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indianexpress: As many as 350 different types of equipment, collectively estimated at Rs one crore, kept at the Nehrunagar central stores/ godown of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has remained unused for the last 10-15 years. The equipment — requisitioned primarily by civil engineering department, water department and the electrical department — is still lying in the godown, unclaimed. Coated with rust, the material can be of no further use to anyone.

This is what the audit report of for two years — 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 — presented by chief auditor Sudhir Rajdarkar to Municipal Commissioner Dilip Band says. The report, submitted to the commissioner for necessary action, has been with him for almost two months, with no action taken so far. The report, as highlighted by Pune Newsline on September 18, gives details of objections raised on expenditure worth Rs 218 crore. “Where has PCMC’s Rs 218 crore disappeared? That’s the moot question. The answer lies with the PCMC departments and the civic administration,” says Rajdarkar.

After the inspection of the Nehrunagar stores premises, says audit report, it has been found that “a large stock of material has been purchased unnecessarily.” Citing an instance, the report points out that several brand new drainage cleaning machines, each worth Rs one lakh, were found to be gathering dust. “They seem to have been purchased without being put to use,” says Rajdarkar. “There are mountains of material like iron, pipes, taps, chamber covers, cable wires, iron rods and electrical fitting material. They are stocked without any purpose.”

indianexpress: The Nagrik Sangharsha Samiti on Sunday staged a rasta roko on Satara Road and took out a morcha to protest against the State Government’s order to ban thoroughfare on the Bharati Vidyapeeth Road. The road closure has affected as many as one lakh residents from Ambegaon, Dhankawadi and Katraj.

Samiti members comprising locals, party leaders and corporators blocked traffic on Satara Road for more than an hour in the morning. Shouting slogans, they entered Bharati Vidyapeeth thoroughfare amidst tight police security. Congress MLA Balasaheb Shivarkar joined the agitation and assured that he will take up the matter with the State Government. Shops in the locality remained closed as traders and merchants joined the agitation. Police detained activists who were released later.

Samiti activists had on Saturday submitted a memorandum to State Cooperatives Minister and founder-chancellor of Bharati Vidyapeeth, Dr Patangrao Kadam. However, Kadam has expressed his inability to open the road for use by citizens.

Kadam’s brother and BVU vice-chancellor Shivajirao Kadam had said the road closure was essential to ensure the safety and security of the students on campus. He dubbed the agitations against the road closure as politically motivated.

indianexpress: The Lonavla Khandala Citizens Forum (LKCF) has decided to form a team of experts to help the Lonavla Municipal Council (LMC) in planning the development of the towns.

LKCF had earlier filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court (HC) drawing the court’s attention to the sanitation and water supply problems, mismanagement of garbage, bad roads and illegal constructions in the twin towns.

The HC had passed an interim order on October 18 asking LMC to hold a meeting in this regard within a week.

Following the order LKCF held a meeting of its members on Sunday where it was decided to form a committee of experts to help the civic body solve these problems.

“About 50 members of the committee met today to discuss the further plan for development. It is for the first time that citizens are getting a chance to have their say in development issues,” said Subodh Tiwari, secretary of the LKCF

The LKCF had drawn attention of the HC that the environment of Lonavla and Khandala areas was getting degraded rapidly because of lack of planning.

indianexpress: Three tall oxygen cylinders on her side and a nozzle tube up her nostrils, Mariam Vazir, (49), who is battling asthma, is at peace with herself on weekdays. Without the help of the cylinder, Vazir breathes on her own for not more than 15 minutes. When she goes out of her house located in Pune Camp area, Vazir always carries along a portable oxygen cylinder. But these days, the ailing woman is finding it difficult to manouvre her way through the swathes of crowd that descend on weekends at the Walking Plaza.

“We are literally marooned in our houses. Going to a doctor becomes impossible on the weekends with M G Road blocked and East Street jammed because of traffic,” she laments. Vazir lives in Wonderland. The entrance/exit to the building in the side lane — that falls between Marz-o-rin on M G Road and Café Coffee Day on East Street — is locked on Walking Plaza days. The other entrance on East Street is a stretch away from her wing, which Vazir finds difficult to reach out. Besides, it is also choc-o-bloc with traffic.

With a working husband and a college going daughter, weekends for Vazir were the only days to get out for an evening or entertainment. “Earlier we would go out to restaurants during weekends. Now with the Walking Plaza and the tamasha going on, we cannot go out even if there is a need. Our entrances and exits have are not accessible to us,” she says.

