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TOI : PUNE: A city Congress delegation, led by Abhay Chhajed, on Friday submitted a representation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding a ‘Pune-Delhi Commonwealth Express’ to commemorate the Commonwealth Youth Games to be held in Pune in October.

The Prime Minister assured the delegation that he would take up the matter with the railway minister.

The Union government has sanctioned the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

However, there is no provision for purchase of buses under this project. The delegation demanded that the provision of bus purchase be made in the norms.

The delegation also demanded that slum-dwellers on railway and defence lands be rehabilitated along the lines of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme and 350 sq ft houses be allotted to them. The delegation included MLA Chandrakant Chajjed, Ramesh Bagwe and party corporators.

The women’s wing of the party, led by Neeta Rajput, also met the PM with a list. They demanded 33 per cent reservation for women in elected bodies at the state and national levels.

The delegation also registered their opposition to the Law Commission recommendation bringing down the legal age for marriage for boys from 21 to 18…More

TOI : PUNE: Following in the footsteps of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the regional transport office (RTO) is all set to create a separate counter for senior citizens, defence personnel and the handicapped to facilitate speedy execution of work, said assistant road transport ifficer (ARTO) Bhashkar Gunjal during an interactive session at Patrakar Bhavan here on Sunday.

The RTO also plans to bring out a booklet explaining the various services they provide, the documents and the number of days required for the execution of work. A website with downloading facility for RTO forms will be launched within a month.

Activists Vihar Durve, Vivek Welankar and Vijay Kumbhar had set in motion a move towards these initiatives using Right to Information (RTI) Act sometime back.

Citizens gave free vent to their concerns on issues like unauthorised agents, licence renewal, vehicle registration and vehicle transfer.

Answering a citizen’s query about the rampant agent raj at the RTO, Gunjal said that no one has been given such authority by the RTO. He, however, avoided being drawn into further discussion on the topic by saying that people should refrain from availing the services of agents.

Gunjal explained how a citizen can register a complaint against an erring auto rickshaw driver. He said that a complaint can be made on a post card addressed to the RTO and assured that strict action will be taken against erring drivers. “The registration number of the auto-rickshaw should be mentioned in the complaint. Similarly, citizens should also not forget to mention their address and contact number,” he said…More

TOI : PUNE: The city recorded a minimum temperature of 11.3 degrees Celsius on Sunday, an increase of 5 degrees C, due to a reduction in the flow of the northerly wind, said the meteorological department.

“The current meteorological analysis suggests that the prevailing cold-wave conditions over many parts of north-west India, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha are likely to continue over the next two-three days. However, it is expected to abate, from most parts of Maharashtra, over the next 48 hours,” the sources from the meteorology department said. Due to this, many parts of Maharashtra are likely to witness an increase in the minimum temperatures, the sources added.

The minimum temperature in the city was 6.4 degree C on Saturday, which went up to 11.2 degree C on Sunday. “The flow of the northerly winds will further reduce the minimum temperature in the state. Also, due to the cloudy conditions expected to prevail over the Arabian Sea, an increase in temperature is expected in the next 48 hours. The temperatures in the state will remain above normal during this period,” the department said.

Other parts of the state too witnessed an increase in the minimum temperature - (in Celsius) Mumbai - 14.4 degree, Aurangabad - 11.5 degree, Mahabaleshwar - 11.3 degree, Nashik - 8.5 degree, Nagpur - 11.3 degree, Solapur - 16.5 degree, Satara - 15.2 degree and Sangli - 16.5 degree…More

TOI : PUNE: As many as 3,09,785 children up to the age of five years in the city were administered polio doses in the second round of pulse polio campaign on Sunday.

Pune Municipal Corporation health department staff will also be conducting house to house visits for the next couple of days to give polio doses to children who may have been left out.

According to PMC health officials, a total of 1,150 booths had been set up in the city. Similarly special arrangements were made to give polio doses at Pune and Shivajinagar railway stations, ST bus stands, airport, public gardens and at construction sites.

The PMC had set a target of 3.54 lakh children for administering polio drops. Pulse polio campaign was also undertaken in Pimpri-Chinchwad and neighbouring areas…More

TOI : PUNE: The Science and Technology Park at the University of Pune has completed an elaborate Geographical Information System mapping of Maharashtra and Gujarat to aid the National Informatics Centre’s pan data-based national level mapping programme.

The remote-sensing based GIS mapping of the two states is critical to the future drafting of development plans, national level master plans and planning of infrastructure and road network, Rajendra Jagdale, director general, Science and Technology (Scitech) Park, told TOI.

“We have used black and white panchromatic images for mapping the 2,27,408 sq km area,” said Jagdale.

The Scitech Park was, in fact, the first among the various agencies drafted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for the national-level project to furnish its final mapping product in New Delhi on February 4, Jagdale added. The Scitech Park project had started on April 21, 2007.

Providing details of the vital systems mapped in the two states, Jagdale said the road network accounts for total 1,88,155 km while the rail network covers 4,884 km…More