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TOI : PUNE: Having agreed to work with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to assess projects like the metro and the mono rail as well as offering Rs 100 crore for non-motorised transport initiatives, the World Bank (WB) has now decided to also help improve the civic public transport facilities.

Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi, along with Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) officials held discussions with the WB delegates on Friday over how to bring about qualitative changes in the public transport facilities.

Principal urban transport specialist Gerhard Menckhoff, senior urban transport specialist Ke-Fan, social development consultant Venkata Rao Bayana, and Gorden K Neilson and Krishnan Srinivasan, all WB representatives, were present during the discussions.

An official statement issued by the PMPML says that PMC officials discussed various options to improve the civic transport. The WB delegation discussed issues like the existing fleet of PMPML buses and also its special services, including the air-conditioned buses.

On a routine day, the transport body runs 1,050 buses. It is unable to put more vehicles on the road because this is the maximum number of buses available with them and also because around 200 have to be spared for routine maintenance on rotation. While PMPML authorities admit there is a shortage of buses around 500 to be precise they do not have the financial resources to buy new ones. Considering that the population of Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, the two cantonment areas and the fringe areas is around 42 lakh, there is definite need of 1,700 buses. However, over the last six months, the only addition has been of 162 buses taken on lease.

The PMC and PMPML officials made a presentation to the WB representatives and discussed about the possibility of a loan for improving the civic transport.

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PMPML AT A GLANCE

Total number of buses: 1,260

Operational fleet: 1,050

Total kms covered daily:…More

TOI : PUNE: Reiterating allegations about substandard work in slum rehabilitation projects and the alleged negligence shown by the civic authorities, the slum improvement committee of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has toughened its stand against civic officials and the consultants for the projects.

Speaking to mediapersons, Chandrakanta Sonkamble, chairperson, PCMC slum committee, said the committee members condemned the civic officials for not following the directives regarding the projects. Last week, the slum committee members, who had inspected the ongoing works of slum rehabilitation projects, had alleged that the work was of substandard quality and that it should be stopped immediately. The committee also charged that the consultants, who are being paid hefty fees, are not monitoring the quality of works.

“The PCMC has started constructing compound wall and roads on the sites for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) housing schemes, although the corporation does not have possession of the land yet. We have passed a resolution demanding that the work is stopped as we are more interested in building homes than compound wall and roads. During the meeting, the civic officials clarified that the compound wall is being constructed to prevent encroachments on the land,” Sonkamble said.

She also demanded that the task of monitoring the construction work at the SRA sites should be given to the engineering department of the slum department.

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TOI : PUNE: The Akhil Bharatiya Sanskrutik Sangh (ABSS), Pune, has been officially selected to represent India in an International theatre festival Mondial du Theatre’ that will be organised in Monaco in Western Europe from August 17 to 27, 2009.

Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, Hemant Wagh, general secretary of the ABSS, said, “The Sangh has planned to present a dance-drama, discussion on Indian theatre, presentation of different state dances, their peculiarity, future ideas on arts and debates on the cultural diversity across the globe, through performing arts.”

“We will select 22 to 25 distinguished performing artists from all over Maharashtra. Playwright Shyam Bhurke and Bharatnatyam dancer and choreographer Vijaya Kale will select the artists,” Wagh said. “Selection will be held on December 20 at the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad Hall between 4 to 8 pm,” he added.

Wagh said that ABBS was selected out of the eight organisations that applied for the festival to represent India. “A total of 248 organisations from across the world had applied for the festival and only 24 have been selected,” Wagh said.

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TOI : PUNE: A major fire gutted a snack bar and a stationery shop at Wadgaonsheri at 8 am on Friday, with one person sustaining minor burn injuries. No casualties were reported in the incident.

Three fire tenders and one water tanker were rushed to the spot, and doused the fire by 9.15 am.

Fireman Gajanan Patrudkar told TOI, “The fire broke out due to a gas leak in a snack bar located in hotel Ganesh at Ganeshnagar, Wadgaonsheri. It spread within minutes and gutted the nearby stationery shop, Abhijit Enterprises.”

Snack-shop owner Ashok Bhatte’s nephew Ganesh Bhatte sustained minor burn injuries in the incident. The duo was inside the kitchen when the fire broke out, said Patrudkar.

