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TOI : PUNE: In a major reshuffle, city police commissioner Jayant Umranikar has been transferred to Mumbai as additional directional general (training and special units) by the state home department. Nagpur police commissioner Satyapal Singh will be the new Pune police chief.

An IPS officer of the 1973 batch, Umranikar had been the state CID chief and had taken over charge of the Pune police in March 2007. Known as a man of intelligence and a master of language, Umranikar has spent over 12 years working abroad in various countries.

In Pune, he started a helpline for senior citizens and a medico-legal ambulance scheme. He also gave power to the local police stations for filing ‘L-temps’ on traffic violators and also initiated electronic notice system for traffic violators.

Umranikar also tried to strengthen the detection branch and worked for welfare of constables.

The home department, on Wednesday, also transferred five top officials. N. Dixit, additional director general of police (training and special units) will replace Satyapal Singh as Nagpur police commissioner. Special inspector general of police (Spl. IGP) S.M. Sayyad has been transferred to the woman atrocities (prevention) cell in Mumbai and Spl. IGP Dalveer Bharati will take over charges as Spl. IGP of Amravati police range.
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TOI : PUNE: A bright student from the city, who secured 92 per cent in standard XII, pushed the pause button on his studies in pursuit of his first love — equestrian. And Kapilesh Bhate’s ride into Germany brought rich dividends to him recently. He won one of the biggest class competitions in Kamenz-Jesau, about 175 km from Berlin.

Riding Castello, which his father Ajit Bhate, a civil engineer, bought him when he first went to Germany for training, Kapilesh did a clear round in the open category of a M* event (135 cm). This was his maiden victory in a country which dominates the equestrian world now.

“It was a quite tough competition where 18 riders from Germany were participating. I thought I would have to settle for the second place as Schulz Gerd was doing his round. His timing was much better than mine, but just before the final jump, he dropped an obstacle and that was enough for me,” 20-year-old Kapilesh, who was on a brief visit to Pune, told TOI recently. He was in the city to take admission in an engineering college after a gap of two years.

Kapilesh went to Altreseid, near Munich, immediately after his HSC exams. “I took a conscious break to concentrate on my riding,” he said. There he started training under Markus Beutel, while buying Castello — a seven-year-old grey Holsteiner and is a bloodline of Cassini II — a stallion of international repute. Thereafter, he went to Belgium. “But I had to return to Germany because of language and social problems, although the training there was good,” he said.

He is currently training at the Sport Pferde Center (SPC), Rothenberg, and is being trained by father-son duo Klaus Mayr and Philipp Schober.

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TOI : PUNE: The city police have rounded up another 72 Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) members, including Koregaon Park corporator Bapu Wagaskar, under precautionary measures so as to bring to an end the political outfit’s tirade against city institutions.

Joint commissioner of police Rajendra Sonawane said they have rounded up another 72 activists till Wednesday evening to prevent any untoward incidents in the city. No educational institution, however, was attacked on Wednesday.

The zone I of the Pune police has arrested 38, zone II arrested 18, and zone III arrested eight while zone IV arrested nine people between Tuesday night and Wednesday evening. Sonawane said they have given police protection to almost all colleges in the city.

Meanwhile, the eight people arrested in the Bharati Vidyapeeth rampage, including corporator Vasant More, were remanded to police custody till July 18. Assistant public prosecutor S.S. Gujar told the court that their custodial interrogation is required for arresting other accomplices and recovering vehicles used in the rampage.

However, MNS lawyer N.D. Pawar argued that the party men have been falsely implicated in the case. There were no one present at the scene of the offence when the police had reached. Pawar alleged that his clients have been picked up from various places.

The court also remanded the suspects arrested in the MIT rampage to magisterial custody till July 30.

Meanwhile, the MIT authorities and students have issued a letter condemning the attack on their institution by the MNS members.

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TOI : PUNE: A mentally-unstable woman, who had gone missing from her house in Uttar Pradesh nine years back, was finally re-united with her family by the Government Railway Police (GRP) in April this year.

