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TOI : PUNE: In three separate incidents, six persons, including four schoolchildren, were reported drowned in and around the city in the last two days. The incidents took place at Shirur, Chinchwad and Manjri near Hadapsar.

According to the Shirur police, four schoolchildren from Bhabhulsar village near Shirur drowned in the Bhima river on Saturday at around 12 noon. The deceased were identified as Bhausaheb Jasud (13), his younger brother Rahul (11), Abhijit Khomne (9) and Prashant Makar (7). The police said the four, with two other friends, Someshwar Jadhav (10) and Prashant Shirol (10), had gone to the river for a swim after the school. Sumit Bhosale, a resident of Bhabhulsar, witnessed the boys drowning and managed to rescue Prashant and Someshwar, the police said. The bodies of the other four children were recovered later in the evening.

On Saturday evening, Raghwendra Pande (22), an engineering student and a resident of Gurukripa society at Chinchwad, drowned while swimming at the Balasaheb Gawade swimming tank here. According to the Chinchwad police, Raghwendra had gone for a swim with three of his friends. He drowned while swimming at the deep water-side of the pool. After his friends raised alarms, lifeguards fished him out of the tank and rushed him to the Yashwantrao Chavan memorial hospital where he was declared dead before admission, the police said. Raghwendra was a final year student at the D.Y. Patil College of Engineering.
Minakshi Mhaske (40), a resident of Manjri village near Hadapsar, drowned in a well near her house on Sunday at around 10 am. According to her brother-in-law Shankar Mhaske, Minakshi had gone to wash clothes near the well where she accidentally fell down and drowned. The incident came to light when her brother saw her body. Minakshi is survived by her husband, a son and a daughter. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : Pune: The Chatushrungi police on Sunday arrested an ayurvedic practitioner after he threw acid on his wife in Durganagar near Senapati Bapat road on Saturday evening.

The suspect was identified as Sitaram Sarode (40), a resident of Manmad. The victim, Sangita alias Manisha Sarode (39), sustained severe injuries and was admitted to a private hospital. According to the doctors, her condition is stable but critical.
Sub-inspector N.B. Deokare of the Chatushrungi police station said Sitaram, who claims to be an ayurvedic doctor and
runs a clinic in Manmad, married Sangita some 16 years ago. Sangita, a pharmacy diploma-holder, was working for the PMC-run Sonawane hospital in the city. They have two children.

For the last eight years, Sangita was living separately with her children at her parents’ house in Pune as Sitaram used to allegedly torture her and was suspicious of her character. On Saturday evening, at his in-law’s place, he beat up Sangita and then threw acid on her. The police have arrested Sitaram. He has been remanded to police custody. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Even as deadlines have been set for the metro rail project in the city, the land issue still hangs fire.

While there is a proposal to acquire 60 acres of land from the College of Agriculture at Shivajinagar, Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar reiterated here on Sunday that the college would not be in a position to part with its land. Instead, Pawar said that acquiring unused defence land could be a better option. In exchange of the defence land, alternate land in the outskirts could be given to the defence authorities, he added.

According to a proposal by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, who has done the preliminary study for the project, the 60-acre land could be used for setting up the nerve centre of the metro rail project.

The agriculture college was going in for major upgradation and research projects at its campus, the minister said. “This is the centenary year of the college, and it has received Rs 40 crore grant from the Union government for upgradation of facilities. Along with the agricultural activities, the college has horticulture and polyhouse projects. Students from all over the state carry out research there. Hence, we will not acquire the college land, as it could be used for its forthcoming projects,” he said.

“There is a huge stretch of unused defence land in Khadki, which can be acquired for the project. We have held discussions with the senior officials of the defence ministry to explore various options,” Pawar added. Earlier on Monday, at a high-level meeting in Mumbai to discuss the metro rail project, Pawar said that the agriculture college would not be in a position to give its land for the metro station.