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TOI : PUNE: The Film Writers’ Association (FWA) has organised the Indian Screenwriters’ Conference on December 13 and 14 in Mumbai. To be held at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, the conference will see the participation of around 500 screenwriters, both professional and amateurs, who will deliberate on various aspects of screenwriting, including writing for television in the post-Doordarshan era, standards of Indian screenwriting, the writer-director and writer-producer relationship, and the purpose and uniqueness of the Indian script.

The conference holds significance since it is the only platform for the writers in the film and television industry. Apart from the well-known names, some 20 students, who have opted for screenplay writing and film direction courses in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) will be present at the conference.

Well-known and respected names from the field, including Javed Akhtar, Kamal Haasan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Rajkumar Hirani, Anurag Basu, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Prakash Jha, Jalees Sherwani, S M Vasanth, Abbas Tyrewala, Anurag Kashyap, Amole Gupte, Anjum Rajabali, Sriram Raghavan, Atul Tiwari, Shridhar Raghavan, Imteyaz Hussain, B R Ishara, Govind Nihalani, Amol Palekar, Jabbar Patel, Vinay Shukla, Rohan Sippy, Vipul Shah and Subhash Ghai, will participate at the conference.

The first edition of the screenwriters’ conference was held at the FTII in 2006. It was attended by 270 screenwriters, who pressed for the union to be more active and take up initiatives to address writers’ problems. It was also decided that professionally active writers should get involved with the union work and have a fresh contingent of people man the executive committee. In response to that collective plea, a fresh group did contest those elections and took over the leadership reins.

“This year, the aim is to have a contract that asserts the screenwriter’s rights. We want to work out a model contract between the writer and producer,” said Anjum Rajabali, course director of screenplay writing at…More

TOI : PUNE: Pune municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi and World Bank (WB) delegates cycled from Swargate to Katraj on Friday to inspect the cycle track along the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) pilot route of Swargate-Katraj-Hadapsar.

The WB delegation comprised Gorden K Neilson, Ke-Fang and WB principal urban transport specialist Gerhand Menckhoff.

Following the inspection, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) decided to speed up the work on the cycle track. The civic body plans to complete the pilot BRTS route and the cycle track by December-end. WB has decided give Rs 100 crore to the PMC to encourage its non-motorised transport initiatives.

Meanwhile, Pardeshi also ordered the administration to remove encroachments and obstacles on the cycle track, since the delegation came across encroachments on the track, with vehicles barring the way at many spots.

Moreover, the BRTS and the cycle track on the stretch between Panchami hotel to Laxminarayan theatre will be completed immediately.

Additional city engineer (roads) Vivek Kharwadkar told TOI that the WB delegation was pleased with the civic body’s efforts to initiate cycle tracks. “The WB funds would be mainly used for non-motorised transport. We are focusing on cycle tracks along with the BRTS route and hope to complete it soon.”

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TOI : PUNE: A woman arrested for the murder of her husband allegedly hanged herself inside a bathroom of the women’s lock-up at the Vishrambaug police station on Friday morning.

The deceased was identified as Yojana alias Madhuri Suryavanshi (26) of Thite Vasti, Kharadi.

According to the police, Yojana hanged herself using her sari from the iron grill of the ventilator in the bathroom. Yojana was arrested on Thursday along with her alleged lover, Mahesh Mohite (26) of Mundhwa, by the Yerawada police for her husband Pundalik’s murder.

Deputy commissioner of police (zone-I) Raghunath Khaire said, “Around 11.30 am on Friday, Yojana asked the woman police guard at the lockup to allow her to take a bath. When Yojana did not return for a long time, the guard asked another inmate, Afrin alias Pinky, to check.”

Afrin went inside the bathroom and found Yojana hanging from the ventilator grill. She came out screaming and alerted the guard, who immediately informed the senior police officer of the Vishrambaug police station, Khaire added.

Yojana’s body will be sent for post-mortem after the inquest panchanama is prepared in the presence of the tehsildar, Khaire stated.

Khaire further said that Yojana might have climbed on top of the door of the bathroom to tie the sari to the ventilator grill.

According to the Yerawada police, Yojana, who worked in a private hospital on Mundhwa bypass road, married Pundalik against her parents’ wishes in 2000. The couple had three children.

Senior police inspector Prasad Hasabnis of the Yerawada police station said that Yojana later became involved in an illicit relationship with Mahesh, a receptionist at the hospital. Pundalik knew about the affair and the couple quarrelled over it often.