Unfortunately, the 45-year-old woman from Nagina city in Bijnour district of Uttar Pradesh was raped on the Goa-Nizamuddin Express at Miraj in February. The uphill task of re-uniting the woman, who barely remembered anything, was possible due to the efforts of the GRP.

According to GRP officials, the woman had gone missing on September 27, 1999. After failing to search her, the woman’s husband, a gram panchayat officer, filed a missing complaint with the Nagina police station.

GRP officials said that after leaving her house, the woman used to travel in trains. Sometime in February this year, she boarded the 2779 Goa-Nizamuddin Express and was sleeping near the door. One Chandrakant Vithoba Jadhav (33) entered the train at Miraj. While boarding the train, Jadhav’s leg accidentally hit the woman. When the woman screamed in pain, Jadhav allegedly took her to the toilet to calm her down.

Once inside, Jadhav is alleged to have forced himself on her. When other travellers heard her cries for help, they rushed to the toilet and took her out. They saw that all her clothes were torn.

The GRP at Pune railway station later lodged a case against Jadhav, who hails from Belgaum, under sections of rape. The case was later handed over to Miraj GRP.

However, the real task began after the case was registered. Extracting the woman’s address was really difficult.

However, during conversation, she mentioned the name of Nagina city. A police team was sent to Nagina where they came across the missing complaint. But the woman’s family had moved out from the city.

However, the GRP, with the help of Nagina…More

TOI : PUNE: Neither the weather conditions were favourable nor the terrain, but scaling the highest peak of the Pir Panjal range proved a lifetime experience for the 22 cadets and 3 officers from the National Defence Academy (NDA).

“Climbing the 6,000-metre-high Mount Deo Tibba in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh was a real test of endurance,” said team leader Commander J. Nair. The team was interacting with the media here on Wednesday.

“The early monsoon in North India made the conditions difficult for the expedition, but the team faced the situation bravely,” Captain B. Saha said.

The team left the NDA on May 18 and did an advance course at Manali in mountaineering, which included rock climbing, planning of the expedition, settling down, kit issuing, acclimatisation, etc, the members said.

On 31 May, the team trekked a distance of 24 kms from Manali to Chikka village at an altitude of 10,200 feet. The next day the group advanced another six kms to Seri (12,800 feet).On the third day, the team reached Tenta, where they set up a base camp at a height of 14,500 feet.

They spent five days at Tenta acclimatising and training on the snow and ice for the difficult part of the expedition ahead. From this point there were no porters or ponies and the team members had to carry their luggage themselves.

On June 10, the team moved to Camp 1 through the Watershed ridge and set up camp at 16,500 feet. The next afternoon they advanced to the summit via Piton ridge and scaled the summit at 1.30 pm.

The weather conditions were partly clear during the climb. However, when the team reached the summit there were total ‘white out’ conditions. Still the entire team could reach the summit in one attempt and returned to Camp 1 the same day….More

TOI : PUNE: With the monsoon taking a longer break than expected in the state, weather experts here have said that cloud-seeding could be the solution which needs to be explored. “The time is right for cloud- seeding. Any delay in the project will reduce its effects,” they said.

J.R. Kulkarni, a senior scientist from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said, “Currently, the shallow types of clouds are hovering over the state, which are appropriate for cloud-seeding.” Chances of the project being successful will reduce in the event of any delay in taking a decision, he added.

Kulkarni pointed out that if the project is carried out in the catchment areas, it will be more beneficial and result in good rainfall in those areas. It will help in increasing the quantity of water in dams.

Due to lack of favourable conditions, subdued rainfall activity is being witnessed in the state. More than 15 districts have witnessed less than 50 per cent rainfall, with the state cabinet declaring a scarcity-like situation recently.

Asked by when the project could start, a scientist said that it takes at least a month for the process to be completed. The agriculture department has also backed the idea. “Clouds have been gathering over many places, but there is no rain. Seeding can be tried in some areas,” agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said.

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TOI : PUNE: With the monsoon taking a longer break than expected in the state, weather experts here have said that cloud-seeding could be the solution which needs to be explored. “The time is right for cloud- seeding. Any delay in the project will reduce its effects,” they said.