At the meeting, the deadlines were set for the project. As per the schedule, a special purpose vehicle is to be formed by January…More

TOI : PUNE: The University of Pune’s (UoP) hostel woes just don’t seem to end. The issue of overcrowding at the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule ladies’ hostel once again come to the fore as about 75 students on Wednesday protested outside vice-chancellor (VC) Narendra Jadhav’s office, demanding better living conditions at the hostel.

The increasing student intake in the UoP’s 50 on-campus post-graduate (PG) centres and lack of hostel accommodations have led to the crisis. The university’s seven hostels for girls have an official intake capacity of 620 students in 242 rooms, but now students are being accommodated at almost twice the capacity.
The situation has deteriorated to such an extend that a four-seater room is being occupied by as many as 12 girls and even the television room is being used for accomodation and is packed to the limit. These students have been given the temporary accomodation at the rate of Rs 20 per day.
Rumana Jafri, a psychology student, said, “On August 18, a temporary accomodation was provided to me in the TV hall. The rector told me that within a week, I will be given a room. But I am still sharing the hall with 10 others and we are living in terrible conditions. We do not have a bathroom, nor do we have changing rooms and the hall has glasses all around. Anyone can get in and out and there’s absolutely no privacy.”
P Reshma, another student pursuing her P-G, said, “Around 12 of us managing in a four-seater room. We are finding it extremely difficult to stay in these conditions. The situation particularly gets worse during late evenings when all the inmates return to the room as we feel suffocated.”
A similar agitation was carried out last year in the month of September as the V-C’s promise to provide a dormitory set up on a temporary basis never happened. A new…More

TOI : PUNE: The city, which has been experiencing subdued rainfall activity for the last two weeks, witnessed heavy showers on Sunday evening.

The weather conditions changed in the afternoon and by 8.30 pm the city had received 24.9 mm rainfall. The city needs only 14 mm more to meet the normal rainfall figure for the season.

Following the heavy rainfall and thunder, a few incidences of tree uprooting were reported from Prabhat road and Tilak road areas.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that citizens can expect more rain over the next two days. “A cyclonic circulation persists over north interior Karnataka in the lower levels, which is partly responsible for the rainfall,” the IMD officials said, adding “Other local conditions too played a major role in increasing the amount of rainfall received on Sunday.”

Meanwhile, if heavy rain continues, then water could be discharged from the Khadakwasla dam late in the night. Other parts of the state also recorded good rainfall, including Aurangabad (7 mm), Jalgaon (8 mm), Mahabaleshwar (13 mm), Nashik (5 mm) and Ratnagiri (4 mm).

IMD officials added that under the influence of these cyclones fairly widespread rain/thundershower can be expected in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Coastal Karnataka in the next one to two days, subsequently rain and thundershowers are likely to extend into Konkan and Goa. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has sought help from the Swedish International Co-operation Agency (SIDA) to prepare a Sustainable City Planning Project (SCPP), to be incorporated in the city’s Development Plan (DP), which is currently being re-drafted.

With instructions to focus on land-use and mobility planning, the SIDA has submitted its inception report (the project implementation plan), while the final action plan will be submitted by December 2009, after it passes through a series of phases.

Speaking to TOI, PMC development engineer Aniruddha Pawaskar said this is the first time the municipal corporation will receive international expertise in preparing the DP.

The last DP for the city was prepared in 1987. The PMC has already declared its intention to revise the DP according to the Maharashtra Regional & Town Planning Act. A resolution was made in the General Body in February 2007 and was published in the Maharashtra Government Gazette in December 2007. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Former transport and tribal welfare minister of state Dharmarao Baba Atram was finally arrested and remanded to a 14-day magisterial custody on Saturday for allegedly killing two Chinkaras at Gulunche village near Baramati on June 14.

However, following the court’s order, Atram complained of chest pain and was admitted to the Sassoon general hospital.

Acting on orders issued by the Bombay high court, which had rejected Atram’s anticipatory bail application, the former minister had arrived at the forest department’s sub-divisional office in Bhor on August 28. After interrogating Atram on Thursday and Friday, the sub-divisional forest officer Hanumant Dhumal on Saturday arrested Atram and his aide Sayyad Ali Hussain. They were booked under section 26 of the Forest Act and sections 9, 18, 39, 50 and 51 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972.

