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punetimes: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has chalked out three places, apart from the Dhankwadi truck terminal, for parking of luxury buses to eliminate the nuisance of haphazard parking by private buses on city roads causing traffic snarls.

Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said, “We have narrowed down on three locations for parking of private buses which are parked on city roads.” The decision was taken during the Traffic Mobility Committee meeting on Friday.

According to senior officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the three locations that have been selected are next to the Parvati flyover on Sinhagad road, the PMT bus stop at Upper Indiranagar and the Rajiv Gandhi zoo at Katraj. Meanwhile, buses can also be parked in the truck terminal at Dhankawadi.

“We have shown the places to the representatives of the luxury bus association. They seem to have no problems with it,” a PMC official said.

The plot near the Parvati flyover can accommodate around 20-25 buses, 10 buses at Katraj and 30-40 buses can be accommodated at Upper Indiranagar.

The association members, though happy with the parking lots, are waiting for a written communication from the civic body. “We have demanded a written letter from them that the land has been earmarked for parking of our buses,” said association president Balasaheb Khedkar.

Khedkar said they have already communicated to civic body that they do not have a problem to pay rent for the locations. “But there should be a written communication so that in future no one throws us out,” he said.

Association member Baba Shinde said the problem for them will be the operation on Mumbai-Pune route. “We had demanded parking places at four locations of the city so that we can park vehicles there and operate. The locations identified do not have any provision for Mumbai-Pune operators,” he said.

The association had demanded parking areas near the Parvati flyover, the open space near Shaniwarwada and a central parking terminal on the river-bed road.

According to the association, around 550 buses pass through the city heading towards Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa while around 100 buses are parked in the city on an average basis.

In the absence of a parking place, the buses are parked near the Pune railway station, Shivajinagar court, Satara road and several other locations causing traffic snarls.

punetimes: The general body (GB) of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on Saturday approved granting of 100 per cent waiver in property tax to the 17 newly-merged villages.

Talawade, Dudulgaon, Wadmukhwadi, Punawale, Kiwale and parts of Chikhli, Moshi, Dighi, Bhosari, Sangvi, Pimpale Nilakh, Wakad, Mamurdi, Chowiswadi, Charholi Budruk, Bopkhel and Ravet were merged in the PCMC limits on September 11, 1997, through a state government notification.

The residents of these villages owe Rs 20 crore to the PCMC as property tax till this year. They are also entitled to pay Rs 10 crore as taxes for the year 2007.

As a result, the residents of these villages owe Rs 30 crore to the PCMC.

Nationalist Congress Party corporator Datta Sane suggested during the meeting that villagers of these 17 newly-merged villages, be given 100 per cent waiver on property tax. This was approved by the GB, and as a result the PCMC now faces the prospect of losing at least Rs 20 crore.

The PCMC had earlier suggested that property holders who pay the tax along with the dues before July 2008, will get a discount of 25 per cent in the common tax of the current year.

The property holders in the villages who pay the tax along with the dues before September 2008, will get a discount of 15 per cent in the common tax of the current year.

punetimes: More than 252 kg of foodstuffs were confiscated by the civic health department on Saturday in a crackdown on illegal eateries and food vendors. This included 85 kg of potato wadas, 65 kg of ‘Chinese’ food, 56 kg of chopped onions, 14 kg of ‘panipuri’, 16 kg of ‘kachi-dabeli’ and 16 kg of ‘pav bhaji’.

Led by deputy health officer D.D. Chandakkar, a team of officials from the Ghole road ward office on Saturday initiated action against people found selling edibles in areas near Baba Bhide bridge, Deccan Gymkhana area, Kamla Nehru park, BMCC road and Bhandarkar road.

The food was later destroyed by the team.

The health department has asked the 13 other divisional ward offices in Pune to initiate a similar drive in the areas under their jurisdiction.

punetimes:  Five persons were killed and four others injured when they were attacked with stones outside the Lonavla railway station in Pune district in the wee hours on Saturday, police said.

The victims were sleeping outside the railway station of the popular hill station when the incident happened, the police said.

The identity of the assailants or reason behind the attack was not yet known, they said, adding statements of the injured were being recorded.

The injured were admitted to a government hospital in Pune.

punetimes:  Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi has recommended a steep hike in the rent charged for fire tenders, provided by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to private functions in the city.

The fire brigade is managed by the PMC. Several organisations, institutions and even individuals hire fire tenders during exhibitions, trade fairs, religious programmes, film shootings and other such functions. These are stationed at the venues as a precautionary measure.

In an official proposal to the civic standing committee, Pardeshi has pointed out that the current rentals charged were finalised by the committee way back in May 1996.

He said though there has been an increase in petroleum prices, salaries of firemen, water charges, maintenance costs, the rental had not been revised over the last 11 years.

The commissioner has recommended the hike because the fire brigade incurs heavy losses because of the low rentals.

It may be noted here that the rental charges are for a minimum eight-hours shift for one fire tender. An additional rent, proportionate with the rent fixed for each category, is recovered if the fire tender is hired for more than eight hours.

punetimes: The cyber cell of the city police on Thursday booked a software engineer for allegedly stealing valuable data source codes of various software programmes and sending them to other companies.

Deputy commissioner of police (cyber, economics) Sunil Phulari told TOI on Friday that the incident took place in the premises of 3-D PLM Software Solution Limited, situated at Hinjewadi infotech park.

Working on a complaint filed by a company official, Prasad Joshi (45) of Kothrud, a case in this regard has been registered at the Hinjewadi police station under the stringent law of Information Technology Act, 2000. This is the first case under the act that has been registered by the Hinjewadi police.

Phulari said the crime took place sometime before September 4. “The company is into software development projects and sells software programmes,” Phulari said, adding that each of these programmes have software data source codes.

He said that the employee allegedly stole these expensive data source codes of the software programmes and stored them in zip files. “The employee did not use the company e-mail but used her personal account to send the data to other companies.”

The cost of the software programme source codes could not be estimated but the company has claimed that it has diminished the value of the data and software programmes and has damaged the company’s data.

punetimes: The Faraskhana police on Wednesday booked a woman peon and a security guard of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) Sanas School in Mangalwar Peth for allegedly duping several youths to the tune of over Rs 25.28 lakh in last two years by promising them jobs in PMC schools.

One of the duped youths, Ganesh Haribhau Gaikwad (27) of Paud road lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. According to the police, the two suspects — Jitendra Kachi and Sunanda Pagare — both of whom live in the servant quarters situated in the school premises, allegedly duped more than 15 youths.

Sub inspector M.R. Kachi, who is investigating the case, said that both Kachi and Pagare had promised jobs of peons, teachers and clerks in PMC schools. “The duo charged something between Rs 1 and 2 lakh from each of their victims, depending on their paying capacity,” he added.

The suspects were involved in these activities since August, 2005. The police said that Kachi and Pagare are not highly educated but majority of their victims have completed graduations or at least HSC. “Until now, the police have received 15 such complaints,” he said. After registering the complaints, a police team went to find the suspects, only to learn that the duo had fled away.