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TOI : PUNE: Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) hopes to provide wi-fi facility along the old Pune-Mumbai highway (NH4) and areas near Balewadi before the Commonwealth Youth Games in October 2008.

Speaking to TOI on Monday, Subhash Dumbre, additional commissioner, PCMC, said the areas will get the service in the first phase of the wi-fi project.

In fact, the standing committee has approved a resolution to give the contract to the consortium led by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) to provide the wi-fi services throughout the PCMC limits, covering a total area of 171 sq km.

The IL&FS consortium consists of Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Fujitsu India and Lifestyle Network. IL&FS will invest the money in the project, STPI will be the ISP service provider, Fujitsu India Ltd. will handle the data centre and Lifestyle Network will provide commercial services.

Dumbre said the IL&FS has released the money for importing equipment to provide the service in the first phase of the project. Spots have been identified on the old Pune-Mumbai highway, where the units will be installed to provide the wi-fi facility. The land and estate department of the PCMC will get rent from the consortium for permission to set up these units.

The IL&FS is yet to sign a joint venture agreement with the PCMC, but the civic body has provided a Letter of Intent (LoI) to Il&FS, thereby the money required to purchase equipment has been released. The first-phase plan for the wi-fi project will be submitted to PCMC in a week. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Autorickshaw driver, Nazim Tamboli (28) of Raiwar Peth, was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 1,000 for murdering his 18-year-old wife Raisa, by additional sessions judge PR Bora, on Wednesday here. However, five other accused, Tamboli’s family members, were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The prosecution’s case was that marital relations between Tamboli and Raisa were not cordial and there were frequent disputes over petty reasons. Tamboli, who had married Raisa on on March 30, 2005, had suffocated Raisa’s face with a pillow and dismembered her neck with a knife on May 11, 2005, in a fit of rage.

Investigations had also revealed that the victim’s parents had assured the grrom’s family that they would pay Rs 1 lakh at the time of marraige, but could manage to give Rs 25,000 only. The prosecution further said that all the accused had started harrasing Raisa for non-payment of the balance amount and had instigated Tamboli to murder her.

Tamboli was arrested for murder, while his family members were arrested for subjecting the woman to severe cruelty. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Fed up with constant harassment from her in-laws, Pallavi Handore (25), an electronic engineer, committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of her residence in Chavannagar early on Tuesday morning. Her husband, Kishore (30), was arrested on Wednesday under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to dowry harassment, dowry death and abettment to suicide. He was remanded to police custody till June 28.

There have been a string of allegations from both families. Pallavi’s father Chandrakant Gholap (54), has accused Pallavi’s in-laws of demanding Rs 40 lakh from her to purchase a flat in Thane. In his complaint, Gholap, a resident of Ambernath, said Pallavi was married to Kishore in 2006. “She moved to her in-laws’ place in Thane. However, after a few days of marriage, she was accused of stealing Rs 7 lakh.” Later, the in-laws asked her to get Rs 40 lakh to buy a flat in Thane. When she did not give in to their demands, she was asked to take the money on loan.

In September 2007, the couple moved to Pune and rented a flat in Panchavati in Chavannagar. However, for the last six months they had been quarrelling a lot. “Kishore had once stuffed Pallavi’s mouth with sleeping pills,” her father stated in the complaint lodged at the Sahakarnagar police station.

Kishore, a mechanical engineer in a leading auto-giant, has allegedly told the police that the couple fought because Pallavi lied to him about her job profile. “Kishore had made enquiries at Pallavi’s company regarding her job and was given unsatisfactory answers,” Sahakarnagar police station’s senior police inspector Hussain Shaikh said.

According to Kishore, he and Pallavi had had a fight on Monday. Early in morning, he woke up to find Pallavi near the balcony. He called out to her, but she went out and jumped from the fifth floor. She was…More

TOI : PUNE: The state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Pune, on Wednesday arrested suspended deputy superintendent of police, Vitthal Shinde, of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Pune, for his alleged misuse of authority by not paying for the flight tickets of former CID chief Jayant Umranikar, who is now the city police commissioner, to a travel agent in 2006.

Shinde had moved an anticipatory bail application after the ACB had registered a case on June 16, against him and former CID assistant police inspector, Ghanasham Palange, with the Bund Garden police under the

relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The application came up for hearing before the special judge R.Y. Shaikh on Wednesday.

Shinde’s lawyer Sudhir Shah told TOI on Wednesday that the court had reserved its order till Thursday after he and the additional public prosecutor, Ujjwala Pawar, had argued the matter.

Shah said he had prayed for an interim bail order restraining Shinde’s arrest as the ACB officials were waiting outside the court hall. The judge had directed Pawar to file her written statement on providing interim relief, but filing of the statement took considerable time as Pawar was busy with some other case and the court again deferred the order till Thursday.

Shah said since Shinde was not getting relief from the court, “I did not press for a bail application and my client surrendered before the ACB, who placed him under arrest.” Shinde will be produced before the court on Thursday, Shah added. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Any woman in her 80s would prefer to spend time at home with her grandchildren or, may be, go for walks in the mornings and evenings. But 81-year-old Mandakini Dravid is certainly not one of that kind. She achieved an extraordinary feat on Tuesday when she got a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the University of Pune.

“It’s a battle won,” Dravid said, speaking to TOI. It wasn’t a very easy road to success though for Dravid. She lost her only son while she was busy preparing her thesis. And it was an endless wait for the declaration of result from the University, after the viva.

“I submitted my thesis in 2006 and my viva was conducted on April 8, this year. However, I did not receive even a single response from the University even after two months. So, I wrote a letter to the director of the Board of College and University Development by the end of June. Later, it was discovered that the concerned clerk did not care to get the examiner’s report. The director, after reading my letter, immediately looked into the matter and got things rectified. Had I not written the letter, the matter would still have been pending,” Dravid said.

Dravid has written a thesis on ‘Medical and Psychiatric Social Practitioners Process Analysis’ under the guidance of Sunanda Kaushik. Her complete thesis is based on her personal experience and not a single para in the thesis is taken from any reference.

“It is the 40 years of experience that makes the thesis complete. Whatever work I did was all authentic and it all happened due to the my guide’s continuous encouragement. It was she who said that all my experience has to come on paper and be shared with the next generation and that’s how it all happened. So, age was never a bar…More