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indianexpress: The ten-day Ganeshotsav in the city will culminate with the immersion of idols on Tuesday. The traditional immersion procession will start from Lokmanya Tilak’s statue at Mahatma Phule market at 9 am where four of the five manache Ganpati will lead the immersion procession on Laxmi Road.

Gram daivat (presiding deity of the city) Kasba Ganpati will be the first idol to be immersed, followed by the other three —Tambdi Jogeshwari, Guruji Talim and Tulsibaug. Kesariwada Ganpati mandal, which decided to proceed via Tilak Road to allow speedier immersion, will continue to do so this year too.

Security has been beefed up in and around the city by Pune Police for the immersion. All sensitive locations in the city are on alert and vigil is being maintained on people with suspicious backgrounds at Lohegaon airport, Pune railway station, Shivajinagar bus stand, theatres, malls and multiplexes and other public places.

The police have erected 14 watch towers and five high towers at strategic locations covering 74 most sensitive spots in the city. Besides the welcome desk, seven help centres have been set up. Meanwhile, crackdown squads in plain clothes have been formed to ward off any threat.

As many as 107 barricades have been put up at nine ghats where immersion will take place. A mini strike force has been placed under direct supervision of police commissioner Jayant Umranikar and 18 companies of strike force, 2 companies of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), one company of Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been kept on standby.

indianexpress:  For this group of nearly 40 farmers from across the state, practicing organic farming —growing crops using nature’s resources, avoiding artificial fertilisers and pesticides — is a way of walking the Gandhian path. They have been meeting since January 2006 to discuss eco-friendly techniques of farming at Khalad, 35 km from Pune under the aegis of Pune-based NGOs Gram Parivartan and Pani Panchayat.

Now, their pearls of wisdom, are being compiled into booklets with the first set slated for release this Gandhi Jayanti.

“We want organic farmers to take advantage of our shared experiences. At each study group session, we take an aspect and discuss it in great details. We talk about organic experiments for about 12 to 13 hours in two days. We try to find logical answers to experiments and try to find reasons for the failure or success,” said founder of Gram Parivartan Pandurang Shitole.

The study group zeroes in on subjects like soil, seed, water, manure, fertilisers, harvesting of sunlight, and crop pattern. They have also conducted field visits to organic farms, all of which has been documented. “The study group aims to get to the depth of the principles of organic farming. We want to create a knowledge base for the ideology and demonstrate it. We are not looking at the extension work,” said Shitole.

punetimes:  Filing of returns would soon be a much easier preposition for the value added tax (VAT) dealers in the city.

The sales tax, Pune division, will introduce the facility for online filing of VAT returns in two months, D.V. Bhalchandra, additional commissioner, sales tax (Pune), told TOI. Starting with the larger contributors of VAT, the e-filing facility would be introduced in a phased manner and would eventually benefit 60,000 VAT dealers in the city, he added.

The department has hired services of Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India (ECI) Limited for developing the software required for facilitating e-filing of returns, he said.

The move forms part of the restructuring exercise undertaken by the sales tax department post-introduction of VAT on April 1, 2005.

Next to Mumbai, Pune is the largest contributor of VAT to the state coffers. While Mumbai’s annual contribution is in the range of Rs 11,000 to Rs 12,000 crore, Pune contributes over Rs 3,500 crore.

punetimes: An acute shortage of drivers in the city police is hindering the movement of police personnel and officers.

The structure of the city police was changed this year, with the government adding three posts of additional commissioners, one deputy commissioner and five assistant commissioners. However, the number of police vehicles and drivers remained the same.

According to norms, four-wheelers, including jeeps and cars, are provided to senior inspectors of each police station. There are 21 police stations in the city, with 25 assistant commissioners, 10 deputy commissioners, three additional commissioners, one joint commissioner and one commissioner. Apart from these officers, jeeps and cars have been provided to officers attached to the crime, special and traffic branches.

Against these requirements, the city police have just 164 four-wheelers, about 10 of them remain in garage for repair and maintenance on a daily basis and cannot be used. The absence of drivers adds to the chaos. The state has allotted 315 posts of drivers to the city police. However, only 230 posts have been filled, leaving a deficiency of 85, with all drivers working in two shifts.

A senior officer told TOI that many vehicles were deployed to transfer the accused/suspects from lock-ups or prisons to court. Some vehicles were usually out on investigation trips. “In such a situation the police personnel face a tough time commuting.”

punetimes: The overall noise levels in Sahakarnagar, Parvati, Aranyeshwar and Sinhgad road do not seem to have gone down during the Ganeshotsav despite a reduction in the number of small Ganesh mandals as the bigger mandals violate the decibel limits and the time-limit to use loudspeakers.

This was revealed during a survey by noise consultant G.B. Kolhatkar on Saturday night. He conducted the survey with a decibel meter in the above-mentioned areas at various spots.

“There are fewer small mandals than last year and some of them have not even put up loudspeakers. But statistically that does not prove that overall the noise levels have reduced, because the other mandals are continuing to violate the norms,” Kolhatkar said.

He added that in some of the areas like Parvati foothills and Sahakarnagar, that fall under commercial areas, the noise levels were as high as 90.4 decibels.

The prescribed noise level for commercial areas is 65 dB, residential areas, 55 dB; silent zone, 50 dB; and industrial zone, 75 dB. The dB level should go down by 10 units after 10 pm

punetimes: A 16-year-old boy, whom the Satara police allegedly beat up a few days ago, breathed his last at Sassoon general hospital here on Sunday night.

Dhanaji Genu Gawali of Pratapsinh slums in Satara was arrested on September 16 in a theft case and was released on bail. The police, however, detained him again on next day.

Dhanaji’s father Genu, a farmer, told TOI that Dhanaji was shifted to the Sassoon on Friday night for better treatment.

Genu claimed that constables attached to Satara city police station had beaten up his son brutally in the custody. The boy had sustained head injuries and for last two days, he was reported as critical by the hospital authorities.

When contacted, superintendent of police, Satara, Prakash Mutyal,

admitted that the boy was detained by the police in a theft case. But he denied that the boy was beaten up. “None of my constables touched him. He was regularly produced in the court during the said period. He would have told the court about police brutalities immediately. But he never complained about it in the court.”