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TOI : AURANGABAD: The state government will not challenge the Bombay high court’s decision to quash the 90:10 formula for admission to junior colleges, chief minister Ashok Chavan said here on Tuesday.

The HC on Monday struck down Maharashtra government’s decision to reserve 90% of seats in junior colleges (std XI) for students from the SSC board, terming the move as ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘arbitrary’. While refusing to comment on the HC verdict, Chavan said, “Seats are available for all the candidates, including three lakh SSC board students and about 26,000 candidates belonging to other boards. We have decided not to approach the Supreme Court.”

The CM was here to attend a number of programmes related to industries and educational activities. While expressing concern over the late arrival of the monsoon, Chavan told reporters that the state government has decided to form an environmental study group to suggest ways to tackle situations arising out of the effects of global warming.

He said the natural cycle of the seasons has changed due to global warming. “We will take eco-friendly policy decisions to tackle the impending problems.” Parrying questions on the Congress-NCP ties and reported statements of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh against the alliance in view of the forthcoming assembly elections, Chavan said higher-ups in the party would take a decision on the alliance.

The CM claimed that the Congress-NCP government would come back to power in the state as “the Democratic Front govern-ments have done a lot for the people in the last 10 years”. Chavan also hinted at the party fielding fresh faces in the forthcoming assembly elections in the state. “The party’s ministers and prominent leaders will visit all the places in the state to discuss and suggest names of candidates,” he added. Print Emai…More

TOI : AURANGABAD: The state government will not challenge the Bombay high court’s decision to quash the 90:10 formula for admission to junior colleges, chief minister Ashok Chavan said here on Tuesday.

The HC on Monday struck down Maharashtra government’s decision to reserve 90% of seats in junior colleges (std XI) for students from the SSC board, terming the move as ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘arbitrary’. While refusing to comment on the HC verdict, Chavan said, “Seats are available for all the candidates, including three lakh SSC board students and about 26,000 candidates belonging to other boards. We have decided not to approach the Supreme Court.”

The CM was here to attend a number of programmes related to industries and educational activities. While expressing concern over the late arrival of the monsoon, Chavan told reporters that the state government has decided to form an environmental study group to suggest ways to tackle situations arising out of the effects of global warming.

He said the natural cycle of the seasons has changed due to global warming. “We will take eco-friendly policy decisions to tackle the impending problems.” Parrying questions on the Congress-NCP ties and reported statements of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh against the alliance in view of the forthcoming assembly elections, Chavan said higher-ups in the party would take a decision on the alliance.

The CM claimed that the Congress-NCP government would come back to power in the state as “the Democratic Front govern-ments have done a lot for the people in the last 10 years”. Chavan also hinted at the party fielding fresh faces in the forthcoming assembly elections in the state. “The party’s ministers and prominent leaders will visit all the places in the state to discuss and suggest names of candidates,” he added. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: Tension prevailed in the Rajiv Gandhi slum area following the murder of a 32-year-old man, son of a former PMC corporator, by about six men at a public toilet on Tuesday morning.

The Dattawadi police have identified the deceased as Ganesh Bhagwat Kamble (32) of Rajiv Gandhi Vasahat on Sinhgad road. His mother, Laxmibai Kamble (55) was a corporator from 1992 to 1997.

Irate followers of the deceased threw stones at vehicles passing through the area and set ablaze an office of the suspects. A large number of police personnel was summoned to the spot, who brought the situation under control.

The police have booked Ram Jagdale, his brother Laxman, Amol Kale, Shankar Bhalerao, Bhimya Jadhav and Mukund Gaikwad. All the suspects are at large, and the police have launched a hunt for them.

A complaint was lodged by Mahesh Kamble, elder brother of the deceased, with the Dattawadi police station.
Mahesh Kamble told TOI that Ganesh was a social worker. “He woke up around 10 on Tuesday and went to the public toilet near a private hospital in the locality. After some time, I also headed for the toilet, when I saw five to six men attacking him on the first floor of the toilet with sharp weapons. When I ran towards them, the suspects fled the scene.”

Kamble said, “My brother had received major blows on his head. We rushed him to a nearby hospital and later to the Sassoon hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.”

Senior inspector Uttam More of the Dattawadi police station said Mahesh Kamble has stated in his complaint that Ganesh and two suspects — Ram and Laxman Jagdale — had old enmity. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: Tension prevailed in the Rajiv Gandhi slum area following the murder of a 32-year-old man, son of a former PMC corporator, by about six men at a public toilet on Tuesday morning.

