption that the Balbharti-Paud link road will be built. “If one observes the map of the proposed road stayed by the High Court, one will see that the pipeline seems to be in alignment with the direction and level of the road,” said Kulkarni.

The depth of the excavation required for laying the pipes is also disputed. According to Talathi, the pipes would be connected with the SNDT high-level reservoir, so they will not be deeper than three or four feet under, while at points, it would even go above ground level.

Kulkarni said, “Even if the pipes did begin at the reservoir at SNDT, the pipes on the Law College hill will have to go as low as 20 feet to connect to the pipe at the other end, where it is at a much lower level.”

“Once the pipes are laid that deep, it will not be possible to repair them unless the Balbharti Road is constructed,” said Pune Tree Watch member Vinod Jain. He said that the PMC had not obtained permission from the Tree Authority for felling trees to make way for the pipes.

Talathi, however, maintained that the pipeline was necessary, as it was a question of water supply to a large area. “The pipeline supplies water to areas like Law College Road, Prabhat Road, Bhandarkar Road, BMCC Road, Fergusson College Road, and even Senapati Bapat Road,” he said. The work would be completed in a month’s time, Talathi said.

indianexpress: The 600-bed PCMC-run Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH), which offers treatment at fairly cheaper rates, is in an expansion mode. While the procedure for establishing a cath lab and open heart surgery section is underway, the hospital is set to get its second intensive care unit (ICU) that is likely to start functioning in 15 days.

This ICU is expected to benefit patients in a critical condition from impoverished families and cannot afford expensive treatment. Mayor Vaishali Ghodekar will inaugurate it after her return from China.

YCMH medical superintendent Dr Anand Jagdale said the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) had to set up the ICU because of the inflow of patients in a critical condition. “We get patients from Pimpri-Chinchwad as well as Pune because our ICU rates are cheaper,” he said.

The minimum daily ICU charge at YCMH is Rs 390. “In private hospitals, ICU charges are up to Rs 3,000 and more,” Dr Jagdale said. In past few years, the number of patients coming to YCMH from surrounding areas — Dehu Road, Talegaon, Mulshi, Rajgurunagar, Chakan and Manchar — has been growing.

The upcoming ICU will serve as a back-up to the existing one. “Patients will be admitted to the main (already existing) ICU, while those showing recovery will then be shifted to the second ICU,” he said.

“If patients are not in a position to be shifted from the main ICU, new patients will be admitted to the second ICU.”

Dr Chandrashekhar Katre, in-charge of both ICUs, said 100-125 patients are admitted to the main ICU every month. “Of this, we have a 30 per cent mortality rate which is like in any other hospital,” he said. The upcoming ICU will have the same 12-bed capacity as the first one.

Dr Katre will have three medical officers and 16 nurses besides 20 employees under his wing. Dr Jagdale said all the necessary equipment like ventilator, central suction, monitor and dialysis, will be available in the second ICU. The YCMH, into which the PCMC pumps Rs 15 crore annually, was set up in 1989. A cancer ward was set up three years ago, followed by that of a city scan facility.

indianexpress:  Foreign tours hold special importance for corporators, the criticism from civic activists and the aam janta notwithstanding. Party leaders in the civic body are now planning a study tour to the Colombian capital of Bogota to study its bus rapid transit system and implement it in Pune.

Led by Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale, the PMC delegation comprising BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and independent corporators will visit Bogota in the next few months, sources said.
 
While Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale and Congress leader in the house Aba Bagul are mum about the study tour, NCP leaders in the PMC said there were definite plans. “The proposal has been forwarded to the commissioner,” said an NCP leader.

Bhosale, while talking to reporters on Thursday, said she, along with municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi and other leaders had travelled on the Swargate-Katraj BRT route on Tuesday evening. “We saw that people are facing problems and buses were not running in tandem. The existing route cannot be called a BRT route as it was implemented in haste. However, the PMT has to run buses on the route as new buses were purchased exclusively for the BRT,” she said.

“Since a scientific model of the BRT should be implemented, the PMC is planning to revamp the BRT,” she added.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Aba Bagul submitted a memorandum to Pardeshi demanding that numbers of buses plying on the city roads be increased and heavy vehicles be banned from plying in the city during the day.

indianexpress: The Pune rural police have taken action against Shikrapur-based Radhakrishna Milk and Agro products for selling adulterated milk. The police have seized products like sunmalt powder, chemicals, jeeps for transport of milk and pick-up vans from the location amounting to Rs 76.99 lakh.

