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TOI : PUNE: Initiating the Green Pune campaign, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to involve environmental groups, non-governmental organisations, citizens, real estate developers, software companies and corporate houses for undertaking tree plantation programmes in the city.

As part of the campaign, the first meeting of the citizens’ representatives and the other stakeholders will be held on Saturday at the Pu La Deshpande Garden at 11 am.

The details of the ‘Green Pune’ plan, prepared by the PMCs garden department, and how can the citizens contribute in the entire campaign will be discussed at the meeting. Appreciating the work of environmental groups and citizens who have been involved in plantation activities and hill conservation for several years, municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said that a number of sites have been identified where biodiversity and tree plantation programmes will be implemented in a big way.

PMC gardens department chief Yashwant Khaire said that they plan to plant over 1.8 lakh trees in the current year. The PMC has identified huge areas for tree plantation. “All these areas, spread over 1,000 acres, will be well protected,” he said. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: The state government has threatened action against sugar factories which have not cleared farmers’ dues in the form of the mandatory statutory minimum price (SMP) for sugarcane.

Although the total figure of the amounts due is not available, 11 sugar mills in the state have been issued notices, asking them to pay the outstanding amounts by the end of this month. The notices have been issued as per section 3(3) of the sugarcane (control) order, 1966.

The state’s sugar commissionerate in Pune has issued notices to the factories, five in the co-operative sector and the rest private, to clear their dues by June 30 or face action. This will include filing of first information reports (FIRs) with the local police station as per sections 7 and 10 of the essential commodities Act, 1955.

“We have identified a few sugar factories which have either not paid their SMP or have paid partially. Now that the sugarcane crushing season is over, all farmers’ dues must be cleared. For instance, Vitthalrao Shinde of Solapur, who runs the Aurangabad-based Gangapur co-operative sugar factory, owes Rs 9.5 crore plus interest at 14 per cent. The factory has not paid for 1 lakh tonne cane it crushed from March 1,” said sugar commissioner Rajagopal Devara.

While speaking to TOI, he said the commissionerate has not initiated action so far since factories keep paying in instalments. “However, we want that all dues should be cleared by June end. Hence, the notices.”
The SMP is decided by the Union government at the start of the season in October and is based on an average sugar recovery of 9 per cent. For the 2007-08 season, which has just ended, it was Rs 811 per tonne when recovery was 9 per cent and Rs 90 for every 1 per cent increase in recovery.

Sugar factories like Sangola…More

TOI : PUNE: Alleging that state education minister Vasant Purke was responsible for the confusion over the standard X Marathi textbooks, BJP member of legislative council (MLC) Vinod Tawde demanded on Friday that the minister should resign if the issue is not solved immediately.

Addressing a press conference here, Tawde and leader of the opposition in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Vikas Mathkari said std X students are suffering because of a lack of co-ordination between the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education and the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research (MSBTPCR).

Elaborating on the issue, Tawde said that the std X Marathi textbook issued in the last academic year (2007-08) had many grammatical mistakes.

“This year, the authorities decided to revise the textbook completely. But the new textbooks were not made available in the market on time. Moreover, they announced only in June that students will now have to buy the new textbooks. By this time, many had already bought the old books, which were widely available in shops,” Tawde claimed.

He pointed out that classes for std X usually begin in April, by which time students buy all their textbooks. “Std X is a very important year for students. Teachers have already taught quite a bit using the old textbook. If the board announces at this juncture that they will now have to switch to the new books, it is going to be difficult for teachers as well. They will now need to familiarise themselves with the new curriculum, which would mean a loss of another two months,” Tawde said.

He added that the BJP has now asked Purke and the board to continue with the old textbook for this academic year so that the students’ time is not wasted. The revised textbook can be introduced from next year, he added.
Mathkari…More

TOI : PUNE: Veteran theatre and film actor Chandrakant Gokhale died at a private hospital here early on Friday morning. Gokhale was 87 and suffering from cancer.

Gokhale is survived by sons Vikram, who is a renowned actor himself, and Bhishma, daughter Aprajita Munje and grandchildren.

