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TOI : PUNE: The crime branch, Pune on late Wednesday night arrested Sadique Ibrahim Bangali (30) an associate of dreaded gangster Ravi Pujari for allegedly supplying revolvers to three suspects who opened fire on a police team at NIBM road in Kondhwa on April 25. The Pune cantonment court on Thursday remanded Bangali to police custody till December 7.

Inspector Ram Pathare of the crime branch’s unit II obtained Bangali’s custody from the Thane central jail on a transfer warrant. He was brought to Pune and placed under arrest at 9.45 pm. Bangali is the fourth suspect to be arrested in the case.

Pathare produced Bangali before judicial magistrate first class A M Patankar for obtaining seven-day police custody at 3.30 pm. Assistant public prosecutor Rajani Naik told the court that the custodial interrogation of Bangali was required as he had given blood money (supari) to his associate Asif Yusuf Khan (28) for demanding extortion from a Mumbai-based builder and for tracing gangster Ravi Pujari, who is reportedly operating from Canada and Nigeria.

The court upheld the prosecution’s plea and remanded Bangali to three-day police custody. After the court proceedings, Pathare told TOI that Bangali was involved in nine cases like attempted murder, extortion and Arms Act in Pune and Mumbai.

The police had arrested his accomplices Asif Yusuf Khan of Lonavla, Kiran Nandkumar Salvi (25) of Yerawada and Ravindra Macchindra Helkar (40) of Nagpur Chawl for allegedly opening fire on a police team led-by police inspector Bhanupratap Barge, who then headed the crime branch’s anti-extortion cell.

Following a tip off that members of the Pujari gang were coming to demand extortion from the builder whose construction work was in progress in the city, the police had laid a trap near Clover Highlands society at NIBM road in Kondhwa.

On spotting the suspects, who were travelling on two motorcycles, the police asked them to surrender,…More

TOI : PUNE: The Sangamner taluka police suspect that 25-year-old Siddharth Nageshkar, whose body was found along with his parents’ bodies in a Scorpio near Sangamner on the Pune-Nashik highway on Wednesday, may have committed suicide due to financial problems.

The police said enquiries have revealed that Nageshkar was a pygmy bank agent, who had collected money from people, but had not deposited the amount into the bank.

Speaking to TOI on Thursday, police inspector A R Amle said after the news of the death spread in Mapusa, Goa, where the family stayed, people started coming to the house enquiring about the money they had given to Nageshkar.

Meanwhile, a post-mortem was conducted on the bodies of Nageshkar and his parents Ashok (55) and Vijaya (45) on Thursday, after the relatives reached Sangamner. Amle said the chemical analysis report is still awaited. However, the viscera has been preserved. Amle said that no injury marks were found on any of the bodies, which were taken to Mapusa for the last rites.

It may be noted that the police had found the bodies on Wednesday in a Scorpio parked at the road side near Hivargaon-Pavsa, about 15 kms from Sangamner. Preliminary enquiries by the police had revealed that Nageshkar had left Mapusa with his parents last Friday. Amle said Nageshkar worked as an assistant with Ashok Arlekar, who runs a television cable business in Mapusa. Nageshkar had reportedly taken his parents to a hospital in Nashik for treatment. The bodies were found when the family was possibly returning to Mapusa from Nashik. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: Aiming at expanding the role of women farmers in agri-activities, the state agriculture department is establishing women farmer self-help groups in all the villages in the state. The groups will organise and manage agri-programmes and spread awareness about systematic agricultural practice among farmers.

According to officials of the agriculture department, villages with small population will have one self-help group (SHG), while larger villages will have at least two SHGs. The work on formation of SHGs has been started in more than 50 villages.

Prabhakar Deshmukh, state agriculture commissioner said, “After the formation of SHGs, the department has planned an extensive training programme for members of the groups. The members will be given lessons in management, communication and in basic knowledge of agri-activities. The SHGs will also receive monetary remuneration for conducting the programmes and activities.”

Deshmukh added that the Union government has granted Rs 3 crore to the state agriculture department for the development of women farmers. A major part of this grant would be used for formation and funding of the SHGs.

“The agriculture department undertakes more than 80 programmes including exhibitions, conventions and gatherings throughout the year. Now, some of these programmes would be taken up by the SHGs. This would help in managing the programmes better,” Deshmukh said.

It has been noticed that the women farmers are playing a major role in farming activities in the state, Deshmukh said. “Besides farming, many of the allied activities like milk production, cattle management, marketing of the product, etc., is being handled by women. The establishment of SHGs is a major step towards empowerment of women farmers.” Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: The profession of technical writing is readying to add new fields to its client base as more and more business activities demonstrate an appetite for this service.

