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TOI : PUNE: Sessions judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi on Tuesday deferred the hearing of the anticipatory bail pleas by Congress vice-president and PMC corporator, Deepak Mankar, and eight others in an alleged land grabbing case till Wednesday, following objections from the prosecution.

The other suspects are: Sudhir Karnataki, Datta Sagre, Sadhana Vartak, Sudhir Dharmadhikari, Balwant Natu, Avinash Natu, Shrinivas Natu and Suhas Natu. The suspects had moved the bail applications fearing arrests. They were not present in the court when their applications came up for hearing.

Additional public prosecutor Neelima Vartak filed a plea based on an application by inspector Kishore Jadhav of the anti-extortion cell of the crime branch, Pune. The application said that the police should be heard before deciding on the suspects’ bail pleas.

Jadhav’s application said that custodial interrogation of the suspects was required for conducting proper investigations as they have been absconding after they were booked in the case. The application further said that the suspects were not at their residence when police teams had gone to arrest them.

Vartak told the court that the prosecution was not in a position to argue the matter as it had not received copies of the bail applications. Vartak prayed to defer the hearing by a day to enable the police to file a written statement opposing the bail pleas.

However, defence lawyer S K Jain, representing Mankar and others, appealed to the court to give interim bail to his clients, but the court deferred the hearing till Wednesday. The bail applications of the other suspects were filed by defence lawyers Vijay Nahar, Shrikant Shivade and Sudhir Shah. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: In case you are visited by officials from the PMC’s tax collection and assessment department asking for details of your last property tax payments kindly co-operate, deputy commissioner (taxes) Vilas Kanade has requested citizens.

He was responding to complaints from citizens who were upset at being asked to furnish details of the payment via their bank statements, despite having paid their taxes.

Kanade told TOI, “The year 2008 saw over 6 lakh transactions. Most transactions take place smoothly. And the confusion over payments happens in rare cases, which would be less than 1 per cent of the total transactions. Sometimes, especially around March 31 and October 15, large scale transactions take place, and banks take time to clear cheques thereby showing pending amounts. Sometimes, the cheque is not debited from the amount, without the citizens realising it. That could happen due to any number of reasons, invalid signatures or dates and other details not being correctly furnished.”

He added that the first line of action was to ask the banks to furnish the details. If the bank did not supply the transaction details, only then were the citizen’s contacted. “People are annoyed at being asked to furnish bank statements. But it is much better to get over the confusion at this stage, rather than issue notices of non-payment after October 15, asking the citizens to pay the tax with penalty within 15 days, failing which they would be issued attachment notices,” he said.

“If the payment has been made, we update the record. In case the amount has not been debited, the citizen can make a fresh payment.”

However, Jasjit Kaur, a resident of a rowhouse colony on NIBM Road pointed out that she had made the payment sometime in the month of June 08. “Now, that is not a busy time of the year at all. Furthermore, the amount had been debited…More

TOI : PUNE: After a five-year stint as the director-general of the Centre for Development and Advanced Computing (C-DAC), here, S. Ramakrishnan has passed on the baton to Rajan Joseph, who was the executive director of C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram.

Grid computing, along with language and super computing facilities, has been one of the major highlights during the tenure of Ramakrishnan.

Ramakrishnan told TOI: “When I took over, the resources were limited and we badly needed to build a stable team. It was a major task bringing together the available talent and build appropriate teams and deliver the goods. I think I pulled it off pretty well and, as a result, C-DAC is well established in the market.”

On the road ahead, Ramakrsihnan said: “I have things in my mind but I would not like to reveal anything at the moment since I am still working out the possibilities.”

Meanwhile, taking charge as the D-G, Joseph said: “There are various challenges ahead of me. The present-day C-DAC has been created through the merger of different organisations five years ago. People from diverse culture and background came together. I will have to bring together this pool of talent and strengthen the team.”

“Timely completion of projects will be my priority. Keeping consistency in delivering projects as per deadline will also be looked after,” Joseph added.

C-DAC was started in 1988 as a scientific society of the department of information technology (formerly, department of electronics) to primarily aid in design, development, and deployment of advanced IT-based solutions.

