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TOI : PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will approach the central archaeology department to refurbish the Shaniwarwada.

The 279th foundation day of the fort was celebrated in the city on Thursday by various organisations, including the Patit Pavan Sanghatana. The foundation of the fort was laid by Peshwa Bajirao I on January 10, 1730.

PMC standing committee chairman Bapu Pathare and opposition leader Vikas Mathkari said all party leaders would take up the issue of maintaining the monument with the central government. Pathare said there was unaninimity among all parties over the renovation of the fort.”During the BJP regime, the central government had in principle agreed to reconstruct the monument,” Mathkari pointed out.

Teak from the jungles of Junnar and nearby forests, along with lime from Jejuri and stone from Chinchwad, were used to construct Shaniwarwada. As per records, a sum of Rs 16,110 was spent on building the fort.

Bajirao’s descendants made several additions to the monument, mainly to fortify it. However, after 1791, Shaniwarwada was charred in repeated fires.

The monument has witnessed major developments in the city’s history. It was from this seat that the Peshwas ruled India and controlled politics in Delhi.

Recently, various civic organisations had charged the PMC with not maintaining the fort. Reacting to the charges, Pathare said the PMC was finding it difficult to carry out development works at Shaniwarwada as the monument was under the control of the central archaeology department…More

TOI : PUNE: The mystery of the ‘missing’ files from the school board office of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) remains unsolved.

While the school board officials kept mum, board members demanded a probe into the issue. Vijay Kharade, one of the school board members, told TOI that some files were moved out from the board office after office hours on Tuesday.”We were in the office for some work, and we saw two staffers moving out with a bunch of files. When we confronted them, they failed to give any satisfactory reply. We have given a written complaint to the office superintendent,” Kharade said. The duo claimed that education board chief Ashok Rajguru wanted these files for some work,” said Kharade. Rajguru was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, the board members suspect that the files that were moved out were pertaining to the embezzlement in computer training. Some members have registered a complaint with the police on November 27, 2007 that the board had withdrawn Rs 145,00,000 for imparting computer training which never took place…More

TOI : PUNE: The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the decision of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to charge property tax on vacant plots.

Speaking to TOI from New Delhi on Thursday, PCMC’s legal advisor Ajay Suryavanshi said the SC disposed of the case filed by Pudumjee Paper Mills challenging the municipal corporation’s decision to charge property tax on its vacant plot.

The SC has directed the mill to pay Rs 15 lakh property tax for its vacant plot as demanded by the PCMC property tax department, Suryavanshi said. He and Makarand Adkar represented the PCMC in the supreme court.”The mill has to pay the amount within four weeks. The case can be remanded to a lower court and, in such a case, the decision has to be given within 12 weeks,” Suryavanshi said.

When contacted, PCMC assistant commissioner Sahebrao Gaikwad confirmed that the supreme court had upheld the decision of the PCMC to charge property tax on vacant plots. Earlier, the PCMC had also asked Tata Motors to pay property tax on their vacant plot. Tata Motors had challenged the decision in the supreme court but lost the case and had to pay Rs 3 crore as property tax.

Gaikwad said that Pudumjee Paper Mills owed Rs 44 lakh as property tax from 2001 onwards. It has to pay Rs 7 lakh as this year’s property tax.

Meanwhile, the district court has lifted the stay on land acquisition for road-widening at Dapodi, Suryavanshi said. Former corporator Macchindra Kalbhor and Subhash Kalbhor own land at Dapodi which was to be acquired for widening of the Dapodi-Pimpale Gurav road. They had obtained a stay from the district court on acquisition of the land. However, they have handed over the land for road-widening after the judgment…More

TOI : PUNE: The state criminal investigation department (CID), Pune has mooted a proposal to set up nine cyber crime investigation cells (CCIC) in the state for investigating cases filed under the Information Technology (IT) Act.

The proposal submitted by CID’s additional director general of police S.P.S. Yadav to the state director general of police (DGP) P. S. Pasricha has recommended formation of the cyber cells on a priority basis at Pune, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Solapur, Nagpur and Amravati.

CID superintendent of police Dilip Bhujbal (Law and Research) said that investigations in cyber crime cases would now be transferred from the concerned investigating police officer to the CCIC. For instance, the CCIC in Pune will investigate cases from Pune city, Pune rural and Kolhapur range. As of now all such cases are investigated by an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police or above as contemplated under the IT Act.

The proposal, which is under scrutiny at the DGP’s office, will be forwarded to the state government for final approval. Bhujbal further said that the proposal was prepared on the basis of recommendations made by an expert committee set up to review cyber crime in the state.

Out of the 35 cases registered in the state in 2006, the committee found that Pune registered 10 cases, which is the highest, followed by nine in Mumbai and three in Aurangabad. The CID has proposed that CCIC should be headed by an officer of the rank of superintendent of police who will be followed by two deputy superintendents of police, two inspectors, six assistant/sub inspectors, three hawaldhars, six police naiks/constables, two drivers and a stenographer.

The CCIC would be equipped with facilities like computers, dedicated internet connections, modem, advanced softwares and other infrastructure which will be funded by the government.

Policemen attached…More

TOI : PUNE: The University of Pune (UoP) has made its maiden entry into the top-500 list of universities around the world. It has been placed at 469th in the ranking released by the London-based global career and education network, ‘QS-Times Higher World University Ranking’.

However, UoP has been upstaged by all the other eight Indian universities that have made it to the list. University of Delhi was placed highest at 254. Of the rest, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, was ranked 269th, IIT, Delhi 307th, University of Calcutta 410th, IITs Kanpur, Madras and Rourkee at 431, 432 and 433 respectively, and University of Mumbai 456.

Familiar names continue to dominate the first five positions - Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College, London. QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) was established in 1990 by Wharton MBA Nunzio Quacquarelli and management expert Matt Symonds. Its activities span over 50 countries across the world and it has a presence in Beijing, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Washington DC. The organisation offers educational and career information to students. Speaking to TOI on Thursday, UoP vice-chancellor Narendra Jadhav said this was the first time that the university had participated in a global ranking exercise.

“Considering that the rankings have been based on data from 2002 to 2006, it does not reflect UoP in a proper light,” Jadhav said. “There has been a qualitative change in 2007 that will reflect in the rankings next year. We hope to do even better then,” he said…More