News

TOI : PUNE: Petrol supply to the city was affected on Tuesday as the employees at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL)’s Loni terminal went on a strike to press their demands pertaining to salaries.

Since the Loni terminal is used by both HPCL and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), supply to BPCL petrol pumps was also affected.

While discussions were on at Mumbai, the employees said that they will resume work only after the negotiations are over.

The strike affected supply petrol pumps in the city as the refilling work at the terminal was stopped since Tuesday morning. Not a single tanker was refilled at the terminal till 10 pm. The city has over 120 petrol pumps, while the district has more than 360 pumps.

About 300 tankers refill at the HPCL terminal at Loni daily.

HPCL officials, who refused to be identified, told TOI that corrective measures were taken in anticipation of the strike. The terminal increased supply to pumps on Sunday and Monday to ensure that there was no shortage of fuel.

However, if the strike continued on Wednesday there could be problems, they said. It was a nation-wide strike called to press the demands pertaining to salaries. they added.

Ali Daruwala, spokesperson of the Poona Petrol Dealers Association, said that as the strike was called without any prior intimation, pump owners in the city failed to take excess stock. He said that if the strike was not called off on Wednesday the pumps could face shortage. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Eight-year-old Harshavardhan, son of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) corporator Rajendra Gorde, drowned in the swimming pool of their Ved-Vihar housing society at Chandni chowk, near Kothrud, on Tuesday.

According to the Warje police, Harshavardhan, a student of Paranjape school at Kothrud, had gone for a swim in the pool around 6 pm.

While swimming in the deep end of the pool, he went down and did not surface for some time. Noticing this, a resident of the society, Akshay Deshmukh, jumped in and pulled the boy out.

Deshmukh and others first took Harshavardhan to a private hospital, from where he was shifted to Sahyadri Hospital at Paud road. However, he was declared dead on arrival by the doctors at Sahyadri Hospital. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : SATARA: Villagers from Chikhali near Satara stalled the functioning of 60 windmills on Tuesday over the alleged failure of Suzlon, which had set up the windmills, to fulfil their assurances.

Around 200 villagers, under the leadership of Deepak Pawar, gathered at the site where the windmills are located and locked the premises. They demanded that their land be returned and that Suzlon pay them a compensation for “grabbing” their land.

“Suzlon had set up the windmills on a plateau spread across 347 acres about 11 years ago.
However, the
land documents were forged and the landowners were kept in the dark about the windmill project,” Pawar told TOI.

“The villagers then approached the district collector, who ordered the stamps and registration officer to cancel the land deal. Also, the tehsildar was asked to register the names of the original owners on the 7/12 land extracts. This was a year ago,” said Pawar.

The villagers now say that since their names are on the 7/12 extract papers, the company has no right to continue functioning. Suzlon officials, who were present at the site when the villagers locked the mills, preferred to adopt a wait-and-watch policy. When contacted, district collector Vikas Deshmukh said it was an old issue and “not serious”. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: A 12-year-old boy was allegedly confined in a room and sexually abused by a priest of Godaji Pashavnath Jain temple at Phulwala chowk in Guruwar Peth on Tuesday.

Assistant commissioner of police Suresh Pote said the boy had gone to the temple for listening religious sermons by the priest.

He said that the 40-year-old unidentified priest took the boy to the room after the sermons, offered him eatables and sexually abused him.

The boy later reported the incident to his parents, who sought the help of a non-governmental organisation, for registering a complaint against the priest. The priest, who has been booked under sections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 377 (unnatural offence) of the Indian Penal Code, is at large, Pote said.

According to the Khadak police, the boy went to the temple to study religion. There were already 10-15 children. When the priest completed his religious discourse, he called the boy and praised him for his behaviour and looks. He lured the victim to his room with a promise of a gift. There he sexually assaulted him.

Frightened, the boy rushed home and told his parents about the incident. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Four months since receiving a Rs 5-crore grant from the Union government, the ambitious expansion project of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Bori) remains far from taking off. Internal power struggle and ego-tussles between senior office bearers from Bori’s executive board (EB) and regulating council (RC), have ensured that the money lies unutilised.

Add to this, Bori’s ongoing triennial election process (due to complete on June 5) has set off a fresh wave off allegations and counter-allegations that barely augurs well for an institute that is acknowledged world-wide for its work in Indology or Orientalism - study of history, languages and culture of the Indian sub-continent.

The institute is known for its collection of old and precious Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts, besides some pioneering work on a critical edition of the Indian epic, the Mahabharat. Annually, it draws researchers and scholars from India and abroad.

Not long back, Bori was badly starved of funds required for keeping up its academic as well as research initiatives. The shocking vandalism incident in January 2004 over the James Laine book row, had dealt a severe blow to it’s future.

After his much-publicised visit to the institute on December 2, 2006, Union finance minister P. Chidambaram had announced a Rs 2-crore grant for Bori in Budget 2007.

The budget announcement was followed up by the declaration of a Rs 7.5-crore grant by the Union ministry for culture - Rs 5 crore of which was actually disbursed by the government four months back.

The institute had chalked out plan for building a state-of-the-art international guest house and other amenities on its existing campus on the law college road. Yet, things haven’t moved an inch forward as the Bori office-bearers are busy trading accusations at each other.

Secretary of Bori, M.G. Dhadphale, who is at the centre of the fresh…More