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TOI : PUNE: Should you come across a Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) officer on a jam-packed bus, jotting down passenger problems and suggestions, don’t be surprised. The transport’s top brass has made it mandatory for the managers of 10 depots to travel by city buses for two hours a day and collect data on passenger demands.

Says PMPML spokesperson Deepak Pardeshi, “The idea is to reach out to the passengers. Depot manager-level officers will conduct a survey, collect information and hand it over to PMPML headquarters.” The order was issued a month ago by PMPML chairman and managing director Subrao Patil.

Pune railway station depot manager Dattatraya Zende said they have been collecting inputs for almost a month.

“Generally, passengers complain regarding the cleanliness of the bus during the last hours of a shift. Passengers usually throw away tickets in the buses and this litters the bus,” Zende said.

Passengers are asked to comment about the behaviour of the conductors, the fact that the bus stops some distance away from the bus stops, harassment of female passengers and route frequency.

Zende added that many women commuters complain that male passengers occupy seats reserved for females. “We have been telling them they complain by calling up contact numbers displayed in a lot of buses if male passengers do not co-operate. We also tell them that they can approach a nearby chowky,” Zende said.

According to Katraj depot manager Kumar Thorve, apart from cleanliness, there are complaints regarding the rude behaviour of conductors. “Generally, the conductor gets tired towards the end of his shift, and complaints rise at this time,” Thorve said. Both managers said there were no complaints of harassment of female commuters. PMPML bosses will review the results of the surveys and try to fix the commuters’ problems, Pardeshi said.
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TOI : Entrepreneurs’ International has announced its annual Entrepreneurship Awards in eight different categories for the year 2008.

Addressing a news conference here on Thursday, president of Entrepreneurs’ International, Wg Cdr (retd) Vijay Chatur said, “These awards will be presented on the annual event of Entrepreneurs’ Day celebrated every year on the birth anniversary of late J.R.D. Tata.”

The award function will take place on July 29 at 6.30 pm at the Sardar Natu auditorium of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. “This is the fifteenth year of the Entrepreneurs’ Day celebration and award presentation. We are honouring all awardees with a memento and citation,” said Chatur.

The awards will be presented by Pramod Chaudhari, chairman and managing director, PRAJ Industries Ltd.

This year, the award for entrepreneurship development (institution) will be given to Rajendra Jagdale for the Science and Technology Park in Pune and Satish Gokhale will be awarded for excellence in quality for his Design Directions in Pune.

“There are several other categories of awards that will be presented to many upcoming entrepreneurs,” said Chatur.

He added, “The awards are presented every year to encourage entrepreneurs.”

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TOI : PUNE: The Chennai police, in the city with a theft suspect to recover stolen booty, were caught napping when the bandit ran away from a lodge in Hadapsar in the wee hours of Friday.

The Chennai police had brought Kumar alias Rafiq Shaikh (40) to Pune for investigation and recovering gold ornaments which he sold to a local jeweller. Police inspector of Chennai’s Vadpallani police station Govindraj Palani has filed a complaint with the Hadapsar police saying Kumar escaped from a lodge in Hadapsar on early Friday morning. He was recently arrested in a burglary case at Chennai and was under police custody.

Palani had brought Shaikh to Pune for recovering gold ornaments he had sold to a Centre street jeweller. The team landed at the lodge and went in search of the jeweller. All of the stolen gold (12 tolas) was recovered by the team and they returned to the lodge. The team was to leave for Chennai on Saturday. However, the officials noticed that Shaikh went missing from the lodge. He ran away handcuffed.

The Hadapsar police said the Chennai police had not informed them about Kumar’s detention in Pune, as required under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The rule requires the police bringing a suspect from another jurisdiction to make a station diary entry at the local police station. The suspect is then kept at the local police station lock-up. The visiting officers are also expected to submit their service revovler with the local police and head to the place they are planning to stay. But the Chennai police did none of the above.

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TOI : PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is thinking of providing free bus services to students across the city, said PMC standing committee chairman Sham Deshpande after inaugurating the first internal ring route of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) at Karvenagar on Saturday.

Deshpande said all parties in the PMC will discuss the idea of providing free PMPML bus services to students from next year onwards. He added that the civic body would support the transport body and was ready to shell out more funds to help it provide better service to commuters.

Deshpande and deputy mayor Chandrakant Makote flagged off the Dahanukar colony-Dahanukar colony PMPML bus. Commuters from Kothrud, Karvenagar, Navsahyadri, Jai Bhavaninagar, Ashish garden area will benefit from the new ring route bus service.

Senior citizen and cartoonist Mangesh Tendulkar, who was present for the occasion, said the PMPML should not hike the fares and put in efforts to provide quality services to commuters.

It may be noted that the PMPML had started special buses for schoolchildren on select routes.
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TOI : PUNE: The merger of 23 villages in the city limits has added to the number of heritage structures, both man-made and natural. The civic administration, therefore, recently tabled a proposal before the standing committee to appoint Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) to prepare a list of such structures.

The proposal states that it is necessary to conduct a survey and prepare a list since 23 villages have been merged within the city’s municipal limits. “A survey of properties needs to be done to assess natural heritage sites, which are a valuable asset for the city, ” it states.

“A list was prepared by the city’s heritage committee in 1995, classifying structures in grade I, II and III. This list needs to be updated with the merging of villages. Therefore, some 700 sites will need to be visited. Gathering information on such a large scale will require efficient manpower,” the proposal adds.

It further says that conducting such a survey requires expertise and so Intach — an organisation working at the national level to protect and conserve the country’s heritage — should be appointed for the work. Intach is expected to survey the properties, determine their ownership, life, use, style of architecture, cultural importance, construction material, defects in the structure and collect pictures.

Around Rs 3.5 lakh will be spent on the project.

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