J.R. Kulkarni, a senior scientist from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said, “Currently, the shallow types of clouds are hovering over the state, which are appropriate for cloud-seeding.” Chances of the project being successful will reduce in the event of any delay in taking a decision, he added.

Kulkarni pointed out that if the project is carried out in the catchment areas, it will be more beneficial and result in good rainfall in those areas. It will help in increasing the quantity of water in dams.

Due to lack of favourable conditions, subdued rainfall activity is being witnessed in the state. More than 15 districts have witnessed less than 50 per cent rainfall, with the state cabinet declaring a scarcity-like situation recently.

Asked by when the project could start, a scientist said that it takes at least a month for the process to be completed. The agriculture department has also backed the idea. “Clouds have been gathering over many places, but there is no rain. Seeding can be tried in some areas,” agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said.

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TOI : PUNE: With the monsoon taking a longer break than expected in the state, weather experts here have said that cloud-seeding could be the solution which needs to be explored. “The time is right for cloud- seeding. Any delay in the project will reduce its effects,” they said.

J.R. Kulkarni, a senior scientist from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said, “Currently, the shallow types of clouds are hovering over the state, which are appropriate for cloud-seeding.” Chances of the project being successful will reduce in the event of any delay in taking a decision, he added.

Kulkarni pointed out that if the project is carried out in the catchment areas, it will be more beneficial and result in good rainfall in those areas. It will help in increasing the quantity of water in dams.

Due to lack of favourable conditions, subdued rainfall activity is being witnessed in the state. More than 15 districts have witnessed less than 50 per cent rainfall, with the state cabinet declaring a scarcity-like situation recently.

Asked by when the project could start, a scientist said that it takes at least a month for the process to be completed. The agriculture department has also backed the idea. “Clouds have been gathering over many places, but there is no rain. Seeding can be tried in some areas,” agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said.

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TOI : PUNE: With the monsoon taking a longer break than expected in the state, weather experts here have said that cloud-seeding could be the solution which needs to be explored. “The time is right for cloud- seeding. Any delay in the project will reduce its effects,” they said.

J.R. Kulkarni, a senior scientist from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said, “Currently, the shallow types of clouds are hovering over the state, which are appropriate for cloud-seeding.” Chances of the project being successful will reduce in the event of any delay in taking a decision, he added.

Kulkarni pointed out that if the project is carried out in the catchment areas, it will be more beneficial and result in good rainfall in those areas. It will help in increasing the quantity of water in dams.

Due to lack of favourable conditions, subdued rainfall activity is being witnessed in the state. More than 15 districts have witnessed less than 50 per cent rainfall, with the state cabinet declaring a scarcity-like situation recently.

Asked by when the project could start, a scientist said that it takes at least a month for the process to be completed. The agriculture department has also backed the idea. “Clouds have been gathering over many places, but there is no rain. Seeding can be tried in some areas,” agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said.

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TOI : PUNE: With the monsoon taking a longer break than expected in the state, weather experts here have said that cloud-seeding could be the solution which needs to be explored. “The time is right for cloud- seeding. Any delay in the project will reduce its effects,” they said.

J.R. Kulkarni, a senior scientist from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said, “Currently, the shallow types of clouds are hovering over the state, which are appropriate for cloud-seeding.” Chances of the project being successful will reduce in the event of any delay in taking a decision, he added.

Kulkarni pointed out that if the project is carried out in the catchment areas, it will be more beneficial and result in good rainfall in those areas. It will help in increasing the quantity of water in dams.

Due to lack of favourable conditions, subdued rainfall activity is being witnessed in the state. More than 15 districts have witnessed less than 50 per cent rainfall, with the state cabinet declaring a scarcity-like situation recently.

Asked by when the project could start, a scientist said that it takes at least a month for the process to be completed. The agriculture department has also backed the idea. “Clouds have been gathering over many places, but there is no rain. Seeding can be tried in some areas,” agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said.

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