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TOI : MUMBAI: Professional education could get cheaper for students from the reserved category, with the state government coming up with a unique scheme to pay the entire interest amount on student loans up to Rs 10 lakh which have been advanced by nationalised banks.

An initiative of the higher and technical department, headed by Dilip Walse-Patil, the ‘Interest Subvention Scheme’ is expected to benefit around 2 lakh reserved category students enrolled in aided as well as privately-run higher education institutions.

The proposal, which is likely to be tabled at the meeting of the state cabinet on Wednesday, could cost the state exchequer a fantastic Rs 200 crore towards payment of the annual 12% interest on student loans, should it be approved by the Democratic Front (DF) coalition.

The scheme would cover students classified under the reserved as well as economically backward category who have opted for courses such as medicine, dental, pharmacy, veterinary science, architecture, hotel management, MBA, MCA, nursing, bio-technology, and dairy management and animal husbandry among others.

A top functionary in the ministry told TOI that the proposal to subsidise higher and professional education for reserved category students has been evolved after a series of brainstorming sessions with bankers and educationists.

He said the move is a step forward to ensure that professional education is within the reach of students coming from SC, ST, VJNT, OBC and EBC as well as such students who are classified under the special backward class category.

Plans are being finalised to create a special credit guarantee fund with budgetary allocations made for the release of the interest amounts to the banks. He said arrangements would be worked out so that the interest would be reimbursed to the banks by December every year.
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TOI : PUNE: Around 70 main villages in free catchment areas near rivers and dams in Pune district will now have rain gauges so that the irrigation department is better equipped to control release of water from dams and thereby control flooding of rivers during the monsoon.

Giving details about monsoon preparedness and disaster management plan on Tuesday, district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh said that going by the past experience, it was necessary that the irrigation department got information about the exact rainfall in the free catchment areas so that it could control the release of water from dams.

The district collectorate will open a 24-hour control room where people can get information about the flood situation. The toll free number is 1077, while the landline numbers are 26114805, and 26122114. Similarly, to prevent rumours, all key officials, non-governmental organisations and media will get information through SMS from the central control room.

In the wake of a boat tragedy at the Bhatghar dam last month, Deshmukh said, “The irrigation department has been asked to register and certify all boats and ensure they have proper safety equipment. The tehsil officers have been asked to provide details about the requirement of additional boats. The boats will be made available through means such as MLA funds.”

Deshmukh, who is the chairman of the district disaster management committee, said “Over 49,000 villagers have been trained in rescue operations during emergencies. There are 89 villages near major rivers. Residents and village heads here have been given details about the magnitude of flooding that will be caused after release of water from the dams.”

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TOI : PUNE: Discontent is simmering in the city unit of the Shiv Sena, with senior corporators challenging the move of their leaders to re-introduce metered water supply scheme in the city.

They have argued that the move will have an adverse impact on the party’s vote bank during the Lok Sabha elections next year and state assembly polls a year after that.

The civic standing committee meeting witnessed noisy scenes on Tuesday following a squabble between senior Sena corporators Mahadev Babar and Sham Deshpande over the appointment of consultants for re-introducing metered water supply.

Sources told TOI that Babar flung the proposal files, placed on the desk of the meeting hall, towards Deshpande’s chair and staged a walkout from the meeting.

Deshpande, who is the chairman of the standing committee, had tabled the administration proposal at the meeting to appoint ESSTD, a consortium of seven firms, to draft and execute a multi-crore scheme for ‘24×7′ (uninterrupted) metered water supply in Pune.

When contacted, Babar denied that he disrupted the meeting and staged a walkout. He, however, admitted that he opposed the proposal.

Justifying his stand, Babar recalled that five years ago, following a demand by the BJP and the Shiv Sena, the civic general body had discontinued the metered water billing system.

“We had opposed the system because there were lots of complaints from citizens against wrong billing. The present system of charging one-time water cess in the property tax bill is working out well and the citizens are happy,” he said, adding that he would continue to oppose the meter system even after the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

Deshpande denied that there was any dispute during the meeting and argued that the decision on re-introduction of meters was postponed as the committee members wanted to “study the details of the proposal”.
…More

TOI : MUMBAI: Professional education could get cheaper for students from the reserved category, with the state government coming up with a unique scheme to pay the entire interest amount on student loans up to Rs 10 lakh which have been advanced by nationalised banks.

An initiative of the higher and technical department, headed by Dilip Walse-Patil, the ‘Interest Subvention Scheme’ is expected to benefit around 2 lakh reserved category students enrolled in aided as well as privately-run higher education institutions.

