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TOI : PUNE: The Mumbai terror attacks have ended after an arduous 59 hours, scarring not just Mumbai, but the entire nation. In view of the hideous attacks, many social organisations and schools have called off or deferred celebrations of various kinds which were scheduled over the next few days.

The jazz festival in the city, which was being touted as the next big thing in the field of music, is just one of the functions which has been cancelled. According to the organisers, the festival has been called off to pay homage to all those who lost their lives in the Mumbai massacre, especially the martyrs.

“All those who have bought tickets for the show, will get a refund from the ticket window at the venue,” the press release said.

Even educational organisations have postponed their events. The Progressive Education Society had scheduled a lecture series to celebrate its silver jubilee on November 30, but has decided to push the event to later.

“Considering the events in Mumbai since Wednesday and also the demise of former prime minister V P Singh, we have decided to postpone the lecture series till further notice,” the organisers said.

Similarly, many schools have cancelled picnics of primary and pre-primary school students, not only because of the recent happenings, but also because of safety reasons.

“We were to take our kindergarten students to Katraj snake park for a picnic, but decided to call it off. Of course, we could not tell the students the reason behind the decision, because they are too young to understand, so we have informed the parents,” the headmistress of a renowned city school told TOI.

Small software firms, which hold parties for employees in December, have decided to call it off the other reason being recession.

“Our company holds bi-annual parties in June and…More

TOI : PUNE: An empty bogie which had been shunted to a siding near platform number one at the Pune railway station was gutted in a fire on Saturday evening.

Fire officials said they received a call at 4.44 pm, after which two fire-tenders and a tanker were sent to the spot.

It took 20 minutes for the fire to be brought under control.

Amjad Jamir Khan (30) was at the station at the time of incident. “I had gone there to drop my brother. We were waiting for the train at platform number one, when I saw flames and smoke from the bogie. I immediately informed the policeman at the platform, he said.

According to inspector Narsinha Bhosale of the government railway police, “We immediately called up the fire brigade. A large number of passengers were at the station at the time. To avoid any untoward incident, all our men and the railway police reached the spot.”

“There were two bogies on the siding and they were being washed, repaired and cleaned. A fire broke out in one of the bogies and to prevent it from spreading to the other, the railway officials separated the two bogies,” Bhosale said.

“No casualties have been reported,” he added.

“We don’t the exact reason behind the fire. An enquiry has been ordered in this regard,” said Y K Singh PRO of Pune railway division.

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TOI : PUNE: Finally waking up to the persistent issue of garbage disposal in the city, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to decentralise the process of collecting and processing garbage in the city. To this end, plants will be set up in 14 wards. Ward officers have already been asked to look for land to set up bio-methanisation or organic waste converter (OWC) projects.

Sanjeev Wawre, Ghole road ward medical officer and also a part of the civic body’s solid waste management, revealed the municipal corporation’s plans to tackle the garbage menace while representing the PMC in a seminar on Waste to energy: Is incineration of city garbage a good idea?’ organised by NGOs, Waste Matters and Janwani.

“All ward officers have been asked to look for land, measuring 2,000 to 5,000 sq.ft for setting up bio-methanisation or OWC plants. Already, a bio-methanisation plant is under construction at the Ghole road ward office. The plant will cost Rs 30 lakh and is expected to process five metric tonne garbage daily,” said Wawre.

He added that the plants at ward office levels will be set up according to the type, quality and quantity of garbage collected. “These ward-level plants are expected to process about 2 to 5 metric tonne garbage daily. In total, the civic body expects to utilise Rs 10 crore for setting up these 14 plants,”

Wawre said the Mundhwa plant, where engineers are working to set up a bio-methanisation plant, is expected to process 75 to 100 metric tonne garbage daily. “The city generates 1,200 to 1,300 metric tonne waste, of which 51 to 55 per cent is dry waste. Decentralisation of garbage collection and processing would reduce the burden on the Urali Devachi dumping ground.”

The PMC has been dumping garbage at the Urali garbage depot since 1991. In the last 17 years, a massive two…More

TOI : PUNE: Fast track court judge H S Mahajan on Saturday sentenced three people to life imprisonment for murdering criminal Mahesh Mengade outside the sub-registrar’s office on Paud-Mulshi road in 2006.

The convicted are Mangesh Pawar (26) of Parvati darshan, Ravindra Chaudhary (22) of Kothrud and Sachin Sonawane (26) of Ghorpade Peth.

