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TOI : PUNE: In a major incident that rocked Dehu Road cantonment on Monday afternoon, 75-year-old Jayantiben Harakchand Parmar lost her life when unidentified robbers attacked her home near a jewellery shop in broad daylight. One of the local residents nabbed the robber after giving chase.

The incident took place around 1 pm when two robbers, armed with sharp weapons, entered Parmar jewellers near Subhash chowk in the main bazaar area. Most of the shops in Dehu road are closed on Monday.

According to the police, one of the robbers entered the shop and went straight into the house attached to it, while his accomplice waited outside. Jayantiben Parmar, whose house was next to the jewellery shop and her neighbour, Panibai Kesharimal Mehta (70), raised an alarm. The robber attacked Parmar with iron rods and Mehta too received serious injuries when she tried to intervene.

Local bangle-seller Sanjay Shamlal Chourasiya heard the cries and rushed for help. When he questioned the miscreant waiting outside, he started to run away. Chourasiya chased him and nabbed him. The other robber, however, escaped.

Meanwhile, Jayantiben was rushed to the cantonment-run Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar hospital, where she was declared dead. Mehta was taken to the Bansal hospital and later admitted to the Lokmanya hospital in Nigdi.

A grieving Hitesh Parmar, son of the deceased, said that the fact that the robbers had chilli powder and weapons shows that they had planned the attack. He suspected that the robbers knew that there would be no one in the house to resist them.

The police reached the spot within 10 minutes of the incident. District superintendent of police Vishwas Nangre-Patil also arrived later to supervise the investigations. A forensic team and the dog squad were brought at the site.

According to the police, the man who was caught identified…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has sought sanction from the state government for opening two more fire brigade sub-stations at the earliest. This is to cater to the needs of the increased population of the twin township.

PCMC has sent a proposal to the government in this regard, M.A. Phadnis, assistant commissioner in-charge of the fire brigade department told TOI. Although a total of eleven sub-stations are required, the municipal corporation wants to start at least two stations urgently.

According to the civic authorities, the population of the twin township has increased to nearly 15 lakh. As per the 1991 census, Pimpri-Chinchwad’s population was 5.17 lakh. Ten years later, in 2001, the population increased to 10.06 lakh. The twin township is witnessing rapid growth and the city limits too are expanding. The rise in population has increased the responsibilities of the fire-brigade department.

The number of fire-stations required can be calculated on the basis of the population of the city. “Ideally one fire brigade sub-station is needed for a population up to three lakh. For population exceeding three lakh, one substation is needed for every additional population of 50,000. While currently, PCMC fire brigade has four stations - Sant Tukaramnagar, Pradhikaran, Bhosari and Rahatni - eleven more are needed to be set up,” says fire officer Kiran Gawde. If sanctioned, the PCMC hopes to star the fire-stations at Dapodi and Chikhli.

Meanwhile, PCMC fire brigade will soon get a hydraulic ladder to which can reach a height of 42 meter. This is necessary because the state government has given permission to construct buildings up to 36 meter in the township…More

TOI : PUNE: “Winning isn’t everything”, most great sportspersons would tell you. At St Vincent’s high school here, they mouth something similar, only to add: “But losing is!”

So, St Vincent’s has simply made winning a habit, what with 60 inter-school athletic championship titles under its belt since 1941. And the competition is not even remotely snapping at its heels.

Recognition for the school’s one-of-a-kind feat now comes in the form of an entry in the Limca Book of Records, which has listed the achievement as a “national record”.

St Vincent’s won its 60th title last year (2006-07) with 312 points, leaving the runner-up school a good 240 points behind. Its medal haul included 33 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze.

It’s been an unbeaten streak that the school has maintained in the inter-school athletic championships it has participated in since 1941. The only time it did not have the crown was from 1993 to 1998 when it did not take part for certain reasons.

Credit for nurturing the wealth of sporting talent in the school over the years goes to the foreign Jesuit priests who ran the institution, the finest among them being the legendary Swiss, the late Fr Alphons Oesch. Such was his dedication towards training sportsmen in track and field as well as in other sporting disciplines, not to mention his coaching in the German language, that several of his students settled abroad would accord top priority to meeting him during their visits to Pune…More

TOI : PUNE: The entry of malls into the local strawberry market has saved traders and growers from suffering a loss this winter. In fact, growers are now happy to sell strawberries directly to the malls.

The strawberry growing belt in Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar, Wai and nearby areas produce an average of 25 tonnes of strawberries a year. The produce is also sold to other states besides Maharashtra.

“We experienced major losses in the last two years during winter,” Yuvraj Kachi a trader in the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) told TOI on Monday. “We suffered losses of around Rs 40 lakh a year. We could have suffered similar losses this year too if the malls had not bought the produce in bulk. This year, we managed to have a good sale, despite a poorer response from direct customers.” He revealed that this year a leading mall has procured almost all the produce on the market.

“The malls entered the scene at a tough time and traders are hugely relieved,” Kachi said. The demand from other markets plus bulk buying from the mall which collected around 10 tonnes of strawberries, meant that the quantity sold was three times the inflow in the city market….More

TOI : PUNE: Unidentified thieves damaged at least 12 cars in the parking lot of a residential society near Patwardhanbaug here in the wee hours of Monday and picked up costly accessories like audio systems, video LCD screens, amplifiers and laptops, totally worth over Rs 1 lakh.

The incident occurred between 3 am and 5 am at the Laxminarayan Nagar Housing Society, opposite the Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital, police said, adding that the miscreants might have used some vehicle for committing the offence.

The housing society, established in 1986, has nine buildings with nearly 300 flats, mostly dominated by Marathi-speaking upper middle and middle class families.

The police suspect it to be the handiwork of some organised gang although, no breakthrough was reported till Monday evening…More