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TOI : MUMBAI: While major parties are busy ironing out their differences in the prolonged seat-sharing talks, their followers and workers are secretly hoping that alliances will be formally sealed only after Shraddha paksha. This is the annual exercise followed by Hindus when the departed souls are fed, and their blessings are sought by the family.

The fortnightly ritual which began on September 5 is seen as a solemn and even inauspicious occasion. And the city’s mercantile communities are a tad touchy about Shraddha paksha; no major business deals are inked and no financial or property transactions are executed during this time.

It’s little wonder, then, that party workers are wary about making important decisions during this period. A Sena activist from Mahim said: “It’s good that the Sena-BJP seat distribution negotiations are dragging on. Shraddha paksha could well be one of the contributing factors for the delay. We want the seat-sharing formula to be announced after 19 September.”

The period is slated to end on September 18, the same day when the filing of candidates’ nomination papers for the October 13 assembly elections will begin.

A senior Congress activist from south Mumbai on Saturday cheekily attributed the present stalemate in the Congress-NCP pre-poll alliance to the ongoing dead souls’ fortnight. “It’s quite possible that our leaders are deliberately delaying talks to escape the inauspicious fortnight,” he said.

Politicians, who skilfully juggle faith and superstition, cannot afford to be indifferent to the popular sentiment surrounding Shraddha paksha, say political observers. For instance, even though they are close to reaching a pre-poll alliance for the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra, neither Sena CEO Uddhav Thackeray nor the BJP’s Gopinath Munde-Nitin Gadkari duo can decide whether to formally announce the formula before the end of Shraddha paksha.

However, it is well known that the Thackerays do not set much store by superstitious practices. In fact, Sena supremo…More

TOI : PUNE: The state chemists’ association on Tuesday said that there are approximately 200 chemist shops in the state with schedule X licence a pre-requisite for the sale of Tamiflu and most of them are located in big cities. The association expressed concern over the fact that a very few chemists at taluka level possess the requisite licence.

“Tamiflu being a schedule X drug, sale will be allowed only at the chemists with the schedule X licence. All the cities in the state have 2 to 5 chemists with such a licence,” said Jagannath Shinde, president of Maharashtra State Chemists’ and Drugists’ Association (MSCDA). Though the MSCDA has not received any notification for the sale of the drug so far, it is expected to come within three days, said Shinde.

“On its part, the MSCDA will issue guidelines pertaining to maintenance of records and operating the sale to each chemist selling Tamiflu,” added Shinde. “A meeting will be held in next few days to discuss issues relating to the sale of Tamiflu while the decision will be announced in next 3-4 days,” he added.

When contacted, Amar Parge, president of Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Pune unit, said, “Possessing schedule X licence is optional. There are not much hassles in obtaining such a licence. Hence, I don’t think there would be much problem at the rural level.”

“Once the drug is made available in the open market, it will lead to indiscriminate use of the drug. Again, monitoring restricted sale of the drug will be a huge problem due to profit interests involved,” said Ashok Adhav, national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

The Union government at present is buying the drug at a price of Rs 270 for 10 tablets from Hetero Drugs.

“The coming months may see an explosion in H1N1 infections. We, therefore, want the drug to be freely available. However, it…More

TOI : MUMBAI: Two consecutive years of bungling junior college admissions may prove rather costly for the Congress-NCP government during the upcoming assembly elections. Several parents say the admission fiasco will affect their decision over whom they will vote for.

“I come from a family that has links with the Congress back home in Goa. I even campaigned for Milind Deora during the Lok Sabha elections. But after looking at what the Congress government is doing at the local level, my family and I have decided to invalidate our vote this time round,” said Xavier Luis, a city lawyer and the father of three children. He was the first to take the state government to court last year over the percentile system. During junior college admissions in 2008, the government announced that, instead of admitting students based on the marks scored in the board exams, colleges should calculate a student’s percentile’ using an arbitrary formula that ultimately benefited students from the SSC board.

Luis was also one of the parents who went to court this year against the state’s 90:10 scheme, which involved reserving 90% of all junior college seats for SSC students. The government lost both cases in the High Court.

He’s not the only parent whose decision at the polling booth will be affected by the admissions. “On a personal level, my decision to vote will be affected by what happened during admissions,” says Janak Sheth, a parent. “But on a wider scale, I doubt it will affect the polls, as people have short-term memory,” he said.

Like many parents, Janak is torn between his admiration for Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal’s policies at the national level and his disillusionment with the education department at the state level. There are many who feel they have little option between a bungling Congress and a parochial Shiv Sena.

Journalist and parent Meher Marfatia said: “The government…More

TOI : PUNE: An H1N1 positive woman admitted to the isolation ward of the Sassoon hospital here delivered a healthy baby boy on Tuesday. The hospital authorities said this was perhaps the first normal delivery in the country by a woman who had contracted the contagion.

