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TOI : PUNE: Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor Vaishali Ghodekar is in for some fresh trouble as the demand for her ouster is gaining momentum once again, this time from her own party corporators.

Over 40 corporators of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have supported a fresh move initiated by some of their colleagues for replacing Ghodekar. The unhappy corporators will meet district guardian minister Ajit Pawar and hand over a memorandum demanding Ghodekar’s ouster.

“We will try to meet Pawar in Pune on Monday. If the meeting is not possible, we will go to Mumbai,” a senior corporator said. He confirmed that as many as 42 corporators have so far signed on the memorandum. “All the 59 corporators are supporting the demand because they are not getting the due respect they deserve. It may be her inexperience or she is being misguided. The corporators are being treated with disdain,” the corporator said.

The verbal duel between some corporators and the mayor at the latter’s office on Saturday stoked the fire. While the corporators were discussing the recent incident in which deputy mayor Jagannath Sable was involved in a brawl at the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, mayor Ghodekar believed that they were gossiping about her. Ghodekar reportedly had an argument with some of the corporators, but the verbal fight was stopped after the intervention of party leader Azam Pansare.

Besides, the corporators recalled that at a recent meeting to discuss water supply problems, Ghodekar had bluntly told them not to make long speeches, which the civic representatives found offending. Ghodekar was not available for comment. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The work on creating a diversion for facilitating construction of an underpass at Wakad junction on the westerly bypass has been completed in 21 days, with district guardian minister Ajit Pawar flagging off the traffic on the diversion on Thursday. Additional commissioner Subhash Dumbre told TOI on Friday that the construction of the underpass will be completed in 100 days.

An underpass at the Wakad junction was a long-standing demand from the public.

Motorists have to face traffic problems at he busy chowk during the peak hours.

The Shiv Sena had conducted a rasta roko agitation a few months ago demanding construction of a flyover at the Wakad chowk. Earlier, PCMC municipal commissioner Dilip Band had said that the work on the underpass will be completed before the beginning of the Commonwealth Youth Games in October 2008.

PCMC engineering department official said the six-lane underpass will have a height of 5.5 metre and width of 24 metre. The National Highway 4 will be raised 2.5 metre above the surface level. The total length of the approach roads is 1,200 m. A retaining wall of 1,500 m in length will be built along the raised portion of the road surface. The road inside the underpass will have a concrete surface. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The untimely rain in April might have brought some relief from the scorching heat, but it has badly affected mango production in Konkan.

Though the state has not yet announced any compensation to the affected farmers, the government is pinning its hopes on the next lot, which is expected to hit the market within fifteen days.

Commenting on the situation, state marketing minister, Harshavardhan Patil said, “The rains have resulted in formation of black spots on the fruit, and exporters are reluctant to pick it. Though taste and quality remains intact, the appearance has hit the sales. As of today, the Alphonso is sold for Rs 120 to Rs 140 per kilogram in the US and Japan.”

“Kesar has got a rate of around Rs 50 to Rs 60 per kg. Mangoes from Ratnagiri, Devgad and Jalna are exported to the US and Japan.

The planned export target was of 200 tonnes, of which 70 tonne were exported to US and 10 tonne to Japan,” said deputy general manager of Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board, Santosh Patil.

The second harvesting of mangoes is expected to start by May 10, which was delayed due to the cold wave in February. It could help in controlling the rising prices in the domestic market, he said.

While the government and marketing board are engaged in wishful thinking, the deputy chairman of Ratnagiri Zila Parishad, Sanjay Kadam has demanded compensation for the loss first, rather than organising mango festivals state-wide. He said that such festivals are not going to help farmers, as the loss of the crop is much higher. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Owners and employees of a jewellery shop in Yerawada, showing pluck and quick thinking, fought a group of gun-toting thieves on Saturday night to prevent a possible robbery.

The incident took place at around 9 pm at Pratham jewellers, which is owned by one Shamrao Jain. The three thieves, one of whom was a woman, came to the shop posing as customers and asked for various ornaments worth around Rs 60,000.

According to the Yerawada police, the thieves saw over 40 items of jewellery, but chose only a handful. This aroused shop employee Shankar Rana’s suspicion, who locked the shop’s collapsible metal gate to prevent the thieves from escaping.

Subsequently, an accomplice of the trio, who was standing outside, demanded that the gate be opened. When Jain refused to let him in, one of the trio tried to grab the gate’s key from the shop counter.

This led to a scuffle between the shop employees and the thieves, one of whom then threatened Jain with a gun. But Jain’s wife Meena managed to grab the weapon, which was found to be empty, and cried for help.

The trio’s accomplice, in the meantime, sawed off the lock of the gate, allowing the gang to come out. They got into a car and sped off.

They were chased by a police night patrol team that had come to the spot after hearing Meena’s cry for help. The culprits, however, managed to escape. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Three persons were killed and 39 injured when the state transport bus in which they were travelling hit a truck at Bhorwadi in Ambegaon taluka on the Pune-Nashik road late on Saturday.

The rural police have identified the deceased as bus driver Shivaji Sopan Gundare (45) of Hadapsar, Dilip Laxman Jadhav (42) of Talawde and Moreshwar Vishwanath Mahajan (58) of Manchar.

According to the police, the truck had stopped because of a technical failure. It was carrying sand and had stalled in the middle of the road in Bhorwadi, about 4 km from Manchar. The bus had some 35 passengers from Pune, Manchar, Nigdi, Sangamner, Igatpuri and Nashik and was travelling from Trimbakeshwar to Pune.

According to the police, the bus driver failed to see the truck because of low visibility. The impact of the mishap was such that the truck was pushed about 100 ft and the front part of the bus was completely damaged. Gundare and Jadhav died on the spot while Mahajan died in hospital.

The villagers and the police rushed the injured to the primary health centre at Manchar. They were later moved to the Yeshwantrao Chavan memorial hospital in Pimpri and Lokmanya hospital in Nigdi for medical treatment. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More