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TOI : PUNE: Peace returned to riot torn Sangli and Miraj in south-western Maharashtra, as the district authorities lifted the curfew imposed since September 6 in the wake of communal trouble during Ganesh immersion.

The Sangli district-collector, Shyam Vardhane, had relaxed day curfew two days back and issued orders lifting night curfew yesterday.

Para military forces were being withdrawn from the troubled region but Rapid Action units would remain stationed for more days, official source said today.

Night curfew however would continue at Ichalkaranji in Kolhapur district which had also been hit by riots, they added.

Meanwhile, in order to promote religious amity, social activists from both the communities have decided to come together to celebrate ensuing Navratri festival and Ramzan Id in a harmonious way. PTI

In this 1985 file photo, actor Patrick Swayze is shown in Los Angeles. Swayze’s publicist Annett Wolf says the 57-year-old ‘Dirty Dancing’ actor died Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, after a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. (AP Photo
More Stories from this section More schools in Pune report H1N1 flu cases Rising vehicle thefts alarm policemen BJP campaign to focus on development 20 PMC schools covered on day 1 of check-up drive Revolver, car…More

TOI : PUNE: Rattled by the rise in the number of vehicle theft in the city, the crime branch has issued instructions to police stations to focus attention on solving such cases, said additional commissioner of police (crime) Anant Shinde on Monday.

According to Shinde, “On an average, around 10 vehicles were stolen daily from various parts of Pune. The crime branch have asked the police stations identify places from where vehicles are stolen on a regular basis and lay traps to arrest the culprits.”

“The police stations have also been asked to check criminals involved in vehicle theft so as to deter them from committing such offences again,” Shinde said. “The crime branch will also check criminals involved in similar cases in the last four years and will try to find out how the stolen vehicles are disposed of by them.”

The Pune police had arrested 5,100 suspects in connection with vehicle theft between 1996 and August 2009, Shinde said.

According to the statistics compiled by the Pune crime branch, 45 per cent of vehicles were stolen from housing societies, 29 per cent from unauthorised parking lots and the rest from public places. Most of these theft took place between 8 pm and 8 am. The two-wheeler most targeted by thieves was Hero Honda Splendour.

The police have identified three main reasons behind two-wheeler theft. Firstly, college students steal vehicles for joy rides and abandon it when the fuel is over. Second, the vehicles are stolen and sold off at cheap rates. And last, the vehicles are stolen for committing other crimes.

The vehicles usually targeted are those that have a common key for ignition and handle lock,” he said. The thief usually keeps tabs on the movement of the vehicle owner and if the vehicle is parked at one place for too long, it is stolen.

Taking into account the alarming rise…More

TOI : PUNE: State BJP general secretary Vinod Tawade said here on Monday that the party was banking on the vast section of young voters, which is more inclined towards the politics of development, to ensure significant gains in the Vidhan Sabha elections.

Tawade said, “A large section of voters, particularly the youth, is looking at how Maharashtra is developed in the next five years or more. This, makes politics of development more relevant than ever before.” The party’s poll campaign will be high on what it proposes to do for Maharashtra’s development rather than highlight failures’ of the Congress-NCP’s decade-long rule, he said. “The Congress-NCP will form only 25 per cent of our campaign component,” he added.

Tawade was speaking to reporters at a function to announce the entry of Pune zilla parishad member and agriculture market committee director Mangaldas Bandal and his followers into the BJP. Bandal, an independent ZP member and former sarpanch of Shikrapur in Shirur taluka, has taken on the NCP in the local politics of Shirur. His entry into the BJP coincided with the high-profile switch-over by NCP’s former minister of state Shivajirao Kardile to the BJP, in Mumbai on Monday. Kardile unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 on NCP ticket from Ahmednagar.

Based on the opinion and feedback by experts from different fields, the BJP has drafted a Maharashtra Vision Document’ and the same would be unveiled in the city by senior party leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari on September 20, Tawade said. “The document would not just elaborate plans for the next five years but also give an extended vision of how the party wants to change the face of Maharashtra in the next 15-20 years.”