“If going out is difficult, within the house the loud music played out outside makes life unbearable. In this wing of Wonderland, on regular days, there is barely any noise from the streets, despite M G Road being the business nerve centre. This changes on weekends, where we have to endure loudspeakers, which causes us a headache. Loudspeakers go on till 10.30 pm,” she says.

indianexpress: During a five-and-half hour search carried out at Runwal Plaza located along Karve Road, the police on Saturday recovered 86 original documents relating to land deals of builder Pradeep Runwal of Amrut Runwal Multi-Housing Private Limited. The firm has been accused of executing forged power of attorney in the name of 278 farmers in Manjri to avail loan worth Rs 300 crore from a multi-national bank
The cops have sent an email to the Deutsche bank, seeking complete details on the loan procedure and documents they took from Runwal for sanctioning the loan. Shivaji Chaugule, one of the accused in the case, has been declared an absconder.

A team of anti-extortion cell, led by police inspector Bhanu Pratap Barge, conducted the searches at the Runwal Plaza. “During the search operations at Runwal’s office, we found 86 original documents pertaining to the land deals which show direct involvement of Pradeep Runwal. We have sent an email to Deutsche bank, asking them how loan applications were processed and the papers they took from Runwal before approving the loan,” PI Barge said.

The bail application of builder Runwal was dismissed by Judicial Magistrate (First Class) A S Chaudhari on Saturday who remanded Runwal, Ankush Parakh and Jaideep Limaye to four days of police custody till October 31.The other four accused: Congress corporators Anil Jadhav and Shankar Pawar, Shivaji Gadade Patil, husband of MNS corporator Chhaya Gadade and former corporator Satish Yellappa Dhotre were remanded to police custody till October 29.

indianexpress:  When General Motors approached the M.Architecture students of Dr Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture for Women, Karve Road, to plan a landscape appropriate for its assembly plant site in Talegaon in June, the college, in association with the company, organised a competition for the post-graduate class to pick the best layout.

“The nine students of the second year were divided into five groups and were given two and a half months to develop the conceptual layout for the entire site of over 300 acre and a detailed landscape planning and design for the identified zone,” said Prof Shubhada Kamlapurkar, head Department of Landscape Architecture, BNCA. The jury has looked through all the designs and on this October 31 the top two teams will be awarded with cash prizes — the first prize is worth Rs 1.70 lakh while the second prize will fetch the students Rs 1.30 lakh. “The jury has said that they are very happy with the students’ work,” said principal Anurag Kashyap.

The winners have not yet been revealed but GM has plans for the top team. “We are planning to implement the landscape designed by the toppers. We found that the model design was contemporary and good,” said Shantanu Ghosh, general manager (HR). Whether GM would recruit the students to execute the project was something Ghosal did not reveal.

Among the ideas thrown up by students include rainwater harvesting to maximise available meagre water resource, and harnessing of alternative sources of energy like wind power for electricity, said Kamlapurkar.

indianexpress:  Faced with problems in recruiting best of the Information Technology professionals for the implementation of e-governance, the Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to take help of the IT experts from the private sector to improve the use of IT in civic functioning.

The PMC standing committee had recently approved the appointment of a four-member committee headed by Deepak Shikharpurkar, president of All India Computer Association, for assisting the civic administration in adopting IT effectively. The other members in the committee include technocrat Vijay Bhatkar, Vivek Sawant, managing director, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd (MKCL) and Anand Deshpande, chairman and managing director of Persistent Systems.

“The PMC implemented the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation model for e-governance, but it has failed. The civic administration has proposed using SAP technology for the e-governance project of PMC,” Leader of Opposition Vikas Mathkari said. Mathkari along with Leader of House Anil Bhosale and Shiv Sena leader Shyam Deshpande had proposed the appointment of the committee.

Mathkari said, “The PMC is not able to good IT professionals in its services due to low salary compared to the private sector. It is obvious that the IT professionals will not take up job in PMC when they are easily getting jobs with hefty salaries in IT companies.”

“The e-governance was expected to speed up the administrative services provided to citizens, but instead it has led to increase in delay of the administrative work,” he said. “Citizens earlier had to wait for a week to get birth or death certificate when the process was carried out manually, but it takes two months for citizens to get the certificate.”

indianexpress: The National Society for Clean Cities (NSCC) Pune has appealed all graduates in the Pune division graduates constituency to register themselves for voting their representative to the State Legislative Council. The registration drive is on till November 6.

“All graduates (from any university in India) can register as a voter and once registered, can vote for their representative to the Council. It is imperative that all of us who are graduates should register and vote whenever the elections are scheduled,” said a press note issued by Satish Khot, president of the NSCC Pune.

Those desiring to register as voters will have to contact the Designated Officer of his/ her Assembly constituency and get Form 18, fill it and attach a copy of the degree certificate (Self Attested) and submit it along with specimen signature form (which comes with form 18). The original certificates need to be carried for the officer to check.