News

indianexpress: A Bomb hoax forced hundreds of Fergusson College’s students to leave the campus on Saturday morning.

Panic prevailed when the college’s cleaning staff recovered a handwritten letter threatening three serial blasts on lines of Hyderabad in the college premises at around 9.30 am. The staff handed the letter over to the principal who immediately informed the police about the threat.

On receiving the call, the police control room swung into action and made the required arrangements to give a thorough anti-sabotage check in the campus. The Bomb Detection and Disposal (BDDS) Squad from the city police commissionerate, backed up by Deccan police along with the sniffer dog squad — summoned from the State CID headquarters — conducted a thorough check of the college premises and found nothing suspicious.

Meanwhile, chaos ensued in and out of the campus as the news of bomb hoax spread. Traffic jams were reported on FC Road and the adjoining roads owing to the sudden rush of students onto the road. The students heaved a sigh of relief after the search proved the threat to be a hoax.

Principal Dr S M Chitale told Pune Newsline a handwritten letter inserted in an envelope was recovered by the cleaning staff in the statistic department and was immediately brought it to him.

indianexpress: The next Holi festival may be almost six months away but the inmates of the Yerawada Central Prison are already planning what will best make the raw material for their annual contribution to the city’s colourful celebration. And if the latest initiative works out, it will be some of the leftovers of this year’s Ganesh festival that will go into making of next year’s riot of colours — the tonnes of flowers that were strewn across the city on Tuesday.

The Ganesh immersion procession in the city that lasted 30 hours and 20 minutes had left a strange mix of leftovers — four containers full of gulal, three containers of footwear, two container of plastic bottles and 10 containers full of garbage. But it was the one tonne of nirmalya — the floral offerings — that caught the fancy of the Yerawada prisoners and soon the plan was borne — to convert the refuse into natural colors for the next Holi. Not to be left behind, the conservancy staff of the civic body decided to convert the 10 containers of garbage in to vermi-compost.

The nirmalya — the floral offering — is immersed along with the idol and NGOs and the PMC have been working round the clock for some time to convince people against this. “The effort to give an eco-friendly touch to the festival is yielding results. Women inmates of Yerawada Central Prison have some training in making natural colour from flowers such as marigold and this year, their effort is set to yield results in a most unusual manner,” says Manisha Gutman of Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group, which, along with Ecoexist — the NGO sponsoring the natural colour project — is looking to give a new colour to the city floral waste.

“Our volunteers ensured that all the contents of the bags are correctly separated into biodegradable and non-biodegradable substances. Next year we plan to implement the project more comprehensively,” said Gutman.

indianexpress: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will complete a draft of new parking norms for the city — including a specific mention of vehicles used in the information technology sector — in a month’s time. The draft will be tabled for discussion in the next general body meeting. Meanwhile, PMC will launch a drive to crackdown on illegal parking.

City engineer Prashant Waghmare said the norms would be prepared on the basis of the detailed traffic survey and land available for parking. “The issue of parking for the vehicles used in the IT sector will also be addressed in the new norms,” Waghmare said, adding they will recommend necessary changes in the development control rules for the purpose.

Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi had to clear the air with some corporators who criticised the civic administration for taking environmentalists and builders into confidence before preparing the norms. They alleged the administration was giving them priority over corporators.

While admitting the delay in the preparation was due to their effort to include suggestions from environmentalists, Pardeshi said they had not discussed the norms with them. “We were only addressing the issues raised by members of the Tree Authority Committee in the various meetings,” he said.

indianexpress: DR P P Doke, director of Health Services Maharashtra, has launched an investigation into the number of people who have been bitten by snakes including those who have succumbed to the bites. The move has come at a time when doctors at primary health centres and rural hospitals in Ghodegaon and Ambegaon have had to deal with an increasing number of snake bite cases.
Kalawati Hande (75) of Narodi village in Ambegaon taluka, 80 km from Pune, almost died of a cobra bite on August 25 — Nag Panchami day. She was taken to Vighnahar nursing home at Narayangaon. Within 20 minutes of the bite, she was given primary aid, ayurvedic tablet pinak and anti-snake venom before being kept on respiratory support. She recovered within 24 hours.

