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indianexpress: Pimpri-Chinchwad Mayor Vaishali Ghodekar today began her “Mayor at citizens’ doorstep” initiative in a typical aggressive manner which has characterised her eight-month tenure so far. But this morning she combined her aggressive approach with brashness as she told a grumbling citizen,”Chalte hua ithun (get lost from here.”

The mayor lost her temper after a clutch of citizens mobbed her in a civic primary school at Talwade, the software park of Pimpri-Chinchwad. The citizens were complaining to her about the absence of a crematorium in the area which was forcing them to cremate bodies in the open. Just when 45-year-old Sambhaji Hagawane of Talwade was making his point, an angry mayor shouted,”Get lost from here.” This happened right in front of 100-odd citizens, teachers and students from Talwade, Triveninagar and Rupeenagar. Regaining her composure, the mayor said the crematorium work will be taken up in another six months time. “I am quite aware of the problems of this area,” she added.

The mayor later told The Indian Express that she lost her cool because the local resident was talking to her in a loud voice. “I had gone to listen to their grievances… Nobody has the right to talk to me like this,” she said, adding that she knew the man was a Congress leader. “He was trying to make it obvious to the local residents that my visit has no meaning,” she said. Hagawane, who has lived all his life in Talwade area, did not hit back at the mayor.

indianexpress:  THE Nationalist Congress Party’s successful social engineering in Pune by strategically adopting a Dalit face in the form of senior Ambedkarite Jaidev Gaikwad as the city unit chief is under threat from within. The dominant Maratha lobby that holds all the important posts at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is openly defying Gaikwad and seeking his removal from the post of president.

Gaikwad, a veteran from the state’s Dalit movement who switched to the NCP, was handpicked by party boss Sharad Pawar much to the surprise of city political circles in August 2006. Now Gaikwad’s supporters are protesting the shabby treatment he is being meted out by the Marathas within the party.

The internal bickerings came to the fore recently when Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale and other elected civic office-bearers belonging to the party kept away from rallies convened by the city chief to assess the party’s presence in each of the assembly segments.

The rally in the Kasba assembly segment was attended only by Bhavani Peth legislator Kamal Dhole-Patil and standing committee chairman Bapu Pathare. Besides the mayor, others who kept away were leader of house in PMC and party executive president Anil Bhosale, City Improvement Committee chairman Bapu Karne, and Gaikwad’s predecessor Anna Thorat. Adding fuel to the fire was the talk of differences cropping up between state NCP vice-president Vasant Wani and Gaikwad.

indianexpress:  HAVING set a target of Rs 330 crore revenue collection from the property tax in 2007-08, the civic administration is struggling to reach the mark despite extending the deadline repeatedly for the citizens to pay the tax. The new deadline now is December 15.

“The revenue collection from property tax is Rs 144 crore from April till date,” Dnyadeo Thube, deputy commissioner (tax assessment and collection), PMC, said on Thursday.

“Around three lakh of the 5.73 lakh tax payers have paid their property tax till now,” he said, adding they are confident of achieving the target before the end of the financial year.

The target of revenue collection from regular property tax is Rs 278 crore while it is Rs 330 crore with the pending dues, Thube said. The civic administration focuses on collecting Rs 200 crore by December end and the rest in the remaining three months, he added.

However, the failure in reaching the target is attributed to the delayed in starting the process due to civic elections and also reforms initiated in the tax assessment process. Thube said they are yet to dispatch around 5,000 property tax bills and will complete it soon.

The civic administration had initiated the tax adalat for the convenience of citizens having queries in the assessment process. “Around 500 citizens have taken advantage of the adalat and it has helped in resolving many disputes and increasing collection,” he said.

indianexpress: THE multi-crore Manjari land scandal has jolted the district administration into action. It has decided to tighten the norms to negate any chances of bogus power of attorneys. A set of directives have been issued to all talathis, village officers and certifying authorities, asking them to “give notices” to land holders before certifying the mutation entry. District collector Prabhakar Deshmukh issued the directives to the sub-divisional officers and the talathis, after the scam was unearthed on November 1.

“I have told the officers that while certifying the mutation entry, the talathi or the concerned officer should make sure that they issue a notice to the land holder as well,’’ said Deshmukh. This would make the transaction clear as the land holders can approach the officials if they have any complaint. The transaction then can be declared null and void, he said.

Deshmukh has also directed that the power of attorney should be registered with the sub-registrars office which would help ensure transparent transaction. “This is to avoid any kind of malpractice,’’ he said. The district collectorate officials have been asked to carry out the mutation procedure in the stipulated 15-day period. The process, which is carried out after registration, first begins with the talathi for the mutation procedure and it is upto the talathi or the officer to issue the notices, he said.