Speaking to TOI, Sassoon hospital dean Arun Jamkar said the 19-year-old woman, who was eight months pregnant, was admitted to the hospital on September 12 with symptoms of malaria, cough, rhinitis and bodyache. She was administered Tamiflu, Zanamavir rotacap inhalation and Azithromycin tablets. Her throat swab report, which was received on Sunday, confirmed she was H1N1 positive.

Jamkar said the woman’s ultrasonography report suggested severe oligohydramnios (condition in pregnancy characterised by a deficiency of amniotic fluid). “She started getting mild pain in the abdomen and went in labour on Monday. As there was a high possibility of the woman requiring emergency caesarean section, arrangements for operative intervention was kept at ready,” he added.

Jamkar said the baby could have contracted the H1N1 flu virus through the mother’s placenta but it fortunately did not. “The baby, which weighs 2.3 kg, is being given recommended breast-feeding with all precautions to prevent viral exposure. It is also being given Tamiflu prophylaxis as per National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) guidelines,” he said.

The hospital has sent a report about the delivery to the state government’s Directorate of Medical Education and Research.

Jamkar said the woman was first admitted at Pachora for two days, from where she was sent to the Jalgaon civil hospital. She was sent back to Pachora where she was treated for malaria. After that, she was admitted to a hospital in Aurangabad before being referred to Naidu hospital here with swine flu symptoms.

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TOI : PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation(PCMC) will soon begin work on preparing the development plan (DP) of the newly-merged village of Tathawade.

The deputy director of PCMC’s town planning department, Avinash Patil said the civic general body (GB) has approved a resolution granting permission to the administration to prepare the DP for Tathawade village.

Explaining the process of preparing the DP, Patil said, “First, the civic body have to conduct an existing land use survey’ and prepare a map. The map will be published after the approval of the GB. The corporation then invites suggestions and objections from the public. Later, the planning committee conducts a hearing on these suggestions and objections and sends its report to the GB.”

Patil added, “The GB can make changes in the report before approving it. Then this draft DP is sent to the state government. If the government has any queries, it seeks explanation from the municipal corporation. Once the government approves the DP, a gazette notification is issued. The plan has to be published within three years.”

The PCMC is likely to take the help of private agencies for conducting the land use survey.

Earlier, the area of the PCMC was 170.51 sq.km. After the Tathawade village was merged with the PCMC on August 5, 2009, the total area has increased to 177.06 sq.km.

Tathawade village

Tathawade village is located along the banks of the Pavana river. The westerly bypass( Katraj-Dehu Road) passes through the middle of the village. It is surrounded by Wakad, Thergaon and Punawale villages which are part of the PCMC. There village has a large number of educational institutions.

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TOI : PUNE: All cases filed by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) related to municipal solid waste management and untreated sewage, pending with different courts in Maharashtra for years, are now likely to be disposed of within three months.

A bench comprising justices Mridula Bhatkar and J N Patel of the Bombay high court, on a public interest litigation, has directed all the courts to take up complaints by the board and “dispose them of expeditiously, preferably within three months”.

With this, criminal cases filed by the MPCB against the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) for discharge of untreated sewage into rivers way back in 2000. Beside, complaints filed against the civic bodies of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani for flouting municipal solid waste management rules last year are also likely to be addressed soon.

“There are 11 such cases pending with various courts across the state. All of these will now be sorted out within three months,” said Mahesh Pathak, a member secretary of the MPCB.

Notably, the board had filed criminal cases against the PMC and the PCMC in 2000 for flouting the norms under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974. “The board prosecuted them (PMC and PCMC) in 2000 for discharge of untreated sewage into the rivers. At that time, both the civic bodies had just one sewage treatment plant (STP) each. Today, the PMC has seven STPs and the PCMC has eight, but both the civic bodies are yet to achieve the target of 100 per cent sewage treatment,” said P K Mirashe, regional officer of the MPCB.

“Of the 560 million litres per day (MLD) sewage, the PMC treats 392 MLD every day. The remaining is discharged into nullahs, which eventually enter the rivers. In the PCMC area, of the 213 MLD sewage, the civic body’s present capacity is to treat 187 MLD,”…More

TOI : MUMBAI: Whatever be the outcome of the seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the fact remains that the latter has proved itself to be the most vulnerable party. It is still to recover from the blow it received in the recent Lok Sabha elections when it won only nine of the 24 seats it contested.

According to political observers, the NCP’s decline had started well before the LS polls. In May 1999, after his expulsion from the Congress for raising the issue of party president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin, Sharad Pawar founded the NCP. But his next move, say analysts, sounded the death knell for the newly-formed party. That very year, the NCP joined hands with the Congress to form the state government.

