News

indianexpress: With concern hotting up over the encroachments on nallas and streams in the city, municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi on Monday told the General Body (GB) meeting that notices will be served to those whose encroachments on nallas fall under ‘dangerous construction’ category . In addition, all such constructions that have come up in the past one year on the nallas will be demolished immediately, he added.

Pardeshi also announced some policy decisions to avoid tragedies like wall collapses and inundation. Importantly, he said, the PMC will take action against civic officials who had connived with builders to allow constructions in the green belt.

“In future, all nallas shown in the satellite images will be incorporated in the development plan and before giving building permissions on plots measuring 1 acre or more the drainage pattern and natural flow of water will be taken into consideration. A circular to this effect has been issued,” said Pardeshi. To further protect the nallas the PMC will ensure that the retaining wall for constructions near nallas should be beyond the 7.5 meter green belt. A circular to this effect will be issued, he added.

The GB meeting on Monday was adjourned after paying homage to the 12 people who died in rain-related accidents in the last three days in the city.

Pardeshi said, “The satellite survey conducted shows that 40 km of the total 380 km of nallas are encroached upon. Of this, 6 km is completely blocked, while water can only partially flow in 34 km. It is not possible to demolish all encroachments but action will be initiated against those whose constructions fall under the dangerous category after serving them a one-month notice which will be served within the next 3-4 days. But immediate action will be taken against year-old constructions on nallas,” he said.

indianexpress: THE civic administration has initiated trials of Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) on Solapur Road from Monday. The trails are being conducted between Katraj and Hadapar by running the buses on the newly constructed Fatimanagar to Hadapsar Gadital BRTS lane.

While the new system is facing teething problems like traffic snarls in the peak morning hours, commuters have also complained about the incomplete work. Amitabh Mehta, a lawyer from Fatimanagar said it took him 45 minutes to reach Fatimanagar from Magarpatta corner on Monday morning. “The road shoulders are also not done properly,” he said. He added that the most troublesome areas were Fatimanagar and Magarpatta corner junctions.

Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) chairman Bhimrao Patole confirmed that the trails have begun. He added that efforts will be made by PMT to provide a comfortable ride to citizens. The BRTS buses were already plying on the Katraj-Hadapsar stretch. However, during the trials, the PMT administration will ply on the BRTS dedicated routes. The administration has also undertaken campaigning to create awareness about the operations of the BRTS buses through announcements.

Civic body officials are hoping that the initial hiccups will be solved in a few days. “We have cleared the lane for trials and deployed traffic wardens who will be monitoring the traffic,” an official said.

indianexpress: A WOMAN construction labourer and a three-year-old girl child were crushed to death under a compound wall that was accidentally brought down by a JCB during a sand clearing drive in Sasane Nagar area of Hadapsar on Monday morning.

The deceased have been identified as Anushamma Deshappa Julchetti (40), a resident of Gulbarga and Dhanashree Tolaram Nishat (3), a resident of Chhattisgarh. They were on the other side of the wall drinking water from the tap lodged near the wall, when it caved in crushing them to death.

The mishap took place around 11.15 am at Windscape Construction site being developed by Dhaval Developers, said investigation officer SE Pacharne of Hadapsar police chowki.

Meanwhile, Dhanashree’s mother Ranee who was also injured has been admitted to a private hospital in Hadapsar. She was discharged after first aid, police said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Wanavdi division) Ramesh Biwal, who was the first to reach the spot, said the JCB was clearing the sand and accidentally hit the compound wall that crumbled.

Meanwhile, the police have booked JCB driver Vikas Babasaheb Modak (27), resident of Wadki.

indianexpress:  ONCE the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) results are declared on Tuesday, the rush for admissions to undergraduate courses (standard XI) will begin at the junior colleges in the city. Sale of admission forms and information brochures will begin from Wednesday at the specified centres. Like in the last 12 years, all admissions will be through the centralized admission procedure (CAP).

All admissions will be computerized, and will be based on merit, said Madhav Pendse, CAP committee chairman and principal of the SP College, the main centre for coordinating the CAP. After the receipt of application forms is completed on July 3, the timetable for further admissions will be declared by the CAP committee.

Admissions will be for a total 48,695 seats in 528 colleges offering all three streams —arts, commerce and science. In the arts stream, the intake capacity will be 6,980 for 67 Marathi medium colleges, and 2,700 for 25 English medium colleges. In the commerce stream, 8,900 seats will be available at 115 Marathi medium colleges, and 11,740 seats will be available for the 119 English medium colleges. A total of 15,750 seats will be available in the 202 science colleges.

Admission forms will be sold from Wednesday from 10 am to 5 pm at SP College, as well as all government-recognised junior colleges in the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad area. The forms will be available till July 3 at SP College, and till June 30 at all other colleges.

indianexpress: To shorten the duration of the Std XI admission procedure, the admissions to the bifocal stream for specific categories will also be held through the centralised admission procedure.

This will be only for three categories of students. While 40 per cent will be reserved for students securing 50 per cent and above in technical subjects at the SSC level, another one per cent will be reserved for wards of army officers and 3 per cent for physically handicapped students.

Students opting for the bifocal stream from these three categories can purchase the forms at the specified centres from Wednesday along with students from other streams, and the acceptance of forms will also be at the same time as the other streams from Wednesday to July 3. Table admissions will be conducted for the bifocal stream in those colleges that offer the bifocal stream, wherein dedicated counters will be set up for the same.