Meanwhile, the judge acquitted seven suspects Sachin Dhumal (29) of Dhankawadi, Arvind Kamble (25) of Paud, Yogesh Sonawane (26), Ramesh Gadre (40), Parag Gaikwad (22) and Amar Sutar (21), all from Kothrud, and Sunil Dagade (40) of Sadashiv Peth due to lack of evidence.

The prosecution had argued that armed with pistols and weapons, the assailants had opened fire on Mengade outside the sub-registrar’s office on February 2, 2006. The assailants had also fired at his three friends, who escaped unharmed.

Alleged mastermind Sandeep, alias Bandu Sakharam Dagade (40), who had gone missing after the incident, was killed on Mengade’s death anniversary in 2007.

Additional public prosecutor Neelima Vartak said the convicts, who abandoned their motorcycles and fled in an car after killing Mengade, were nabbed by the Lonavla police. Weapons were recovered from their possession.

Out of the nine witnesses examined by the prosecution, three who had identified the assailants in the identification parade had turned hostile during the trial.

Vartak said the trio was convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence as well as other evidence collected by the police during the investigations.

Meanwhile, the trio was also sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by the same court under the Arms Act for possessing weapons.

Inspector Ravindra Rasal was the complainant in the murder case, which was duly investigated by inspector Jaywant Deshmukh.

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TOI : PUNE: Justice V S Sirpurkar, judge Supreme Court, said here on Saturday that unlike the US, India may not have learnt a lesson from all the terrorist activities that have been played out in the country.

He was addressing a lecture on Need to curb terrorism to promote culture of peace in the world’ at MIT college during an endowment lecture programme. “Till inequality prevails, terrorism will remain. Terrorists have only one religion and that is to kill.”

Recalling an incident, the SC judge said, “When I visited the US, I was frisked and checked at every place. As a judge I carry a diplomat passport, but that did not deter anyone from doing their duty. This is true not just for me, but even the chief justice of India went through frisking. In India, we feel humiliated if we are frisked. But not abiding by such safety precautions leads to activities that are taken advantage of by miscreants, and ultimately our soldiers pay the price.”

He added that citizens need to broaden their thinking and that the law-making and law-implementing machinery should be strengthened. Moreover, he said the nation should treat soldiers and all those who fight for the security of the nation with respect.

Touching on the issue of diplomatic relations with neighbours, Sirpurkar said, “We should stop playing politics of hatred.” He spoke about the need of police reforms to help curb terrorism.

V D Karad, founder-president of MIT, also expressed his grief and called the Mumbai attacks an unfortunate incident and hoped that peace would prevail.

eom/ mansi

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TOI : Pune: The Muslim community here, on Saturday, issued a strong statement condemning the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, terming the whole incident as an act of cowardice.

The statement signed by prominent members of the community, including former corporator Osman Hiroli, says that the death of top police officers like Hemant Karkare is a loss to the entire nation.

“Karkare’s untimely death is a setback to a very important investigation process. He was working at unearthing the roots of terrorism in Maharashtra, irrespective of the criminals’ caste or creed,” the statement read.

The members have also said that Pune’s Muslim community is determined to assist the investigating agencies in all possible ways to help defeat terrorism.

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TOI : PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation has issued a list of roads where pay and park schemes will be implemented from December 1.

The roads are Puram chowk to Shanipar (Bajirao road); Shanipar to Shaniwarwada; Bhaurangari street to Dakshinmukhi Maruti temple to Harihareshwar temple and Rajmachikar Masalewale to NMV school to Neelam Stores.

The other roads are Vishal mega-mart to Jambhulkar chowk to Kedarinagar fountain square.

Later, on December 10, the scheme will be implemented on the roads from Gold Adlabs to Kalyaninagar bridge; Gold Adlabs to Marigold; Gold Adlabs to Bishop’s School to Baba Kalyani bungalow; Gold Adlabs to HSBC bank to Desai chowk and Shastrinagar chowk to Don Bosco.

Pay and park facilities will also exist on the road from Alankar talkies to circuit house and the road leading from Agarkarnagar council hall to Blue Nile chowk to the traffic police office.

Citizens will have to pay Rs 5 per hour in order to park their four-wheelers on these roads.

All vehicles found parked in no-parking zones will be charged a fine of Rs 500.

Citizens can avail of monthly passes for Rs 750 and the timings for the scheme will be 8 am to 10 pm.

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TOI :

cleared by arun

done/pradumn

Pics by Shyam Sonar in Comyan

(Don’t use the pics POP2 and POP29 in P-common)

115th batch of the NDA passes out

times news network

Pune: Amidst some unexpected light rainfall and dipping temperature, the 248 cadets of the 115th batch passed out from the National Defence Academy (NDA) on Saturday.

