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TOI : PUNE: The PMC’s standing committee on Tuesday unanimously gave the go-ahead to a policy framed regarding renting out of municipal gardens in the city. Interestingly not a single objection was raised, although the policy states that political parties will be banned from holding political events at the gardens.

With the demand for renting municipal gardens for cultural and political events on a rise, the civic administration had sought approval from the PMC panel for a policy on renting out the gardens.

The garden department had stated in its proposal that only those events pertaining to environmental issues or nature should be allowed to be held at the gardens.

The decision to frame a policy was proposed after it was found that on many occasions more than one organisation had sought permission to hold an event in a garden on the same day at the same time. The PMC discovered it had no policy to guide it in making a decision.

“No political events should be held in municipal gardens. Also, if permission is taken for another event and we find political party flags and hoardings have been put up, the permission for such an event can be cancelled by the PMC,” one of the rules states.

Organisations will now be given permission on a first-come, first-serve basis. While, cultural events will be charged Rs 1,000 as deposit and Rs 1,000 as fee, events advocating environmental awareness will not be charged at all.

The PMC has recommended that registered organisations holding events like poetry readings or lectures should be given permission and that no orchestra should be allowed to play in the gardens.

Organisers are expected to follow other rules like seeking permission from the police, maintaining cleanliness in the gardens, turning off loudspeakers after 10 pm, not preparing food on the…More

TOI : PUNE: After gaining fame as an IT and education destination, Pune is set to emerge a major liquor hub with consumption expected to touch a new high this financial year. Riding on the boom, about four exclusive wine bars will come up in the next few months.

Only last month, Pune recorded a sale of 17 lakh litres of foreign liquor, breaking its past record of 15 lakh litres. Moreover, the state excise department has received a record revenue of Rs 364 crore in 2007, with liquor consumption recording a 13 per cent rise compared to 2006.

Vijay Chinchalkar, superintendent of the state excise department, Pune, on Tuesday said liquor consumption is on the rise and his department is in the process of permitting exclusive wine bars in Pune. As of now, Pune district has only one exclusive wine bar — Athena — at Narayangaon, which is owned by Chateau Indage.

“We have received letters of intent from prospective wine bar promoters and one has already come up on Dhole Patil road,” said Chinchalkar. The district has 225 beer shops and more are on the way.

“We are cracking down on illegal sale of liquor in Pune. This has helped curb spurious liquor sale,” said Chinchalkar. In 2007 about 1,000 offences were registered against those involved in illegal sale of liquor.

In 2007, country liquor consumed in Pune district was around 1.24 crore litres, while foreign liquor consumption was around 1.12 crore litres. Beer consumption was 1.70 crore litres and wine went high to 1.95 lakh litres.

According to the excise department, high liquor consumption indicates the changing lifestyle in a city. With more businesses and IT firms opening shop in Pune, liquor business has good prospects.

“There is nothing to feel guilty about the rise in consumption. It is not…More

TOI : PUNE: If the state government has its way, the University of Pune (UoP) will stand to lose almost its entire surplus reserves of over Rs 300 crore.

A high-powered panel under the minister for higher and technical education, Dilip Walse-Patil, is mulling over a proposal that envisages a Chancellor’s Fund by pooling excess reserves from all the state universities to support the financially-weaker universities.

According to the proposal, the universities won’t be allowed to maintain reserves in excess of Rs 10 crore. The chancellor will decide the distribution of the excess reserves pooled for the proposed fund. The objective is to raise Rs 1,000 crore for the fund.

Maharashtra has eight state universities (Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Solapur, Aurangabad, Nanded, Amravati and Nagpur) and four agriculture universities (Rahuri, Dapoli, Akola and Parbhani). Besides, the Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Lonere, and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik.

The proposal was tabled as part of an eleventh hour agenda at the board of vice-chancellors’ meeting convened by Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna, who is also chancellor of state universities, in Mumbai recently. It has not gone down well with the financially-stronger universities of Pune and Mumbai.

Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, University of Pune vice-chancellor Narendra Jadhav termed the move as “outrageous” and “ridiculous”. Jadhav said he had conveyed his strong exception to the proposal, during his talk with Walse-Patil following the meeting in Mumbai.

“There is nothing that stops the state from extending funds to the financially weaker universities,” Jadhav said. “The idea of pooling reserves and distributing the same to financially weaker universities is akin to rewarding bad performance and punishing those perform good,” Jadhav added.

The V-C pointed out that till recently, the UoP had largest reserve of funds and was overtaken by Mumbai only after the latter drew fresh funds…More

TOI : PUNE: To keep a check on malpractices in the distribution of rations, the state government has planned to introduce smart cards in the entire state.

Information will be digitally stored on the card, which can be used for procuring essential commodities, including kerosene, for 10 years.

The smart card will have global positioning system (GPS) and will keep track of commodities. The card will also have basic information about family members along with their photographs. It will store the information about gas connections, distribution agencies and fair price shops.

Each card will have a separate bar code. This will enable the government to keep the record of each card holder updated.

“The computerised smart cards will make the distribution system leak proof. The government has also proposed to keep track of the entire billing process through the GPS system installed for the cards,” minister for food and civil supplies Sunil Tatkare said on Tuesday.

He said the government will issue work order for this by the end of this month. It will implement GPS system in all districts and taluka places within a year. About two crore cards will be distributed.

“Recently, the state’s public distribution system faced instances of malpratices and corruption in the distribution of essential commodities. A large number of fake ration cards exist, depriving the poor of subsidised grain and kerosene. The commodities may have been siphoned off into the black market. The smart card will prevent all this,” the minister said.

The government plans to distribute the smart card free of cost to families below poverty line, Tatkare added…More

TOI : PUNE: If the rising rate of divorce is anything to go by, Pune could soon be competing on this front with other industrialised cities around the globe. Every day, young, well-educated and well-earning men and women, refusing to see a permanent future with each other, are resorting to the law. “During 2006, there were an average of 150 divorce cases a month but the number went up to approximately 240 cases a month during 2007. While half of them are as per mutual consent, the rest are on unilateral consent,” says Vinay Borikar, principal judge at the family courts.

A host of social, psychological, economic and cultural reasons are cited by couples while applying for a divorce. Lack of compatibility, interfering in-laws, cruelty, domestic violence and irregular communication were the causes of the split. The most typical reason for couples in the age bracket of 25 to 35 was lack of proper communication between them.

“Due to hectic work hours, couples are not able to invest enough time in each other. Unfortunately, they try to analyse their personal lives from the professional point of view. Such an attitude is very common among couples working in information technology (IT) companies,” says advocate Abhay Apte. He stated that on an average, six or seven divorce petitions were filed every day last year.

Significantly, most couples applied for a divorce within two or three years of marriage. Interference by the families of both spouses has also been cited as the most common reason. “It has been observed that spouses prefer to talk about personal issues not with each other but with their respective families. This creates a communication void between them which results in misunderstandings. Also, parents can’t easily let go of their authority over their children. They are in the habit of interfering in the couple’s day-to-day activities,” explains advocate Neelima…More