News

punetimes: The sixth Pune international film festival (Piff) will kick off at Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch on January 10 in the presence of celebrities from the world of cinema.

A statement released on Tuesday by the Piff organising committee said that registration for the mega event will start from January 3. The venues are E-Square, Inox, Ganesh Kala Kreeda Rangmanch and National Film Archives of India (NFAI).

The life-time achievement awards will be presented during the inaugural function. Besides cash awards given by the state government, ‘Whistling Woods International,’ established by noted film director Subhash Ghai, has announced four cash awards for winners in the students’ film competition section.

The best student’s film will get $ 2000 while three cash awards of $ 1000 each will be given for best director, best screen play and best animation film. The Maharashtra government will give ‘Prabhat award’ with Rs 10 lakh cash to the best international film shown in Piff. The Prabhat award for best international director and the Sant Tukaram best international Marathi film award instituted by the state government will carry a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each.

Piff is the only Indian film festival that awards cash prizes in competition section of world cinema. Another highlight of Piff 2008 will be the screening of many old and rare films from the archives of of NFAI.

The festival will have several sections like international films, Marathi films., student film category, world cinema, country focus, retrospective, tribute, Indian panorama, gems from NFAI, blockbuster films of Indian cinema 2007 and films of life time achievement awardees.

The information and broadcasting ministry, government of Maharashtra, Pune municipal corporation, National Film Development Corporation, NFAI, Maxmueller Bhavan, Alliance Francaise, Film and Television Institute of India and Whistling Woods International will be actively involved in the 8-day event.

The committee is headed by city MP Suresh Kalmadi followed by noted film director Jabbar Patel as festival director, Sabina Sanghvi as vice-chairperson and advisory board comprising Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Hema Malini, Manmohan Shetty, Sham Shroff, Nitin Manmohan and Milton Shefter (US).

indianexpress: Drug peddlers who have kept Pune police on their toes, especially after rave party raid in March this year, are now in for real trouble. The city police has decided to use the “asset forfeiture” provision of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for freezing the movable and immovable assets that drug traffickers amassed from the business.

In the first action of its kind, the police has been successful in getting “freeze” orders on the property of brownsugar dealer Hashir Allahbaksha Mohammad Sayyad (32) of Shah Society in Mitha Nagar area of Kondhwa.

“This is the first time the Pune police sent a proposal to the competent authority in Mumbai for freezing the property of a drug peddler, Phulari said. “A few days back, the competent authority asked the district collectorate to freeze Hashir’s property,” he said.

Hashir, who is currently in jail, was arrested in July near Dorabjee mall in Pune Camp with 661 grams of brown sugar worth Rs 6.61 lakh. Investigations revealed that he was involved in drug trade for six years and owns a shop and a two-wheeler. The police said that Hashir purchased the assetsfrom the money earned from drug peddling.

Phulari said under NDPS Act, 1985 any property, which has either been partly or fully acquired from earnings made through drug trafficking, is an illegally acquired property. “We will use the provisions against more drug peddlers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Anti Narcotics Cell has started gathering intelligence about the late night New Year celebration parties during the coming weekend where drugs are likely to be consumed.

punetimes: Social activists have raised objections over the policy proposed by the civic administration to rent out municipal gardens.

The civic administration has tabled a policy before the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) standing committee, wherein it has recommended that political events should be banned in public gardens, but social organisations may be allowed to hold events like poetry readings or lectures.

Human rights activist Asim Sarode has alleged that banning political parties was only a facade, as many parties were working under the banner of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to attain political objectives.

Another term stipulated in the policy, is that organisers will not be charged for holding events related to environmental issues, whereas cultural events will be charged Rs 1,000. “This is another farce. Saying that programmes on environment will not be charged is just to make sure that environmentalists do not object to the new scheme,” he alleged.

Sarode has warned that if the policy is adopted by the PMC, then he will file a petition in the high court and that environmentalists, civil liberties protection platforms and peace loving senior citizens’ forum will join the protest.

