News

Indian Express: Pune, November 8 Even as the civic administration plans to report the standing committee decision to seek re-tendering of the finalised proposals of development works under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to be completed before the Commonwealth Youth Games in October 2008, BJP leader Ujjwal Keskar said the state government had no role play in the internal matters of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The standing committee approval was necessary for such projects, he said.
“The state government cannot take decision on work tenders of the PMC as there is no rule that allows the state government to overpower the standing committee decision,” Keskar told reporters here on Thursday.
Referring to earlier instances, he said the civic administration had sought the state government approval for the tenders related to Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), but the state government had to sent it back to the PMC to get standing committee approval.

Indian Express: Pune, November 8 Tears may dry and photos may fade, but some wounds never heal. Though the Swami and the Japtiwal families will never see their children again, they are trying in their own unique way to ensure that no parents undergoes the grief and despair of having to attend their children’s funeral, with death coming in the wake of some reckless driving.
While the rest of the city was cheerfully welcoming Diwali, Gurusidhya and Shashi Swami and Chandrahas and Sunanda Japtiwale were at the Nal Stop Chowk traffic signal distributing pamphlets and urging vehicle drivers to abide by traffic rules. They talked to reporters while they went about the job of educating the vehicle drivers about the need to abide by traffic rules.
“Someone else’s carelessness has cost us our son and unless one experiences the tumult of emotions that we are living with, no one can identify with our loss,” said Gurusidhya Swami whose 23 year-old son Vinayak died in an accident in Aundh, two years ago.

Indian Express:Pune, November 8 THE arrival of a cop with a bundle in his arms does not really alarm the kids at Shreevatsa children’s home. They are used to policemen bringing babies wrapped in old cotton sheets. And according to organisers at Shreevatsa, the children believe that cops have given birth to them! In a way it is true as these policemen have rescued many an infant and brought them to a new life at Shreevatsa childcare centre at Sassoon General Hospital. Today, when a new child is brought from a deserted corner of the platform at Pune railway’s station, Shreevatsa welcomes him or her with open arms in the hope that they will be adopted.
After 2,500 adoptions there is a small group of children with Shreevatsa. Nobody wants them and prospective parents who want to adopt do not really find these children ‘appealing’. But now there is a ray of hope as generous donations over a period of years have helped the Shreevatsa authorities actually raise a 23,000 sq ft construction on a two-acre plot at Pimpale Gurav. “This is their home. A home for mentally challenged children and kids with disabilities and diseases like HIV,” says Madhuri Abhyankar, Director, Social Service, Society of Friends of Sassoon Hospital (SOFOSH).

Indian Express:Pune, November 8 BE it the allegations about the escort car for the van taking Sanjay Dutt to Yerawada central prison over-speeding on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway last month or the recent shocking death of 46-year-old cyclist Homi Bathena, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway has undoubtedly become a horrifying example of how speed kills.
Mishaps are not restricted to famous names alone. Three Mumbaites died on the spot in a pile-up on a service road of the E-way on October 23. Grant Road resident William Francis and Lalbaug’s Deepak Khope and Laxmikant Khope were on their way to Mumbai from Pune when a truck rear-ended a stationary truck causing the pile-up involving a bus, a jeep and a loaded truck.