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TOI : PUNE: The district food supply office in the city has initiated a drive against illegal stocking of essential commodities in the district. In the last few months, 12 cases have been filed against godown owners who have excess stock of commodities without authorised licences. Currently, the total worth of sealed stock is over Rs 2 crore.

Addressing a news conference, Apoorva Wankhede, district food supply officer, said, “The sealed stock consists of wheat and pulses. Godown owners, who have been caught with the unauthorised stock, will now have to obtain fresh licences and also have to produce bank guarantee to continue their services.”

Their services will be barred till they produce these documents. The sealed stock will also remain in the custody of food supply office if the owners fail to produce the documents, she explained. “in such a situation, the stock will be auctioned in the market,” she added.

Wankhede said, “The office has been conducting various drives against godowns owners, wholesalers and suppliers of foodgrains. So far, 12 cases have been registered with the police, and foodgrains consisting of 192 quintals of wheat and about 6,900 quintals of pulses have been seized and sealed.”

All the sealed stock is said to be unregistered and without authorised bills and documents. The total value of these amounts to Rs 2 crore, which includes wheat stock amounting to Rs 2.85 lakh, and pulses amounting to Rs 1.91 crore, she added.

Stating that the drive will continue, Wankhede told the media that essential commodities are being distributed as per government norm. Various measures are underway to curb the malpratices at distribution and retail levels, she said. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : AURANGABAD: The case of 17-year-old Asif Ansari, who was found unconscious in a bag being dispatched to Mumbai, has taken a dramatic twist with the teenager turning out to be a member of an inter-state gang of thieves. Asif being packed in a bag was the modus operandi to engineer thefts in the luggage compartments of luxury buses.

“Initially, Asif Ansari (17), from Ghaziabad, tried to hoodwink us by maintaining he was drugged and kidnapped from Mumbai and that he had no idea how he reached Aurangabad,” inspector D.M. More said. “But when we contacted the UP police, we realised he was part of the gang and this was their modus operandi.”‘

More said that the gang used to visit the target areas to study the bus schedules and surroundings. “Then, they would book seats in a bus and just before its departure, they would reach the bus terminal and plead with the driver to keep the ‘parcel’ (containing their accomplice Asif) in the luggage compartment,” he said.

He said, then Asif, carrying a mobile, screw driver, a small blade would come out of the bag and open other luggage and collect cash, jewellery and other valuables.

After reaching the destination, the gang members would pick up their ‘luggage’ and disappear before anyone notice them.

More said, on Tuesday two gang members tried the same thing. “They tried to parcel an unconscious Asif in a bus to Mumbai. But when the driver asked them about the parcel, they excused themselves and disappeared. After sometime, the driver grew suspicious and informed us. We then unwrapped the bag and found Asif. He was rushed to the hospital, where he regained consciousness and narrated a concocted tale.”

Inspector More said the police pieced together the loose ends of his story and contacted the UP police. “Real story emerged after we…More

TOI : PUNE: Congress corporator Aktharhussain Choudhary Talukdar of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a contractor at a restaurant in Pimpri.

The ACB officials recovered Rs 50,000 from Choudhary besides the Rs 20,000 bribe he had allegedly demanded from the contractor.

This is the first incident in Pimpri-Chinchwad where a corporator has been trapped for taking a bribe.

According to a complaint filed by contractor Prahlad Kamble, he had won a contract from the PCMC for maintaining general cleanliness and sanitation in ward number 35 in Morwadi and had been carrying out the work since October last year. As per the contract, he was to be paid Rs 70,000 per month for the work. However, he hasn’t got his dues though the contract has ended in March, 2008.

Kamble said that PCMC health inspector J.J. Gaikwad had informed him that his bills were not cleared because corporator Choudhary had some objections. Choudhary demanded Rs 20,000 for clearing his dues.

Kamble agreed to pay the bribe at a restaurant in Morwadi on Thursday. Meanwhile, he informed the ACB which caught Choudhary accepting Rs 20,000 from Kamble. Health inspector Gaikwad was also present on the occasion. The Pimpri police arrested both Choudhary and Gaikwad.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders in Pimpri-Chinchwad remained silent on the issue saying that they were yet to get the details of the incident. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Rahul Gaikwad travels 30 km every day to attend cricket coaching classes at the Nehru stadium, near Sarasbaug. However, most Wednesdays, for the past two months at least, he is greeted by the ‘Ground closed for maintenance’ sign. The same fate greets hundreds of other youngsters and their parents at 6 am on Wednesday morning.

