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TOI : PUNE: An all-terrain unmanned vehicle that can operate up to a distance of 10 km with remote operation and an unmanned aircraft that can fly up to a height of 3 km above ground level might sound like stuff from sci-fi action films.

In fact, the Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (VRDE), Ahmednagar, has developed these very vehicles, referred to as unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Speaking to TOI, S.V. Londhe, UGV project director, said the establishment has now successfully developed a military-grade prototype of the UGV. “The work began in 2002, and the first concept prototype was developed within 13 months,” Londhe said.

“The vehicle can sustain environment that has nuclear, biological and chemical contaminants. It is fitted with a gun that can fire remotely if the operator senses danger. In today’s increasingly hazardous warfare, these vehicles are of paramount importance,” he said.

Londhe said the assistant director general of perspective planning group recently visited the VRDE, and the vehicle is currently undergoing army tests. “The perspective plan of the army did not include the UGV at all. However, after seeing the demonstration, they are convinced of its importance and will been sending us specifications for the design soon.”

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TOI : PUNE: A day after a retired brigadier was kidnapped and released in the city, a corporate communications manager lodged a complaint that he was kidnapped by four youths on November 1. However, in a curious turn of events, the suspects took the victim to his house for ransom, but had to return empty-handed when the victim’s father threatened them that he will inform the police. The Bund Garden police arrested two people and detained a boy in this connection on Friday.

According to a complaint lodged by Neel Ashad (37) of Koregaon Park, when he was walking towards his home after meeting a friend on November 1 night, a car stopped near him and asked for an address. Immediately, two people started beating him up and forced him into the car. “They took me to Ahmednagar road and asked for Rs 50,000. I told them that I have kept money at my residence and take me home. They asked for a higher amount of Rs 2.5 lakh for taking me home,’’ the plaint said.

At Ashad’s home, two of the suspects waited at the door, while he spoke to his father. “My father told them that he didn’t have any money as he was a retired man. He threatened them that he would inform the police if they didn’t leave the house,’’ the plaint said. The kidnappers immediately left the house, but called up next day asking for money. Ashad lodged a complaint on Thursday.

The police traced one of the suspects, an Std. XI student, through his cellphone which was used to make the call to Ashad’s father. The boy has been detained. Soon two other suspects were also arrested.

They were identified as Mohammed Ansari (31) and Surendra Purohit (27), both from Yerawada. A judicial magistrate (first class) court remanded them to police custody till November 11. B…More

TOI : Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to conduct a housing survey to review the housing issues in the city. The administration has proposed before the civic standing committee that the survey should be done by the NGO, Mashal.

“The organisation has already submitted an estimate of Rs 9 lakh for doing the survey, which includes housing facility as per the population, shortage of houses, land rates, slums and problems of rental accommodation,” the proposal says.

The civic administration proposed that the Mashal should be given survey work without floating tenders for the job as the NGO has experience in conducting such studies.

The survey will be helpful for the PMC as the state government is mulling to replicate the rental housing policy of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority in the Pune metropolitan region once the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) is formed.

Pune guardian minister Ajit Pawar had supported the idea of implementing schemes which will bring revenue to the proposed PMRDA as the body will have very limited resources to explore.

Also, the state government in its housing policy has expressed the need for setting up special townships to make houses affordable for the middle class and also to decongest the cities.
According to PMC statistics, the city’s urban population has grown from 1.64 lakh in 1901 to about 42 lakh in 2001, a 25-fold increase.

The state government has decided to establish the PMRDA by December 2008 by amending the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act to include the city development chapter in the same. The move will help in integrated development of about 2,200 sq.km. of the Pune region. Rental housing would be one of the first priorities of the PMRDA and the housing survey will be useful for the PMC to have a housing policy in place. B…More

TOI : PUNE: An 11-year-old boy was crushed to death when a state transport bus reversed over him at the Swargate ST stand on Thursday evening. The child was standing with his mother to board a Bhor-bound bus when the incident took place.

The driver, Shivaji Shinde (51) has been arrested by the Swargate police.

According to the Swargate police, the victim, Shubham Jagdale, came under the wheels of the overloaded bus when he lost his balance and fell down. Fellow passengers Ramesh Gurav and Jatin Gujrathi rushed him to a nearby private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival, the Swargate police said. Shubham was on his way home with his parents in Velu village near Bhor when the incident took place.

Shubham’s father Krishna Jagdale (43) has filed a complaint against bus driver Shivaji Shinde (51) accusing him of negligent driving. Jagdale runs an electric shop in Velu.

This is the second incident of its kind to take place in a week’s time. A two-and-half-year-old girl Muskan Tiram Thapa was crushed to death by a tempo near Morwadi. The Pimpri police arrested the tempo driver Datta Rangarao Ansarwade (34) of Bhosari.

Muskan, who was the daughter of a watchman in Akshay Metal works at Pimpri MIDC, was playing in front of her house when accident took place. B…More

TOI : PUNE: The civic administration has sought permission from the standing committee to allow the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to book six officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) involved in the Kothrud transfer of development rights (TDR) scam that rocked the PMC two years ago.

According to a proposal tabled by the civic administration, the ACB has recently submitted a report which states that assistant engineer Deepak Bhalchandra Kulkarni, junior engineers Dattatray Bhanudas Tambare, Madhusudan Shrirang Yenkar and Chandrasen Tulshiram Nagtilak, legal advisor Ravindra Nivrutti Thorat and maintenance surveyor Sitaram Chintu Kadhu have been found to have criminal intentions in the scam.

The PMC has already suspended Kulkarni, Tambare, Yenkar and Thorat for thier alleged involvement in the scam.
Quoting the ACB report, the proposal said that the engineers have worked with malafide intentions with the objective of earning illegal monetary gains. “They have tried to destroy original records and replace them with fake records to show that they are real,” the report states.

Following the findings, the PMC has sought permission of the standing committee to book the six accused.
The issue had rocked the city in October 2005 when the PMC had been allegedly duped to the tune of Rs 14 crore by two property owners and their agent, who procured TDR for a plot of land in Kothrud, which had already been acquired and paid for by the PMC.
The PMC had acquired the plot, owned by the accused, to develop a civic amenity in 1979. It had paid a monetary compensation of Rs 21,85,826 to the accused. The accused then submitted fake documents, claiming that they had not received compensation and made an application to the PMC, claiming a TDR of 36,000 sq.m.

Civic officials, who granted the TDR, later realised that they were cheated and lodged a police complaint. However, the local corporators…More