Oncologist Anantbhushan Ranade, who was treating Gokhale, said the actor had been hospitalised for the past 15 days. He was diagnosed with cancer just two-and-a-half-months back. “His blood pressure had been fluctuating since then,” he said. Before the end came, Gokhale spoke with his daughter, Ranade said.

The last rites on Gokhale were performed at the Vaikunth crematorium on Friday afternoon. Besides family members and friends, resident deputy collector Chintamani Joshi and M.V. Bhagat, assistant director, department of industries, paid tributes to Gokhale on behalf of the state government.

Gokhale was born in Miraj in western Maharashtra on January 7, 1921. He did not undergo any formal schooling and his mother and actor Kamlabai Gokhale trained him to read and write. He inherited the art of acting from his mother. Chandrakant Gokhale was the third generation actor in his family, the first two being his grandmother, Durgabai Kamat and mother. Gokhale dedicated 71 years of his life to theatre and films. Only recently, before being hospitalised, he had visited Nagpur to shoot some scenes for the film, ‘Ti’, being produced by Ashok Bahaddare, family sources said.

He began his acting career with the play, ‘Punha Hindu’, and worked in the late Deenanath Mangeshkar’s Balwant Natak Mandali in the initial days of his career and also sang alongside Mangeshkar. He had mastered singing until the later years of his career. He later went on to act in S.N. Pendse’s ‘Rajemaster’, V.V. Shirwadkar’s ‘Natsamrat’, Jaywant Dalvi’s ‘Barrister’ and ‘Purush’.

During his acting career, Gokhale acted in more than 100 films in Marathi and Hindi. His…More

TOI : PUNE: The city police arrested two persons late on Thursday in connection with the murder of well-known medical practitioner Vijay Ghaisas (66), who was brutally done to death at his residence at Erandwane here on Monday morning.

The main suspect, Sunil Bodh (20), is the grandson of Ghaisas’ former maid. He and his accomplices, Chander Shivlal Sharma (19) and Ramu alias Badha Kotoria, had killed Ghaisas with the intention of robbing him, the police said.

While Sharma was also arrested along with Bodh, Kotoria is on the run.

Police commissioner Jayant Umranikar said Bodh, who was unemployed, had gone to Ghaisas just two days before the murder to ask for a job. However, Ghaisas refused to help him as he had caught Bodh stealing things from his bungalow when his grandmother, Anusuya Kebal, worked as his maid.

In fact, Ghaisas had sacked Anusuya following the incident and had also warned Bodh against coming to his bungalow. “Before he was caught stealing at the bungalow, Ghaisas had tried to rehabilitate Bodh,” Umranikar said. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune police claimed to have solved the murder of senior cardiologist Vijay Ghaisas here with the arrest of his previous maid servant’s unemployed grandson and the latter’s friend.

The gory murder that took place Monday morning in the presence of the doctor’s new maidservant had left the city shocked. Ghaisas was living alone for about a month as his wife Arundhati was away in the United States visiting their son and daughter.

The unemployed youth, Sunil Bodh and his accomplice Chander Sharma, who were arrested Thursday, have confessed having sneaked into the cardiologist’s house with the intention of robbery but ending up murdering him, city police chief Jayant Umranikar said.

Sunil, whom Ghaisas had caught red-handed committing theft in his house last year, had visited him a few days earlier requesting for a job but the doctor had turned him away with a snub. Apparently angry and coming to know that Ghaisas was alone, Sunil planned to commit the robbery, said Umranikar.

Accompanied by Chander and another friend Ramu Kotariya who is absconding, Sunil entered Ghaisas’s Prabhat Road house in Erandavane from the rear door left open by the cardiologist’s cook after her exit.

But the three got locked in the corridor when the doctor closed the door along with the other one that opened into the house.

When Ghaisas opened both the doors after some time for his maidservant, all three came out of the bathroom where they were hiding and while one of them fled pushing her away, the other two attacked the cardiologist, added Umranikar.

The assailants inflicted 52 stab wounds on 68-year-old Ghaisas before fleeing even as the frightened maid locked herself in the bathroom.

A clue to the previous maidservant’s grandson was available only after the arrival of Ghaisas’ wife and son from the US. The…More