Officially, the stadium authorities have declared a holiday on Tuesday for ground maintenance. However, the staff waters the ground on Tuesdays, leaving it wet for the next day. Ideally, the ground needs to be watered at least by Monday night or Tuesday morning, so that it is available to the hundreds of player who gather here every Wednesday for the morning batch of the camp.

Speaking to TOI, Ajay Rajput of Rajput Academy, who conducts a coaching camp here, said, “This has been happening for the past two months. The ground staff have been lazy and start watering the ground only on Tuesday evening. Therefore, it is obvious, that the ground will be wet when the players take to the field on Wednesday morning. The process should happen on Monday evening, so that there is sufficient time for the ground to dry.”

He added, “A large number of camps are held here with children coming all the way from places like Alandi, Wakad, Urali Kanchan. It is disappointing for them to see the notice and go back. We regularly pay our fees for ground utilisation, but the authorities are not ready to listen to us when we go to them with our complaints.” Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: In a shocking incident, a senior faculty member of the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) and his wife were drugged and robbed of all their luggage on the Chennai-Mumbai train on Wednesday night. They have been admitted to St George hospital in Mumbai.

The couple, N. Ramaswamy (50) and Chittaramaswamy (45), were travelling by the 1028 UP Chennai-Mumbai mail which reaches Pune at 11.20 pm. They were found lying in an unconscious state when the train reached Mumbai in the wee hours of Thursday. They were taken to hospital by the railway police.

The police said the Ramaswamys were still not able to recall what exactly happened to them. Apparently, they were given something to drink or eat which was laced with sedatives somewhere between Solapur and Pune. The train leaves Solapur at around 6.15 pm. It is not known whether the couple was travelling in the sleeper class or AC coach.

Pune superintendent of police (railways) Vitthal Jadhav told TOI that the Pune railway police have not received any information about the incident yet. Investigations will begin as soon as the couple is able to recall the station where they were offered the sedative-laced eatables or drinks by any co-passenger travelling with them, he said. Railway police officials said there has been no incident in the recent past in which passengers have been drugged. However, they have cautioned passengers not to accept anything to eat or drink from co-passengers.

The railways have been showing small clips on TV installed at the railway stations of how thieves befriend travellers on trains and offer them sedative-laced biscuits or soft drinks. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Adding to the swelling population of the city, around 7.4 lakh people are estimated to have migrated to Pune between 1991 and 2001. This trend of migration is expected to continue and the city will witness a steady growth in population over the next couple of years.

The finding is the result of a research project on the population projection of Pune, currently being conducted by the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. The project is part of a written agreement, made recently, between the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the institute for systematic studies of the population of the city till 2026.

Explaining the reason for the two-fold increase in migration, which was around three lakh in the decade 1981 and 1991, project consultant Sanjeevanee Mulay said territorial expansion of the city along with the developing construction field and booming IT sector are responsible for luring people to the city.

“The influx of labour seekers from other parts of Maharashtra, as also from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, has contributed substantially to the migration levels here,” said Mulay. Majority of the migrants are Marathi-speaking people from cities other than Pune and rural parts of the state.

The migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh constitute around eight per cent of the total migration, informed Mulay. “Alarming growth of slums in the city is one of the contributing factors adding to this migration.”

Considering the rapid territorial expansion of the city which increased after the PMC merged around 38 villages in its limit and the considerable growth in the industrial belt of Pimpri-Chinchwad, the migration will continue to witness steady growth over the next couple of years, said Mulay. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: With the proposed meeting of the Grape Growers’ Association (GGA) with three state ministers to resolve the problem pertaining to low price of raisins being postponed, the GGA has now urged state marketing minister Harshvardhan Patil to sanction funds for storing raisins in warehouses owned by the government.

Two weeks ago, a dispute arose between farmers and traders over the low rate of Rs 2 per kg offered at the Pandharpur market in Solapur district, which resulted in boycotting of purchase by traders.

The Sangli divisional chairman of GGA, Shivaji Sawant, said, “At present, the raisins are being sold at a very low rate in the market.”
While the farmers have been seeking government support in the matter, Harshvardhan Patil, at a meeting held in Pune, said the government could help the farmers up to a certain extent.

As there are other produce for which the government has to allocate funds, it cannot concentrate only on raisins, which is not a very significant commodity compared to other agriculture produce.

He also claimed that the guarantee scheme introduced by the marketing ministry for raisins had challenged the monopoly of merchants, hence the merchants were lobbying to bring down the prices of raisins.

The marketing board’s warehouse facility can be used by the farmers to store raisins and they can get 60 per cent of the total price of the raisins at a time.