The duo was immediately produced before the judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) court at Saswad. Dhumal filed a chargesheet against Atram and Hussain in the Chinkara poaching case before the court and demanded magisterial custody for the accused, which was granted by JMFC K.M. Kaygude. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Santosh Lakshman Ovhal (35), who was absconding for the past two years and had 24 cases registered against him, was killed in an encounter at Kothrud on Saturday night. This is the 13th encounter by the Pune police so far and the second this month.
A team led by Ram Jadhav, police inspector of anti-dacoity squad and inspector Kishore Jadhav of the anti-extortion cell, shot him at Dahanukar colony, behind Cummins company, in Kothrud at 9.30 p.m.
Santosh was wanted in 24 cases including kidnapping, murder and dacoity. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 1997 in a dacoity case. Two years back he was released on a parole, and had been absconding since then.
The police laid a trap near the Karve statue. Santosh, who came on a motorcycle, tried to escape on seeing the police. He fired four rounds at them and was killed in retaliatory fire by the police.
Earlier on August 11, the police had shot dead another goon, Robert Salve at Bhosari.
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TOI : PUNE: After cracking down on clinics in Mumbai for violating the anti-sex selection law- the Pre-conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, the National Inspection and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) raided five city hospitals including Deenanath Mangeshkar and Poona hospital on Saturday.

The NIMC team is monitoring the implementation of the PCPNDT Act which bars using technology to determine the sex of a child. “Sixteen ultra sound machines were sealed including eight at Deenanath and five at the Poona hospital. Three machines at private clinics were also sealed,” said Varsha Deshpande, NIMC member.

Deshpande said that these hospitals were not maintaining records as per the requirement of the anti- sex selection law. “Form ‘F’ to be filled in with expectant woman’s details and a declaration by the doctor and the woman saying that they are not seeking the sex of the foetus, were found incomplete and incorrect at Deenanath and Poona hospital,” said Deshpande. Besides, many important columns were left empty, she added.

“It is a major cause of concern that super-speciality hospitals are found violating the norms. This is an indicator of what could be the situation in smaller hospitals. Declining girl-child sex ratio in cities like Pune is something that makes all of us hang our heads in shame,” said Deshpande.

The raids were conducted jointly by the Union Ministry for health and family welfare, women and child development with the PMC, said Dhananjay Chandakar, PMC deputy chief medical officer.

Dhananjay Kelkar, medical director of the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, clarifying the hospital’s stand said, “Among the 600 ‘F’ forms which were filled in by the hospitals in the last two months, only four to five were not signed by the concern radiologists. Everyday, 20 to 30 forms are filled in and at times the concerned person is unable to sign on a particular form. This does not…More

TOI : AURANGABAD: Now, Marathwada joins in the race to woo Tata to the region. The Chamber of Marathwada Industries & Agriculture (CMIA) has requested the state government to take special efforts to invite industrialist Ratan Tata to establish Tata’s Nano car project in Marathwada region in case they opt for alternate location to Singur.

CMIA has already made a representation to the chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, and other ministers concerned requesting them to extend all possible support to industrialist Ratan Tata for setting up the Tata’s dream car project in Marathwada region. Tata’s head quarter is located in Maharashtra at Mumbai and the proposed Nano car project is very prestigious, said Ashish Garde, CMIA spokesperson.

He pointed out that at least 40 vendors, including four major ones for the Nano are based at Aurangabad. Those preparing to go all the way to Singur would not have to do so and the government could provide land for the project, which is available in plenty in the region, Garde pointed out.

“Aurangabad has emerged as an important hub for auto and auto component industries. Leading auto component manufacturing units from this region who are also the members of the CMIA are already short-listed as vendors for Tata’s Nano car project. Hence, it is logical to invite the company to set up their project here region,” the CMIA said in its representation to the chief minister.
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