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TOI : PUNE: Issues related to blogging, like ethics, changes in technology and emerging trends, were discussed at length at the bloggers’ conference held at the Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research here on Saturday.

The event, titled BlogCamp,’ was organised by blogging enthusiasts from Pune, Mumbai and other parts of the country. About 100 people participated in what they called an unconference’, which was divided into various presentations and discussions. Discussions on generating income from blogging were also held.

Speaking to TOI, city-based Meeta Kabra, who runs a blog devoted to Hindi movie reviews said, “My blog is about my appreciation of a particular movie. Many bloggers comment on my posts and while some followers criticise my comments, it just makes my blog more interactive and readable.” She added that her blogging is more about experiencing movies.

Kabra began blogging about two years ago. She has also written about Marathi movies. “I would like to add a new window on my blog giving comments on the movie by the audience, which will be more interesting to read and get more followers,” she added.

Commenting on the changing trends in blogging, Tarun Chandel, one of the organisers and an IT professional from Mumbai, said, “The current problem with blogging is the huge amount of junk created everyday on internet. There are sincere bloggers, who share information about various activities happening in various industries. Many people blog about various technologies and those discussions are almost as serious as official meetings. Blogging is used as a bridge between people who do not meet regularly but are always in touch.”

Bhavya Siddappa, another participant, said, “When my colleagues in the office came to know about my blogging, they encouraged me. Blogging has helped me develop my writing and communication skills, besides helping me make money. Organisers of some events ask me to write about their events which has…More

TOI : PUNE: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has made it clear that while it is in favour of a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the forthcoming Assembly elections, it does not mean that the NCP is weak and helpless.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, party vice-president and coordinator Vasant Vani said the party is prepared to contest from all the 288 constituencies in the state. However, the NCP honestly feels that an alliance with the Congress will help prevent division of secular votes, he said.

Vani said in the run up to the elections, the party will hold six divisional camps for the workers across the state. The first such camp, for covering the constituencies in western Maharashtra will be held in Pune on Sunday. The day-long camp will cover issues of the total 21 constituencies in the western Maharashtra region. Leaders, who will address the party workers, include MP Supriya Sule, district guardian minister Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, home minister Jayant Patil, energy minister Dilip Walse-Patil, Arun Gujrathi, and the party’s state president R R Patil.

Divisional camps will also be held at Aurangabad (July 5), Kopargaon (July 12), Akola (July 19), Nagpur (July 26), Thane (July 30), and Ratnagiri (August 2). Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: City-based Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has appealed to industrial plot owners in the city to share the details of their land holdings with the MCCIA to create a comprehensive database of industrial plots.

Anant Sardeshmukh, additional director general of MCCIA said, “The chamber has been receiving queries from companies across the nation and abroad for industrial land. It was difficult for the Chamber to help them because of the unavailability of updated information. As the chamber provides information about the existing companies and industrial zones in and around Pune, it has decided to collect information about the availability of plots.”

“There is demand for industrial land in Chakan and Talegaon. Many IT companies are also looking for land near the Hinjewadi Software Technology Park. But when companies approach the Chamber, we are not able to provide them with the necessary information,” Sardeshmukh said.

“The provided information will be shared with the companies who are interested in setting up their plants in and around Pune. The necessary information will be available with the chamber’s infrastructure facility and real estate committee,” he added.
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TOI : PUNE: Many road-related works have not been completed and a lot of problems remain unsolved even a month after opening the Pune-Mumbai highway stretch in Khadki cantonment limits after concretisation.

This is evident while travelling from Bopodi to the Khadki can-tonment. The work on the nullah before the Khadki railway station has not been completed; the highway is narrow near the railway station and from the dairy farm to Hotel Punjab, and there is no road divider.

The work on storm water drains and footpaths is incomplete on both sides from CAFVD stadium to the Central Hatcheries chowk; heaps of paving blocks are lying al around; drainage chambers on the cycle track and footpaths are lying open.