“Socio-legal activists are also planning a signature campaign against this undemocratic move. All non-political citizens will be contacted to sign the protest petition,” Sarode added

indianexpress: With the present health care facilities clearly inadequate for the needs of a growing population, district guardian minister Ajit Pawar proposed 11 rural hospitals for the district at yesterday’s District Planning and Development Committee (DPDC) meeting here.

The number of the present rural hospitals is 24. Pawar said nine hospitals would be opened in non-tribal areas and two in tribal areas. “The earlier hospital number was in accordance with the 1991 census. Now we are proposing to match the 2001 census figures which show a great population increase,’’said Pawar. The proposal is being forwarded to the government.

Rural hospitals are recommended at Nirgudsar, Taleghar in Ambegaon taluka; Dhayne in Khed; Otur and Yenere in Junnar; Khadakwasla, Dehu and Urali Kanchan in Haveli; Varwant in Daund; Bhigwan in Indapur; Pandare in Baramati; Nasrapur in Bhor and Lonavla in Maval.

According to district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh, Rs.6.50 crore were earmarked for the health sector in the DPDC for primary health centres and basic health care facilities. Of them, Rs.5.25 crore have already been disbursed by the government. “There will be separate allocation for the rural hospitals,’’ Deshmukh said.

indianexpress: With the City Improvements Committee (CIC) giving a green signal, the Pune civic administration will seek the final nod from the general body to approach the State Government for implementing the rehabilitation scheme for those living in dilapidated structures (wadas) in the heart of the city and are affected by various development works.

CIC gave its approval after holding the proposal for four months, seeking its complete details. The implementation of scheme is likely to provide relief to both the owner as well as residents of wadas. According to PMC officials, there are 498 dilapidated structures in the city and the civic administration has been issuing notices to the residents and owners to demolish the structures as they are in a pathetic state. However, the legal battle between the owner and residents prevented any demolition spree. As per the proposed rehabilitation scheme, PMC will allow the development of reserved land for rehabilitation on condition that the minimum tenement density shall be 225 sq ft. The developer should construct 25 per cent tenements of size of not more than 25 sq metre while the rest can be of any size. Out of the 25 per cent tenements thus earmarked, 15 per cent tenements should be handed over to PMC free of cost, as it will entitle him to transfer of development rights (TDR). PMC would use such tenements only for project-affected people, the guidelines said.

As per the PMC development plan (DP) of 1987 where the central parts of the city were to undergo a complete makeover, it was decided that the residents of the wadas would be rehabilitated in five locations in the old city limit. PMC has also identified 1.07 hectares in five locations — two plots in Sadashiv Peth and one each in Rasta Peth, Shaniwar Peth and Budhwar Peth for the rehabilitation scheme.

punetimes: The next time you want to jump a traffic signal, think again. You will be tracked down and penalised!

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will soon introduce the red light violation detection system (RVDS), a device which stores data and information about vehicles that have played truant.

The RVDS is just one ace up the civic administration’s sleeve. It is in the process of setting up a series of surveillance systems, including a system to track municipal vehicles, even garbage vans.

The systems will be introduced on all major city roads and include the garbage/octroi vehicle management system (GVMS), critical public place surveillance system (CPPSS) and area traffic control system (ATCS), speed limit violation detection system (SVDS), and passenger information system (PIS) for Bus Rapid Transit routes.

While the PMC has already invited expression of interest from agencies keen on implementing the system, a panel of experts has been formed to scrutinise their presentations.

“We have received six applications. The first meeting of the scrutiny committee is scheduled for December 27,” Shrinivas Bonala, PMC traffic planner and development engineer (projects), told TOI.

Since bidders will present high-tech software to run these systems, the PMC has roped in experts from the Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC) and representatives of traffic police department to be part of the committee, he said.

The RDVS has a camera which takes pictures of motorists and their vehicle number plates. This information can then be used to track down violators through the regional transport office.

“Earlier, we had a manual system. The system we are now proposing is an automatic one. The moment a motorist jumps the signal, his picture will be captured,” Bonala said.

techtree: Nokia has launched the Nokia 6110 Navigator GPS handset in India, which offers integrated maps, routing, and navigation with the click of the one-touch Navigator key.

