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TOI : PUNE: In a unique initiative, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has undertaken a project to provide shelter to all street children in the city. The ‘Gharte’ (Nest) project will ensure that no child on the street is left without care.

If the PMC successfully implements the scheme, it will be the first civic body in the country to provide 100 per cent rehabilitation of street children.

“We will ensure that the childhood of no kid is destroyed on the streets. It is our social responsibility to look after these children. It is possible to take care of street kids whose lives are getting wasted,” municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said while speaking to TOI.

The beneficiaries of the project will be children of single parent or no parent, children of sex workers, runaway children and children of parents who do not care for them.

“We have identified children who have nowhere to go. A meeting has been scheduled for February 9 with Rajya Sabha MP Supriya Sule and NGO representatives to discuss modalities. The PMC will be providing assistance like educational aid, food, daily needs, uniforms and medical treatment,” Pardeshi said.

The municipal corporation will be providing constructed space for night shelter with all amenities, honorarium to teachers of Rs 3,000 per month for 20 children, educational aid of Rs 500 per student per annum and 100 per cent expenditure for training to project functionaries.

Three night shelters will be constructed and all the PMC schools will be made available for the same. Furniture worth Rs 30,600 will be provided to each centre, Rs 25,000 will be paid per month to project staff, including co-ordinator, warden, counsellor and helper.

Non-governmental organisations Dnyana Devi, Santulan, Eklavya Balshikshan, John Paul slum development project and Bachpan Bachao will be partners to help implement the scheme….More

TOI : PUNE: Here is a glaring example of how the city’s traffic problem continues to be ignored. A central committee set up to address the various transport woes has not held a single meeting for more than five years now. While the committee is headed by the police chief, police authorities do not know whether the panel exists at all.

The committee was formed in 2002 and held its first meeting in September that year. It has not held a single meeting since then…More

TOI : PUNE: The utility of migrants has come into focus once again after the latest bashing of Uttar Bharatiyas by members of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in Mumbai. The verdict is clear: the metropolis can ill-afford to lose them. Ditto for Pune, which also has a sizeable migrant population that has blended well with the social fabric of the city.

In fact, a study conducted by a researcher from the University of Pune points out that the migrants have contributed in good measure to the development of the city and hardly indulge in crime or other illegal activities…More

TOI : PUNE: It’s one of those stories that make you wonder what your concerns were when you were of that age (14 in this case). For these two 14-year-old girls from the city it’s all about good diet, endurance training, riding practice, studying and most importantly, balancing them all.

These are no ordinary teenagers, of course. Meet Shivangi Kajale and Gauri Joshi, two bubbly city girls. Come February 19 and they will begin a horse expedition covering a distance of 225 km each.

The excursion, called Ashwa Mohim to mark Shiv Jayanti, has been organised by the Digvijay Pratishthan and will cover 18 forts in the Sahyadris — a total distance of over 750 km. Shivangi and Gauri will ride 450 km with a group of 15 riders covering the rest, apart from the end stretch of 25 km from Mahad to Raigad when the girls will be on the way back.

Riding is her passion, but Shivangi has set her sights on being an aeronautical engineer. As for her hobby, she wants to represent the country in international equestrian events, and also try her hand at water polo. But for now, she’s solely concentrating on the long ride ahead. Shivangi is a class nine student of the SPM English medium school and practises under Gunesh Purandare of Digvijay Pratisthan.

Says Kajale, “I will be doing the opening stretch from Shivneri to Purandar fort, after which Gauri will take over….More

TOI : PUNE: The issue of providing security to women travelling in trains has come to the fore again after a 45-year-old beggar woman was allegedly raped by a man under the influence of alcohol on the Nizamuddin Express between Sangli and Karad railway stations on Tuesday.

The Government Railway Police (GRP), Pune arrested the accused, Chandrakant Jadhav (32) of Chikodi in Belgaum, while his friend Sharad Patole (30) has been detained for interrogation.

Pune railway police SP Vitthal Jadhav said that the victim, who begs in long-distance trains, had boarded the Nizamuddin Express from Goa. At around 10.30 on Monday night, she was sleeping in a corner in bogie no. S-9 when Chandrakant and Patole, who were reportedly under the influence of liquor, boarded the train from Miraj for Pune. Chandrakant was finding a place when he accidentally stepped on the woman, who woke up and started screaming. In a fit of anger, Chandrakant dragged the woman inside the toilet and raped her. Her cries attracted the attention of some passengers who rescued the victim and overpowered the accused, the police said.

The passengers handed over Chandrakant to sub-inspector Pratibha Shendge at the Pune railway station in the morning. A case of rape has been registered against the accused under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint registered by the woman.

The victim has been admitted to Sassoon general hospital. Chandrakant and Patole are farm labourers at Chikodi. Police inspector Narsinh Bhosale, in-charge of the railway police station, said the accused were handed over to the Miraj railway police. The rape is the first incident of its kind reported within the jurisdiction of the Pune railway police. SP Vitthal Jadhav admitted that there was no patrolling on the train on the fateful day.
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