“In fact, the profession may move away from its mainstay of writing’ and become a basic language service delivered through newer media such as video or mobile phones,” said Makarand Pandit, who is among the pioneers of technical writing in the city and an active volunteer of the India chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC).

Such trends and the forthcoming challenges faced by the profession will be debated in a two-day national conference of the India chapter of the STC to be held in the city on December 12 and 13, said Pandit, who is also the programme manager for the event.

The conference will address a plethora of issues, including education and training, hiring practices, salary trends and technical aspects.

At present, technical writing includes services such as producing instruction and operation manuals for equipment manufacturers or the Help’ sections in software products.

Businesses in competitive sectors such as manufacturing and pharmaceuticals are now increasingly favouring the services of technical writers to document their processes, research findings or operation procedures, Pandit said. “Researchers create intellectual property using their intelligence and knowledge. Their work, especially their thinking, needs to be preserved for future reference. This is where technical writers come in,” Pandit explained. He also pointed out that the service can also take the form of translation or language rendering according to the need of the client.

According to Pandit, the delivery mechanism of technical writing currently electronic text files or printed matter can change drastically as equipment makers are using newer mediums such as videos to create the operation and help manuals for their customers. “A day may come when we will not be writing anything but simply creating videos as instruction…More

TOI : PUNE: It’s an honour named after the legendary Hindi film actor Amrish Puri. The Amrish Puri Award is presented every year to an accomplished theatre personality at the annual theatre festival organised by Amol Palekar.

This year, at the festival titled Theatre Beyond Words,’ the award will be conferred on well-known theatre artiste from Kerala, Vinay Kumar, on December 6 at the Yashwantrao Chavan auditorium, in the hands of theatre personality Vijaya Mehta. The prize comprises a trophy in the shape of Puri’s trademark hat and a cash prize worth Rs 25,000.

Kumar will also perform in the play A Hare and A Tortoise,’ presented by Mumba-based theatre company, Adishakti, on the same evening. In the play, Kumar enacts the role of Hamlet, who gets into a inter-civilisational race dialogue.

Kumar, who hails from Trichur, has worked with the travelling Communist Party’s Theatre Repertory Company and also joined the movement for the creation of Campus Theatre, a women’s theatre company in the 1980s. A graduate in Theatre Arts from the University of Calicut, Kumar has also had training under Kathakkali maestro Krishnan Namboodri. The talented actor is also trained in Kalaripayattu.

He has worked extensively with theatre personality Veenapani Chawla, the founder of Adishakti. He joined the Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research in Mumbai in 1993 and performed in plays like A Greater Dawn,’ before shifting to Adishakti, Pondicherry as an actor in residence.

Kumar has travelled all over the world performing pathbreaking plays. In 1996, he won the APEX fellowship that took him to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The landmark play, Brihannala,’ directed by Chawla, had Kumar using the breath techniques, explored by both Chawla and Kumar. Since 2000, Kumar has been assisting Chawla in her effort to create a physical craft that can cater to an actor’s physical, vocal and psychological expression based on traditional Indian knowledge….More

TOI : PUNE: As part of the annual defence dialogue between China and India which commenced in 2006, a 137-member contingent of the Chinese army arrived here on Thursday in continuation of the ongoing army-to-army co-operation programme. The contingent arrived in a service aircraft.

After a formal reception by the commander of the Indian contingent at the Pune airfield, the Chinese army personnel and stores were transported by six IAF aircraft to Belgaum, the venue of the Ex Hand-in-Hand 2008′.

An official statement by the defence spokesperson said the joint training and exercise marks the growing military co-operation between the two countries. India and China held the first joint naval exercise in November 2003 off Shanghai. Subsequently, two ships of the Indian Navy also made port calls at Qingdao and participated in a joint exercise with the Chinese navy in 2007.

The Ex Hand-in-Hand 2008′ is aimed at expanding and strengthening military-to-military ties between the two forces. During the event, the Chinese troops from the 1st Company of Infantry Battalion of Chengdu Military Area Command and the Indian troops from the 8 Maratha Light Infantry Battalion are expected to undergo joint tactical manoeuvres and drills, interoperability training and joint command post procedures, finally culminating in a counter-terrorist operational exercise with simulated enemy.

The exercise is planned at mixed company group level with command and control elements from the respective battalions’ headquarters. The training and manoeuvres are to be supervised by a joint directing panel comprising of officials of both the armies. Helicopters of the Indian Air Force will also be incorporated for conducting special manoeuvres and assault operations. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: It’s a film festival that hopes to introduce to the audience numerous health issues. Health in Cinema,’ a film festival organised by the Developing Awareness Through Entertainment (DATE), in association with Max Mueller Bhavan, Alliance Francaise de Poona, Aashay Film Club and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), will offer an array of films from France, Germany, India and US, all primarily focused on health. The screenings will be held at FTII’s main theatre from December 5 to 7 and from December 12 to 14.