The roads that connect to the highway have not been properly asphalted. The work on laying a concrete slab over a drain near the Khadki ACP office also not yet finished and no proper barricades have been put to warn commuters. Naina Naik, a resident of Dapodi, told TOI: “There are no streetlights along most parts of the highway in Khadki. It gives a tough time to two-wheeler riders.”

Swapnil Salvi of Bopodi said: “The concretisation of the highway stretch took a long time and the people had to suffer inconvenience due to the diversion of traffic. The work has not been completed even a month after opening the stretch to vehicular traffic.”

According to Sheetal Jadhav of Khadki, “there are no road dividers at many places on the highway and only some cement blocks have been put in a line. The highway is narrow and there is possibility of accidents.”

Meanwhile, PMC deputy city engineer Nandkishore Karale told TOI that, “The contractor was given time up to May 30 to complete the concretisation work, but he failed to meet the deadline. The PMC is collecting a fine of Rs 5,000 per day from him.”

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TOI : PUNE: The country’s travel and tourism sector has demanded rationalisation of taxes and export industry status for the industry.

In a pre-budget memorandum presented to the union finance minister, the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has made elaborate suggestions that will help the sector improve its performance.

Amarjit Liddar, chairperson of TAAI Pune Chapter, said, “We have been requesting for grant of export industry status for long and have requested the government to rationalise high taxes that are imposed on the industry. We have also requested the Ministry of Tourism to impress upon the state governments to bring the luxury tax down to 5 per cent.”

The TAAI has demanded revival of section 80 HHD of the Income Tax Act and permission for travel agents to transfer part of their profit to tourism development reserves. These reserves can be utilised for investment in tourism-related projects like hotels, resorts, convention centres, restaurants and guest houses and import of vehicles and adventure, sports and camping equipment, the TAAI said. Export status will enable duty free or concessional imports of sports equipment and this will attract more tourists to the country, the memorandum has pointed out.

The TAAI has also said the travel agents should be exempt from service tax for a period of five years. Further, it has said there should be differential taxation for inbound, outbound and domestic agents. It has also pointed out the instances of double taxation in cases where services are obtained by the agents from their associates in other states.

Section 194-I of Income Tax Act should not be applicable on hotel rooms being booked by the tour operators and travel agents, the association has said adding that these rooms are booked only for short stay of the tourists.

The memorandum says the luxury tax in some of the states is very high and varies from 5 per cent…More

TOI : PUNE: Several banks have agreed to provide loans to beneficiaries of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme being implemented by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.

On Friday, the civic authorities held a meeting with bank officials, as around 480 flats are soon to be allotted to the beneficiaries.

Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, standing committee chairman Dnyaneshwarrao Bhalerao said that “the cost of each house is Rs 3.5 lakh. The beneficiary has to give an affidavit that he has no outstanding loan from any other bank, and that he will repay the loan on time and follow the conditions. The beneficiary cannot sell or rent the house for 10 years.”

Bhalerao added that the banks have put a condition that if the beneficiary fails to pay three consecutive instalments, then they will lock the flat. Another condition is that the possession of the flat will remain with the bank till the loan is repaid.

Assistant commissioner Sudhir Joshi said that the PCMC will soon hand over possession of the 480 tenements to the beneficiaries in Sector 22, Nigdi-Pradhikaran. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: With the monsoon playing truant and water levels in the four dams that supply water to Pune depleting further, a 405 water cut is likely. However, no water cut is expected in Pimpri-Chinchwad at the moment as the Pavana dam has around 255 live storage.

The Irrigation department has called a joint meeting with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday to review the quantum of water cut in view of scanty rainfall in catchment areas.

Sources in the irrigation department told TOI that the department may propose to cut up to 40% of water supply, if it does not rain till Tuesday. The PMC had prepared a water-cut schedule for the city after the 20% water cut was announced a week ago. Some areas will get water either in the morning or in the evening, while some areas on alternate days. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: After getting numerous complaints of misuse of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc) by assistant commissioners of police (ACP), who also hold the charge of special executive magistrate, the Bombay High Court has framed guidelines and directed the state government to organise a crash course for all ACPs at the police academy.

