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TOI : PUNE: One person was arrested for having alleged ISI links and some classified documents pertaining to Indian Army were seized from his possession, police officials said.

Shailesh Jadhav (29), an ex-serviceman, was nabbed by the Crime Branch sleuths on Friday night at Pune railway station when he was about to board a train for Jodhpur.

Police got the lead on Jadhav when they were looking for another ISI agent Mohammad Sayed Desai who went missing around a month ago while formalities for his deportation to Pakistan were being made after his release on completion of jail term.

Desai, who was kept in police custody awaiting his deportation, had gone to Satara after he gave Pune police the slip and met Jadhav, who is based there, Additional Police Commissioner Rajendra Singh said on Saturday.

Jadhav, who had spent some time in Yerawada Jail after being court-martialled for financial irregularities, had met Desai, who too was lodged in the same jail during the course of his trial for ISI links and smuggling out classified document from the Khadki Ordnance Factory in Pune. Desai was arrested in 1999.

Police have booked Jadhav under the Official Secrets Act. According to Senior Inspector of Pune Anti-Extortion Cell Bhanupratap Barge, who laid the trap for Jadhav, Desai after fleeing from here went to meet Jadhav who was doing some transport business in neighbouring Satara district and stayed with him for three days.

During this period he allegedly persuaded Jadhav to work for the Pakistan’s spy agency, Barge said. Jadhav reportedly was given the target in Jodhpur Army base where he had earlier served, the officer said. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for the first time has made a provision of Rs 60 lakh for public urinals in the draft budget for 2008-09.

TOI had published a story on December 11 reflecting the scarcity of public urinals in the city. It had mentioned that the city had crossed the 30-lakh population mark, but had only 352 public urinals, which means one public urinal per 9,000 people.

This fact was revealed to activist Vijay Kumbhar by the PMC in an official reply under the Right to Information Act.

Taking cognizance of the report, the PMC has, under the head of slum development, made a provision of Rs 60 lakh for construction of public urinals across the city.

City-based Surajya Sangharsh Samiti (SSS) which had threatened to serve a notice to the PMC for failing to perform its duty of providing minimum basic amenity to citizens has welcomed the move.

“We welcome the step initiated by the PMC. But more money should be allotted for the purpose. We also demand a build, operate and transfer (BOT) system for public urinals,” said Vijay Kumbhar president of the SSS.

Kumbhar said the available facilities are inadequate as compared to the PMC’s own public health norms which state that one urinal should be available per 100 people. “If the BOT system is adopted, more urinals could be built and maintained.” Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The state urban development ministry’s controversial proposal aimed at granting 100 per cent TDR to Pune’s landlords while acquiring their reserved ‘road plots’ falling in the green belts, hills and farms has evoked sharp protests from the civic activists and urban planners.

Leaders and representatives of 30 mohalla committees across the city on Friday resolved to undertake a campaign to make the common man aware of the government’s controversial proposal.

“We will draft an official protest letter and will appeal to citizens to sign the same. This letter will then be submitted to the deputy director of state town planning,” Aneeta Gokhale Benninger, who addressed a meeting of the mohalla committee representatives here on Friday, told media persons.

It may be noted that on Friday, TOI had published an exclusive report that the state urban development ministry, headed by the chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, has initiated the process to grant 100 per cent TDR to Pune’s land lords while acquiring their reserved ‘road plots’.

Bypassing the Pune Municipal Corporation, the State has directly called for suggestions and objections from citizens within next 30 days, to modify Pune’s Development Control (DC) rules.

Reacting to the report, Satish Khot, chairman of National Society for Clean Cities (NSCC) said that the NSCC and the mohalla committees would support the campaign and garner signatures.

“The move will have far reaching repercussions and it should be opposed with all the strength,” Benninger said.
Benninger added that the move to grant TDR to Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) for construction of a road along the Mutha right canal should also be opposed.

“It is going to generate TDR worth crores. On one hand PMC states time and again that it lacks funds for land acquisitions and in contrast it is ready to pay such…More

TOI : PUNE: Citizens better watch out, particularly if you live any of the 18 localities which has been identified by the city crime branch as ‘most prone’ to house break-ins and thefts (HBTs).

