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indianexpress: The city police closed down several restaurants and bars in the city early Sunday for violating the 12.30 am deadline. Among the first place the team of nearly 100 policemen raided and closed was Lush, a popular pub on Dhole Patil Road. A case was also registered against its owner for violating the deadline.The raids were supervised and carried out under the directions of Deputy Commissioner of Police ( Zone II ) Satish Khandare.

The other nightspots that were closed down included 1000 Oaks on East Street, restaurants like High Spirits, Soho, ABC Farms, Soul, Garden of Eden located in Koregaon Park, Camp and Kalyani Nagar areas of the city. Some hotels near Pune Railway Station were also closed down during the crackdown.
 
However, city restaurateurs and bar owners reacted with outrage, terming the move as high-handed and illegal. They alleged that restaurants and hotels were functioning well within deadline and did not violate it. “We have met Pune Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar five times over the issue. We are adhering to the 12.30 am deadline. On Saturday night, the policemen arrived around 11.30 pm and starting closing down the establishments, refusing to listen to us. Many customers ran helter-skelter fearing arrests. Some of the owners were dragged out and cases registered against them.The crackdown will surely destroy night life in Pune for a long time to come,” said the owner of a popular city restaurant.

“The police know we are not organised and are acting arbitrarily without hearing our side. However, we will put up a legal defence as we are not criminals. The Government Resolution allows restaurateurs to conduct business past midnight till 12.30 am,’’ said another restaurateur.

Meanwhile, the owners who met on Sunday decided to call on Umranikar to discuss the deadline issue.

The restaurateurs alleged that several policemen commented on the dress sense of the women which was flatly denied by Khandare. “The restaurants, bars and pubs were found violating the deadline. The rules for functioning are clear and should not be violated. They compelled us to come to take action by flouting the deadlines. Earlier, we had served notices, imposed fines and even chargesheeted them but they refused to adhere to the guidelines. The pubs did not have licences,” said Khandare.

indianexpress: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), which kicked off several passenger-friendly steps recently, is now trying to revive its decade-old ticket-vending machine proposal.

Senior MSRTC officials said the proposal for e-ticketing mooted around ten years ago could never take off even though there were initiatives by successive managing directors.

But the revival may happen this fiscal, said MSRTC spokesperson Neera Asthana. “Last year, we had conducted successful trials on the Panvel-Dadar route. The software, similar to that used in machines used in Hyderabad and Bangalore, had technical snags during the trials which have now been rectified,” Asthana said.

E-ticketing, the electronic version of the traditional paper ticket, which the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) is planning to start in two of its depots by August 15, is a sure-shot way to improve passenger convenience while reducing ticket processing charges and eliminating the need for paper.

MSRTC officials said the system would avoid pilferage of fares. “The corporation has been losing nearly Rs 10-15 crore annually, because certain conductors do not submit the entire amount,” the officials said. According to Asthana, the corporation looses nearly five per cent from instances of pilferage from daily submissions of the fares in a year.

Moreover, e-ticketing would also save stationery. “At present, the headquarters at Mumbai Central has to print tickets, send them to the 30 divisions from where they go to depots. We have to discard tickets if any new denomination is introduced when the fares are increased. This money can be saved,” the official added.

indianexpress: Always known for making constructive use of the plentiful manpower available to it , the Yerawada Central prison, is ready to notch up yet another feat. In a week from now ten lakh saplings of Sita Ashoka would be planted in the premises of the open jail. This is a part of the major revival project undertaken by the National Medicinal Plants Board whereby prisons with large tracts of land available to them are being roped for the plantation of these trees, known for their abundant medicinal value.

The Yerawada prison is one of the first in the country to have already initiated the activity with the board, that comes under the Union Ministry, having sanctioned a grant of Rs 12 lakh to it for the purpose.

“The land in the open jail has already been prepared for the purpose and is ready for the plantation. Fifty prisoners have been working on it since the past few weeks, while the plantation and upkeep would involve the labour of almost all the prisoners in the jail,’’ stated Rajendra Dhamane, superintendent of the jail.

