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TOI : PUNE: Barely two days after the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) announced adequate availability of power to keep Pune free from load-shedding, Puneites were on Wednesday subjected to over three hours of power cut on the ground that electricity was not made available by Tata Power Trading Company Ltd (TPTCL).

Interestingly, about 13,775 MW hrs power was available for sale on Wednesday through the newly set up National Energy Exchange, Delhi (NEE), at the rate of Rs 2.78 per unit during night time and Rs 8.95 per unit during peak hours, Jayant Deo, managing director and chief executive officer of NEE, told TOI. He said that only 3,500 MW hrs power was actually lifted by buyers and there was still 10,000 MW hrs power left.

However, MSEDCL officials told TPTCL that power bought through the NEE will not be accepted and that it will have to supply only ‘firm’ power, that is power booked in advance on contract basis.

Significantly, the TPTCL has been sourcing additional 150 MW power through the NEE for Pune since August 13 on ‘day ahead’ basis (power trading through the exchange is done on day ahead basis), which helped prevent load-shedding in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Taking a leaf from the Gujjar community, Marathas who constitute about 50 per cent of the state’s population, are rallying to push for reservation under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) tag.

While the movement demanding OBC status for the community gains momentum in Marathwada and Western Maharashtra, Maratha MLAs across party lines have joined hands to put pressure on party leaderships for support. However, Dalit leaders are not very happy with these developments.

With the recent inclusion of 15 castes in the OBC category, the total number of OBC has gone up to 364 in the state. Along with Maratha community another 135 communities are seeking the tag, 73 want the OBC status while others want to be recognised as schedule tribes (ST).

“In parts of Maharashtra, like Vidarbha, if Kunabi Marathas are reaping benefits of their OBC status, then why should the community in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada be?” asked Vikas Pasalkar, Pune district president of Jijau Brigde outfit of Maratha Seva Sangh.

In cities like Solapur and Osmanabad the agitation by Maratha organisations had turned violent as they burned State Transport buses recently. With increasing pressure from Maratha MLAs the Congress and the NCP leadership took a soft stand on the matter and are all set to support the demand and Shiv Sena is no exception.

Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe said that Sena will stand by all those communities which are deprived and need reservation.

The newly-appointed Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee executive president Jayant Awale said, “Every community has a right to demand reservation. There are many in the Maratha community who are economically backward. The party will announce its stand after discussing the matter.”

“Maratha MLAs across the party line have decided to lobby for reservation and have discussed the matter with respective party leadership. The party which gives them…More

TOI : PUNE: A timely tip-off by an alert citizen about suspicious movements of three burqa-clad people on Wednesday, helped the police foil the trio’s plan to kidnap a Nigdi-based builder and extort money.

The trio — a 25-year-old woman Anita Naidu, her relative Pradeep Lakkalpudi and another Raviraj Chiranjeevi — landed in Pune from Bangalore on Tuesday morning and were heading towards a hotel on the Katraj-Dehu road bypass and were clad in black burqas.

Anand Joshi, a medical practitioner from Kothrud, alerted the police saying that three people were moving about suspiciously and that though they were clad in burqas, they did not look like women. Acting on the tip-off, the police followed the trio, who had taken an autorickshaw from the Warje octroi post and were heading towards a hotel near Wakad.

Giving details of the arrest, Mahesh Patil deputy commissioner of police (zone-III) and Pimpri police inspector Dilip Shinde said that as soon as the three persons reached the hotel, the Hinjewadi police staff started questioning them. The police checked their bags and found that they were carrying a big rope, a bottle of chloroform, and a foldable wheel chair. Initially, the trio gave fake names and addresses but after further questioning at the police station, they admitted that they had come to Pune to kidnap a Nigdi-based builder and extort money from him.

According to Patil, the woman, Anita Naidu, in her statement said that she had sold her flat to the mentioned Nigdi builder, but he did not pay the promised amount. As the builder repeatedly refused to pay the remaining amount Naidu had planned to kidnap him and extort the amount.

Incidentally, two year back, Naidu used to work as an animation designer in Pune and later shifted to Bangalore after selling her flat. The police have sent a team to Bangalore to verify…More

TOI : PUNE: In a new development, the Central Railways is exploring the feasibility of a broad gauge rail link between Karad and Chiplun over a distance of 90 km.

The railway authorities said the approximate cost of the survey will be Rs 44 lakh and the work will be completed in around six months.

While Karad is on the Pune-Kolhapur section of the Central Railways, Chiplun falls on the Konkan Railway route. As and when it gets completed, the route will link destinations like Pune and Kolhapur to the Konkan region, Goa and the southern states of Karnataka and Kerala.

Much of the 90-km stretch of the proposed rail link, which will run along the river Koyna, will pass through a hilly terrain for which tunnelling work will need to be done. A five-km stretch of the proposed route will pass through farm lands, while much of the remaining area is forest land.

Notably, a group of engineering college students in Karad had suggested two possible rail links — one between Kolhapur and Ratnagiri, the other between Karad and Chiplun. It is the second alternative that the railway authorities are considering.

Incidentally, Shriniwas Patil, MP from Karad, is keen to have the rail link and it is in response to his suggestion that the survey work is being initiated. Speaking to TOI, Patil said he had submitted the proposition to the railways around two years back. “This is the best possible route to link the Satara-Karad-Pune-Kolhapur regions to the Konkan areas. The survey work has been proposed in the 2007-08 Railway Budget”, he said.

According to observers, a number of new ports would be coming up near Chiplun for which too the rail link will be beneficial. The completion of the Karad-Chiplun link and the Baramati-Lonand link is important, because if this happens then trains coming from the…More

TOI : PUNE: After alleged suicides by two software professionals within two weeks, a woman computer engineer tried to end her life by consuming sleeping pills at the Pune rural police headquarters on Monday evening.

Nirmala Hande (25), an MSc graduate and a computer degree holder, teaches computer education at an Ashram school in Pabal and stays at Vallabhnagar in Pimpri. She had gone to the Pune rural police headquarters to meet superintendent of police Ravindra Kadam for ‘justice’.

The Chatushrungi police said Hande was in love with one Shantanu Inamdar, who is reportedly a software engineer. “Inamdar has always been sidelining her. He finally split from her in 2005. Since then, she has been trying to patch up with him,” the police said.

Hande was directed to meet additional superintendent of police Ashok Morale, following which she came out of Kadam’s office. Meanwhile, when she started feeling giddy, she told constable Sapna Dangat that she had consumed 26 sleeping pills. Dangat immediately informed Morale and the woman was rushed to Sassoon hospital, where she was treated and discharged.

Morale said Hande had earlier attempted suicide in Inamdar’s house at Sangvi in 2005. “After hearing her plea on Monday, I took up the case and called up the Shikrapur police, whom she had approached earlier. However, none of the eyewitnesses from Hande’s side had come to her aid,” he said.

The Chatushrungi police recovered a note from Hande’s bag which states, “My boyfriend did not want to marry me. However, if something happens to me, please do not hold him responsible. If this step leads to my death, please ask my boyfriend to perform the last ritual.” Print EMail DiscussNew B…More