The ten-odd feature films are aimed to sensitise the audience on psychological disorder and various physical ailments, especially HIV/AIDS. “This festival is for us to understand whether by highlighting sensitive issues in films, do we want to provoke only emotions, or make people think?” said psychiatrist-actor Mohan Agashe, who is also the honorary director of DATE.

He said movies like A Beautiful Mind , based on the schizophrenia-stricken American mathematician John Forbes Nash, and Taare Zameen Par on a child’s struggle with dyslexia, have generated public interest in these very disorders. “People want to find answers to diseases which, to this day, are heavily stigmatised. Not to mention HIV/AIDS, which is raising genuine concerns in society now,” he added.

To address this concern, the festival will also see a panel discussion on HIV/AIDS and Health and Cinema.’ “The panel discussions will focus on whether or not the depiction of a health problem in a film is authentic, and is such a depiction meant only to stir the emotions or help them think about the problem seriously,” Agashe said.

To be attended by well-known doctors and representatives from the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) and various NGOs, the discussions will serve as open forums to invite health-related queries from the audience.

“These films will make you think,” Jean-Jacques Scaerou, director of Alliance Francaise de Poona, had the last…More

TOI : PUNE: In a bid to boost security at the Pune railway station, the railways have decided to install six additional CCTVs at important positions. The cameras will keep a round-the-clock vigil and monitor all activities at the station. The new CCTVs will have backup facilities, and a 24-hour vigil will be maintained against theft and anti-social elements.

“The Pune station already has 18 cameras installed at various positions. The new cameras will cover four entrance gates, reservation and booking counters, platforms and other critical areas. The prime objective is to boost security,” said Y K Singh, public relations officer, Pune railway division.

He said that additional CCTVs will be installed at other stations having comparatively large crowd like Shivajinagar, Talegoan, Khadki and Chinchwad. And the installation work will begin soon.

“The railways is also making round-the-clock announcements, asking the commuters to be alert and inform the security and police regarding any suspicious things and activities at the station,” Singh added.

“The RPF has beefed up the security at the entry-exit gates and on the platforms while checking and inspection drives are being conducted at the station 24×7,” he said. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: The Deccan Gymkhana police have booked a man for allegedly raping and blackmailing a 39-year-old woman. The suspect has been identified as Vikas Rakesh Batiya (30) of Gujarat.

According to the police, the victim was working in a medical transcription company as an editor. Last year, she came into contact with Munir Mohammed from Gujarat, over telephone. Munir gave her Vikas’ mobile number and asked her to contact Vikas in his absence. Both Vikas and victim got acquainted with each other and he told her that he was a divorcee and wanted to remarry. So the victim invited him to Pune.

Senior inspector Jaywant Deshmukh said, “The suspect came to Pune and took the complainant to a hotel on Fergusson College road on May 17 and allegedly raped her after promising to marry her. The next day also he allegedly raped her before returning to Gujarat.

Later, Vikas sent his obscene photos to her and asked her to send her photos,” Deshmukh said.

“She had sent three obscene MMS clips. And till last month, they were regularly in contact with each other. But when the victim asked him about marriage, Vikas started blackmailing her, saying he would publish her obscene photos,” Deshmukh.

Then the woman lodged a complaint. Sub-inspector P V Pawar is investigating the case, he added. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: A city college has submitted a proposal to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to computerise the civic body’s skysign department free of cost.

The development assumes significance since the civic body had recently drawn flak for finalising a contract, where advertising rights were to be given to a firm in lieu of computerisation of the skysign department. The proposal for the same had stated that the software is estimated to be at Rs 45 lakh.

Civic activists had criticised the move saying that the quoted cost of the software for a small department of PMC is too exorbitant.

Speaking to TOI, municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi confirmed that a college has written a letter to the PMC willing to computerise the department at no cost and that the civic body would consider the proposal.

Meanwhile, activist Vivek Velankar alleged that the PMC is blowing up the tax payer’s money for a job that would cost less than Rs 10 lakh and is unnecessarily mixing two separate issues like computerisation of a civic department and giving advertisement rights.

“Today, a high-end software comes for Rs 15 lakh, using which a medium-scale company can complete its entire computerisation process. Compared to this, the 45-lakh cost for a normal software for a small department, like the skysign department, seems to be too exorbitant. According to information received under the Right to Information (RTI), the cost of computerising PMC’s very own land records department was just Rs 15 lakh,” Velankar said.

He demanded that the contract be cancelled and fresh tenders be invited. “If a college has sent such a proposal, then it is a win-win situation for both the PMC and the students. Due to the current IT slowdown, various IT colleges are facing a crunch of live projects. The PMC should explore contacting these colleges to get the computerisation work done, where the cost will…More