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TOI : PUNE: Many of the irrigation projects by the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC), set up in 1996 to use the state’s share of 594 TMC water from Krishna basin allocated by the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal, is running behind schedule.

The estimated cost of projects scheduled to be completed in 2000 was Rs 7,100 crore. But with delay in projects and huge corruption, the costs escalated every year. Till date the state government has spent more than Rs 13,000 crore for the MKVDC projects and the total estimated cost of pending projects is around Rs 24,000 crore.

“The target was to bring about 11,73,000 hectares of land under irrigation by 2000. But till date hardly five lakh hectares is irrigated. Shortage of money is delaying the projects and cost escalation is adding to the problem,” admitted an MKVDC official.

The government policy, formulated in 2000, to ensure a balanced development in the eastern and western parts of the state has proved major hurdle for the MKVDC projects. As per the policy, Vidarbha gets 55 per cent of development funds, while Marathwada gets 22 per cent and the rest of Maharashtra gets 23 per cent.

Moreover, about 48,000 farmers from western Maharashtra and Marathwada were displaced because of the projects and only 21,000 were rehabilitated.

“Loan waiver is a temporary solution. The government should address the root cause. The vicious circle of loans and suicides would only stop when farmers will be self-sufficient. We urge the government to help us by completing the irrigation projects” says Eaknath Ghorpade, a farmer from Satara.

Finish irrigation works: Farmers Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The Alphonso, a universal favourite because of its rich aroma and flavour, will make its numerous fans wait this season. Its peak season, normally in the second phase of the mango season, is expected to be delayed by a month.

The late arrival will also mean that the mango season will be prolonged and the fruit will be available even in June.

“The delay has been caused because of the extended winter this year. Usually the peak Alphonso season starts in March and concludes by May 20, but this year the peak season will continue till late June,” said B.R. Salve, additional director (research) Vengurla Mango Research Institute, Sindhudurga district, while speaking to TOI. “If climatic conditions remain favourable and there is not much rain in the initial stage of the monsoon, then we could be enjoying this fruit in the rainy season.

“Market analysis suggests that current fruit setting of Alphonso is very good. The actual fruit will be available in June and the quantity will be huge,” Santosh Patil, director-general of the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) told TOI. Patil, who recently visited the Konkan region to take stock of the Alphonso situation there, highlighted that the conditions in most parts of key Alphonso-producing areas, including Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, indicated a delayed season. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Taking serious note of the tragic death of 10-year-old Atharva Dongre, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has promised to fit guards to all PMPML buses before May 1.

A meeting of top officials, depot managers and maintenance engineers of PMPML was held on Monday to discuss ways to bring about efficiency in the public transport system.

It was resolved during the meeting that bottom-guards, horns and indicators should be fitted to all buses before May 1.

According to a press statement issued by PMPML, surprise checks will be conducted by depot managers to check the efficiency of bus drivers.

Depot managers and depot maintenance managers will stand at junctions and take note of whether drivers jump signals or flout rules.

“Severe action will be taken against erring drivers,” the statement said. “On the occasion of Consumer Day on March 15, the PMPML has decided to bring about efficiency to provide better service to its consumer.”

On March 11, Atharva Dongre was hit by a PMPML bus near Shaniwarwada and crushed to death due to the absence of bottom-guards on the bus. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Bearing testimony to the rising incidence of crime against women in the city, a 16-year-old girl from Wadgaonsheri was abducted on Friday, taken to Dehu road and repeatedly raped by four youths. She was set free on Sunday.

The Yerawada police have arrested one of the accused and detained another minor. The victim lodged a complaint against Sagar Murlidhar Bhise (20) and three other unidentified persons. Bhise has been remanded to police custody till March 21.

Earlier, on Sunday night, tension prevailed in Yerawada as the girl belonged to a minority community. A mob had gathered at the police station there demanding action.

According to the police, the victim was abducted on Friday evening when she was returning home. The accused, who lives in the same locality came up on a two-wheeler accompanied by another youth and brandished a sharp weapon at her. They took her to Pune railway station, where she was handed over to two others. She was then taken to Dehu road.

The Yerawada police said the girl had had a fight with her family in the evening and left home in anger. “Later, when she was walking back home at night she was abducted. The crime went undetected since it was very dark in the absence of street lights,” police sub-inspector M.V. Nanavare said.

On Saturday, when the girl still did not return, her father filed a missing complaint. However, on Sunday afternoon, the accused left the victim near her residence. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: In the tiny village of Mhaishal, just 25 km away from Sangli where the Congress put up a massive show in the presence of party president Sonia Gandhi to claim credit for the loan waiver, the dreams of thousands of farmers remain unfulfilled.

Only dry air comes through the huge pipelines at the lift irrigation project site that is part of the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) and the machinery worth crores of rupees is rusting. Similar scenes are visible across western Maharashtra and parts of Marathwada at the MKVDC project sites.

While Sonia hailed the Rs 60,000-loan waiver during rallies at Sangli and Osmanabad, voices of thousands of farmers yearning for completion of the irrigation projects remained unheard in the din of political rallies by the NCP and the Congress.

“The government has Rs 60,000 crore to waive farm loans, then why is it not providing money for completion of the irrigation projects to solve the problem of farmers permanently?” asks Bapu Chougale, a farmer from Mhaishal.

For Bapu and others, ‘political credit game’ is not new. “We have seen three inaugurations of the Mhaishal project which still stands incomplete. We hope that at least the loan waiver would not meet the fate of MKVDC projects.”

The MKVDC was set up in 1996 to use the state’s share of 594 TMC water from Krishna basin allocated by the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal. About 80 per cent of the projects spread across Pune, Sangli, Satara, Solapur, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Beed and Osmanabad are completed.