The HC has directed the government to take immediate steps to provide training to its magistrates for enabling them to understand as to how the provisions of the Chapter VIII of the CrPc are to be implemented before taking preventive action against suspects in criminal cases.

The HC has advised the government to preferably render the services of sessions judges to teach the magistrate about the nuances of law with a view to prevent them from abusing or misusing the powers.

The guidelines framed are: A person should be given sufficient time to furnish bond and surety if an order is passed by a magistrate at an interim stage or final stage.

The magistrate shall not ask for an interim bond at the stage of inquiry unless he is satisfied about the truth or the information he has received which is sufficient enough to make out a case for seeking bond.

If a magistrate passes an order under sub-section (3) of section 116 of Chapter VIII of the CrPC directing a person to be sent to jail, a copy of the order shall be sent to the principal sessions judge immediately.

On going through the order, if the judge finds that if there is any illegality in the magistrate’s order and it is a fit case of preferring a revision, he may intervene under section 397 of the CrPc.

If a person is send to jail then a copy of the order should be send immediately to the superior of the magistrate in the police department.

The copy of…More

TOI : PUNE: Sleuths from the anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the crime branch, Pune, apprehended a suspected and seized 2.85 kg of opium worth Rs 2.40 lakh from him on Friday. Incidentally, the arrest was made on World Anti-Narcotics Day.

The suspect has been identified by the ANC as Kuldeep Singh (38), a truck driver hailing from Haryana. Acting on a tip-off, a police team led by inspector G V Nikam laid a trap and arrested Singh in Shivajiangar.

Inspector Nikam said: “Constables Sushil Kakde and Eknath Khule received a tip-off that a person from Haryana was trying to sell some opium in Shivajinagar. Accordingly, we laid a trap at S G Barve chowk and nabbed Singh. We seized 2.85 kg of opium worth Rs 2.40 lakh from him.”

“During interrogation, Singh, revealed that he had brought the narcotics from Rajasthan. He said he was looking for customers for it,” he added.

Singh was produced in court on Saturday and remanded to police custody till Monday. The team investigating in the case comprises sub-inspector Bajirao Patil and constables Laxman Thorat, Deepak Mate, Deepak Sawant and Ashok Pernekar. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: Renuka and Anjana enter the room with a twinkle in their eyes and a grin from ear to ear. And why not? They had a big news to announce. “I scored 87 per cent in my class VII exam,” Renuka announces. “And I 85 per cent,” chimes in Anjana, in a joyous voice.

In today’s world, where nothing less than a 90 per cent is considered good enough, this may seem like an average normal feat. But, what makes the achievement of these two girls worth acknowledging is the fact that they belong to poor, uneducated parents who work as nomadic construction workers.

And for this marvellous achievement, full credit goes to their mentor, Nirmala Hiremath, or didi, as she is lovingly called.

Hiremath has been working for the children of construction workers across the city for the past 23 years and runs the Tara Mobile Cr?che (TMC). The cr?che takes care of some 6,000 children every year. “We have children ranging from the age group of 15 days to 15-16 years. At the moment, we are running 16 day care centres across the city and till date we have opened and closed 128 sites,” said Nirmala, elaborating on the structure of the TMC.

So, how did it all begin? “The idea of starting such a cr?che first came to social worker Meera Mahadevan when she came across many half-naked children of construction workers playing on a site in Delhi. The sight moved and motivated her so much that she started a day care centre for such children in Delhi in 1969. The Mumbai and Pune branches opened in 1972 and 1980 respectively, and we work collectively under the name Mobile Cr?ches. Since then, the programme has grown considerably and all the three organisations now function as separate entities,” says Hiremath.

Elaborating on the aim of the organisation, Hiremath adds, “Even as thousands…More