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TOI : PUNE: Commercial consumers and industries in Pune urban circle who consume more than 300 units per month will have to bear a significantly high reliability charge of 80 paise to Rs 1.30 per unit if rate for securing additional power to keep Pune free from power cuts is revised from Rs 8.54 to Rs 10 per unit as proposed by state energy minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Sunday.

Currently, with the purchase rate fixed at Rs 8.54, consumers using more than 300 units per month are paying a reliability charge of 48 paise per unit to keep the city free from load-shedding.

Experts and consumer organisations are wondering whether the industry, which is already reeling under the economic slowdown and taking up cost-cutting measures, will be willing to bear this additional burden.

“But, before that, the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc) will have to decide on a priority basis whether Pune needs additional power of 150 MW — as estimated by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) in April this year — or the revised estimate of 304 MW given in August,” said Pradeep Bhargava, chairman of the Maharashtra council of the Confederation of Indian Industry, and Shantanu Dixit of Prayas on Monday.

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TOI : PUNE: In order to attract more people to provide tip-offs to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for cracking down on government employees collecting disproportionate wealth, the state government has proposed cash rewards for the informers. The reward will depend on the total worth of seizure based on that particular information.

To curb corruption, a government resolution passed last week says, it is necessary to crack down on government employees who have collected disproportionate wealth. To nab these people, the ACB should create a wide network of informers.

The resolution adds that the government has decided to reward those who will pass information on the disproportionate assets collected by government and semi-government employees.

When contacted, additional director general of police (ACB) Subramanyam told TOI, “This step is taken to encourage the informers. We already have informers with us and they were awarded for the information they bring in. Now, with the new resolution, they can be awarded ‘officially’ and we will be able to collect more information.”

“This scheme is initiated by home minister R R Patil for garnering public support,” said additional superintendent of police (ACB) S G Parande. “The informers or the victims of corruption do not come forward and register complaints. Consequently, this results in people investing their ‘tainted income’ in properties, which are sometimes tricky to investigate. If we get public support, we will be able to nab them.’’

However, the resolution has put certain conditions on the ACB sleuths: The reward should be given confidentially after filing the chargesheet in a court. A perfect calculation of the seized wealth will determine the quantum of the reward. The sleuths should not just depending on the informers. They are also supposed to make efforts to unearth such cases.

The resolution adds that the reward money will be drawn from the secret funds of the ACB. …More

TOI : PUNE: The mass drug administration (MDA) drive for prevention of filaria under the National Filaria Control Programme (NFCP) began in the state this week. The drive will cover 17 filaria-sensitive districts.

The filaria parasite affects the legs or scrotum of a person. If the legs are affected it is called elephantiasis and if the scrotum is affected it is called hydrocele. “As per a recent survey, there are 82,865 cases of elephantiasis in the state, while 32,354 have been detected with hydroceles,” said Yashwant Doiphode, deputy director of health services, Pune. The national programme is aimed at total eradication of filaria in the country by 2015, he added.

“There are 17 filaria sensitive districts in the state. They are Thane, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Solapur, Sindhudurg, Nanded, Latur, Usmanabad, Akola, Amaravati, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Gondia,” said Doiphode.

The five-day long door-to-door single drug campaign using diethyl carbamazine (DEC) started in urban areas from November 10. In rural areas, it will begin some time between November 10 and 12. As many as 2.93 crore people will be targeted during
the programme.

In Maharashtra, the programme is monitored by the joint director of health services (malaria), located in Pune.

There are 16 National Filaria Control Units (NFCU) in the state which are mainly involved in controlling vector density by spraying larvicides.

“During the campaign, weekly schedule for detection of patients will cover all the sensitive areas, and the affected patients will be treated with DEC tablets,” said state entomologist Ashok Bhosale.

The Union government has allocated 7.5 crore DES tablets for the campaign. “We have decided to rope in state government departments like education, forest, women and child welfare, etc, to make this campaign successful,” said Bhosale.

A state-level steering committee has been formed under the health minister, besides district steering committees…More

TOI : PUNE: The Paud police on Sunday arrested four suspects for allegedly abducting and murdering a centring contractor from Bavdhan on October 10.

The suspects have been identified as Kiran Jain (28) of Aundh and Sumedh Kamble (19), Amol Bhalerao (18) and Ramesh Yadav (19) from Bavdhan. According to the Paud police, Jain, who has a grocery shop in Bavdhan, hired the three other suspects to kill the contractor, Satish Dagade (30). The suspects abducted him on October 10. After killing Satish, they threw his body in the Mutha river near Malegaon in Mulshi taluka, the police said.

Bapu Dagade, the deceased’s brother, told TOI, “My brother had lent Rs 4 lakh to Jain to start the grocery shop. When Satish needed the money for his business, he asked Jain to return it. Jain, however, kept stalling. On October 10, Satish had gone to meet him, but didn’t return home. Later, Satish’s wife, a relative and I received SMSes from Satish’s mobile phone, saying he was in Tulajapur. A few days later, we received another SMS from his phone that said he was in Pandharpur. So we didn’t go to the police.”

Bapu said they waited for Satish to return till November 4 and then approached Jain to inquire about his whereabouts. “We also asked him to return the money. He told us that he had no idea where Satish’s was and said he had returned part of the loan amount to him. Jain promised to return to the remainder in two-three days.”

In the meantime, Bapu said, they filed a missing complaint at the Hinjewadi police station. “When met Jain again, he told us that he had given the entire amount to Satish and refused to pay up. So, we took him to the Hinjewadi police station.”When the Hinjewadi police began questioning Jain, he revealed that Satish had been murdered. He…More

TOI : PUNE: The Sahakarnagar police on Sunday arrested computer engineer Saurabh Vijaysinh Sisodiya (30), a resident of Bibvewadi, and his uncle Abhaysinh Mehta-Bias (56) of Pashan for allegedly abetting the suicide of Kavita Sisodiya (36) of Bibvewadi on November 7.

The duo were remanded to police custody till November 13 by judicial magistrate first class Sanjay Yadav on Monday.

Sub-inspector P M Kakade said Saurabh and Kavita had been staying together at Konark Garden in Bibvewadi since 2005. They had fallen in love while they were staying in adjacent flats in Kothrud some years back.

Kakade said that Kavita had been urging Saurabh to marry her. However, Saurabh’s parents, Vijaysinh and Malati, and Abhaysinh were opposed to the marraige. Realising that Saurabh may not marry her at all, Kavita committed suicide by hanging herself on November 7.

The police had initially registered a case of accidental death, but changed it later after the victim’s mother Shalini Pandey, a resident of Amravati, filed a case against Saurabh and Abhaysinh.

A holder of Masters degree in Arts, Kavita was not employed at the time of her death, Kakade added. B…More