According to a press release issued by the rural police, Superintendent of police Vishwas Nangre-Patil had received a tip-off regarding the malpractices at the milk organisation. Based on the tip-off, police inspector Bhausaheb Andhalkar (Crime) raided the organisation on Wednesday evening in presence of Food and Drug Organisation officer Arjun Bhujbal.

During the raid, the police recovered 14,500 litres of milk along with 14 sacks of sunmalt powder.

Based on the complaint filed by Bhujbal, the police have arrested 10 people including the organisation’s president Satish Narayan Dhamdhere. Around 15 police officers under inspector Andhalkar had raided the organisation.
 

indianexpress: The city’s industrial court, on Thursday, lifted the stay it had imposed on the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport bodies’ merger last week after the trade union approached the court praying that the employees were not taken into confidence.

The court ordered the respondent —Pune Municipal Transport Undertaking (PMTU)— to hold a meeting with PMT Kamgar Sangh (INTUC) — PMT employees’ trade union — within 15 days to settle the workers’ issues. The meeting will continue till all issues are settled.

Judge Sumant Kolhe allowed the respondent (PMTU) to continue with the merger process after it was informed that the PMT is willing to hear the union’s side. The court said the merger was for public good but it was necessary to direct respondents to settle employees’ issues.

The union had approached the court stating that the employees have received only 40 per cent of the increased dearness allowance for the period 1997 and 2004. The PMTU is also to pay gratuity and pension amounting to over Rs 5 crore to several employees. Moreover, around 2,100 employees have been working on temporary basis for the past 15 years.
 

indianexpress: Neera, the thirst quencher, obtained from the shindi tree — a species of the palm tree — and sold in kiosks is all set to hit the markets as a packaged product. After a five-year research at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), scientists expect to make it available in its new form by November.

Consumed mostly in the coastal regions, neera turns to toddy when bacteria and yeast act. Fermentation begins within an hour of its collection and unless stored in chilled conditions, it changes to toddy within five to eight hours. Hence, neera is available in a 100-km area from where it is tapped.

However, the membrane filtration technique developed by NCL for the removal of bacteria, may well increase the shelf life of neera up to 15 days. The Khadi and Village Industry Commission (KVIC) has put up a plant at its neera processing centre in Dahanu, to treat 500 litres of neera a day. It will also market the drink.

“We have been working on the membrane applications for 24 years, but started on this technique five years ago. Membranes are polymeric films with controlled porosity. By filtering neera through membranes more then 99 per cent of the micro organisms can be excluded without affecting the nutritive quality,” said deputy director of NCL and biochemical engineer Dr Sanjay Nene who invented the technique. Though the process is still being developed, Nene hoped to implement it at Gajanan Naik Multi Disciplinary Centre in Dahanu and Gujarat Neera Federation at Vapi by November. Nene said the increased distribution of neera would benefit the tappers.

The five-year research at NCL did run into problems like obtaining fresh neera for trials and analyses. which was addressed after the Defence Research and Development Organisation gave them permission to tap 15 palm trees on their estate in Pashan.

“There have been some teething problems at Dahanu too like irregular power supply and ban on packaging of beverages in plastic packs. However, the plastic packs now adhere to environmental norms and it may soon be packaged in tetrapaks,” said Nene Gujarat has begun promoting neera, Karantaka is planning to invest in Rs 5 crore in the project and Maharashtra has a huge potential. Tamil Nadu, with five crores of the total seven crores palm trees in the country will be the biggest beneficiary, but is yet to wake up to the potential of neera, said Nene. “The Gujarat experiment, if successful, will show the way,” he added.

techtree: Sony has introduced the world’s first 12.1-megapixel compact digital camera, the Cybershot DSC-W200.

The company says that the DSC-W200 combines an amazing detail of 12.1-megapixel resolution with high sensitivity for shooting without a flash even in very low light.

 DSC-W200 has advanced high-tech features like Face Detection, D-range optimization, in-camera retouching, and red-eye reduction, along with Super SteadyShot image stabilization that keeps blur to a minimum, the company says. And for shooting and sharing on location, it has a large 2.5-inch LCD screen that makes viewing exceptionally easy.

With a compact Silver Aluminium body, the camera also has high definition (HD) output for displaying still images on HDTV screens, optical viewfinder, and Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens.

Sony says the DSC-W200, which has more megapixels than most digital cameras, is able to capture greater image definition to enable big prints and tight crops without losing sight of detail.