Param, the first Indian supercomputer, was developed by C-DAC, putting India into the selected club of nations with these high-end machines. Print Emai…More

TOI : AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of Johny Joseph service extension case to decide if the petition challenging the six-month extension granted to the chief secretary by the state government, should be admitted. The next hearing has been fixed for June 23.

Urdu journalist Zameer Ahmed Quadri and social worker Syed Shah Saleem have challenged the government’s decision in the HC bench here through lawyer Shankar Chillarge.

“The petition came up for hearing before justices P V Hardas and R K Deshpande who adjourned the hearing for one week,” Chillarge said. The petitioners Quadri, editor of Urdu daily Shamae Rehbar’, and Shah Saleem, said, according to service rules, after crossing 60 years of age, service extension is granted only in exceptional cases. “Johny Joseph was given a six months extension even though no exceptional circumstances warranted it,” the petition said. Joseph completed 60 years of age on May 29, 2009.

Quoting a recent HC order, the petition pointed out, “The Bombay High Court had on April 29, 2009 directed that government officers or employees should not be granted extension in service or be re-employed on superannuation without the court’s permission. This also amounts to disobedience of the HC order.”

In pursuance of the HC order dated April 29, 2009, necessary instructions have been issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) of the Government of Maharashtra, directing all the secretaries of the Manatralaya and departments not to grant extensions or re-employment on superannuation to any officer or employee without permission of the court.

The government has indulged in discriminatory practices in Joseph’s case as those who retired earlier as chief secretaries were denied extension and thus were denied the right of equality and parity, Chillarge said. “Thereby, it amounts to violation of the Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Grant of extension in service…More

TOI : PUNE: The minimum eligibility criterion for diploma in education (D.Ed) courses has been reset to higher secondary certificate (HSC). The government had recently announced that the eligibility criteria will be changed from HSC to graduation. However, for this year, the old criteria will be applied.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the D. Ed state admission and selection committee, which was held in the city on Monday. Anil Bedge, director, Maharashtra State Education Research and Training (MSCERT), who headed the meeting, told TOI, “In order to make graduation as eligibility criteria for the D.Ed courses, the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) has to give a nod. However, a few formalities are yet to be completed as there are a lot of technicalities involved. Hence, it was decided to go ahead with the old eligibility criteria for this year.”

The admission process for D. Ed will start from July 2. And the forms are available at the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) centres. The forms will be collected till July 12, Bedge said.

The meeting was also attended by MSCERT’s joint director, DIET representatives and admission committee members.

Bedge said, “The government informed us about the decision to stick with the old eligibility criteria following which we decided to undertake this meeting. Other important topics such as syllabus and time table were also discussed.” Around 73,000 students enrol for the D. Ed courses every year. Print Emai…More

TOI : AURANGABAD: Twelve hundred NCC cadets, from across the state are undergoing training about disaster management at the Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) campus. The 12-day training, named Avhan (challenge), is the third of its kind conducted in the state and is aimed at preparing the NCC cadets to tackle different aspects of disaster management.

“The cadets trained in these camps are called members of the chancellor’s brigade.’ Earlier, similar camps have been organised at Shivaji University Kolhapur and the Kavikulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Nagpur,” said Col Sunil Bhosale, while speaking to the TOI on Tuesday. Col Bhosale is among the officials imparting training to the cadets, which will continue till June 20.

Army-style training pattern with no Sunday or rest day is being followed. The cadets are doing commando type training by climbing high-rise buildings and even the girl cadets have not fallen short in enthusiasm, said Lt Col Mohan Patil.

The cadets were taught rescue and relief operations required during flood relief’. The cadets are being taught how they can make swimming expedient by using empty plastic water bottles, empty ghee tins and empty barrels.

Col Bhosale also said that an assimilation test will be conducted on June 19 to get a feedback as to how much the NCC cadets have learnt in the training. The training mainly covers three aspects how to handle the situation from administrative point out view, how to provide instant medical assistance and participate in actual rescue operations in the event of manmade disasters like riots or natural calamities including earthquake and floods. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: All the 56 hospitals in Pune region, which were issued closure notices by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for violation of bio-medical waste disposal and treatment norms, may not have to close down as they have complied with the norms within the stipulated time-frame.

