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TOI : PUNE: On January 18, 25-year-old Mary Madote, a teacher from the city working with the Our Own Indian School in Dubai, was found dead in her apartment in Sharjah. Despite the operation of a direct air link between Dubai and Pune, the grief-stricken members of Madote’s family had to face the inconvenience of waiting long periods for the body to be flown to Mumbai, from where it was brought to Pune by road, after custom clearance formalities. This was because bodies are flown as cargo. Hence, they are to be booked as cargo and are subject to all necessary customs clearances.

In another instance that occurred a couple of months back, the body of a city-based youth, who had died in Dubai, was flown to Pune via Mumbai, causing similar inconvenience to the deceased’s family.

The Madote incident, in particular, resulted in anxious relatives making queries with the Air India (formerly Indian Airlines), which operates the Pune-Dubai-Pune flight service, as to whether a direct transport of the body from Dubai to Pune was possible. This had spurred the airline authorities to take up the issue with the Customs Commissioner, Pune.

God forbid, if a similar situation arises in future, bereaved family members can at least take some consolation from the fact that they won’t have to face the time-consuming inconvenience of receiving the body at Pune via Mumbai.

The customs authorities have agreed to facilitate direct transport and clearance of human remains at Pune’s Lohegaon airport in the event of an unfortunate incident like death.

“We can’t reduce the grief of people who lose their dear ones under such circumstances, but the least we can do is to reduce the inconvenience that was otherwise being faced,” said Dhairyasheel Vandekar, area manager, Air India, who took the initiative on this front with the customs authorities.
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TOI : PUNE: Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh appears keen to abolish octroi, but that fact remains that the much-debated tax system is the backbone of Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) income, as seen in the draft annual budget for 2008-09.

The corporation has estimated an octroi income of Rs 754 crore for the ensuing year, which is 37 per cent of the PMC’s total income. In 2007-08, it collected Rs 560 crore by January 2008 and hopes to reach Rs 720 crore by March.

When asked if the PMC’s budget would be adversely affected if the state government abolishes octroi, municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said, “Though the state has announced to abolition (of octroi), the decision would not be implemented in Pune at least for next two years. If octroi income is removed from the budget, it would be difficult to carry on the development works.”

He added that the state government is likely to go for phase-wise application for abolition of octroi. “Octroi should be replaced by cess based on accounts of traders. So instead of collecting octroi from posts it could be collected from traders. Of course there would be 15-20 per cent difference in the revenue,” said Pardeshi.

The commissioner added that the PMC was pursuing traders to go for account-based system so that it would be easy for the PMC to charge cess in future.

Experts and former bureaucrats have also opposed octroi abolition. Former municipal commissioner P.S. Palande warned that survival of the municipal corporations like Pune depends on octroi as it is a major income source. If it is abolished the entire system of the municipal corporations will collapse. “It would be a suicidal step to abolish octroi. Even if the state government decides to provide alternate source of income to local governing bodies, it is fact that no such alternative is…More

TOI : PUNE: With the idea of attaining hundred per cent capacity to treat sewage water, the Pune Municipal Corporation has proposed sewage projects at a cost of Rs 160 crore in the draft Budget.

“Around 567 MLD sewage water is generated every day but the PMC is able to treat just 305 MLD. The PMC intends to have hundred per cent capacity to treat sewage water,” Pardeshi said in his Budget speech. The PMC has proposed new sewage treatment plants at Naidu (115 MLD), Mundhwa (45 MLD), Baner (30 MLD), Vitthalwadi (32 MLD) and Kharadi (40 MLD), all to be completed during the ensuing financial year.

The PMC also plans to reduce water discharge from the canals in the next two years. For this, the corporation will improve its network of underground sewage lines.

Meanwhile, Pardeshi said that PMC could have decided to impose a sewage tax to match the income and expenditure on sewage projects. “It’s one of the mandatory requirements under JNNURM to impose “user charges”, according to the expenditure incurred,” he said. “However, as we had already proposed a hike in water charges, the PMC decided not to impose an additional sewage tax,” he said…More

TOI : KOLHAPUR: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has turned out to be a Messiah for 37-odd commercial sex workers (CSWs) in the city as his model of self-help groups (SHGs) has freed them from the clutches of private money lenders and egged them on to think about starting some business.

The Rajarshi Shahu Mahila Bachat Gat, Savitribai Phule Mahila Bachat Gat, Sant Kanhopatra Mahila Bachat Gat have been formed by sex workers in the city’s red light area of Dombarwada. These groups cater to the financial needs of sex workers who were earlier dependent on private money lenders, even for minor reasons. There are 17,999 SHGs of women in the district.

“In September 2002, we formed Rajarshi Shahu Mahila Bachat Gat with 12 members. Recently, when Yunus was in Pune, we held a discussion for SHG in the red light areas regarding the work done by Yunus and how the movement of micro finance was rooted in India. There is a curiosity regarding Yunus here,” Suhel Jamadar, project manager of Pathfinder Internationals’ Mukta Project, which is devoted to HIV/AIDS awareness, told TOI.

All the three SHGs have savings of about Rs 90,000 and have given their 37 members small loans at 2 per cent per annum. The SHG members hold meetings in the last week of every month and decide about the loan beneficiary.

Mariyambee Mangole (40), who has been in the red light area for the last two decades, was among those attending the discussion on Yunus. She hails the concept of micro financing and SHG. “I had mortgaged my gold earrings and chain with a money lender. When we started the SHG, I took a loan of Rs 3,000 and got back my jewellery,” she said.

Mariyambee is also the deputy president of the Rajarshi Shahu SHG…More

TOI : PUNE: Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi created history of sorts on Monday when he tabled before the civic general body a Rs 2,025-crore draft budget for the financial year, 2008-2009.

This is for the first time that the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) annual budget draft has crossed the Rs 2000-crore mark. However, these revenue estimates include a proposed World Bank loan component of Rs 200 crore and a government grant of Rs 268 crore.

As announced earlier, the civic chief went ahead with the proposal to hike water tax by 30 per cent. The only solace is that properties in the “water starved” areas in the city - which are yet to be identified by the administration - will not attract this hike.

The draft budget also proposes a minimum annual property tax of Rs 750 for each of the one lakh odd “old properties” in Pune city. Pardeshi, however, restrained himself from proposing a hike in the sewage benefit tax saying that the proposal will be introduced during the next financial year.

The civic chief has almost promised the moon to the taxpayers by setting aside Rs 1,103 crore for capital intensive infrastructure projects, notwithstanding the fact that the capital expenditure during the current financial year stands at just under Rs 500 crore and is unlikely to cross the Rs 800 crore mark by March 31, 2008.

When asked as to how he plans to spend over Rs 1,000 crore in one single financial year, Pardeshi told TOI, “The ground work for executing a majority of these projects is ready. Also, we are recruiting additional engineers to monitor the JNNURM projects and are also involving private partners. We will top the list of cities in JNNURM funding soon.”

The civic chief has given top priority to roads, traffic and transportation by setting aside…More