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TOI : PUNE: The economic offences wing of the Pune police (crime branch) on Friday, arrested nine former directors and managers of the Rupee Co-operative Bank for their alleged involvement in financial irregularities, which came to light in 2002.

Following widespread irregularities and repeated lapses in adherence to lending norms by the directors, the State government had suspended Rupee Co-operative’s board in 2002 and the bank’s charge has been with a Department of Co-operation appointed administrator since then. Those arrested, include the then managing director Shashikant Patki (68), chief general manager P.P. Kulkarni (65), directors Kamlakar Badhe (75), Gajanan Deo (72), Subhash Jeur (55), Shriram Yadav (75), Madhav Bhandare (68), Shashikumar Bhide (67) and Kashinath Pemgirikar (77).

Officials of the economic offences wing produced them in the court of Judicial magistrate first class U.J. More. The court, however, observed that the police had failed to produce the necessary documents within its working hours. The police have, therefore, been directed to produce the alleged culprits before court on Saturday with proper papers.

According to the police, the arrested persons, who worked as directors or managers of the bank, were allegedly involved in financial irregularities, including sanction of loans without verifying necessary documents, breach of guidelines in settling the overdue loans, concessions and waivers to defaulters and fraud in purchase of premises for bank’s branches. These irregularities had caused heavy losses and a lot of non-performing assets accumulated.

“The investigations disclosed 324 cases of lapses in sanctioning of loans, 432 cases of breach of rules for recovering overdues, 16 cases of fraud, misreporting non-performing assets to show profits and declaring dividend, and irregularities in purchase of premises,” the police said.

The state-appointed administrator Dinesh Oulkar said investigation in the irregularities were on since 2002 and today’s arrests are a step ahead. “The bank is now financially healthy and its depositors and customers have…More

TOI : PUNE: Babumiya Saudagar, a 40-year-old Kalewadi resident, tried to commit suicide at the Marathwada Mitra Mandal treasurer B.G. Jadhav’s office on Friday afternoon after the Mandal allegedly refused admission to his son and daughter. Saudgar and his family also allegedly assaulted Jadhav.

Saudagar’s son has claimed that the college refused admission to his sister and him as they could not pay the donation demanded by them. The Mandal, on the other hand, says that Saudagar’s son could not be given admission as he failed to complete all the formalities.

Saudagar, who works as a watchman in the Mandal’s school in Kalewadi, had been seeking admission for his son Musali (18) and daughter Taslim (19) in the engineering and diploma courses respectively in Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s colleges.

“Musali could not get admission in engineering as he could not obtain a domicile certificate. Saudagar then approached the Mandal management to secure a seat for Musali through the management quota as he (Saudagar) was a employee of the Mandal,” said senior police inspector Jayawant Deshmukh of the Deccan police.

Deshmukh said Jadhav told the family on Friday that he had no say in the matter and he will have to speak to his superiors about this. Saudagar and his family allegedly got enraged at this and manhandled Jadhav. Saudagar then drank a liquid inside Jadhav’s office, which Deshmukh identified as pesticide.

Musali, on the other hand, claimed that the college authorities have been demanding Rs 5 lakh as donation to grant admission to his sister and him. “We have already paid them Rs 2 lakh and cannot afford to pay any more money. The college authorities told us that if we do not pay the rest of the amount, our seats will be cancelled,” Musali told reporters before he was detained by the Deccan police. Besides Musali, Saudagar’s daughters Taslim and Nasim…More

TOI : Pune: If the city has degenerated from a once quiet town to an unorganised mega-city , the lack of town planning can be cited as one of the key reasons. It is a known fact that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has failed to implement 50 per cent of its 1987 development plan (DP) and the 2007 DP is yet to see the light of day.

Sadhana Naik, deputy director, town planning, government of Maharashtra, will explain why Pune’s record is so abysmal in this crucial area of work in a workshop on town planning scheduled for Tuesday in the city. The workshop has been organised by Open Space (OS), the civil society and youth outreach initiative of the Centre for Communication and Development Studies (CCDS), as a part of its six-part series titled ‘Pune First’ .

Naik will guide participants on what constitutes a typical PMC/civic body DP, how many agencies are involved in preparing a DP and the time taken for the same, why the PMC failed to implement 50 per cent of its 1987 DP and how the common citizen can contribute to the town planning process.

Speaking to TOI, Sadhana says, “The law provides for public participation in a city’s town planning. This workshop will help youngsters understand the subject and make useful contributions to the city’s 2007 development plan.”

This workshop will be followed by a week-long project in which student volunteers will analyse the Pimpri-Chinchwad New Township Development Authority’s town planning methods.
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TOI : Pune: A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the industrial fire at Sai Enterprises in Bhosari that killed 10 of its female employees on Wednesday. State energy minister Dilip Walse-Patil announced this while speaking to reporters here on Friday.

The minister said he has directed the district collector to conduct a magisterial inquiry through a deputy collector . Patil also distributed the cheques of the compensation amount announced by the state for the dead and injured workers. The state has given Rs 1 lakh to the kin of the dead and Rs 25,000 to the injured.

The fire that engulfed Sai Enterprises on Wednesday was the second incident of industrial fire. Fire at a chemical factory in Dhayari had claimed three people in 2006.

Reacting to the mishap, Walse-Patil said district collector has been directed to constitute a committee to check whether the industrial units followed safety rules about their workers. “There are three priorities before the state, consoling the relatives of the dead workers, treating the injured and conducting inquiry of the incident,” he said.

Meanwhile, workers expressed fears about their future while accepting their cheques. Workers also expressed their anger about inadequate safety measures. They said the entrance door was narrow and the shutter was closed when the fire occurred. As a result, workers trapped inside could not escape. They have been working for many years there and in view of the lack of safety measures, they now fear about their future.

Ananta Rokade, father of Komal Rokade, who died in the fire, said, “Komal was about to get married, but lost her life in the fire.” Sanjay Shinde, husband of Kavita Shinde, who was injured in the fire, expressed his disappointment at not receiving the cheque of monetary compensation in spite of Kavita’s name being listed among the injured with the government.
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TOI : Beginning today, the city will play host to the international finals of Robocon 2008. To be held at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) campus, the competition will see robotic Govindas recreating the traditional dahi-handi scene, and will be attended by 17 teams from 16 countries.

Initiated by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), Robocon is a prestigious international event for engineering students, which involves participants designing robots that can perform tasks based on a given theme.

The theme of this year’s finals is the dahi-handi , which would require participants to build robots that can ’steal’ the butter hanging from 3 different pots. Performing a ‘robot pyramid ‘ symbolises team work. Each participating team will field robots that will perform the task of lifting each other to reach the handi. The first team to remove three cubes of butter will be declared winner.

The competition has been organised in different countries for the last eight years. The organisers emphasise that the theme reflect the culture and tradition of the host country, at the same time not very complicated to understand for the other participating countries.

It’s the first time that India will host the finals. ABU deputy secretary, Nomuru Minami, who visited Pune to oversee the arrangements, said, “The theme of making human pyramids is interesting and not too difficult for the foreign teams to understand .”

The competition will see participation by different countries from Japan to Egypt. The team representing each country is the national-level winner of Robocon in that country. India will be represented by Nirma Institute of Technology , Ahmedabad and MIT, Pune.

The purpose of conducting this mega inter-collegiate competition is to motivate students to design and develop robots themselves . Robot-design needs multidisciplinary skills in the fields of mechanical, electrical and computer engineering. While promoting teamwork, it also seeks to…More