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indianexpress: CITY-based NGO Shelter Associates (SA) — working towards the betterment of slum dwellers — has demonstrated a technique called ‘poverty mapping’ in a settlement in Surabaya, Indonesia to help identify clusters of low income communities and provide them with individual water connections.

Pratima Joshi from SA, invited by USAID/Eco Asia to demonstrate poverty mapping in Surabaya, says the aim of the survey was to identify potential customers that would qualify for an output-based aid (OBA) subsidisation or micro-credit financing. OBA is a strategy developed by the World Bank to help use explicit performance-based subsidies/grants to support the delivery of basic services such as piped water supply.

Survey data would be entered and analysed using poverty mapping — a geographic information system — techniques piloted in India. Now a local municipal water company — PDAM hopes to reach out to 15,000 poor households with individual water connections through the OBA-aided programme.

PDAM is responsible for treating and supplying water in the city.

It was World Bank which initiated its OBA grant program in Indonesia in 2004-05. Then in May 2006, the Bank held discussions with PDAM Surabaya and USAID/Indonesia to support a similar programme in Surabaya. USAID/Indonesia already supports PDAM Surabaya in its commitments toward increasing piped water supply for the whole population, including the poor.

The SA team comprised Pratima Joshi (architect), Sandhya Kamble (social worker) and Pradeep Waze (community member). SA is keen to demonstrate the efficacy of having a good mapping information in place as well as involving communities in creating an accurate database, says Joshi.

indianexpress: THE Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) education board on Friday launched a 15-day intensive drive to ensure that dropouts between six to 14 years of age go back to school. The city has as many as 4,185 school dropouts in this age group.

A survey conducted by the civic education board as part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan found that of a total of 3,37,852 students in the city, nearly 3,33,667 went to school, while the others had dropped out due to various reasons including poverty.

“As per the survey, 2,213 boys and 1,972 girls, totally 4,185 children were out of school,” an official press note from the civic school board said. Education board officials, who met on Friday, chalked out details of the rallies and other awareness programmes to be undertaken in the city, mainly the slums, where most of the dropouts live.

Officials will speak to the children and their parents, and encourage them to go back to school. The drive will also involve nearly 298 principals and 2,367 teachers from civic schools, besides 189 volunteers.

“Since today is the first day of school, meetings will be held with education officials and school authorities to plan and execute the drive. We will start the actual visits to the children’s homes and public rallies in a few days, and the programme will go on till June 30,” said PMC education officer Ashok Rajguru.

The drive will include rallies to register children in schools, meetings and interviews with ward-level education committees, school principals, teachers, and out-of-school children, and public announcements.

The children will be re-integrated into the system through various alternative schooling schemes under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan like Mahatma Phule Shikshan Hami Yojana and Setu Shalas.

indianexpress: THE deadline’s over but the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) says it will take another 15 days to complete the flyover segment between University chowk and Baner Road.

Meanwhile, as a relief, both Pashan and Aundh roads will be made into two-ways from University chowk from Monday.

The traffic on both the roads was rerouted to facilitate the flyover work. “The final girder has been placed. Now, traffic from under the flyover can move to Aundh,” said an MSRDC official.

However, traffic on Baner Road will still go through Pashan and Aundh roads. “We are yet to place three slabs to join the flyover with the Baner ramp,” the officer said. The MSRDC was given a deadline to finish the flyover by June 15 by chairman Anil Deshmukh during his visit in mid-May.

Now, officials said, they will require another 15 days to complete the work. “The flyover will be opened for traffic by July first week after asphalting, constructing the railings and painting the dividers,” they said.

As per the new traffic plan, commuters wanting to reach Baner should take Pashan Road and travel to Baner Road via Abhimanshri housing society. Similarly, people coming from Baner Road should reach Pashan Road from Abhimanshri.

For commuters to Aundh, the traffic will be diverted from below the flyover. However, to reach Shivajinagar and Pune railway station, the traffic will be re-routed from the University’s Millennium and main gate

indianexpress: VENTURE Aviation, a division of Goa-based Rajaram N S Bandekar group, is likely to start a non-scheduled chopper service between Pune-Mumbai and other places in western Maharashtra by June 23.

“The service will help people avoid traffic snarls,” chief operating officer (COO) Ajay Sareen said on Friday. Initially, the company will charge Rs 60,000 per hour for flying. It will take at least 40 minutes to reach Mumbai.

Venture Aviation will also cater to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation in the western Maharashtra and to Solapur, Baramati, Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Nashik and Shirdi.

“One can charter flights according to convenience and land in places they want to go. All that one needs is permission to land in private properties,” Sareen said.

As of now the company has one helicopter — a four-seater made-in-USA called ENSTROM 480 B — and plans to have two more.

indianexpress: THE India Meteorological Department (IMD) believes conditions are favorable for the monsoon to set in Mumbai and Pune over the next 48 hours. It concluded this after considering that there is slight progression of the southwest monsoon in parts of central Maharashtra and Marathwada.

“We are adopting a wait and watch policy,” weather central director Rohini Lele however said.
 
June 10 is usually when the monsoon hits the Mumbai coast, but this year’s onset has been disrupted by the tropical cyclone Gonu. Lele though said there have been several instances of late as well as early onsets. “In 2005, the onset was June 19, in 2003 it was June 16 and in 2002 it was June 12,” she said. “While in 2004, the monsoon arrived on June 10, last year saw an early onset — on May 31.”

The monsoon has progressed over eastern Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.