Sub-divisional officer (Maval) Sanjaysinh Chavan, who has maximum registrations under him, said that this would help avoid any kind of bogus power of attorneys. “We are following it very strictly in Maval, Mulshi and Shirur.”

indianexpress: Intensifying the protest against the State Government’s decision to ban vehicular traffic on PMC road passing through Bharati Vidyapeeth (BV) campus, corporators from the area will take out a morcha on Friday on Satara Road.

“Corporators from different political parties will take out a morcha on Satara Road on Friday and also a public rally will be organised on Saturday to protest the state government decision,” NCP corporator Santosh Pharande said.

The corporators have also decided to move a resolution in the next week general body meeting, urging the State Government to withdraw its decision and allow vehicular traffic on the road.

The general body meeting held last month had also witnessed pandemonium on the issue despite the civic administration clarifying they along with the city police were merely executing the State Government order.

As assured to the general body, Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale has written to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to withdraw the State Government order. In its order, the state government had justified its decision by saying it was causing threat to the students and also disturbing the educational environment.

indianexpress: THE Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) authorities have announced that the preliminary electoral rolls are open for inspection by voters at its office in Golibar Maidan, between 11 am and 4 pm daily, till December 30.

According to an official press note issued by PCB president Brigadier R J Sharma, any person whose name is borne on the rolls and objects to the inclusion, or finds the name not entered or is entered in an incorrect place or with incorrect particulars, may address a claim or objection to the PCB chief executive officer (CEO).

Claims should be preferred in form III and objections in form IV or form IV-A, which are available at the CEO’s office, at any time during office hours or sent by post within 20 days of issue of the announcement dated November 14.

The claims or objections not in prescribed format will be rejected while the valid ones will be heard by the PCB president at his office on December 21 and 22, starting 11 am.

indianexpress: Books have the ability to transport one into a different world and for the children of nomadic and backward castes from two of Solpaur’s social welfare organsiations, that world came alive after they visited the Akshardhara’s book exhibition at Acharya Atre hall on Bajirao Road as part of their Children’s Day celebrations. After a fun-filled evening of cheerful chatting, the 89 children went back home, as proud owners of a book each.

The children, taken care by two organisations Shabri and Eklavya, were in the city spending time with surrogate families for almost 10 days, as a part of an initiative arranged by the city-based Yamgarwadi Mitra Mandal. Be it biographies, fables, historical accounts or folktales….some children happily accepted what the Akshardhara volunteers gave them… others like Lalita Jadhav and Rekha Rathod had firm preferences for what books they wanted, and staunchly supported their choices.

Lalita who was tightly holding on to a copy of a book on Swami Vivekanand narrated all the information that she knew about the leader, adding a personal reference to it as well. “Vivekanand preached how to lead a life overcoming caste differences and told us to take pride in our culture, not in our stereotypes,” she said. Rekha whose inspiration lay in Babasaheb Ambedkar, described him as “‘a great leader who inspired others to lead.”

“What is amazing is that, despite leading a life without parents, these children possess immense knowledge as well as a practical insight into issues, some of which is integral to their lives,” said Akshardhara director Ramesh Rathivadekar. “Be it politics, caste or child-related issues, these children are ready with their informed opinion, which speaks volumes about their awareness levels,” he added.

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bbc: For the first time in more than 60 years a Colossus computer is cracking codes at Bletchley Park.

The machine is being put through its paces to mark the end of a project to rebuild the pioneering computer.

It is being used to crack messages enciphered using the same system employed by the German high command during World War II.

The Colossus is pitted against modern PC technology which will also try to read the scrambled messages.

Colossus is widely recognised as being one of the first recognisably modern digital computers and was developed to read messages sent by the German commanders during the closing years of WWII.

It was one of the first ever programmable computers and featured more than 2,000 valves and was the size of a small lorry.
 
The re-built Colossus will be put to work on intercepted radio messages transmitted by radio amateurs in Paderborn, Germany that have been scrambled using a Lorenz SZ42 machine - as used by the German high command in wartime.

The German participants in the code-cracking challenge will transmit three enciphered messages - one hard, one very hard and one ultra hard.

Speaking to the BBC, Andy Clark, one of the founders of the Trust for the National Museum of Computing, said radio problems had stopped the challenge getting under way on time.

bbc: Silicon electronics are a staple of the computing industry, but researchers are now exploring other techniques to deliver powerful computers.
 
Quantum computers are able to tackle complex problems
A quantum computer is a theoretical device that would make use of the properties of quantum mechanics, the realm of physics that deals with energy and matter at atomic scales.

In a quantum computer data is not processed by electrons passing through transistors, as is the case in today’s computers, but by caged atoms known as quantum bits or Qubits.

“It is a new paradigm for computation,” said Professor Artur Ekert of the University of Oxford. “It’s doing computation differently.”

A bit is a simple unit of information that is represented by a “1″ or a “0″ in a conventional electronic computer.

A qubit can also represent a “1″ or a “0″ but crucially can be both at the same time - known as a superposition.