Also read: State’s policy change delays projects Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune rural police on Saturday nabbed dreaded criminal Ankush Kale (26) of Shrigonda in Ahmednagar district, who had been evading arrest since 1999. Among other crimes, Kale is wanted for the murder of six members of a family in Shirur in 2005 as well as for killing a policeman at Ahmednagar in 2004.

Kale was arrested following a tip-off that he was working as a labourer with a sand dealer at the Bhima river in Ahmednagar district. A police team led by inspector Bhausaheb Andhalkar of the local crime branch of the rural police took him into custody.

Kale is suspected to have been involved in 11 cases - seven in Pune district and four in Ahmednagar district - between 1999 and 2005.

In 2004, a police team from Shrigonda had gone to arrest Kale at Angar in Ahmednagar after a woman had registered a rape case against him. However, Kale and some
of his associates attacked the police team with sharp weapons, which resulted in the death of a policeman, Ankush Dhawade.

The Shrigonda police booked Kale for murdering Dhawade, but failed to arrest him because he changed his hideouts frequently. The Ahmednagar police had also set up a special team to arrest Kale. In the meantime, Kale’s father, Vasant, who also had a criminal record, was killed in a police encounter.

Kale felt that his father was killed solely because the police had launched a manhunt against him and his brother, Lahu, after the registration of the rape case. To avenge his father’s death, he murdered six members of the woman’s family - Piyuja Kale (65), Haribai Kale (60), Mantri Kale (45), Nitin Kale (25), Meetu Kale (20) and Tarabai Kale (19) at Shirur on January 27, 2005. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The maximum temperature was 37 degrees C on Sunday, making the city sweat. According to the meteorology department, this is the first time since the start of the season that the temperature has risen to this level. In Lohegaon, the temperature recorded was above 38 degrees C.

“The city has been witnessing an increase in temperature for the last couple of days, This is the highest temperature this season,”sources from the met department said. The reason for the rise is a reduction in cloud cover, said the sources.

On Friday, the city recorded 36 degrees C. Since then, the mercury has been rising. On Saturday the temperature was 36.9 degrees C.

Sunday’s temperature is two degrees higher than the normal temperature for this time of year. Normal for this period in the city is 35 degrees. The highest ever temperature recorded by the city in the month of March is 42.8 degrees C, recorded on March 28, 1892.

Barring Solapur and Kolhapur, all cities recorded more than average temperatures. The temperature in Solapur was 36.3 degrees, less than a degree below normal temperature for this period, while Kolhapur was 36 degrees, which is normal for this period.

Other cities in the state also recorded high maximum temperatures including Mumbai (32.5 deg C), Mahabaleshwar (31.8 deg C), Nashik (35.7 deg C), Sangli (37.4 deg C) and Nagpur (37.6 deg C). Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune rural police claimed to have foiled the murder of Dnyaneshwar alias Mauli Suryavanshi, husband of Asha Suryavanshi a Nationalist Congress Party corporator in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). This follows the arrest of Basavlingappa Hippargi (30), an associate of the dreaded extortionist Shekhar Wankhede on Saturday.

According to the police, a former corporator Vasantrao Sahebrao Telang had allegedly plotted Suryavanshi’s murder. The police recovered a knife and eight cartridges from the possession of Hippargi, a history-sheeter involved in cases of robbery and extortion, on Saturday evening.

Telang, a criminal on police records, has been involved in cases of attempt to murder, robbery and rioting. Telang had made a plan to eliminate Suryavanshi due to political rivalry. He and his accomplice Hippargi had decided to come at the Kiwale Bridge on the Pune-Mumbai highway on Saturday evening before moving ahead to kill Suryavanshi.

Acting on a tip off, a police team laid a trap near the bridge. Telang and Hippargi came to the spot and the police tried to nab the duo, but Telang managed to escape. Hippargi said that Telang was carrying a revolver and a chopper with which he was planning to attack Suryavanshi.

The police are on the look out for Telang. Meanwhile, Hippargi was on Sunday remanded to police custody till March 19. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

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TOI : PUNE: The groundwater level in the state is showing increasing depletion. A state-level survey conducted by the Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA) has revealed that compared to last year, more talukas in the state are showing dwindling levels. This year, a total of 123 talukas were identified as showing depletion. Last year, the number was 53 talukas.

The report says till January, out of a total of 353 talukas, 230 talukas didn’t show any decrease in the groundwater level. The number was 301 last year. Thus, GSDA officials claim that this year talukas with depleted groundwater levels have gone up by 71.

The survey was conducted by measuring 3,920 observation wells spread across 353 talukas in the state. The GSDA conducts groundwater level surveys in January, March, May and October. The surveys conducted in May and October are called pre-monsoon and post-monsoon surveys. The levels are compared with the average water levels in the area in the past five years. The state has 1,505 watershed areas spread in six divisions.

Speaking to TOI, GSDA additional director Suresh Khandale said, “This year, the extraction of water from the ground has gone up. The water level usually deprecates in winter due to irrigation. As the state had a good rainfall on average this year, the groundwater level was up in many areas. However, large amount of water was extracted for irrigation.”

“The post-monsoon survey, conduced by the GSDA in October, identified 65 talukas with depleted groundwater levels. The figure rose to 123 till January and is expected to go up in summer. The survey predicts that the situation of drinking water would remain normal in most areas, except some talukas of Vidarbha, Marathwada and Konkan,”he added.

Explaining the situation, Khandale said that more than 95 talukas have reported a decrease of upto one metre, while in…More