The proposal, which is likely to be tabled at the meeting of the state cabinet on Wednesday, could cost the state exchequer a fantastic Rs 200 crore towards payment of the annual 12% interest on student loans, should it be approved by the Democratic Front (DF) coalition.

The scheme would cover students classified under the reserved as well as economically backward category who have opted for courses such as medicine, dental, pharmacy, veterinary science, architecture, hotel management, MBA, MCA, nursing, bio-technology, and dairy management and animal husbandry among others.

A top functionary in the ministry told TOI that the proposal to subsidise higher and professional education for reserved category students has been evolved after a series of brainstorming sessions with bankers and educationists.

He said the move is a step forward to ensure that professional education is within the reach of students coming from SC, ST, VJNT, OBC and EBC as well as such students who are classified under the special backward class category.

Plans are being finalised to create a special credit guarantee fund with budgetary allocations made for the release of the interest amounts to the banks. He said arrangements would be worked out so that the interest would be reimbursed to the banks by December every year.
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TOI : PUNE: Around 70 main villages in free catchment areas near rivers and dams in Pune district will now have rain gauges so that the irrigation department is better equipped to control release of water from dams and thereby control flooding of rivers during the monsoon.

Giving details about monsoon preparedness and disaster management plan on Tuesday, district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh said that going by the past experience, it was necessary that the irrigation department got information about the exact rainfall in the free catchment areas so that it could control the release of water from dams.

The district collectorate will open a 24-hour control room where people can get information about the flood situation. The toll free number is 1077, while the landline numbers are 26114805, and 26122114. Similarly, to prevent rumours, all key officials, non-governmental organisations and media will get information through SMS from the central control room.

In the wake of a boat tragedy at the Bhatghar dam last month, Deshmukh said, “The irrigation department has been asked to register and certify all boats and ensure they have proper safety equipment. The tehsil officers have been asked to provide details about the requirement of additional boats. The boats will be made available through means such as MLA funds.”

Deshmukh, who is the chairman of the district disaster management committee, said “Over 49,000 villagers have been trained in rescue operations during emergencies. There are 89 villages near major rivers. Residents and village heads here have been given details about the magnitude of flooding that will be caused after release of water from the dams.”

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TOI : PUNE: Discontent is simmering in the city unit of the Shiv Sena, with senior corporators challenging the move of their leaders to re-introduce metered water supply scheme in the city.

They have argued that the move will have an adverse impact on the party’s vote bank during the Lok Sabha elections next year and state assembly polls a year after that.

The civic standing committee meeting witnessed noisy scenes on Tuesday following a squabble between senior Sena corporators Mahadev Babar and Sham Deshpande over the appointment of consultants for re-introducing metered water supply.

Sources told TOI that Babar flung the proposal files, placed on the desk of the meeting hall, towards Deshpande’s chair and staged a walkout from the meeting.

Deshpande, who is the chairman of the standing committee, had tabled the administration proposal at the meeting to appoint ESSTD, a consortium of seven firms, to draft and execute a multi-crore scheme for ‘24×7′ (uninterrupted) metered water supply in Pune.

When contacted, Babar denied that he disrupted the meeting and staged a walkout. He, however, admitted that he opposed the proposal.

Justifying his stand, Babar recalled that five years ago, following a demand by the BJP and the Shiv Sena, the civic general body had discontinued the metered water billing system.

“We had opposed the system because there were lots of complaints from citizens against wrong billing. The present system of charging one-time water cess in the property tax bill is working out well and the citizens are happy,” he said, adding that he would continue to oppose the meter system even after the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

Deshpande denied that there was any dispute during the meeting and argued that the decision on re-introduction of meters was postponed as the committee members wanted to “study the details of the proposal”.
…More

TOI : PUNE: Three persons were arrested by the Faraskhana police on Tuesday for robbing their friend, a restaurant owner, of jewellery and cash worth Rs 5 lakh on May 19 last.

The arrested include Sheru alias Sarfaraz Babu Shaikh (21), Ejaz Mustafa Shaikh (21) and Imran Salim Shaikh (23), all residents of Kagdipura. Vicar Shaikh, who runs Niyamat restaurant at Kasba Peth, had earlier lodged a complaint about the theft which occurred on the night of May 18 while his family was not at home.