The Dattawadi police have identified the deceased as Ganesh Bhagwat Kamble (32) of Rajiv Gandhi Vasahat on Sinhgad road. His mother, Laxmibai Kamble (55) was a corporator from 1992 to 1997.

Irate followers of the deceased threw stones at vehicles passing through the area and set ablaze an office of the suspects. A large number of police personnel was summoned to the spot, who brought the situation under control.

The police have booked Ram Jagdale, his brother Laxman, Amol Kale, Shankar Bhalerao, Bhimya Jadhav and Mukund Gaikwad. All the suspects are at large, and the police have launched a hunt for them.

A complaint was lodged by Mahesh Kamble, elder brother of the deceased, with the Dattawadi police station.
Mahesh Kamble told TOI that Ganesh was a social worker. “He woke up around 10 on Tuesday and went to the public toilet near a private hospital in the locality. After some time, I also headed for the toilet, when I saw five to six men attacking him on the first floor of the toilet with sharp weapons. When I ran towards them, the suspects fled the scene.”

Kamble said, “My brother had received major blows on his head. We rushed him to a nearby hospital and later to the Sassoon hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.”

Senior inspector Uttam More of the Dattawadi police station said Mahesh Kamble has stated in his complaint that Ganesh and two suspects — Ram and Laxman Jagdale — had old enmity. Print Emai…More

TOI : PUNE: The Std XI centralised admission process (CAP) will resume with the release of the provisional list of seat allotment for the bi-focal science stream, at five junior colleges in the city and Pimpri-Chinchwad areas at 11 am on Wednesday.

In all, 4,495 SSC pass-outs are in the race for the 3,725 bi-focal stream seats for which the allotments usually precede the admissions for the larger number of seats for conventional science, commerce and arts stream.

The Std XI CAP was put on hold since July 5 in view of the legal tussle in the Bombay high court over the state government’s controversial 90:10 quota policy for SSC and non-SSC board students. On Monday, the high court scrapped the policy while dismissing the same as arbitrary and discriminatory in nature.

Against the backdrop of the court’s order, the multi-member Std XI CAP committee held its meeting on Tuesday morning to work out the revised admission schedule.

Speaking to TOI, CAP committee head and deputy director for education Sunil Magar said, “The provisional list for the bi-focal seats will be released at five institutions S P college, Fergusson college, Abasaheb Garware college, Nowrosjee Wadia college and Mhalsakant secondary and higher secondary school, Akurdi.”

He said, “Students, who may have issues with the allotment or any other related grievance, can furnish the same at the S P college between 10 am and 4 pm on July 9.”

Post-settlement of grievances, the final list of allotment will be released at 1 pm on July 10 at S P college, he said, adding that the counselling-based table rounds for bi-focal admissions will be held from July 11 to 15 (including Sunday) at the Fergusson college from 9 am to 5 pm each day.

In a departure from the practice followed for the last two years, the CAP committee has decided to effect all bi-focal admissions through…More

TOI : PUNE: Elected members of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have directed the civic administration to deploy as many water tankers as possible in the city so that citizens do not face shortages despite the water cuts.

Speaking to press reporters, standing committee chairman Nilesh Nikam said that instructions have been issued to officials that sufficient number of water tankers be deployed through ward offices.

However, the Shiv Sena has demanded that water tankers be provided free of cost to citizens, since they are already paying municipal taxes.

According to the official communiqu? issued by Sena deputy city president Prashant Badhe, the PMC should accept its responsibility and supply tankers free of cost.

“Though the rains have been delayed due to an environment fallout leading to 40 per cent water cuts, the inefficiency of the civic administration in water management cannot be ruled out. The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has no water problems, it is only Puneites who are suffering,” Badhe said.

He demanded that the PMC take measures, like acting against illegal water connections, from now itself to avoid similar problems in the future.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded that the PMC increase the number of tankers supplying water, since citizens in areas like Karvenagar are badly affected.

“The problem is so bad that even if citizens are ready to shell out money from their pockets, they are not being supplied with water. If the problems are not solved by Wednesday, we will resort to protest and stop all water tankers from plying,” Sandeep Khardekar of the BJP said.

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TOI : PUNE: The civic standing committee approved a proposal to implement a scheme to award scholarships for meritorious students belonging to the economically weaker section, who achieve 80 per cent marks or more in the SSC and HSC exams.

The scheme was introduced by the PMC last year and had received a good response.

Standing committee chairman Nilesh Nikam said that the committee decided to continue with the scholarships as it is beneficial to poorer students who need financial assistance after passing the SSC and HSC exams.