“We have treated 89 patients bitten either by cobras, Russell’s vipers or the common kraits, including Kalawati who found it difficult to breathe after the bite. Pinak tablet was immediately placed under her tongue at the hospital and she was treated with ASVs. Recovery normally takes over five days. But she was fine after 24 hours,” said Dr Sadanand Raut whose hospital at Narayangaon has an intensive care unit. “Four other patients were given the same drug along with the routine treatment.”

The latest victim is Omkar Vani from Narodi who was bitten by a cobra on last Saturday. Higher and Technical Education minister Dilip Walse Patil had sent nine-year-old Omkar to Raut’s hospital, the doctors said. “The cost of one ASV is Rs 400, while injections are administered depending on the severity of the bite. A patient can receive at least 20 ASVs and it is a long road to recovery,” says Raut.

indianexpress: The house resembles a garage sale with piles of clothes, old tape-recorders, playthings among numerous items taking up every empty space possible. Surrounded by her ‘treasures,’ 56-year-old Jyoti Sachde tai sits meticulously sifting through the stuff, sorting the usable from the junk. Sachde, a part of the Bhusari Colony’s Savangadi Jyeshta Nagarik Sangh — a senior citizen’s group — has embarked on a unique way of letting waste not go waste, through her ‘Mamta Group.’ She collects items thrown away despite having just minor defects and gives them to voluntary organisations working with the underprivileged.

“Anything under the sun is accepted,” Sachde says. “When people clean their homes ahead of a festival or occasion, they come across things they have hoarded up promising themselves to get back to them when they have time. They never do and these things are thrown away,” she says.

Old books, pen without refills, old kitchen appliances with broken handles, imitation jewellery with minor defects, bags, curtains, pillows — her list is inexhaustible. “It takes me two full cans of insect repellent to keep the cockroaches away,” says Sachde holding up a can of HIT. “Some of the items are old and gather dust and hence the piles of stuff need to be constantly disinfected.”

This brainwave came naturally to Sachde, who has been instrumental in a support group collecting and distributing free medicines and free weekend tuitions for 35 children studying in corporation schools. “The idea struck seven to eight months ago and I started asking people in the colony to hand over old things to me. The word spread,” she says.

Sachde then sorts and gives these items to organisations like Janseva Foundation and Aaple Ghar that runs orphanages and old age homes.

indianexpress: The State government has issued instructions to the police department to expedite the passport verification procedure of Haj pilgrims. The directives were issued by the State home department after Cantonment-based lawyer, social and RTI activist Advocate Saleem Shaikh drew the attention of the government towards the inordinate delay in the passport verification process of Haj pilgrims, carried out by the police.

According to Shaikh, police verifications of Haj pilgrims take too much time by the police commissionerates/superintendents all over Maharashtra and the verification reports of Haj pilgrims are not sent to respective passport offices in time, which delays the issuance of passports and at times Haj pilgrims have to cancel their pilgrimage.

This prompted Shaikh to take up the matter with the then additional chief secretary (home) A P Sinha, who in turn issued directions on June 20 to director general and inspector generals of police along with directives to all the police commissionerates and superintendents to send police verification reports of passport seekers of Haj pilgrims expeditiously to all respective passport offices in the state.

Haj pilgrims from the state facing difficulties can contact Shaikh on 020-26343373, 24269242 or 9422024273.

indianexpress: Commodore Kishore Onkar Thakare took over the command of INS Shivaji, the premier engineering training establishment of Indian Navy from Commodore S M Luktuke at an impressive ceremonial parade on Friday. The outgoing Commodore S M Luktuke has served as commanding officer of INS Shivaji since February 2006.

