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TOI : PUNE: Pedestrians who have been having a tough time crossing busy junctions and wide roads have reason to cheer, as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is planning to construct at least ten subways in different parts of the city. Four of these subways would be constructed on Ahmednagar road before the Commonwealth Youth Games, while the remaining after the Games.

Head of the PMC’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) cell, Vinay Deshpande, on Friday said, “Tenders have been invited, and only four subways will be constructed now. The Ahmednagar road has been widened, so we can divert traffic for subway constructions and finish the work fast.”

The other subways are to be constructed at some of the busiest junctions, including Paud Phata and Santosh hall junctions on Sinhagad road, at a cost of Rs 5.85 crore, Gadital at Hadapsar and Bibvewadi junctions on Satara road at Rs 9.37 crore and Vishrantwadi and Gunjan talkies junctions at a cost of Rs 11.65 crore.

Deshpande said that one of the Nagar road subways would be a vehicular subway, while all others will be pedestrian subways, which will be constructed at the cost of Rs 6.90 crore.

“Subway construction is a tedious job since it requires a lot of work of shifting underground utilities like water lines, drainage lines and cables. Unless a road is wide enough, it takes at least a year to complete the work. Since we don’t want any dug up roads during the CYG, other subways will be constructed after the Games are over,” Deshpande said.

When pointed out that some of the subways in the city like the one on J.M. road have remained unused, Deshpande said that the upcoming subways will be constructed on busy junctions and where the road is extremely wide. “The locations are such where bus stops…More

TOI : PUNE: A seven-year-old girl was allegedly molested by her teacher at Morujichiwadi village in Purandar taluka. The accused has been arrested by the Jejuri police after the girl’s grandmother filed a complaint on Friday. According to the police, the first standard student was allegedly molested by her teacher Santosh Yashwantrao Nigde (27) on the zilla parishad school premises eight days ago.

The police said, Nigde had threatened the girl not to disclose the incident to anyone. “However, on Thursday, she told her grandmother about the incident and the grandmother filed a complaint.” Meanwhile, enraged villagers beat up Nigde on Friday. “He was admitted to the Sassoon hospital but was discharged later,” police said. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune model of zero load-shedding has come undone. The prospect of citizens being subjected to approximately one-and-a-half hours without electricity every day this summer seems almost certain.

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc) on Friday directed the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) to stop giving grid support to keep the Pune model running.

Merc, however, also suggested that MSEDCL could appoint a franchisee through which it could source additional power required to support the Pune model. But the catch is that the MSEDCL has just 15 days to find a franchisee, identify additional power, enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) and implement it. This is a very difficult task and MSEDCL will have to move at lightning speed to meet the deadline.

It may be noted that the Pune model came into existence in June 2006 when about 30 industries of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) used their captive power plants (CPP) to generate and consume 80 MW power to keep Pune free from load-shedding. Puneites were paying a reliability charge of 42 paise per unit for this convenience.

However, since then, Pune’s demand for power has increased, the gap between availability and demand has gone up too and the CPP support has started proving inadequate. The MSEDCL started securing additional power from the state grid to support the Pune model, which the Merc objected to, saying it amounted to meting out preferential treatment. The matter came up for hearing before the Merc on February 25.

During the hearing, the MSEDCL said that the sheddable load of the Pune urban circle is 428 MW as per the prevalent load-shedding protocol, which means that the shortfall, without considering any CII support, could be approximately 965 MWh/day, based on the average load-shedding of 2.25 hours per day as experienced during the…More

TOI : As many as 170 students living in city slums have become members of the first literate generation of their families, thanks to city-based Children’s Future India (CFI). These students from the slums of Jaibhavaninagar, Rajiv Gandhi nagar, Shastrinagar, Panmala and Kishkindhanagar could appear for the standard X board examinations this academic year. Parents of most of them are rag-pickers, some do menial jobs at nearby households, while some are marginal labours at construction sites.

“They have nobody at home who can guide or motivate them. Most of their parents are illiterate and work as rag-pickers, watchmen, coolies, vegetable vendors, etc. Alcoholism is prevalent among them. They can hardly afford to teach their wards with their meagre income,” said Kripa Deshpande of the CFI. “Our emphasis is more on education of girls as they are the victims of extreme neglect in our society. Out of these 172 students, 139 are girls, she added.

“We both are illiterate and so were our forefathers. We had no plans to educate our children as we could not afford the expenses,” said Dattatray Shendge, who is a rag-picker whose daughter Kavita is appearing for Std X examination from Bharati Vidyapeeth Kanya Shala at Hanumannagar.

Pooja Nanaghare’s father is a watchman in a private company and her mother does all kinds of menial jobs. “We might never have thought of educating our child as we hardly earn enough to spend on anything besides our daily bread, said her father who is hopeful of a bright future for his daughter. “We are supporting around 5,500 students in the state, out of which 80 per cent are girls. Around 1,600 students are from the city itself. Around 68 students from these slum areas have appeared for standard XII examinations also this year, out of which 53 are girls,” said Kiran Patole of the CFI. Print Save EMail…More

TOI : PUNE: Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) D.D. Kurulkar has sentenced Lumbaram Bhuraji Chaudhary from Moshi to six months of simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,500 for selling adulterated sweet (’kalakand’) and running business without licence.

If Chaudhary fails to pay the fine, he will have to undergo additional one month’s simple imprisonment.

Food inspector of the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation (PCMC), Kiran Jadhav, inspected Pooja Sweets, Gat No 172, near Mahadev temple, Moshi, on February 15, 2006 and found that Chaudhari did not have a licence. Jadhav had also sent a sample of ‘kalakand’ to the state health laboratory, Pune, for analysis. It was found that aluminium foil was used instead of silver foil as covering the sweet.

Jadhav, through PCMC health officer Nagkumar Kunchagi, sent a proposal to the joint commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Maharashtra state, Pune division on May 6, 2006 for filing a court case against Chaudhary. Permission was granted on August 1, 2006.

Satish Pawar, additional legal advisor to the PCMC, represented the civic body in the municipal court, Akurdi.
S.S. Urankar, joint commissioner, Food and Drug Adminsitration, Maharashtra state, Pune division, Pune and Subhash Kamble, government analyst were examined as witnesses.

Meanwhile, the PCMC has warned sweet mart owners against selling adulterated food items and running business without licence. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More