The then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had said: “By agreeing to share with us (Congress), the NCP has proved that it had talked of the so-called foreign origin issue without any basis.”

In the absence of a strong ideology, the top-heavy NCP has been finding it difficult to stretch itself beyond western Maharashtra. Even in this region, it owed its base to strong regional satraps like Ajit Pawar, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, et al. A senior NCP leader once admitted: “Our party has only leaders, but no cadre.”

The regional leaders derived their strength from their control over sugar factories in the co-operative sector. However, their power is being challenged by farmers much to the chagrin of party president Sharad Pawar. For instance, farmer-leader Raju Shetty of Kolhapur has exposed the fault lines of the NCP. In the recent Lok Sabha elections not only did Shetty defeat the NCP nominee in Hatkanangale, he also ensured the victory of NCP rebel Sadashiv Mandlik in the neighbouring Kolhapur constituency. What’s noteworthy is that Mandlik conducted a highly vituperative campaign against Sharad Pawar and still got elected.

“The farmers are realising…More

TOI : PUNE: After witnessing heavy rainfall for the last two days, rains eluded the city on Tuesday. No rainfall was recorded in the catchment areas of the Khadakwasla, Pawana, Panshet, Temghar and Varasgaon dams, after two days of good rainfall activity.

Both, the city and catchment areas were lashed by heavy showers for the entire day on Sunday and Monday. Apart from the some favourable rainfall systems, local factors like heat and availability of moisture, were also instrumental in causing the downpour.

However, these factors were missing on Tuesday, said IMD officials. “These factors were not very active on Tuesday,” the IMD officials said.

As per the daily weather report cyclonic circulation over east Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring areas had become less marked.

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TOI : PUNE: The recently-formed Republican Left Democratic Front (RLDF) on Tuesday announced the candidature of activist Kiran Moghe from Parvati assembly constituency for the assembly elections scheduled for October 13. An activist of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Moghe would contest the election on the symbol of CPI(M).

Ajit Abhyankar, general secretary, CPI(M), Pune district, said at a news conference: “After separating from the Communist Party of India in 1965, this is the first time that a CPI (M) candidate is contesting the assembly election in Pune city. Earlier, some candidates have contested the Lok Sabha elections from Pune city.” The CPI (M) will also contest from the newly-carved Bhosari seat, Abhyankar added.

“The party feels that there is hardly any difference between the Shiv Sena-BJP and the Congress-NCP alliances,” Abhyankar said. “The problems of the people belonging to the oppressed class, labour community and the unorganised sectors are not yet solved and the future is likely to be worse. Despite being in power in the for 15 years, these alliances have not solved the problems. That is why the CPI(M) is contesting the elections with the RLDF.”

About the seat-sharing pattern in Pune and Pimpri-Chichwad, Parshuram Wadekar, city unit chief of the Republican Party of India (RPI) said: “The RPI has got Shivajinagar, Pune Cantonment, Wadgaon Sheri and Khadakwasla seats. The Kothrud seat will be contested by the Rashtriya Samaj Party led by Mahadev Jankar (who had contested the Lok Sabha election against Sharad Pawar from Madha constituency). The other constituents of the RLDF are discussing about the remaining assembly segments Hadapsar, Kasba, Pimpri and Chinchwad.”

Kiran Moghe said at the news conference: “Besides the CPI(M), our other allies also have a strong hold in the labour community and slums as we are working for these people for many years. Of the total voters in Parvati constituency, 25 per cent are from the slum…More

TOI : PUNE: The H1N1 flu claimed the life of a 30-year-old woman from Ghorpade here on Tuesday, pushing the death toll due to the infection in Pune to 44, even as three educational institutions in the district reported positive cases.

Sharda Fulpati had developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and died at the ICU of the Sahyadri-Munot hospital at 9.45 am, said Ashok Mehta, joint director of health services.

The woman was admitted to the hospital on September 12 in a critical condition with symptoms of cough, fever and breathlessness. She tested positive for the H1N1 flu on Monday, he said, adding that the woman did not have any underlying medical condition.

Besides the three educational institutions, an army officer tested positive for the H1N1 flu, who has been quarantined at the Command Hospital, Mehta said. “The students who tested positive for the contagion are from the Sant Tukaram Higher Secondary School at Chandannagar, JSPM Engineering College at Wagholi and the Indira College of Engineering and Management at Talegaon Dabhade. However, all these students are in a stable condition,” he said. More Stories from this section Zagade’s appeal: Avoid crowds during festival IEX starts power trading on term ahead basis Budding engineers to get a taste of stock trading Alliance deadlock: Blame it on dead souls’ fortnight …More