The passing-out parade that started early in the morning on a wet Khetrapal ground showcased the zeal of the 745 cadets studying various courses in the academy. The cadets, immaculately dressed in blue patrol uniform, were divided into 12 contingents.

Parents of the passing-out cadets, retired and serving defence and civilian dignitaries, other members of the defence forces and their families, National Cadet Corps cadets and schoolchildren from different parts of the country witnessed the parade. The gave a round of applause to the cadets.

Cadet Dikshant Mahajan was awarded the President’s gold medal, cadet N Syal won the silver medal and cadet Laldinpuia claimed the bronze medal for standing first, second and third respectively in the overall order of merit of the passing-out batch. The Golf’ squadron won the coveted title of the overall champion squadron and received the Chief of Staff banner.

Syal commanded the parade.

Cadet Anurag Shukla led the Nishan Toli’ carrying the President’s Colour, presented to the NDA by the President of India in 1978. Lt Col N K Nijhawan, adjutant, NDA, riding on the gray charger Warrior, conducted the parade.

Gen S F Rodrigues, governor of Punjab, reviewed the parade and addressed the cadets. During his speech, he touched upon various aspects of an officer’s life, and urged the cadets to put the “country…More

TOI : PUNE: City-based Prayas and Sajag Nagrik Manch (SNM) demanded on Saturday that Pune’s additional power requirement to prevent load-shedding be reduced to 150 MW from 304 MW.

The statement came in the backdrop of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc) rejecting a petition by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) seeking to increase load-shedding.

The NGOs sent a letter to this effect to MSEDCL managing director Ajay Bhushan Pandey and officials in Pune.

It may be noted that as per Merc’s load-shedding protocol, group A areas in Kothrud, Padmavati and Shivajinagar divisions in Pune will have only 2.45 hours of load-shedding. Group B areas in Parvati, Bund Garden, Bhosari and Rasta Peth will have 3.30 hours load-shedding and C group areas in Pimpri and Ahmednagar road will have 4.15 hours of load-shedding.

During the hearing of the Pune model of zero load-shedding in April, the MSEDCL had fixed the requirement of an additional 150 MW to keep the city free from power cut. When the power company increased load-shedding hours from September 2, the city’s requirement of additional power was increased to 308 MW, which was slightly reduced to 304 MW in October. During this period, the city faced load-shedding for a minimum of 5.30 hours and a maximum of 7.15 hours.

After Merc rejected MSEDCL’s plea to increase load-shedding, Prayas and SNM said that as per the Merc-approved protocol in the above mentioned order, the additional power requirement to completely mitigate load shedding in Pune, Thane and Vashi together has to get restored to 3.9 million units (MUs) per day (325 MW) and not 7.8 MUs per day as it exists today.

“Kindly communicate it to Tata Power Trading Company Ltd the franchise that secures additional power about this revised protocol and request them to procure power only to the tune of 3.9 MUs…More

TOI : PUNE: Expressing displeasure over the probe conducted by the state criminal investigation department (CID), Pune, in the murder of well-known city-based gynaecologist Arvind Telang, the Pune Cantonment court has directed it to re-investigate the case.

Judicial magistrate first class A N Patankar on Saturday instructed the CID to complete the investigations by February 28 and to submit a progress report on the 15th of every month.

Telang, who was also the president of the Camp Education Society (CES), was murdered in broad daylight on Kondhwa road on January 16, 2002.

The case, which was initially investigated by the Wanowrie police, was later transferred to the crime branch, Pune. The state government subsequently entrusted the probe to the CID after a furore in the state legislative assembly in 2003 over the lack of progress in the investigations.

CID deputy superintendent of police N G Ghorpade, who investigated the case, arrested six suspects, including history-sheeters Ravi Pardeshi and Mubeen Shaikh and CES employees Mukesh Pawar, Pralhad Lodhi, Laxmi Suryavanshi and Meera Sasane.

The suspects were discharged from the case under section 169 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after the CID had failed to collect evidence against them. The agency’s report discharging the suspects was also accepted by former judicial magistrate first class A N Shirsikar in 2007.

Telang’s wife Mohini, also a doctor and the complainant in the case, filed a criminal revision petition before the district and sessions court sought the setting aside of the lower court order. She said that she was not given adequate time to contest the CID’s discharge report. The sessions court upheld her plea and referred the matter back to the magistrate’s court to decide the matter afresh.

When the case again came up for hearing recently, Mohini’s lawyer Baba Chitnis told the court that the CID had not conducted…More