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TOI : PUNE: The Cyber Crime Cell of the Pune police has seized pirated VCDs and DVDs worth Rs 11.47 lakh near Gunjan theatre on Monday. Six people were arrested in this connection and booked under various sections of the Copyright Act.

Police inspector H.S. Bhapkar of the cell received information regarding sale of pirated VCDs, DVDs and MP3s being sold on the stretch of the road between Amit Hospital and Gunjan Talkies under the jurisdiction of the Yerawada police. There were three stalls selling the CDs on the road. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The need to improve the Pune municipal transport system, as well as the city traffic conditions, echoed through the civic corridors on Tuesday, as the ‘no-vehicle day’ of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) entered its third week.

The ‘no-vehicle day’, announced with much fanfare by municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi and standing committee chairman Shyam Deshpande, received partial response this Tuesday.

About 911 PMC officials came to office either on a bicycle or by public transport. A majority of them, who took the public transport, held the view that the municipal bus services needed drastic improvement.

While the municipal commissioner has opted for a cycle, the rest of the civic staff is also looking at alternative modes of transport, other than motorcycles and cars.

‘Since I travel all the way from Dhankawadi, I cannot cycle to work. Hence, on Tuesdays, I use the bus service, which, I have realised, are in a sorry state. I feel, if the municipal transport is improved, there will be no need to observe no vehicle days,’said an official.

‘Riding a cycle on roads crowded with vehicles is a difficult task. The municipal commissioner’s intention behind this mission was good, but more proactive steps— like improving the municipal transport system — need to be taken,’observed another civic official.

As bikes and cars were not allowed into the main premises of the municipal corporation, many of the civic staff parked their bikes at distant spots and walked to the building to avoid the wrath of their bosses.

Last week, standing committee chairman Shyam Deshpande had said that elected members would slowly, but surely, start using cycles. However, on Tuesday, a majority of the elected representatives were spotted in cars and on bikes. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Air Commodore K.P. Nair took over as the new air chief commanding (AOC) of the Air Force Station Pune, during a formal ceremony on Tuesday. He has taken over from Air Commodore Pradeep Singh, who has moved to the headquarters of the South West Air Command in Gandhinagar.

Nair was commissioned in the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a fighter pilot in December 1977.

An alumnus of the Defence Service Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, and Army War College, Mhow, Nair has held many important command and staff appointments, including command of a MiG 29 squadron and two tenures at the Directorate of Personnel (officers) at Air Headquarters in New Delhi.

He had also served as chief operations officer of the Lohegaon base during 2001-03. Nair has more than 2,500 hours of flying experience in the fighter class of aircrafts - including MiG 21s, MiG 23s, MiG 29s, Sukhoi-30s. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Eight students of various colleges were arrested and a minor was taken into custody by the city police on Tuesday in connection with investigations into the first-year B.Com paper leak incident.

The eight, along with D.Y. Patil college student Chandan Mohandas Lalwani (20) of Sant Tukaram Nagar in Pimpri, who was arrested on Monday, were remanded to police custody till April 4 by judicial magistrate first class A.K. Mandavgade.

The eight arrested are Hrushab Mukund Jadhav (19), Ashwinkumar Sukhdeo Mali (21) and Somakant Baliram Giri (18) all from Dighi, Sameer Suresh Tapkir (19) and Vijay Rajaram Tapkir (19) both from Wadhmukhwadi, Sagar Vilas Khodre (19), Rohan Nandkumar Khurade (19) and Sagar Ashok Ghurde (19) from Alandi.

The police said principal Raju Nimbalkar and others of the Genba Sopanrao Moze Trust’s Arts, Science and Commerce college at Wadhmukhwadi in Bhosari had allegedly given the paper to internal supervisor Rajendra Balaji Shinde to be circulated to students. Meanwhile, PSI Shaukatali Sayyed produced the nine students before court to obtain police custody.

Assistant public prosecutor Harishchandra Doiphode told the court that custodial interrogation of the students was required.

Opposing the prosecution, defence lawyers Dilip Shelar, Sanjay Dalvi and Rahul Dindokar contended that their clients were in no way connected with the paper leak incident and pleaded that their clients be remanded to magisterial custody. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The performance of lecturers from various departments of the University of Pune (UoP) will now be evaluated by students at the end of each academic year, beginning 2008-09. University vice-chancellor Narendra Jadhav announced the assessment scheme at the senate meeting held recently.

“The idea is to replicate the teachers’ appraisal system being practised at leading universities in countries like the United States of America,” Jadhav told TOI on Tuesday.

Against the government sanctioned 371 teaching posts, 218 teachers are working in 43 departments on the UoP campus and another 153 are set to join them over the next two months as part of the ongoing recruitment drive. This will take the total number to the sanctioned strength. “The new assessment system will cover these lecturers,” Jadhav said.

According to the V-C, the move would help bring in greater transperancy and accountability in teaching besides letting the teachers know where they stand vis-a-vis the feedback from
students.

On how the university plans to implement the scheme, Jadhav said he will constitute an independent cell to study the existing evaluation system at noted foreign universities. The cell would then lay down the guidelines for performance assessment.

Jadhav said that the students will give their feedback about their respective teacher to a teacher from another department. Based on the guidelines, the teacher collecting the student feedback will file an assessment report, he said.

All the performance assessments would be summarised and placed on the university’s website. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More