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TOI : PUNE: The inadequacy shown by the divisional commissioner’s office here in updating and maintaining official records mandated under the Right To Information Act has led civic activists issuing a complaint to information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar.

Activists Vivek Velankar and Vishwas Sahasrabuddhe on Wednesday conducted an inspection of documents which are supposed to be disclosed suo motu by government offices under section 4 of the Act, at the divisional commissioner’s office.

Velankar told reporters that he was shocked to see that the documents and records had not been updated for the last two years. “None of the sections have the recent records. Whatever records were available were inadequate, inconsistent and irrelevant. We have requested an urgent intervention by the information commissioner in the matter,” Velankar said.

Velankar said it was a clear case of lack of will on part of officials in maintaining the records as the civic activists had given them a notice well in advance about the inspections to be conducted.

“The divisional commissioner’s office is an important one as it has five districts under its jurisdiction. They have shown a casual approach towards section 4 of the RTI Act and action should be taken against them,” Velankar said.

The civic activists found a similar approach by municipal officials when such inspections were conducted at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

“We are going to conduct more inspections at other government offices. If a similar situation is found, we will have no option but to approach the Bombay high court to issue directions,” Velankar said…More

TOI : PUNE: By smearing their hands with cow dung and toiling to construct toilets in a remote village, these 14 students from Colorado college in the US has established a strong bond of love and affection with the villagers in Melghat.

After spending two weeks at the Kudita village in Melghat, a place known for high incidents of malnutrition and infant mortality, the US students shared their experience with the media on Thursday.

“We raised money by washing cars, selling bakery products and many other works to come to India. We wanted to spend our holiday in Melghat doing social work,” they said. The students came to India on their own and constructed 22 toilets and 25 bathrooms in Melghat.

“We are a global community, and we wanted to help the people of Melghat in some way or other,” said the students in unison.

The students were helped in their work by Maitri, an organisation working for the development of Melghat for the last ten years, and another organisation called Melghat Mitra.

The students provided water tanks to villagers and also conducted basic training about use of drinking water and cleanliness. They are returning to the US to continue their studies but said that they would ensure that there effort sustains.

“We have put in the efforts to develop the local leadership, and organisations like Maitri and Melghat Mitra have already been working in this area,” said the students, who made their presentation at the Patrakar Bhavan auditorium…More

TOI : PUNE: Professionals of the Information Technology sector working in Viman Nagar are a frustrated lot these days. The crumbling infrastructure in this area has become a deterrent for the IT companies based here, with their overseas clientele frequently complaining about the lack of facilities available.

This problem is not limited to IT companies alone. Schools and local residents are also troubled by this issue, all of which revolve around the Tasmac road.

For more than two years now, a 500-metre stretch of this road is in a broken-down condition and crying out for repairs, but the authorities have failed to take cognisance of the matter.

The road has not been surfaced and is layered with boulders and rubble, making it difficult for vehicles or pedestrians to navigate through. During monsoons, the stones get washed away to the end and sides of the road, making it slushy and accident prone. To make things worse, there are often no street lights here.

Speaking to TOI , Megh Gholap of Global Graphics Software (I) Pvt Ltd, an software company based on Tasmac road, said there was absolutely no improvement in the road condition over the last two years.

“Offices of some renowned IT companies like HCL, Dell and Tech Mahindra are located here and everybody is facing similar problems. Our foreign guests feel disappointed to see the road is such a pathetic condition every time they come visiting. Repeated complaints to civic authorities have fallen on deaf ears,” Gholap said.

He added that bad infrastructure was earning Pune a harmful reputation and could consequently affect foreign investments.

Another local resident, Sylvia Soares said that driving a two-wheeler on the road is the biggest challenge.

“I use the road to go home everyday and have to be very cautious while driving. It is…More

TOI : PUNE: With land prices in the city skyrocketing, the wakf board has woken up to save 3,724 hectares of its land worth Rs 1,000 crore spread across the prime areas in the city.

On Friday, the Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs (MSBW) opened its regional office in Pune to speed up the legal process to recover its land encroached upon, mainly by builders. About 80% of the wakf land in Pune is under encroachment.

The board plans to recover the land and use it for commercial use and for setting up information technology hubs so that poor Muslims are benefited.

After inaugurating the regional office at Mominpura, MSBW chief executive officer A.R. Shaikh told TOI that the board wants to repossess its land. “The board has 2,728 properties in Pune.

However, 80 per cent of the land is encroached upon. In many cases trustees have sold the land to builders.” Shaikh added that cases regarding encroachments and illegal selling were pending before the wakf board, wakf tribunal and the Bombay High Court.

The wakf board has properties at prime locations including Deccan, Kondhwa, Baner and Aundh.

“But as there is no one to protect the property, encroachers have grabbed the land. About 23 acre land in Aundh and Pimple Nilakh is under encroachment,” said Ahmedkhan Pathan, Pune-based member of MSBW. He added that many builders have illegally purchased the wakf land from trustees and caretakers…More

TOI : PUNE: The city’s hopes of shedding the “dirty” tag accorded to it by the 2003 World Bank report - which said Pune was the fifth most polluted city in Asia - have brightened. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), which is expected to improve the air quality drastically, will be available in the city as early as mid-February.

The green fuel, which is currently available only in Mumbai and Delhi, will be supplied to natural gas vehicles from one of the four autobooster stations at Pimpale Saudagar near Pimpri.

Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited (MNGL), a joint venture of Gas Authority of India Limited and Bharat Petroleum Company Limited, is set to provide the fuel from Om Sairam petrol pump, a retail outlet of BPCL at Pimpale Saudagar.

Two dispensers will be installed at the station.

MNGL has already held talks with rickshaw unions and other industrial customers for marketing CNG. MNGL authorities say that even if 15 to 20 rickshaws start plying on CNG initially, it would send the message across that the green fuel has arrived.

While around 15,000 rickshaws presently run on auto-LPG, some 50,000 to 60,000 Autorickshaws in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad can be converted to CNG.

The work of laying a gas pipeline to bring in the CNG from Mumbai has not been completed…More

TOI : People protest against the setting up of SEZ in Pune (TOI Photo) PUNE: Herein probably lies the key to avoiding strife over special economic zones (SEZs). While industrialists are eyeing farmers’ land across the country, a village barely 40 km from the city has taken the initiative to set up its very own SEZ.

And now, the state government has given the go-ahead for this the first farmers’ SEZ in the country, which will be set up at Avasari Khurd village in Ambegaon taluka of Pune district.

The 1,500-odd farmers of the village will now form a company — Avasari Khurd Industrial Development Pvt Ltd.

“The SEZ has been proposed on barren land worth Rs 900 crore,” said industrialist Sopan Bhor, who mobilised the farmers to explore the possibility of establishing the SEZ.

“Instead of sitting on this asset, we decided to convert it into a capital venture. About 18,000 people stay in the village and not only will everyone get a job, the farmers will also be owners of the SEZ.”

“After getting consent from the gram sabha and gram panchayat, we approached the state and central governments and received a positive response. But since a gram panchayat cannot establish an SEZ, we decided to form a private limited firm in which the farmers will be shareholders,” said Bhor.

The icing on the cake came on December 12 when the farmers received a letter from the state government giving the project an in-principle sanction.

A detailed proposal will be submitted to the state government within a month, which will include legal and technical documents. The state government will forward the proposal to the central government,” Bhor said.

“It is an excellent idea and a positive step which will benefit the farmers,” says district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh.

…More