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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