“Since all of them have complied with the bio-medical waste disposal and treatment norms, the closure notices against them can be revoked now by the chairperson of the board,” said P K Mirashe, regional officer of the MPCB.

The board, on May 8, has directed these hospitals to voluntarily stop functioning in a safe manner within 20 days to avoid inconvenience to patients.

The direction of closure has been given under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling Rules), 1998.

The clinical establishments whom the closure notice were issued had not sought the mandatory authorisation for the generation of bio-medical waste as well as had not availed common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facility for the scientific incineration of bio-medical waste (BMW) generated at their units.

“This clearly means that these hospitals were disposing the untreated bio-medical waste into the environment along with municipal solid waste, thus posing a serious risk to the environment and human health,” said Mirashe. “However, since they have fulfilled all the lacunae now, they may not have to close down,” said Mirashe. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: Reiterating their demand that air-conditioned buses should not be purchased using the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) fund, various civic organisations on Tuesday also protested against the move to procure buses on public-private partnership (PPP) basis.

The organisations, including the PMP Pravasi Manch, the Sajag Nagarik Manch, the Pune Bus Pravasi Sangh, the Lokayat and the Pune Zilla Molkarin Sanghatna, held a protest rally outside the Council Hall, at the office of divisional commissioner Dilip Band. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Intuc workers union also supported the agitation.

Speaking at the meeting, senior BJP corporator Ujwal Keskar said he had already approached the Lokayukta against the purchase of buses with public-private partnership. Keskar said when the proposal for seeking financial assistance is tabled at the PMC standing committee, the BJP will strongly oppose it.

Leaders of the organisations, Neeraj Jain, Jugal Rathi, Vivek Velankar, Medha Thatte and others later submitted a memorandum at the divisional commissioner’s office. The leaders have warned that if the proposal is not withdrawn, the agitation will be intensified.

Meanwhile, the standing committee of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on Monday approved a proposal for paying Rs 15 lakh as consultancy fees to an independent agency for preparing the tenders for the purchase of buses under public-private partnership model. The PCMC will also issue the letter of appointment to the agency for the work.

It may be noted that the central government, in February, gave its approval for the purchase of 650 buses for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad under the JNNURM. The proposal for the purchase of buses, however, has been mired in a debate over whether AC buses should be purchased, and whether the PPP model should be followed. The authorities have justified the PPP model saying that it is as per government guidelines and that AC buses are required to improve the level of…More

TOI : PUNE: As part of its measures to increase income from various sources, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has proposed to levy rent on land allotted temporarily to contractors for their site offices, godowns, hotmix plants, or for any other allied works.

If the proposal is approved, the municipal corporation will earn around Rs 50 lakh per year. The suggestion for levying rent on land allotted to contractors had been given by a special committee which had been formed to tap various resources by which the corporation can increase its revenue. Marginal increase in taxes, levying of certain new taxes, were some of the other measures suggested by the committee.

Subhash Machre, head of the land and estates department, PCMC, said that currently a land is given to a contractor without any rent. As per the proposal, the rent for the land will be decided by the deputy director of the town planning department. This rent will be recovered from the date when the land is given to the contractor. Similarly, there is also a provision to increase the rent by 12.5 per cent in the second year.

In another proposal, the corporation has planned to undertake energy audit to save expenses incurred on street lights, and power used at pumping stations and sewage treatment plants. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: The result of the secondary school certificate (SSC, Class X) examination conducted in March by the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, is likely to be announced on June 24.

According to a senior official at the state board headquarters here, the board’s examination committee is to take a final call on the issue at its meeting scheduled for June 17 at Bal Bhavan in Mumbai.

“The committee will take a comprehensive review of the work done so far by the eight divisional boards regarding compilation of results and mark sheets besides the schedule of despatch of the school registers and mark sheets to various districts through the designated distribution centres,” the official said.

Normally, it takes five or six days after declaration of the result date, for the despatch process to be complete after results from all the eight divisional boards are finalised at the state board headquarters, he said. “As such, the board’s exam committee is bound to declare the result date tomorrow,” he added.

State board sources said that the work on compilation of results was more or less over at all the eight divisional boards. Print Emai…More