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TOI : PUNE: Workers of the Hindu Garjana, an RSS-affiliated organisation, ransacked the Communist Party India (Marxist) at Narayan Peth on Wednesday, injuring three people.

City police commissioner Jayant Umranikar said the police would look into allegations that the electronic media had prior notice about the incident. It was reported that two regional television channels were displaying visuals of the event right from the beginning. “The display on television clearly show the accused assembling, carrying sticks to the office and then starting the fights. We will probe into the matter,” Umranikar said.

He added that if evidence suggested lapses, the media companies involved would be booked for failing to perform their legal duty of informing the law regarding the incident. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Social activist Anna Hazare will lead a state-wide agitation against water conservation minister Ajit Pawar and minister of employment guarantee scheme (EGS) Harshvardhan Patil on May 8, a statement issued here on Wednesday said.

The statement said that the corruption and fraudulent dealings that have happened in Ahmednagar, Jamkhed, Pathardi, Karjat and other districts is rampant and the officials are directly involved in such dealings.

Statement adds that in the year 2003-04, various water conservation works that were started under the EGS in Parner at Ahmednagar involved a lot of corruption. Hazare had demanded inquiry into the work that the ministers did when they visited the district over 20 times, but the inquiry wasn’t carried out to save the department’s face.

Only 5 per cent of the work was done under the scheme and when the police eventually carried out an inquiry into the matter in 2006, about 66 officials were found guilty. These officers were later asked to submit reasons of their wrong doings by the government but the district agriculture minister objected to it and the inquiry was halted, statement said. Hazare had launched another agitation that inquiry should be carried out. Two years later it was found that only 20 per cent of the undertaken work was complete.

Similar corruption was involved in construction of nalas in Parner in 2003-04 and an inquiry was ordered and 56 officials were found guilty but only eight agricultural officials were suspended. The statement also said that false records have been found in the villages for water conservation works that have been carried out under the EGS. Only two inquiries were carried. Hazare’s agitation is targeted at the two ministers. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Eight policemen were indicted in a departmental inquiry which found them guilty of negligence and dereliction of duty in handling a criminal who had escaped when he was being produced before the district and sessions court here in 2003.

The inquiry officer, who had served show-cause notices to the policemen asking them why they should not be dismissed from service, reversed his decision and imposed a minor penalty of their basic salary for a year.

The incident happened on October 16, 2003. Assistant sub-inspector A.M. Bansode and constables D.C. Shinde, N.M. Shinde, S.K. Khadlak, H.B. Pilane, S.S. Kase, M.S. Deshmukh and N.K. Dhotre were given the charge of escorting undertrial prisoners from the Yerawada central prison to the court for conducting trials in various cases.

The policemen produced 10 prisoners before the judicial magistrate first class . The prisoners complained that they were languishing in jail for quite some time and prayed for an early verdict. Some prisoners created a commotion in the court room and undertrial Shashikant Wadkar threw his footwear at the magistrate. During the ensuing melee, undertrial Vijay Patil escaped from the court premises.

The fact that an undertrial could fling a footwear at a judicial magistrate in the presence of several cops has shown the police in bad light. The city police suspended the eight cops and ordered a probe.

The inquiry was conducted by deputy commissioner of police Ravindra Sengaonkar.

Slapped with show-causes notices, the policemen prayed before the inquiry officer that they have already undergone severe punishment ever since they were placed under suspension and pleaded for a leniency. They said they suffered because of the prolonged inquiry. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: For the first time, the families in Pune district registered under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) will get family job cards with a family photo and identity cards. All information about every family registered under the scheme will also be uploaded on-line.

Explaining the initiative, Prakash Kadam, deputy collector NREGS told TOI, “The district collectorate has initiated the procedures for clicking of photos of families, registered under the scheme, for the job cards in all the villages. All the necessary documents and materials have been provided to the Tehesil offices in the district. With this, every family registered under the scheme will be provided with a family job card”.

“The move is part of the initiative to implement the latest technological procedures under NREGS,” he added.

Over one lakh families and 2,36,000 workers have been registered in Pune district under the NREGS so far. The implementation of the scheme has been underway in the district since April 1. Kadam said the procedures for finalisation of works and procedures to be followed under the scheme have been changed this time. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Sample this. Mumbai, with an estimated population of 1.9 crore, has just 17 lakh private vehicles (cars and two-wheelers) on the roads while Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, with a combined population of around 40 lakh, are already in sight of the 20-lakh private vehicle mark!

With the authorities simply refusing to strengthen the public transport system in the city and Pimpri-Chinchwad, sales of cars and two-wheelers have risen alarmingly even as the infrastructure groans under the weight of the burgeoning vehicle population.

During the last financial year (2007-08) alone, a whopping 1.75-lakh new cars and two-wheelers were added to the roads in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad (39,200 cars and 1.36-lakh two-wheelers). Of this, 28,000 cars and 87,000 two-wheelers were registered in Pune alone.

Till March 2007, the total number of cars registered with the regional transport offices (RTOs) in both cities was 2.68 lakh and two-wheelers 15.12 lakh. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Workers of the Hindu Garjana, an organisation affiliated with the RSS, ransacked the Communist Party India (Marxist) office at Narayan Peth on Wednesday. The attack was apparently in retaliation to the clash between CPI and RSS-BJP activists in Kerala’s Kannur district.

Three people were injured in the attack and have been admitted to a private hospital for treatment. They have been identified as Deepak Bagade, Siddharth Roy and Mangesh Mandve, who sustained head and leg injuries.

Eye-witnesses said general-secretary of the CPM Ajit Abhayankar spotted a suspicious person at the office on Wednesday morning, following which he informed the local police station.

Later, around 1.45 pm, a mob of some 10 to 12 people led by Dheeraj Ghate, the BJP city unit’s secretary, went to the CPI(M) office armed with sticks. “They caught hold of three people who were coming down the stairs and thrashed them with the sticks,” an eye-witness said. They then went in the office on the second floor and attacked the people present in the office.

Joint commissioner of police Rajendra Sonawane, who visited the spot, said the accused belong to the RSS-affiliated Hindu Garjana. “Investigations will be done and they will be arrested,” Sonawane said. Additional commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, assistant commissioner Suresh Pote and Ashok Bhoi also visited the spot.

Police commissioner Jayant Umranikar said the city is peace-loving. “There is no lathi-culture in Pune. We are trying to get hold of the accused,” he said. The Vishrambaug police station has booked unidentified people on charges of rioting. No arrests have been made so far.

Abhyankar alleged that the RSS and BJP workers ransacked their office after failing to find an issue for the next elections. He said the left was opposing the nuclear deal, which had left BJP members upset. Last year too the CPI (M)…More