Commodore Thakare is an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Pune, Naval Engineering College INS Shivaji, Defence Service Staff College Wellington and College Defence Management, Hyderabad. Commissioned in the Indian Navy in January 1979, the Commodore specialised in Marine Engineering and in Submarine Arm and underwent submarine training in Germany and Commissioned two SSK submarines including the first Indian built submarine.

indianexpress: Municipal commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi on Friday ordered a departmental inquiry against four officers from the city engineer’s office for negligence in allowing the construction of a multi-storied building at Wanavdi built through Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) granted by the civic body for a plot in Kothrud.

The four officers are deputy city engineer D I Pharate, assistant engineer B K Godse and junior engineers Prakash Pawar and Konkane. However, Pardeshi said no action could be initiated against the builder or the construction due to a stay obtained by builder Dilip Jain from Bombay High Court.

“The preliminary inquiry confirms that the controversial TDR cancelled by the civic body was used in the construction of the building. A departmental inquiry against the four officers will be conducted for their failure to act against the construction,” said Pardeshi in the general body.

On the corporators’ demand for immediate suspension of the officials, Pardeshi said the inquiry will fix the responsibility and establish whether there was malafide intention. He assured the general body meeting that the officials will be suspended if found guilty.

Pardeshi said PMC had issued stop work notice to the construction in October 2005, however, the TDR was used for construction of the building.

In October 2005, the civic body admitted that it had been duped in the Kothrud TDR case where PMC had paid Rs 21,25,826 in cash as compensation to the landowners in 1979. Then, in 1981, the PMC granted TDR of 36,000 sq meters to the owner for the same land. The TDR for this land is estimated to be around Rs 14 crore as per the prevailing market rate.

indianexpress: Three routes, covering a total of 45 km, have been suggested for the metro rail system in the Pune Metropolitan area after a preliminary study.

Details of the suggested routes were announced by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd managing director E Sreedharan at a meeting with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials on Friday. PMC has appointed Delhi Metro as consultant to study the planning of metro rail for the city.

“The three corridors for the metro rail system — from Warje to Chinchwad of 22 km, Shivajinagar to Kalyaninagar of 13 km and Swargate to Agriculture College of 10 km — have been identified in the preliminary study,” Sreedharan said.

He said Warje-Chinchwad corridor would be 22 km long and pass through Karve Road, Jungli Maharaj Road, Shivajinagar and Mumbai-Pune highway. The Shivajnagar-Kalyaninagar corridor of 13 km would pass through Raja Bahadur Mills Road and Ahmednagar Road while Swargate-Agriculture College corridor of 10 km would pass through Shivaji Road.

“The Warje-Chinchwad and Shivajinagar-Kalyaninagar corridor will be elevated corridors passing from the centre of the existing roads while the Swargate-Agriculture College corridor will be underground,” Sreedharan said, adding the detailed project report (DPR) would be ready within four months.

indianexpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Standing Committee on Thursday gave the go-ahead to the civic administration to appoint Unity Consultants Pvt Ltd as consultant for implementing the project of meterisation and improving the drinking water supply system.

“The consultant company will be paid 2.35 per cent of the total cost of the project,” Standing Committee chairman Bapu Pathare said.

The civic administration proposed Unity Consultancy for the project going by its success in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), which is implementing a similar project for which it has been able to get Rs 25 crore under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The consultant will enable PMC to improve water supply system by ensuring equal distribution of water to residents, tackle water leakages and ensure 24-hour water supply. The company will help in studying new resources and planning of drinking water supply till 2025. The water demand and supply, technical report on the entire system and proper execution of the project will be taken care of, he said, adding the consultant will also work towards resolving the woes of citizens of Lohegaon and Kharadi area by exploring the possibility of drawing water from Tulapur to the region.

Meanwhile, the Standing Committee once again postponed its decision on the proposed 117-km ring road project.