On the delay in a formal announcement of a pre-poll alliance with long-time partners Shiv Sena, Tawade said, “The tie-up would be announced in the next two days as senior…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) conducted check-ups of students in twenty municipal schools on the first day of the survey.

On the backdrop of the recently concluded Ganesh festival and more number of students testing positive for H1N1 virus, the PMC started conducting check-ups in schools.

The second phase of check-ups in slums also simultaneously begun on Monday. An official from the PMC health department said that not too many schools could be covered on the first day since a machinery is also working on slums survey. The first phase of slums survey was conducted on September 7 and 8 where nearly 1.5 lakh people were screened.

The schools survey is being conducted through ward medical officers.

Acting head of the department R R Pardeshi said that the exact data had not been compiled so the total number of students who were screened was not available.

However, a ward medical officer said that instructions have been given to them to start with the municipal schools in each ward as there is less awareness.

“We did not check each and every student but students who were showing the slightest symptoms of flu were checked. Whoever we thought showed severe symptoms for a longer period of time were being sent to the screening centres,” the officer said.

He added that a full-fledged survey will start from Tuesday as the slum survey ends. “We will be able to deploy more medical workers in the schools. The task at hand is huge because most teachers and students are panicking at even a sneeze. This reason is good enough to say they are not well. And the numbers we are looking at are large,” the official said.

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TOI : PUNE: The Satara district jail authorities were taken by surprise when they found a country-made revolver and other accessories on the jail premises in the wee hours of Monday. The police suspect it was an attempt to free one or many inmates from the jail.

District jail superintendent Maruti Valekar has registered a case with the Satara city police station stating that a constable on patrol duty recovered a country-made revolver, five live cartridges, 12 four-inch cutters, a mobile phone with a sim card, half a kilo chilli powder and two nylon ropes of 50 metre length each on the inner side of the compound wall of the west wing.

Speaking to media, police inspector Shridhar Jadhav said, “There are as many as 289 male inmates in the district jail at present out of which five are involved in serious crimes like murder and dacoity. We suspect that the material found on the jail premises was sent to help one or some inmates escape. The cache was packed in a big polythene bag and must have been thrown inside the jail from over the compound wall of the west wing.”

Jadhav stated they are trying to track the suspects with the help of the sim card. “We have started interrogating criminals involved in serious crimes and are currently lodged in the jail,” he said.

Notably, some prisoners in the Satara jail had made an unsuccessful attempt to escape about one and a half years ago. The jail built during the British era has been facing problems of poor lighting, lack of tower check-post and inadequate height of compound walls at some points.

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TOI : PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has decided to reduce water cut from 20 per cent to 10 per cent from Tuesday.

Municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma said the decision was taken as water availability in the Pavana dam had reached the 90 per cent-mark of its total capacity.

The township draws its entire drinking water from the Pavana dam. It draws around 340 MLD water daily from the Ravet bund on the Pavana river. There was a long dry spell in June-July due to which the civic administration had imposed a 20 per cent water cut on July 7, when the Pavana dam was filled to 46 percent of its capacity. The PCMC has been supplying water only one time during the day to some areas.

There have been good rains in the catchment areas of Pavana dam towards the end of August and beginning of September, resulting in an increase in water storage. Asked when the water cut will be fully withdrawn, Sharma said the officials will take a review of the situation on Tuesday and then decide.

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TOI : PUNE: The traffic police have implemented a rotary plan on an experimental basis at the KSB chowk in Chinchwad to solve the traffic congestion and reduce accidents.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP), traffic, Manoj Patil said that the police have invited suggestions from the public, which have to be sent to the DCP, traffic police department, Sadhu Vaswani road, Pune-1 by September 26.

Five roads meet at the KSB chowk, resulting in heavy traffic throughout the day and numerous major and minor accidents. The police have put up barricades at the chowk and posted traffic policemen and wardens to implement the rotary traffic system at the chowk.

