News

TOI : PUNE: The Department of Archives, situated near Council Hall, is facing several problems due to lack of resources and negligence on the part of government agencies. The present staff of 35 people is struggling with the old machinery and non-functional computers to preserve thousand century old precious documents.

Despite owning a huge establishment of 15 halls at Pune, due to negligence of government officials the department is struggling to execute its job well. Of the four crore varied documents available at the office, the department could preserve only a faction of it. Till date, the documents ranging from AD 1850 to 1870 were scanned and saved on computers. But later these computers too gave up and since then computerisation work has been stalled, said Sandeep Khardekar, vice-president of the city wing of the BJP.

R J Rodge, an archiver at the office said, “The staff at the department has received training from Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for handling computers. The contract with C-DAC has also ended and it should be renewed as these documents are national treasures.” The fire extinguishers are also in poor conditions. It will be unrecoverable loss if something happens, Khardekar said.
Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: PMPML drivers are not thought of highly where safe driving is concerned, yet the public transport undertaking claims that the number of accidents its buses have been involved in over the last year is a mere 276, almost one-fourth those that took place in 1991-92.

Statistics compiled by PMPML’s accident department show a drastic decline in the number of accidents. In 1991-92, the number was as high as 1,183 but in the period 2007-08 it is 276. The frequency of accidents per lakh km has reduced from 2.62 to 0.37.

The number of fatal accidents has also dipped from 34 in 1991-92 to 27 in 2007-08. This means the frequency of fatal accidents per bus has fallen from 0.07 in 1991-92 to 0.03 in 2007-08.

The turnaround seems to have started in 1997-98 as the figure dropped from the above-1,000 mark to 744 and further to 372 in 1998-99. Accidents fell to 255 in 2000-01. In 2005-06 there were just 183 accidents.

According to PMPML, the reason for this improved performance is the strict disciplinary action taken against drivers involved in accidents. PMPML drivers have to undergo a departmental inquiry as well as suspension from service till the inquiry is over. “We do not make payments during this suspension. Moreover, the driver also has a case to go through in the motor vehicle court,” PMPML spokesperson and in-charge of the labour department, D.A. Pardeshi said.

He added that the organisation does not entertain drivers if they are found guilty. “Even if the motor vehicle court acquits them, we take them only if they are cleared by the labour court,’’ Pardeshi said. He did admit, however, that accidents have risen marginally in 2006-07.

Pardeshi added the statistics are all the more telling since the fleet has grown considerably over the years. “The number of buses in 1991-92…More

TOI : PUNE: After a handful of farmers toyed with the idea of exporting pomegranates to Europe and Middle East last year, this season a significant number of them are exploring the overseas market.

Farmers from Pune, Sangli and Solapur districts are the ones who initiated pomegranate farming, a shift from the conventional crop pattern. Last year, 12 farmers had obtained the ‘global gap’ certificate while this year 54 have got it and there are more in the pipeline.

Pomegranate is apparently turning out to be the second most popular export fruit after mango. At present, Maharashtra has two export processing centres at Indapur and Baramati, both in Pune district. The export season began in July and will last till September and so far 72 tonnes of the fruit has been dispatched to middle east and Europe. Another container from Indapur would be sent in the next week, said Santosh Patil, deputy general manager of Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB).

“Farmers are getting rates ranging from Rs 35 to Rs 52 per kg. The next season is from November to March when farmers are likely to get up to Rs 75 per kg. Most of the farmers use ‘Bhagva’ variety of pomegranate,” Patil said.

The state bears 50 per cent of the expenditure in getting the export certificate. The government wants to promote more and more farmers venture into such businesses, hence it is offering such benefits.
Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: The office of the director general of police (DGP) has woken up to the threat posed by terrorists and has provided an additional manpower of 50 policemen to the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) at Shivajinagar, Pune.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (special branch) R S Khaire confirmed the news and said that the decison was taken since the existing strength of 50 policemen was found to be inadequate. The additional policemen are of the rank of assistant police inspector, sub-inspector, hawaldar, constable, naik, dog handlers and trainers.

As of today, the BDDS office near Modern college in Shivajinagar is headed by two police inspectors and is equipped with facilities like metal detectors, bomb suits, x-ray machines and five sniffer dogs. The BDDS staff is overloaded these days, especially after the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts, since it has to attend hundreds of hoax calls.

The BDDS is entrusted with these responsibilities:
• Attending bomb threat calls • lPerform anti-sabotage checks during VIP visits • lInspecting vital installations during festivals • Regular and random checking of airports, railway stations and other govt offices Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Barely 24 hours after city-based Sajag Nagrik Manch (SNM) and Prayas energy group raised questions about why Pune was made to suffer six-hour load-shedding when the power shortfall in the state was not even 4,000 MW, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) on Tuesday predicted that the power shortfall figures were going to go up to 5,262 MW on Wednesday evening.

Both Prayas and SNM on Monday sent a complaint to Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc) about excessive load-shedding in Pune and violation of Merc’s load-shedding protocol (less than three hours in Pune) that was based on shortfall of 4,500 MW.

A table of demand and availability of power for August 6, released by the MSEDCL, said that the evening demand for power was expected at 12,300 MW as against the availability 7039 MW. The daytime demand will be 10,800 MW as against the supply of 5,687 MW. No explanation has been given about the sudden significant increase in demand and reduction in power availability.

Interestingly enough, as per MSEDCL’s own admission, the demand on August 4 evening was 11,893 MW as against availability of 8,253 MW, while the morning demand was 10,840 MW as against the supply of 7,067 MW, thereby resulting in shortfall of 3,540 MW to 3,773 MW. The MSEDCL is silent on why there was a drastic reduction of over 1,000 MW in power availability in 24 hours.

Speaking to TOI, Vivek Velankar, founder of SNM, pointed out that in the past three weeks the power generation has gone down by 2200 MW to 3,000 MW and no reasons have been given. “Should the citizens not be told about the situation?”, he asked, adding that just like the implementation of a load-shedding protocol, there was no transparency in how the power shortfall figures were being predicted.

Meanwhile, after revival of monsoon and…More