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TOI : PUNE: A touch screen information system will be inaugurated at the RTO office in Pimpri soon.

The service, which will work as an encyclopaedia of the department, will be available free of cost.

The RTO office has come up with the public utility service to make life easy for the common man, said Deputy RTO Sarjerao Shelke.

The service has already been introduced in Pune and has been successful. The kiosk has been manufactured by a Pune-based company and costs around Rs 1.5 lakh.

It will dissipate information both in Marathi and English languages.

The touch screen facility can be used to know fees and charges, departmental procedures, auto fares, revenue and vehicle statistics, licence details, penalties, etc.

According to Shelke, this is the first such initiative in and around the PCMC.

The objective is to ensure transparency in office work. It is also in conformation with the directions given under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Another motive behind starting the service was to address frequent complains by the visitors that they do not get sufficient and clear information from the RTO staff, added Shelke.

The fact is that many visitors are unable to comprehend the details of the procedure and the use of this machine will make things easy for them, he added. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Consider this: 77.58 per cent of the total patients in the casualty wards of 12 hospitals across the city are male, mostly in the 15 to 35 age group. Of these, 43 per cent are victims of road traffic injuries and 32.67 per cent physical assault. For females though, assault poses a bigger threat at 41 per cent while only 28.58 per cent are victims of road injuries.

This was revealed by a survey conducted by Murlidhar P. Tambe of the Preventive Medicine Department at the B.J. Medical College (BJMC) at the casualty wards of 12 hospitals across the city. The purpose was to see whether a national programme to collect data about road traffic accidents is possible. A casualty ward is a busy place. The staff keeps changing and the turnover of patients is high.

“There are so many suggestions on how to prevent accidents. Some say we need to increase the number of policemen on duty, others feel that roads should be improved.

However, these are just personal opinions. There is no study or data that can help us support making a decision to improve these conditions,” Tambe explained.

In 2006, a ‘Workshop for the development of a feasibility module for road traffic injury surveillance’ supported by the World Health Organisation, was conducted in Delhi. As a result, in order to collect data for strategy, Pune and Bangalore have carried out these studies.

The first step was training doctors and nurses in each hospital to make sure each form was filled out correctly. Data collected included causes of injuries, age and sex of patients, educational qualifications and occupations, the way they were transported to the hospital, and in case of traffic accidents, whether the victims were wearing helmets.

“We only invited hospitals with more than 100 beds to participate.” Sassoon…More

TOI : PUNE: The use of three firearms in two cases at Swargate and Warje recently is indicating that the sale of weapons has increased in Pune.

Though it is not possible for the police to keep a check or verify the increase in demand for weapons, investigations in Arms Act cases revealed that country-made revolvers and pistols keep coming from states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Recovery of weapons in several cases is worrying the police force as they feel that the sale of firearms was slowly on the rise in the city since 2006.

There is no specific gang or organised crime syndicate involved in smuggling weapons. Most of the weapons were brought by ordinary people as it is available at throwaway prices in northern states and it fetches them good money in cities like Pune, Mumbai and Thane. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: A seven-member team led by inspector Bhanupratap Barge (crime branch, Pune) has left for Kolkata on Thursday to bring Pakistani ISI agent Syed Mohammad Desai, who was arrested by the Kolkata police on February 16.

The authorities at the Presidency jail in Kolkata lodged Desai with petty criminals and undertrials to avoid a ‘Yerawada prison episode’, where he has trained other convicts.

Officials from the anti-rowdy section of the Kolkata police said, “We got briefing from the Pune police that Desai had trained prisoners in spying during his stay at Yerawada prison as an undertrial.”

“We had urged the jail authorities not to keep him with high profile prisoners to avoid such a situation. He is kept with petty criminals like pickpockets,” an official said.

According to Kolkata police, “Desai had established a link with Nazrool from Kolkata when he was in Yerawada prison. Nazrool, involved in trafficking of girls, was also in the jail for some time.”

Desai had planned to cross the border with Nazrool’s help, an official said.

“But, since Nazrool was in jail for some offence, Desai went to Nazrool’s father who runs a shop on Beckbagan road in Kolkata. He had also gone to Nazrool’s village Laxmikantpur, two hours journey from Kolkata.

Desai also tried to get money from Pakistan and Dubai through Western Union money transfer using Nazrool’s identity card.

“He failed in the attempt as he was feeding wrong spellings,” the official said. Moreover, Desai was not having any identity card.

The official added that if Desai would have been successful in withdrawing money, he would have escaped from India. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: In a unique case, the Right to Information (RTI) Act has enabled two persons who were accused of opening fire at a police party prove their innocence.

The case not only led to the duo’s acquittal but also prompted district and sessions judge BD Kapadnis to recommend stern action against 11 personnel from the Pune rural police for “falsely implicating” Raju Chavan (26) and Nitin Pansare (25) in an offence of attempted murder. Chavan and Pansare hail from Indori in Maval taluka.

The lawyer representing Chavan and Pansare used the RTI provisions for securing various documents, including the station diary extracts and police rewards, to show a series of discrepancies in the case.

In his verdict, judge Kapadnis has described the police act as “dishonest” and “cooked up false encounter story for earning name and rewards”. The judge observed that the police personnel concerned “brought a bad name” to the police force by “misusing their authority”.

He further stated that the policemen indulged in malpractice by preparing false records to rope in innocent people for their own selfish motive.

The judge preferred not to take a suo motu action against the 11 policemen and stated that he would give an opportunity to the police higher-ups to make amends by taking action against the errant policemen.

Additional public prosecutor Neelima Vartak was directed by the court to forward a copy of the court’s judgement to the Special Inspector General of Police (Kolhapur range) for action against the 11 policemen. The Pune rural police fall under the Kolhapur range. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More