The government pays the farmers from its allocated fund for storing produce in the warehouses. The warehouse authority of the marketing board charges eight per cent interest on the cash paid by the government for storing raisins. When there is demand in the market, the farmers can sell the raisins and pay back to the marketing board.

But due to limited space and funds, the marketing board is not in a…More

TOI :
In a small, dark room in the Kashiwadi slums, Ayesha Shaikh shows her husband’s numerous sports awards. Her husband, Mastan Chand Shaikh, a paraplegic sportsman and a winner of the state’s prestigious Shiv Chhatrapati award, passed away in 1998.

Life has been a daily struggle for her ever since. She now works as a domestic help and does odd jobs to support herself and her three daughters.

Awarded the state honour in 1995, Mastan participated in several sports for the paraplegic, winning medals at both the national and international level. But his sudden death in 1998 cut short his illustrious sports career and plunged his family into difficulty.

“We had been married for just five years when he passed away,” recalls Ayesha with tears in her eyes. Their youngest daughter was just over a month old at the time.

Describing Mastan as a self-made man, she recounts how his family abandoned him at the age of twelve as he suffered from polio. He learnt to fend for himself somehow, later selling ‘taweez’ outside the B.J. Medical College to support the family. This is how he made his living when he won the Shiv Chhatrapati award.

Coming from a poor family in Gulbarga, Karnataka, and having lost her father at a young age, Ayesha, too, had had a difficult life. She met Mastan through a common friend and they decided to get married despite stiff opposition from his family. “He stood up to all his relatives,” she smiles.

She remembers how Mastan, an extremely loving husband, doted on her. “He took care of everything. I didn’t have to
go out even to buy vegetables,” she says. “Since our three daughters always kept me occupied, he made sure I was never overworked.”

But this was not to last. One day in 1998, Mastan told her…More

TOI : PUNE: Principal district and sessions judge A.I.S Cheema on Wednesday sentenced a 25-year-old employee of a city-based IT firm to seven-year rigorous imprisonment for raping his colleague, a young widow, and extorting money from her after threatening to make video clips of the act public.

The judge slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the accused and ordered a compensation of Rs 20,000 to the victim, which will be paid from the fine amount.

The prosecution’s case is that Kifayat Gaus Moiddin Fateh Mohammed and the victim were both executives at an IT firm. After their training, they had attended a party after which the rape took place at the house of the victim in Khadki, last year.

She was alone in the house when Kifayat accosted her. Her daughter and her maid servant had gone out when the incident took place.

Kifayat used video clips to blackmail her and forced the victim to shell out Rs 15,000. The victim’s aunt came to her rescue when she came to know about the money being paid to Kifayat. A complaint was lodged against him in April 2007.

Additional public prosecutor B.R. Bidwai examined six witnesses, including the victim and her aunt, and pleaded for a maximum punishment for the accused.

The judge sentenced the accused to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for the rape and directed him to pay Rs 50,000 as fine.

The accused was further sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment for extortion and told him to pay Rs 50,000 as fine. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Silence reigns in the paint shop of Bajaj Auto Ltd at Akurdi. It’s just the perfect setting for Govind Alhat as he leads some 300 workers in a ’satsang’.

No cajoling or persuasion required here - the workers are only too eager to follow Alhat for the ’satsang’ and subsequent ‘bhajans’. For, it is a crutch that they say has helped them maintain their mental equilibrium ever since the company shut its two-wheeler manufacturing plant here in September last year.

Though they are being paid their wages, idling for a long period of time is indeed a frightening prospect as the 2,700-odd workers at the factory have realised. Many of them were venting their frustrations on their wives and children.

“The satsang and bhajan sessions really help us maintain our stability,” says Alhat, who has been listening to such sermons for almost 15 years now. “The sessions help us go inward for a better understanding of ourselves.”

Apart from some 600 workers who keep themselves busy in the plant’s still-functioning R&D, toolroom and MTD departments, the others pass their time in an old workshop-turned-shed.

They are not allowed to communicate with the 600 colleagues who are working or venture into other parts of the company’s premises.

So, from 6 am to 3.20 pm, they talk or even sleep while some attend the spiritual discourses and yoga. They look forward to the regular breakfast, lunch and tea breaks. But with no physical activity and rising mental stress, a restlessness akin to that of prisoners has gripped them.

“It is important to maintain peace among the workers,” says yoga expert Ramesh Mandavkar. “Therefore, we have chalked out a constructive daily routine for ourselves in spite of lack of work at the company.” Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More