An analysis of 1,300 HBTs reported in 2007 by the crime branch has revealed that it is not just the fringe areas, such as Chinchwad village, Nigdi, New Sangvi, Dhankawadi and Mithanagar, but upmarket areas like Shivajinagar, are also prone to house break-ins. These are the localities that figure prominently in the list prepared by the crime branch.

Other areas include Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA), Bhosari, Hadapsar, Wanowrie, Old Sangvi, Kalewadi, Aundh, Yerawada, Bibvewadi, Tingrenagar and Kondhwa.

In fact, Chinchwad village, Nigdi, PCNTDA, Hadapsar and Wanowrie had reported over 20 HBTs each in 2007.

The remaining localities saw between 10 to 20 cases of thefts and house break-ins last year. There are 50 more areas, such as Sadashiv Peth, Nana Peth, F.C. road, Prabhat road, J.M. road, Sinhagad road, Maharshinagar and Handewadi, among others, which reported between 5 to 10 HBTs in 2007.

The common modus operandi employed by thieves was breaking locks or cutting window grills to enter the house.

Other methods deployed were breaking door latch, use of duplicate keys to open locks and driving holes in the walls of jewellery shops. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The city’s booming economy and the corporates continue to drive a perceptible growth in the number of institutes offering full-time post-graduate management degree programmes under the University of Pune (UoP).

While the number of institutes has increased from 34 to 56 over the last two years, the management seats have registered a sharp rise from 3,030 to 4,380. A bulk of the increase was for master in business administration (MBA) programmes followed by other areas like master in management science (MMS).

There is more to come by the end of June considering that proposals for 107 new management institutes have been forwarded by the UoP to the state director of technical education (DTE) for 2008-09.

Technically, this can add 6,420 seats initially — with each institute taking about 60 students. Although, a UoP official said that not all the proposals would get cleared in one go.

The growth in the number of management institutes is mainly due to an increasing thrust by corporates on recruiting young talent that is fairly adept with management knowhow. The branching out of management studies into specialised areas such as MBAs in infotech, biotech, pharmacy, computer science, finance, human resource and marketing, among others, explains the corporate thrust.

A couple of years back, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which regulates professional education
in the country, allowed engineering colleges to offer MBA programmes. Since then, almost every other engineering institution has been vying for management courses as a part of their portfolio. “MBA is seen as a cash cow by these institutes,” said a UoP official.

However, there is a flip side to this as the UoP dean for management studies C.M. Chitale said: “MBA programmes should not be seen as a passport to career settlement. Development of domain knowledge and expertise is key…More

TOI : PUNE: At a time when the Indian Army is facing a backlog of around 12,600 commissioned officers, an exodus is also taking place among the medical cadets at the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) here.

However, unlike the National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune, or the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, where qualified admission seekers are becoming a rarity, medical cadets come to the AFMC, join the course, get a degree and then opt out from serving the armed forces by paying the bond amount of Rs 15 lakh.

The AFMC is the only medical training institution for the tri-services.

According to Lieutenant General S.K. Kaul, commandant and director of AFMC, a total of 45 cadets paid the bond money between 2002-03 and 2006-07.

This year, in a sudden upward swing, 19 cadets have opted to break the bond, even as the commissioning ceremony is still a month away.

The numbers had reached a high of 27 in 2002-03 which prompted the government to increase the bond amount from Rs 3 lakh to the Rs 15 lakh.

It had an effect with bond opt-outs falling to mere three in 2003-04, three in 2004-05, eight in 2005-06, and four in 2006-07, before again swinging up this year.

Whereas batches remain below maximum capacity in NDA or OTA, more than one lakh candidates apply every year for the MBBS course at the AFMC which has an intake capacity of 130 Indian cadets (105 boys and 25 girls).

Senior army officers are, however, not bothered about the ‘exodus’. “It has always been the government policy to let students go if they are not comfortable with the idea of serving a commission. In fact, the existing system where AFMC pass-outs rub shoulders with graduates from other institutes gives a quality to our medical corps,”…More