According to the scheme, students from private schools who have scored more than 80 per cent marks and those from municipal and night schools who have scored 70 per cent marks in standard X and XII will be able to avail of financial support from the PMC. Students with 40 per cent physical handicap will also be given support. The financial support will be to the extent of Rs 15,000 for standard X and Rs 25,000 for those who have passed standard XII.

The standing committee also introduced the Sharad Sanganak Yojana, wherein mobile vans equipped with computers will be sent to slum areas to provide computer education to slum kids. Nikam said that six such vans will be bought by PMC and the programme will be implemented through NGOs working in slum areas.

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TOI : Pune city is reeling under a 40 per cent cut in water supply since the last week with water levels in dams providing water to Pune having depleted following a subduded rainfall during this monsoon.

PMC gets around 11.5 TMC (Thousand Million Cubic Metre) water from the four dams around the city. The dams as of today have mere 0.50 TMC (2% of total capacity) live water storage.

“The city as well as rural areas of district are facing a natural calamity. No rise in the water levels of dams has been registered since the beginning of monsoon. There is no option but to impose 40 per cent water cut,” state water resources minister and also the Pune district guardian minister Ajit Pawar said.

“We are facing an unprecedented situation. The contingency plan to dig borewells is ready with the municipal corporation” says Pune Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade.

Normally, monsoon hits Pune on June 7. This year, monsoon was delayed by two weeks, it started on June 21 and throughout the season there was no consistency in the rainfall.

Though, Pune got a bit more rain in June 2009 (117.5 mm) as compared with the average rainfall for the month of June (113.5mm), on most days in June it did not rained. The average rainfall target was surpassed thanks to three big showers. Also, these showers did not helped improve the water storage in the dams as these showers lashed the city and not the catchment areas.

Also, the first week of July, has not witnessed much rain. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) normally by July 7, the average rain Pune receives is 162.5 mm. This year, by July 7, Pune got 129.5 mm rain, a shortfall of 33 mm.

“Lack of monsoon current is one the major reason for this subdued rainfall,” said, A B Mazumdar,Deputy Director General Meteorology, IMD),…More

TOI : PUNE: Scanty rains in the catchment areas of the Pavana dam has forced the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to implement a 20 per cent water cut in the municipal limits, which began from Monday. The decision to reduce the water supply had been taken last week.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad township is completely dependent on Pavana dam for its drinking water needs and lifts water from the Pavana river near Ravet.

Following the water cut, the PCMC is now drawing 297 MLD (million litres per day) water its usual supply of 367 MLD, according to joint city engineer Pravin Tupe.

He added that the water supply is being reduced in areas which have been getting water twice a day. Water supply is not being reduced in areas which are already getting inadequate supply.

According to irrigation department officials, the entire district has received scanty rains so far. Water levels in the Pavana dam has reached low levels. The water is sufficient only for another 80 days, he said.

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TOI : PUNE: The economic downturn has adversely affected even the insurance industry which has seen a reduction of Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 crore in the new premium in India.

This was disclosed by S B Mathur, secretary general, Life Insurance Council, while speaking at a seminar on, Global meltdown and lessons for the insurance industry’. The two-day seminar has been organised by the National Insurance Academy (NIA).

Speaking about the effects of the market slowdown on the insurance sector, Mathur said, “For eight years, starting from the year 2000, the insurance sector witnessed unprecedented growth. Never even for a moment did people apprehend a possible downside. This unpreparedeness has led to all the problems. Sales, which had been coming in fairly easily until then, became hard to come by. There was a reduction of Rs 6,000 to 7,000 crore in the new premium.”

He said the insurance industry reacted by introducing new products and schemes with an aim to give comfort to the investors who had begun to avoid savings, adding that it was about winning the trust of the investors back. “That saved our sector,” said Mathur.

The seminar was presided over by Thomas Mathew, managing director, Life Insurance Corporation of India; while K C Mishra, director, NIA; M Ramadoss, chairman-managing director, Oriental Insurance Co Ltd; H R Khan, executive director, Reserve Bank of India and S B Mathur, secretary general, Life Insurance Council, also addressed the gathering.

Speaking about the slowdown, M Ramadoss said, “It all started with good loans giving way to bad loans. More and more sub-prime loans led to the sub-prime crisis. This finally led to the bubble bursting which had a chain-effect on the global economy. Since we live in a global village today and each economy is somehow connected to the other, we could not remain unscathed.”

So what saved India from being extremely affected by…More