Hasabnis said that Yojana left home on Wednesday night on some pretext. She then met Mahesh at an underconstruction building near the hospital. Pundalik came to know about…More

TOI : BELGAUM: The hilly surroundings of Rohideshwar, a tiny hamlet located 22 km north of this military town, was the epicentre of the joint military exercise involving Indian and Chinese troops. It was at this place that a select contingent of troops from both the countries put to test their skills in couter-terrorism drills under simulated conditions.

The occasion was the concluding leg of the joint exercise which began on December 4, and involved 137 troops from the 1st company of infantry battalion of the Chengdu military command area and men from the 8 Maratha Light Infantry (MLI) battalion.

The final-leg, in particular, had all those thrilling elements troops moving in a well-co-ordinated action to flush out militants from their hideouts’, collecting inputs on movement of strangers in the hamlet and zeroing in on the intruders’. Finally, an MI-8 helicopter air-dropped commandos on a two-storied building to neutralise the enemy’ hiding there.

A 22 km trek to Rohideshwar from the MLI regimental centre here, set the tone for these drills. The troops worked in co-ordination to set up their camps and finalise details on how to execute their drill to a level of precision one normally associates with counter-terror warfare.

The chief of the Indian Army’s Southern Command Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj had all the reasons to feel satisfied as he declared at the end of the joint exercise on Friday: “We have put military diplomacy in place in our endeavour to fight terrorism. The exercise has proved the professional competence of both the contingents.”

The Chinese Deputy Chief of General Staff, Lt Gen Ma Xiaotian, echoed similar sentiments, “The joint exercise has helped us to take relations further towards enhancing techniques in dealing with terrorism.”

The Chinese contingent was led by Senior Colonel Kuin Xiang Yu while the Indian contingent was led by Brigadier S K Patial.

The two contingents underwent intensive…More

TOI : BELGAUM (KARNATAKA): The Chinese ambassador to India, Zhang Yan, has urged to take forward the joint armed forces exercise between India and China through enhanced drills involving the navy and the air force of the two nations.

When asked to elaborate China’s stand on the possibility of India exercising the option of surgical attacks on suspected terror camps in the Pak occupied Kashmir (PoK), Yan said, “It is risky for us to say yes or no at this point of time.”

“At this stage we don’t have any information vis-a-vis terror camps. If we get the information, we can discuss it with international communities. But, it is India’s decision whether it will go ahead with these surgical attacks or not. It’s risky for us to say yes or no,” said Yan.

Yan was interacting with the media on the sidelines of joint military exercise Hand-in-Hand’. The nine-day-long exercise ended on Friday at the Maratha Light Infantry (MLI) regimental centre.

The Chinese envoy said, “India and China need to come together to fight against terrorism, which is becoming a common enemy of not only the two countries but, entire world.”

“The world is shocked by attacks on Mumbai. We should work with all the countries to prevent recurrence of such attacks as the threat is always there to India, China and western countries,” said Yan. “The important thing for all of us, especially to India and China, is to take effective measures to prevent terror elements from getting inside our countries,” said Yan.

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TOI : PUNE: Two out of the four youths suspected to be involved in kidnapping a 16-year-old girl student of a leading city-based college committed suicide by jumping before a running local train near the Dehu Road railway station on Friday.

The government railway police (GRP), Pune, identified the deceased as Shiva Tyagraj Swamy (20) and Ajay Kisan Bhot (22), both residents of Bopodi.

Inspector Narsinh Bhosale, in-charge of the GRP at the Pune railway station, said the bodies were handed over to their relatives after performing a postmortem at the Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Nigdi.

Superintendent of police Vitthal Jadhav (GRP) told TOI that preliminary investigations have revealed that the youths committed suicide by jumping before the train around 11 am. However, the reason could not be ascertained as no suicide note was found, he added.

Senior police inspector Ranjit Dhure of the Bund Garden police station, where the kidnapping case has been registered against the suspects, said the police were on the lookout for the remaining two unknown suspects based on clues found during the investigation.

Dhure said the suspects were working as helpers in a private firm and were driving tourist vehicles in their spare time. Ajay Bhot’s name had come up during the investigation, he said.

The girl’s father told TOI that she had identified both the suspects who had kidnapped her as the police had taken their photographs on a mobile phone. Shiva Swamy had been harassing my daughter for the last one year, he said. The Bund Garden police had on Thursday registered a case against Swamy and three unidentified youths for allegedly kidnapping the girl from outside the college in an Indica car and attempting to murder her between 12.30 pm and 4.30 pm on Wednesday. Print Emai…More