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TOI : PUNE: The Union government’s recent announcement on clearing the backlog of applications for domestic LPG connections provided a big relief for thousands of citizens. Over 24,000 applications for new LPG connections are pending in the district as the process has been halted for the past two months.

“With the non-availability of new cylinders and equipment for the past three-four months, we are unable to cater to the demand of new connections,” officials of oil companies told TOI. However, “we are expecting a fast increase in cylinder supply in the near future with the announcement of the Union government on reducing the backlog of LPG connections in two months,” officials added.

Stating that the backlog has gone up by over 20,000 in the district in the last two months, J. Vedgiri of BPCL, said,

“As the supply of cylinders and equipment has not been increased, we are not meeting the demand for new connections. The purchase orders for new cylinders have already been placed. We expect the increased quota in a couple of months.”

“However, since the decision to reduce the backlog has been taken only two days ago, we are yet to receive any formal communication regarding this from the company’s higher authorities. The decision would prove useful in bringing down the backlog,” Vedgiri said.

“The process for registering for new LPG connection is underway at the dealers. However, new allotments have been stopped. The company is receiving over 9,000 registrations per month,” the official said. “We distribute over 30,000 cylinders in the city to meet the regular demand,” he added.

Vedgiri said that the city was getting the normal supply of LPG cylinders for the existing connections city. “No pendency is registered at any of our dealers as the company is meeting the daily demand. The company has doubled the capacity of the refilling plant to…More

TOI : PUNE: Chew on this. Against a requirement of 1.6 lakh teachers for the 20 lakh engineering students in the country, the number of teachers that get trained annually is barely 4,000 or a little over 2 per cent.

According to IIT Bombay professor Kannan M. Moudgalya, close to five lakh students join the 1,500 private engineering colleges in India every year. The combined strength works out to 20 lakh students for the four-year course duration.

With the ideal teacher-to-student ratio pegged between 1:10 and 1:16, the requirement for engineering teachers has been projected at 1.6 lakh by the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTel).

The NPTel is a joint venture of the seven IITs and the IISc, Bangalore, for creating technology-driven content for engineering and science courses. It is funded by the HRD ministry.

Clearly, the shortage of engineering teachers is ‘huge’ and calls for a robust effort by the stakeholders including industry and academia. More so, when the shortage finds a telling manifestation in the poor employability (less than 10 per cent) of the fresh engineering graduates rolled out by the institutions each year.

Moudgalya, who heads the Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme (CDEEP) at the IIT, Bombay, said that distance education was a partial way to addressing this issue and the same was finding gradual acceptance among institutions and industry alike.

A case in point is the Mission 10X, a not-for-profit trust launched by software company Wipro in September last year to implement a programme of training 10,000 faculty by 2010 in new methodologies of teaching in engineering.

On Thursday, the Mission 10X announced a tie-up with IIT, Bombay, for taking further its faculty training initiative.

The idea is to utilise the IIT’s expertise in distance learning for pushing a faculty-to-faculty leverage training model being introduced from the second…More

TOI : With uncertainty looming large over the Pune model of zero load-shedding, the recent developments indicate a major blunder on the part of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) in refusing to secure electricity through the energy exchange and abdication of responsibility in supplying power not only to Pune but also to the state.

On Thursday, there was no end to the woes of Puneites as there was no power in many parts for over five hours due to a shutdown for maintenance plus there was load-shedding for 3.45 hours and 4.30 hours respectively in areas coming in group B (Padmavati, Bund Garden, Parvati and Rasta Peth divisions) and C (Ahmednagar road, Pimpri and Bhosari divisions). The power shortfall for the state was about 3,500 MW.

According to the MSEDCL, load-shedding is expected to continue in the state even in 2010. According to the presentation made before the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc), there was to be six hours of load-shedding during 2008-09 and five hours in 2009-10 if the load-shedding was done in an equitable manner across the state. In reality, rural parts reel under 12-hour load-shedding and urban areas have four to six hours of power cuts.

The power utility has projected capacity addition of 1,638 MW in 07-08, 1,219 MW in 08-09 and 1,200 MW in 09-10. The daily power shortfall during the three years has been projected at 4,359 MW, 4,204 MW and 4,138 MW respectively.

The MSEDCL has, however, claimed that they will get load relief from demand-side management measures like Akshay Prakash (voluntary load management), single phasing and feeder to the tune of 1.500 MW in 07-08, 2200 MW each in 08-09 and 09-10.

In view of the bleak picture, the Confederation of India Industry (CII) worked out a Pune model of zero load-shedding, which came into effect in September 2006. In the…More

TOI : PUNE: Four days after a mentally-challenged woman jumped from the Sassoon hospital building, another woman allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of the hospital on Thursday evening.

The deceased has been identified as Nanda Dangale (28), a home maker, who died on the spot.

Dangale, who had under gone a caesarean operation on August 13, had given birth to a girl child. She was shifted to ward number 19 on Wednesday. She allegedly jumped from the third floor of this ward.

Dangale was seen chatting with her relatives on the ground floor of the ward at around 5.30 pm. “Suddenly, she went to the washroom on the third floor and jumped from its window. She lost her life on the spot and was declared dead,” hospital’s deputy superintendent Nitin Bilavalikar told TOI.

The reason behind her act is unknown, the Bund Garden police said. They have filed a case of accidental death in this regard. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: A girl was arrested for assaulting a bus conductor and fellow passengers following an argument over money.

Subhash Kamble, a bus conductor of Pune Municipal Transport, had lodged a complaint on Wednesday that 21-year-old Kruttika Mehta, a first-year MBA student, abused and kicked him when he refused to accept a Rs 500 note to issue her a ticket costing Rs 6 and insisted that she pay loose money.

When fellow passengers tried to pacify the girl, she attacked them as well, stated the complaint. The spectacles of one of the passengers were broken in the fracas, the complainant said.

The girl was later arrested for “obstructing and assaulting ” a public servant while on duty.

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