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indianexpress: After focussing on Pune-Mumbai highway where the process to widen the road to 61-m is going on and removing all encroachments hindering the broadening of Pune-Nashik highway in Bhosari, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is now looking at razing illegal structures obstructing the widening of at least 13 internal roads in the twin cities. The civic body will kickstart another anti-encroachment drive on Monday.

Municipal commissioner Dilip Band, in a public notice, has appealed to the residents of the internal roads to remove illegal constructions on their own and to cooperate with his staff.

“Since demarcation has been done on the internal roads where encroachments are slated to be removed, I appeal to the residents to remove their illegal constructions before October 22. After that if any resident suffers any loss due our anti-encroachment drive, we should not be held responsible,” he said.

Citizens have been issued notices under Section 53 and 56 of Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, urging them to remove their constructions preventing road widening. Band said his administration has chalked out a plan to remove all encroachments from October 22.

City engineer Eknath Ugile said as many as 13 roads marked in the development plan will be freed of

encroachments. “We are all geared up to remove the encroachments along internal roads,” he said, adding that

as per the development plan the roads will be widened to either 9, 12, 15 or 18 m.

However, Band’s public notice is silent about encroachments in Pimpri Camp where shopkeepers have grabbed footpaths and chowks to display their wares adding to the traffic chaos. Three years ago, Band had promised to free Pimpri Camp from encroachers.

The promises were made later too. In August, Band had said his administration will initiate a drive in Pimpri Camp.

indianexpress: On December 5 1971, during the Indo-Pak war, Flight Lieutenant Vijay V Tambay flying a Sukhoi-7 fighter plane from Squadron 32 of the Indian Air Force crashed into the Shorkot Airfield in Pakistan. While it is definite that Tambay (who would now be 64) survived the war, his family is yet to see him. They believe that while he languished in Pakistani jails along with 39 others, the Indian government made no effort to get him or the others back.

For 36 years, Damyanti (59), his wife has been fighting her own battle to trace him. Anguished and weary, she addressed a gathering in the city to recount her husband’s story at the office of Vanchit Vikas, behind Modi Ganpati temple in Narayan Peth.

“Over the years, we have met every defence minister and prime minister in hopes of tracing the missing officers. But they have no concrete information on him. Give us an answer. All we want to know is what really happened. Here the government is supposing what happened,” said Damyanti. Presently, the Indian government recognises him as ‘missing in action; presumed killed in action’. “Despite evidence, we have not reached a conclusion. Our duty is to keep fighting till we get proof which clears things up one way or the other,” she said. On October 28, a documentary on Tambay and his family and a couple of other missing in action officers will be screened at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi.

indianexpress: In a new high for the self-help groups movement in the State, Pune district with 38,000 groups and at least 4 lakh women as part of them, is head and shoulders above the rest. Of these, 10,032 groups were formed in just one month.

The surge is the result of a special drive undertaken by the Zilla Parishad from September 1 helped by taluka officials, block development officers, nationalised and cooperative banks. “We already had 27,000 groups and with another 10,032 joining we stand to lead as the district with the highest number of self-help groups in the State,” said Zilla Parishad CEO SK Bankar.

“If the State has around 4.75 lakh self help groups, Pune is the highest contributor and efforts are to reach more women,” Bankar added. In the last one month all the newly formed self-help group members have opened accounts with various banks in their talukas. The loan factor factor was being worked out at present, he said.

The trends are interesting — in some villages one member from every family is part of the self-help group and each group has 11-12 members. In Purandar, around 100 villages have total participation. “Awareness drives and workshops conducted by block development officers in each taluka helped, “ said district rural development agency project director PD Kasar.

Women members would now be trained for capacity building, maintaining records and given training on internal lending. Technical training will also be provided for credit linking. According to Bankar, the entire process would be completed by March.

indianexpress: When four Puneites set out on October 2 from Jammu to Kanyakumari on two motorcycles, they expected a bumpy ride. “We anticipated hurdles, people’s non-cooperation and vehicles to break down. Except for minor glitches, it was a smooth ride,” said Symbiosis Law College professor Swati Kapre.

With her were another professor Swapnil Bangali, advocate Harita Shinde and IT professional Yogesh Sutar. The foursome travelled for 12 days crossing 4,900 km through 12 states, spending about Rs 40,000 to reach Kanyakumari on October 13. The foursome now plan to release a documentary on their experiences in the next 10 days. “Our mission was to spread the message of unity in diversity. In the course of our journey, we spoke to over 200 people, mostly youngsters, 40 per cent of them were women. We asked them about the problems plaguing the country. We have 50 people recorded in over 5 DVDs,” said Bangali.

The journey also changed their perspectives. In Rajasthan, on October 5, they witnessed clashes between the Meenas and the Gurjjars and recorded images of the day when ‘the state machinery was used against over 2 lakh people’.

“In our country, regional parties do not take the entire country into consideration while other hand little attention is paid to regional issues at the national level,” said Bangali. In Karnataka, they witnessed an anti-encroachment drive. “Many homes belonging to innocent people were razed. Someone in the power hierarchy gave the wrong order,” he said.

indianexpress: The Federation of Trade Associations of Pune has called a strike on Monday to protest against the over riding powers assumed by the Pune Municipal Corporation with respect to octroi. All retail shops including medicals, electricals, electronics, garments, hardware, computer goods, timber market, metal markets, jewellery are expected to be shut tomorrow.

“A morcha of traders will start at Shagun chowk on Laxmi Road at 10 am on Monday,” said president of the federation Popatlal Ostawal. He said that an estimated 5,000 traders are expected to join the protest march which will continue up to Pune Municipal Corporation premises. The traders have an appointment with the Municipal Commissioner Praveen sinh Pardeshi at 4 pm, said Ostawal. Around 68 associations are affiliated to the Pune Traders’ Association. “If our demands are not met with, then we will go on an indefinite strike,” he said.

Secretary of the Pune Tapkir Galli Electric Association, Hemant Shah said while every state with the exception of Maharashtra and Gujarat has discarded octroi tax, Pune is clamping down on the traders on the same issue.‘‘PMC now has powers which even the sales and the IT department does not have,” he said.

indianexpress: Creating skilled manpower to cater to the needs of growing industries in Pune and surrounding areas is a major challenge for educational institutes, said Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday after inaugurating the new Indira Universe Campus at Wakad.

“In the near future, the auto components exports from Pune is expected to touch Rs 78,000 crore as the city is all set to become an important global automobile hub with 12 major auto companies set to operate from Pune,” said Pawar. He added that education should strengthen weaker sections to accommodate the major chunk of the society in the process of development.

Spread over five acres, the campus has a wi-fi facility and houses a school for business studies, pharmacy and commerce, science college with a hostel accommodating over 200 students.

“Global educational institutes are willing to come to India proving a challenge for the education sector here. The education sector has to face this challenge and at the same time accommodate the weaker sections in the process of education,” said Pawar.

Pune Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar and Higher Technical Education Minister Dilip Walse-Patil were present on the occasion. Sharad Pawar released a book ‘Jackpot’ by Sarita Wakalkar.

Pune University Vice Chancellor Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Tarita Mehendale-Wakalkar, chairperson of the Indira Group and others were present on the occasion.