As per the new system, vehicles coming from Chinchwad station will come from the left side of the Annasaheb Patil statue into the KSB chowk. Vehicles coming from Bhosari will take a right turn at Annasaheb Patil statue towards Morwadi, take a left turn at Dasara chowk and come back to the KSB chowk from the right side.

The traffic from Morwadi chowk, instead of going directly to the KSB chowk, will take a left turn at Dasara chowk and then take a right turn near the Chinchwad station road to reach the KSB chowk. Vehicles coming from Chikhli and going towards Chinchwad station will reach KSB chowk and go towards Morwadi chowk and take a right turn at Dasara chowk and then a left turn to go to Chinchwad station.

The vehicles coming from Thermax chowk to Chinchwad station will reach KSB chowk, take a right turn towards Morwadi road and reach Dasara chowk, take a right turn and a left turn to reach Chinchwad station.

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TOI : PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma on Monday said that he will discuss the alleged incident of four corporators threatening octroi inspectors from the flying squad before deciding on the future course of action in the matter.

It may be noted that on Friday four corporators allegedly threatened octroi inspectors of the flying squad, who had seized four trucks loaded with goods for octroi evasion. The octroi department officials had informed the octroi chief Ashok Munde about the incident.

Commenting on the incident, Sharma said he will meet Munde and discuss the matter before taking any decision.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Babar met Sharma with a delegation regarding this incident and handed over a memorandum to the municipal commissioner. The memorandum has urged the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s octroi department to work without fear and extended support to them.

“If the octroi department is facing difficulty in collecting octroi, Shiv Sena is ready to collect octroi and work free of cost. The commissioner should conduct an inquiry into the incident and initiate strict action against the persons concerned,” the memorandum said.

Independent corporator Maruti Bhapkar too has written a letter to Sharma and demanded that strict action be taken against the corporators concerned so that such incidents are not repeated. This will increase the confidence of the employees, he added.

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TOI : PUNE: The proposed bus rapid transit system (BRTS) along the Pune-Mumbai highway in Pimpri-Chinchwad has been delayed and is virtually under the wraps because there is no fixed deadline for making it operational. What is certain is that the project would not start at least till the end of this year, when the PMPML is expected to procure the 650 buses which have been sanctioned by the urban development ministry under JNNURM.

While the 11-km BRTS corridor between Nigdi and Dapodi is said to be ready, the future of the project hinges on the decisions related to the specification of buses, location and design of bus shelters, and the facilities about passenger information system. According to civic authorities, the decisions about the specification of buses, location of shelters and operational plan are to be taken by the PMPML.

One of the main issues is the location of bus shelters. Earlier, the shelters were proposed to be on the right side of the service roads along the highway. However, it was later realised that the buses have doors on the left side. Even if the doors were fixed on the right side, it would cause inconvenience to passengers if the buses travel to Pune, where the bus-shelters are on the left side of the road.

According to the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), this is not a big problem because the location of bus shelters can be changed to the left side of the service roads. The main aim of the corporation is to have a level boarding system for which the design of the bus shelters and the height of the platform has to be planned accordingly. “The BRTS has to be a complete project in its true sense. Simply having dedicated bus-lanes with un-level boarding system will not work. One cannot call it a BRTS, which actually should be like a metro on road,” said an…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune Bar Association (PBA) on Monday felicitated special judge P R Bora, who had been hearing the fake stamp paper scam case.

Judge Bora was elevated as the principal district and sessions judge and transferred to the district and sessions court at Ratnagiri in a state-wide reshuffle of 14 judges. He will relinquish charge on Tuesday.

PBA president Ram Patole felicitated judge Bora in the presence of principal district and sessions judge Vijay Achliya at the Ashoka hall of the district and sessions court here. The Pune Lawyers Consumer Society office-bearer, lawyer Sanjay Dalvi and others also felicitated Bora.

Replying to the felicitation, judge Bora thanked the lawyers for their co-operation.

The programme was compered by PBA secretary Kishore Patil and the vote of thanks was delivered by the association secretary Vijay Darekar.

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