The advanced Super Hole Accumulated Diode (HAD) CCD design allows more light to pass through each pixel, thus increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Other key features include: Sony Bionz processor for improved picture quality and high-speed operation; DRO technology for automatic contrast and exposure correction; HD slideshow with music for playback on camera LCD screen or HDTV; up to 300 shots with LCD screen on; MPEG Movie VX (VGA 30fps movie mode with audio); PictBridge for direct connection to printer without need for PC; and 31MB of internal memory.

The camera has an on-screen function guide, along with an on-screen menu in choice of 17 languages, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

The camera is supplied with a rechargeable battery, charger, AV and USB cables, wrist strap, and is compatible with a wide range of optional Sony accessories.

techtree: The BT-02N, Genius’ latest wireless Bluetooth stereo headset has been introduced.

A sleek, lightweight, foldable Bluetooth stereo headset with Charcoal finish, the BT-02N sports a wireless range of up to 30 feet and delivers up to 8 hours of non-stop talk time, besides using a high performance 30mm Neodymium magnet unit, according to company sources.

An easy-to-use headset, the BT-02N works with mobile phones, PCs, notebooks, and PDAs. It incorporates call features including volume, answer/end call, last number redial, and voice-activated dialling into one single button, and exhibits A2DP, AVRCP features.

Commenting on the newest headset, Sandeep Ramani, Country Manager of KYE Systems (India), said the BT-02N would set up a milestone in terms of feature-packed devices.

Those interested can pick up a BT-02N from Transtek Infoways and Tirupati Enterprises, who are authorized distributors for Genius in the country. The headset carries a price tag of Rs 5,499.

techtree: The Bleu-Sagem MY214X, an entry-level phone that sports the ‘made in France’ tag has been launched in the country by national distributors, Pratham Telecom.

According to Pratham, the main feature of the MY214X is its high quality iball multimedia speakers that allow consumers play loud FM music. Hence, Pratham has chosen to position the phone as ‘Hamara FM’.

An elegant looking phone, the MY214X includes features such as: a color 65K CSTN display (128 x 128 size), one-touch FM radio, GPRS, downloadable polyphonic vocal ring tones, speaker phone (also for FM radio), phone book with up to 500 entries, PC connectivity (USB), and in-built Sudoku game among others.

The FM capability supports RDS, and allows consumers preset favorite channels, as also hear loud FM on the speaker phone.

itwire: If your new smartphone has a MicroSD HC slot, Samsung’s new 8Gb card will be the one you want – when the price comes down. While few phones sport a MicroSD HC slot today, plenty of tomorrow’s phones will, and you’ll want the extra memory!

Samsung’s new MicroSD HC card is around the size of the fingernail on your little pinkie, yet stores a whopping 8Gb of data with the capacity to store 2000 mp3s, 4000 digital photos or around 5 DVD-quality movies.

That gives it the same capacity as you’ll find in an 8Gb iPod nano or iPhone, and shows why adding memory sockets to phones or mp3 players is a good idea. Although no price was issued for the new card, it’s likely to be quite expensive as all new technologies often are, before prices come down and talk of a 16Gb card being launched soon approaches.

The SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) standard is an improvement over the original SD standard which only allowed for memory cards to reach a maximum capacity of 2Gb. SDHC cards range from 4Gb in size all the way up to 32Gb, although 16Gb and 32Gb sized MicroSDHC cards will only be found in the lab at this stage, as they figure out how to shrink memory modules even further so more memory can be packed into the MicroSD card’s tiny dimensions.

And because SDHC is a different standard to SD, you can’t use SDHC cards in the now-older SD slots. Some devices have started coming out with SDHC slots, such as Canon’s latest batch of digital cameras, but plenty of other devices are waiting for an upgrade, including just about any phone out there sporting a MicroSD card slot.

According to Samsung, “With a read speed of 16 Megabytes (MBs) per second and a write speed of 6MB/s, Samsung’s 8GB microSD card well exceeds the Speed Class 4 SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) standard which requires a data write speed of 4MB/s. This is also much faster than the SD Speed Class 2 designation carried by most competing microSD cards currently on the market”.

Given that every new smartphone from now onwards is likely to sport a MicroSD HC compatible socket, except those from Sony Ericsson which use Sony’s own M2 ‘Memory Stick’ derived format, and given that 2Gb MicroSD cards are common and cheap nowadays, the MicroSD HC format is about to take off in a big way.