The handset promises turn-by-turn 3D navigation, suggesting the best route to follow to reach any location. It offers voice guidance as well as turn arrows on maps to help people find the fastest way to their destination.

The navigator comes pre-loaded with maps of eight cities, including Delhi and NCR (National Capital Region), Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. In addition, users can download maps of over 150 countries on their phones.

The eight city maps promise locations and details of 75,000+ km roads, 10,000+ restaurants and hotels, 10,000+ banks and ATMs, 5,000+ schools and colleges, 3,000+ petrol pumps, 3,000+ places of worship, 2,000+ hospitals and medicine shops, 2,000+ car and auto service stations, plus 1,000-odd other places of interest.

According to Devinder Kishore, director (Marketing) of Nokia India, “With GPS and navigation services expanding rapidly into mobile communications devices, this industry is poised to grow. Maps and navigation will become a standard feature in a number of Nokia mobile devices.”

Other features of the new navigator include: a 2 mega pixels camera with integrated flash, 4x digital zoom and panorama mode; 2.2-inches QVGA screen, 40 MB internal memory, and microSD expandable up to 2 GB.

Featuring Symbian OS, the handset enables fast and seamless access to online information with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) up to 3.6 Mbps.

techtree: Epson has launched its PictureMate PM270 4R portable photo printer in the country.

The PictureMate PM270 utilizes Claria photographic inks to achieve photo lab-quality print-outs. It combines quality and speed by churning a lab-quality photo in just 37 seconds, and has a durability of up to 200 years, claims Epson.

The PM270 is also integrated with Claria PhotoEnhance, an automatic scene correction function that can optimize skin tones, color casts, and exposure levels.

The tiltable 3.6-inches color LCD screen allows users experience PC-less printing. Alternatively, users can plug-in their PictBridge devices in an extensive card slot for direct photo printing.

Users can enjoy wireless printing with the optional Bluetooth toggle, which also enables them to receive images from any Bluetooth-enabled device.

According to the company, the new PictureMate, as compared to previous models, lessens the number of buttons, besides sporting a new interface. It has a dedicated zoom function and improved design featuring membrane textured buttons that are easier on the fingers than plastic keys.

techtree: Transcend has announced availability of its new multi-card reader, M5, in the country.

The company claims the key features of this card reader are its modern styling, compact size, and adapter-free multi-format convenience.

All five of the M5’s card slots are clearly labeled on top of the reader, and in the computer browser next to the drive letter to avoid confusion as also save time.

With support for all the latest memory cards, the M5 allows fast, easy transfer of music, videos, photos or documents through its high-speed USB 2.0 interface.

The M5 offers slots for various memory cards, including CompactFlash and Microdrive cards, SD cards, xD cards, Memory Stick series, and miniSD and microSD cards.

The M5 boasts data transfer rates of up to 480 Mb per second, and features support for the latest SD 2.0 (SDHC) and MMC 4.0 standards for hi-end memory cards. Besides, it directly accepts newer, mini-sized mobile phone memory cards without requiring an adapter.

techtree: Buffalo has announced the first ever 400GB portable external hard drive (HD-PS400U2) in the MiniStation series.

The MiniStation 400GB TurboUSB is a 5400rpm hard drive that not only helps users store large amounts of data on the move, but also delivers benefits of Buffalo TurboUSB technology. The key benefit being considerable acceleration in file transfer rates and performance up to 64 percent, the company claims.

A shock-resistant USB 2.0 portable hard drive, the HD-PS400U2 comes with a wrap-around cable for easy storage. It features a tough durable outer case and a shock-absorbent internal design, based on new improved floating structure.

No external power supply is required as it has the ability to draw power from the PC it is connected to. Plug-n-play capabilities allow the 400GB external hard drive to connect to any USB 2.0 port on a desktop, laptop, or Buffalo network attached storage device where software is loaded.

With Buffalo’s Secure Lock Ware (SLW) utility1, data can be protected with up to 256bit AES Encryption technology. Further protection is afforded by multi-lingual Memeo Auto Backup software for Windows that offers improved back-up options.