In the past, the procedure of acceptance of forms was held separately for the bifocal curriculum. This process would go on for two weeks, after which the admissions to the other streams would be held. “This delayed the entire admission procedure, resulting in the colleges reopening only in August. Hence it was decided to conduct the bifocal admissions also through the centralised procedure, “ said Deputy Director for Education GK Mhamane.

indianexpress: PUNE municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi on Monday got a civic team, led by development engineer Madhav Latkar, to repair the pothole-ridden Khadki stretch of the Pune-Mumbai highway. After three days of rain, the road had developed dozens of potholes which motorists and two-wheeler riders found difficult to negotiate.

Pardeshi, after he assumed charge in May, had told Newsline that he would get the 2.2 km stretch repaired if it would help road users. Subsequently, the Khadki Cantonment Board — under whose jurisdiction the stretch falls — wasted no time in passing a resolution to hand over the stretch to the PMC. The KCB had consistently maintained that the complete resurfacing of the road required crores of rupees and it was not in a position to take care of the road.
 
The stretch has been in a terrible condition for years, claiming scores of lives and maiming hundreds. Last June, it had nearly 200 potholes and subsequently the road itself disintegrated. Though the KCB has handed over the stretch to the PMC, development engineer Madhav Latkar said they were yet to receive the resolution.

Civic sources said the actual handing over process would require the State government’s approval.

However, on Monday, Pardeshi got the temporary patchwork done. “We will resurface the road but that will take time. In the meantime, we will ensure that the road remains motorable,” he said.

In three hours flat, the PMC team smoothened out the potholes near Khadki railway station, All Saint’s School and the Khadki post office area using the emulsion process. “The work will last quite long,” Latkar said, promising that the PMC would repair potholes that spring up.

indianexpress: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has blamed the PMC for the growing number of complaints by citizens related to non-functioning of telephones. In a press release, BSNL said that road widening, concretisation, laying of pipes, construction of flyovers etc undertaken by the PMC in the city over the past two years has affected underground cables along the roads at various locations on Satara Road, Hadapsar, Model Colony and Karve Road.

The release said that cables had been affected in several areas including Model Colony, Ganeshkhind Road, Khadki, Karve Road and Shivaji Road and BSNL had asked PMC for permission to dig up the locations for attending the fault from June 23. However, the civic body is not granting permission, the release said.

Even the railway reservation counter at Shankarsheth Road and Karve Road are not working for the past three days, it added.

techtree: LG Electronics India has unveiled its Desktop PC with Finger Print Security.

The Finger Print Security Desktop is designed for enhanced security, including file protection, data security, and Web transaction security.

With this desktop, users need not remember computer passwords every time they log in. Thanks to the biometric security feature, log in access is allowed only to pre-identified users via their finger prints.

The standard Finger Print Security Desktop comes with a configuration such as: Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor 3.0, 512MB RAM, 160GB HDD, Multimedia Keyboard, Optical Mouse, and 17-inch CRT Monitor with Microsoft XP Home.

LG is offering built-to-order configurations along with the security feature for corporates and enterprises.

Speaking at the launch, R Manikandan, business group head of the IT Division at LG Electronics, said, “The launch of these desktops will help the consumer keep their confidential data protected. Till date this feature was available only with laptops. By pioneering this, we are proud to lead the way in bringing this feature in desktops as well.”

techtree: Recently, Logitech announced availability of its Advanced Universal Harmony Remotes - 885 and 525 in the country.

The Harmony 885 remote features Logitech’s Smart State Technology, allowing users press any one of the Activity buttons to automatically set-up and play their entertainment systems.

Optimized for use with HDTV and PVR/DVR (Digital Video Recording) systems, the 885 features a large color LCD display for enhanced navigation.

The remote lights up when picked, and comes with a docking station to keep it fully charged, thus doing away with the need to change batteries.

It supports Teletext with dedicated buttons corresponding to Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue that put control firmly in the hands of users.

Similarly, the Harmony 525 remote helps users control their home entertainment system with the touch of any one button.

The 525 has a clear LCD screen towards the top, with arrow keys beneath the screen used to scroll to the required control that is selected by corresponding Teletext buttons round the screen.

Easy to set-up, the 525 features activities like Watch Satellite, Watch a DVD, and Play a videogame. For instance, when the Watch a DVD button is clicked, the remote turns on the TV, DVD, Stereo Receiver, sets all inputs to the DVD, and begins playing the disc.

With instant access to a worldwide database of infrared codes, users can control all devices, including HDTV, satellite, and cable boxes with this remote.

Commenting on the new devices, Moninder Jain, director of Logitech South Asia, said, “As people upgrade their living rooms, they are faced with the complexity of new technology, and a different remote for each of the new components. The Harmony 885 remote puts you in control of your entire audio-video system with just one button.”

techtree: Thecus Technology has reportedly launched its flagship N5200 RouStor device that combines NAS technology with routing capabilities in a single gadget capable of networking and network storage for the home or small office.

About 230mm x 190mm x 230mm in size, the N5200 packs an Intel Celeron M processor running at 600MHz and 256MB of DDR memory for powerful data-processing capabilities.

The device can store up to five 3.5 SATA hard disks, which translates into more than 3TB of storage. The data is kept secure with the help of multiple RAID modes, including RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and JBOD. The N5200 sports built-in RAID management features such as auto rebuild, hot swap, hot spare, disk roaming, and so on.

For data backup, the device comes with Thecus’s Backup Application, and a feature called Nsync. The latter helps users automatically upload files to an external storage device through FTP. In the event the external device is yet another N5200, the connection is made through a secure connection.

File-sharing between networked PCs is a breeze with the N5200, thanks to an intuitive multilingual Web-based interface, and Windows, Apple, OS X, and Linux compatibility.

The N5200 features 3 USB ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 4-port Gigabit switch for excellent connectivity options. Users can also install a USB 802.11 b/g dongle for Wi-Fi capability. Besides, the N5200 comes with robust software, including a print server, a FTP server, WebDisk capability, and Windows Active Directory support.