According to Dhamane it would be about 10 years before the Sita Ashoka trees are ready to be used for their various qualities. The tree’s bark, fruit and leaves are used in large quantities for the making of herbal medicines and for treating ailments ranging from piles and dysentery to menstrual disorders and mental illnesses. Dhamane does not rule out the possibility of the medicines becoming a part of the jail’s thriving cottage industry that sells a large range of products using the labour of the prisoners. Incidentally the Bhubaneshwar open jail too has volunteered to undertake the plantation with others expected to follow suit. The measure is expected to significantly counter the fast depleting population of these trees in the country. According to sources about 2,000 tonnes of dried bark of the Ashoka tree is used every year for traditional medicines.

indianexpress: A Day after the country’s first auto cluster project was launched in Pimpri-Chinchwad, municipal commissioner Dilip Band is under fire. The reason: Congress and Shiv Sena MPs were not invited for the grand function which was swarmed by NCP leaders.

The facility was inaugurated by Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday in the presence of Union Agriculture Minister and NCP leader Sharad Pawar, MLA Vilas Lande, Mayor Vaishali Ghodekar and several prominent industrialists.

Shiv Sena’s Member of Parliament Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil on Sunday said he will take up the issue in Parliament and with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “As the local MP, I should have been been at the function. But the Band administration did not have the simple courtesy of inviting me,” he said. A small part of Pimpri-Chinchwad falls in his Khed constituency.

Adhalrao-Patil said he had called up Band and questioned him over the non-inclusion of his name on the list of invitees on Friday. “Band told me that it was a function for the launch of a special purpose vehicle. When I told him if this is his attitude, I will call my sainiks from Khed and Junnar and stop the function, Band sounded very apologetic,” he said.

The Sena MP said he called up Kamal Nath to lodge a protest: “He invited me for the function and Union Commerce secretary Ajay Dua clarified that it was a Union government programme and the local administration had erred in not inviting me”.

indianexpress: While their sessions on aero modelling have most often managed to catch the fancy of school children, on Saturday, members of the Gliding Centre, Pune Aero Modellers Association and Pune Gliding Society had a different programme for the school children. A joint tree plantation drive was organised on the 300-acre barren land that houses the Gliding Centre in Hadapsar which saw planting of almost 900 saplings.

Said Captain Sailesh Charbhe, in charge of the Civil Aviation Department of the Gliding Centre, “The objective of this drive was to instill environmental awareness in the minds of youth, and therefore we called upon various schools to participate in this programme.”

Students from Sadhana School in Hadapsar, Society for the Development of Disabled Students in Wanavdi and Mahatma Phule High School gathered to be a part of the drive. Ganpat Lonkar, faculty member, Mahatma Phule High School said, “This programme will do wonders for the environment as well as the youth. It will not only enlighten the students but also enrich their knowledge in relation to new plant species and planting processes.”

Besides the schools, the centre’s staff members also chipped in their bit. Vikram Savant, a pilot, explained how the programme was not a mere one-day endeavour. “We have been planting trees for a week now. The season is apt for extensive plantation of trees and it is one of the reasons why we have taken this drive up now.”

indianexpress: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials conducted raids at the Subhiksha retail chain outlet on Bajirao Road on Saturday and confiscated bags of rice from a Mahabaleshwar-based company. The company had claimed on the product bag that the rice could help cure oral cancer and reduce cholesterol.

Goods worth Rs 7,000 were seized from the Subhiksha godown. Similar raids were also conducted in Mahableshwar by the Satara wing of the FDA and goods worth Rs 8.5 lakh were confiscated.

Reacting to the raids, Mohin Khattar, president of Subhiksha Trading Services said that the chain was being unfairly targeted. “We don’t manufacture the product, we don’t pack the product, we are just retailers and there are others who stock the same pack as well. This is a plot orchestrated by vested interests who cannot see a low cost player like us offering discounts to customers and doing well in the market,” he said.