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TOI : PUNE: A group of 56 children, some of them as young as four years, dancing and swaying to the tune of ‘Vitthal, Vitthal, Jai Hari Vitthal’ stood out among the sea of warkaris passing through the city on Friday. Those were the unfortunate kids of farmers who have committed suicide due to financial problems.

The youngsters - 16 girls and 40 boys - were from the ‘Adhar Tirth’ orphanage at Trambakeshwar near Nashik. The orphanage was started in June last year for the children of farmers who committed suicide.

Tryambakrao Gaikwad, an office-bearer of Adhar Tirth, said the children were happy to participate in the pilgrimage from Dehu to Pandharpur. “It would be a good change for them. Their participation in the pilgrimage is particularly important because the farmer suicides issue is always highlighted, but their children are ignored. Besides, the kids will forget their sorrows for a while,” he said.

He said that the idea was to inculcate spirituality amongst the children so that they grow up to be emotionally and mentally strong. “Youngsters generally shy away from such spiritual events. These children have nobody to look after them. They will receive some solace from this pilgrimage,” Gaikwad said.

Maharashtra Warkari Mahamandal executive president B.L. Chhajed said the children came from different areas of the state where farmer suicides were reported.

While most of these children have lost both their parents, some have their mothers who are unable to look after them due to financial problems. All the 56 children are being provided education by Aadhar Tirth. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Schoolchildren on Friday carried out a novel initiative to promote tree plantation and protection among warkaris and spectators during the palkhi procession.

Over 200 children from Bharat English school, Hujurpaga girls’ high school and other institutes participated in the campaign, a part of the Union government’s National Green Movement.

The children spread the message of tree plantation and protection among the warkaris. Boards, hoardings and hand-outs were used. The children also gave information about scientific methods of tree plantation.

Around 5,000 packets containing seeds of various varieties were distributed at a stall in Shivajinagar.

The seeds had been collected by the children themselves during a drive conducted by the department of social forestry during the summer vacations. Various school eco clubs had participated in the effort.

Many programmes have been planned by schoolchildren along the palkhi route. Students of Sadhaana Vidyalaya will perform street plays to encourage environmental conservation on Saturday. Others will perform demonstrations of scientific methods of tree plantation. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Protesting against the Pune Municipal Corporation’s proposal of shifting the Dnyaneshwar Maharaj Paduka temple on Fergusson College road to a nearby location, trustees of the Alandi Devasthan broke the 125-year-old tradition of bringing the ‘paduka’ out of the chariot to perform a ‘puja’ in the temple.

Every year, the paduka, which are placed in the palkhi are taken into the temple for performing a puja and ‘arti’. However, on Friday the arti was performed in the palkhi itself.

The trustees have been demanding that the temple should be shifted in such a way that it remains along the route which the palkhi takes every year. The Devasthan has made it clear that it might change the route of the annual Wari procession if its demand is not met.

The PMC last year began work on shifting the temple to one of the bylanes close to its existing location, in order to facilitate widening of F C road.

“We are not against the road work. What we want is that the temple should not be shifted to such a place that we will have to take the Paduka to a very long distance,” chief trustee of the Devasthan, Sudhir Pimple said, adding that in order to voice their protest against the move, they had not brought down the Paduka to the temple this year.

“Considering the tradition and security requirements, we can’t afford to shift the temple to a far away place from its present location,” he said, adding that their efforts to voice concern over the issue had failed to evoke an appropriate response from the civic administration. The protest was to draw their attention to the foreseen problems.

When contacted, municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said that the plan of widening FC road was being carried out as per the Development Plan and that it cannot…More

TOI : PUNE: 16-year-old Rani Bhaskar Kadam of Dhayari phata on Sinhagad road committed suicide on Thursday afternoon because she could not access her secondary school certificate (SSC, standard X) result on the internet. It was later found out that she had scored 61 per cent marks in the exam.

Rani was a student of the Narayanrao Sanas School at Dhayari.

The SSC results were available on the internet from 11 am onwards on Thursday. So, she went to a nearby cyber cafe in the morning to check her result on the official website of the SSC board.

Rani’s uncle Maruti Kadam later said that his niece had been very anxious to get her results. “She used her father’s cell phone and sent an SMS to the number given by the board, but did not receive a reply - even by noon. Thus, she decided to go the cyber cafe.”

As she was unable to locate her number on the site, she assumed that she had failed to clear the exam. She returned home around 1 pm and found out that her close friends and classmates had received their results and had scored well. Hearing this, Rani’s got further tensed, Kadam said.

She returned home in panic, locked herself in a room and set herself ablaze. Her mother, who was talking to neighbours, saw the smoke coming from the room. With the help of her neighbours, she broke open the door and saw that her daughter had already suffered severe burns. Rani was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.

Later, when the marks sheet were distributed in the school, at around 3 pm, Rani’s family members came to know that she had secured a first class by scoring 61 per cent marks in the exam.

Meanwhile, Rani’s parents and other family…More

TOI : PUNE: A nine-year-old blind boy from Tingrenagar, who had gone missing from Sassoon hospital on Thursday, was reunited with his parents on Friday morning, thanks to a scrap collector.

The boy was shifted to the city recently to take admission in a blind school in Yerwada.

Aman Javade (9) had gone missing from Sassoon hospital when his mother Karun Javade (45), originally from Nagpur, had taken him there on Thursday afternoon to obtain a medical certificate for seeking admission in a blind school in Yerawada. The boy was shifted to city recently to take admission here, states the complaint filed by Karun.

While exiting from ward no 30, Karun remembered she had forgotten to take the case papers. She asked Aman to sit on a bench and went to get the documents. However, when she came back, she found Aman missing.

However, Friday morning brought relief for the distressed family when they received a call from Pune railway station police chowkey, where Aman was brought by a scrap dealer Shekhar Kasbe (26) who stays under the Wadia College flyover.

Kasbe found Aman sitting near Queen’s Garden. He asked Aman of his whereabouts but the latter remained silent. Kasbe then took him to his shanty and gave him a bath, fed him. It was then that Aman told his name.

Kasbe took Aman to the Council Hall police chowkey, from where Aman was sent to the Pune railway station chowkey for verification of details and the boy was reunited with his family.

When Kasbe was contacted, he said that it was his responsibility to safeguard the child. “I wanted the child to find his family. I would have adopted the child if he would not have found his folks,” Kasbe said.
The Javade family gave a cash reward to Kasbe. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Unable to trace her SSC exam seat number in the list of successful candidates on the Internet, a 15-year-old Class X student committed suicide by setting herself ablaze. It was later discovered that she had scored 61 per cent marks when her school distributed marksheets to successful students.

Rani Kadam had appeared for the March 2008 Board exam. On Thursday, she went to an Internet cafe along with some of her friends to find out the result. Schools were going to declare it at 3 pm.

As her classmates traced their seat numbers in the list of passed candidates, an anxious Rani could not find her name despite repeated searches.

Convinced beyond doubt that she had failed in the exam, Rani returned home and locked herself up in the kitchen. She doused herself with kerosene and set herself ablaze. Rani died even before she could be taken to hospital, said the police. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More