Sarfaraz, Ejaz and Imran are petty labourers. The trio visited the restaurant regularly and had become friendly with Vicar. According to police, Sarfaraz was aware that the keys of Vicar’s residence were usually kept at the cash counter. One day, Sarfaraz stole the keys, prepared duplicate ones, and kept back the original keys at the counter.

Sarfaraz was waiting for a chance when on May 18 he came to know that Vicar’s family is going out while Vicar was going for a movie . Sarfaraz and Imran rushed to Vicar’s home, opened the lock with the duplicate keys and stole cash and ornaments worth Rs 5 lakh.

Meanwhile Ejaz, who had accompanied Vicar for the movie, was in constant touch with his colleagues. After the movie, Ejaz kept Vicar engaged till 9 pm. The theft came to light after Vicar reached home late in the night.

The police recovered stolen goods worth Rs 3.47 lakh. Inspector V.T. Pawar is investigating further.

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TOI : PUNE: The city is leaving no stone unturned in its quest to become the sports capital of India with the new sports theme-based garden coming up at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports City at Balewadi.

The garden will focus on Indian sports starting from huge spinning top, indoor games like snakes and ladders, ludo and even ‘lingodcha’ (seven tiles game). The work on this state-of-the-art sports garden will be over by October, when the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) begins here.

The garden will be constructed from the funds allotted by the government for CYG and the total expenditure on the garden right from landscaping, musical fountains, water irrigation, sit-outs will be to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore.

Speaking to TOI , Laxmikant Deshmukh, director of sports and youth affairs, said, “Theme-based gardens are soon catching up in India. This is a unique concept and apt for Pune, taking into consideration the forthcoming youth games and the sporting culture the city has.”

The garden will also have a separate area for yoga, with a huge symbol of ‘Yog Buddha’ wherein people can meditate in peace. A 20 x 20 feet ladder with artificial fibre snakes denoting the snakes and ladders game will be a major attraction as it will be visible even from the Pune-Mumbai expressway.

“International sports are well promoted world wide, but there is pressing need to enliven traditional sports. Hence, we decided to install huge denotations of these sports like a spinning top, the snakes and ladders board and even seven tiles — a favourite ‘gully’ game,” Deshmukh said.

A musical fountain will be installed at the centre of the garden and water will be supplied from the lake located opposite the shooting range. About seven lawns will be laid and a pathway linking all these lawns will be built.

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TOI : MUMBAI: Even though their team doesn’t figure in the semifinals, the franchisees of Mumbai Indians, Reliance, are set to make a killing during the finale of the IPL.

As highest bidders at the team auctions, they were given marketing rights for all the matches in Mumbai. As the event caught the public fancy and demand for tickets increased, the value of the high-end seats has almost doubled while that of the lower seats in the north stands of Wankhede stadium has quadrupled. But for the Vijay Merchant upper stand, the rate has gone up from Rs 500 to Rs 10,000, a 2,000 per cent rise. For the Vijay Merchant lower stand, the rate has gone up from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000.

The franchisee upset the staging association, Mumbai, by refusing to give them the 20% quota of tickets for the last three matches, as it had done during the league games. Instead, it agreed to give them to the IPL management.

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TOI : MUMBAI: The Mumbai-Pune Expressway is touted as a world-class ‘high-speed’ expressway that rivals the best on the planet. However, what motorists paying a hefty toll to drive on the route do not know is that it has the lowest speed limit (80 kmph) of most expressways in the world. More ironic is that even with the low speed limit, the highway has one of the highest death rates in the world.

In fact, deaths on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway have been blamed on a number of factors other than just speed —such as tyre bursts, slippery surface during the monsoons and in one mishap a vehicle crashed into a tanker that was watering plants. However, no comprehensive study has been done as yet to determine the reasons that top the list for fatalities, experts said.

Most transport experts TOI spoke to said that by global standards the Mumbai-Pune road would not even qualify as an expressway. In fact, such a low speed limit makes most drivers tend to ignore it and not comply with it at all.

The autobahns of Germany are the benchmark that most expressways in the world are measured against. They have a total length of nearly 11,000 kilometres and in 2005 saw 662 deaths. In stark contrast, the 93-km-long Mumbai-Pune Expressway witnessed an average of 300 deaths every year until 2006. While last year the number of fatalities was brought down by tying up with hospitals along the expressway for trauma care, there still were almost 50 mishaps on the road every week.

On May 4, the expressway saw a horrific accident in which 16 members of a family were killed when the overcrowded jeep they were travelling in crashed into a trailer from behind and was dragged for seven to eight kilometres as it got stuck in the rear axle.

The prevention of such tragedies…More