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TOI : PUNE: Two courier employees travelling on a two-wheeler where thrashed and robbed by four people, who intercepted them outside Orient Hotel near Maldhakka chowk in the wee hours of Tuesday.

One of the two victims, Jayesh Hemchand Patel, who works as a delivery boy at Bhavani Express couriers in Budhwar Peth, was kidnapped and later set free at Khadakwasla about 20 kms from here. He was relieved of cash and diamonds totalling Rs 15 lakh.

Inspector (crime) of the Samarth police station, Bhagwant Ingale said, “All the employees of the courier firm were staying at a rented place in Mangalwar Peth. The parcels which are to be delivered to places like Mumbai are kept at the employee’s residence.”

Ingale said, “Around 4.30 am, Patel and his colleague Sanjaykumar Patel started for the Pune railway station on their two-wheeler with Rs 12 lakh and diamonds worth Rs 3 lakh, to catch a train to Mumbai. As they came near Hotel Orient, a speeding car came from behind and hit their vehicle. As a result, Sanjaykumar and Jayesh fell off the scooter. The suspects alighted from the car and thrashed them. Sanjaykumar managed to escape but Jayesh got caught. They dragged him into the car, blind-folded him and drove the vehicle to an unknown destination.”

On the way, they tore off Jayesh’s shirt and snatched a bag containing the booty. The suspects also took Rs 1,200 from his pockets and two mobile phones, Ingale said.

Patel was deserted near Khadakwasla dam in his underwear. After walking for about a kilometer, he sought help of an autorickshaw driver who gave him clothes. Patel alerted the firm manager Kirti Prajapati about the incident on telephone.

The firm employees brought Patel to Pune and he later registered a complaint of robbery against the quartet under sections 392, 365, 323, 506 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code….More

TOI : PUNE: It’s the child-like enthusiasm with which two children save money in their piggy bank only to break it open later. Wise beyond their years, they used to money to buy a sapling that they sincerely plant in their garden and look after with dedicated love.

Their message Save trees and Mother Earth’ rings loud and clear in Do You’. A minute-long film made by Pune-based MBA executive Sanyog Mohite and his friend Ketan Hendre, Do You’ has been nominated in the amateur film category at the CMS Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife Film Festival that will be held in October in Delhi.

Do You’ also features as one of the top five one-minute films world-wide in the 1 Minute To Save The World’ an international one-minute film competition on climate change.

“The idea behind making this film was to show that children really know how to protect and nurture the environment, but the elders don’t take them seriously. The film shows how these kids save money to buy a sapling and plant it in their garden. It’s important to inculcate this habit in every child to save our planet,” says 26-year-old Sanyog, a fresh MBA graduate who works in Pimpri.

He scripted and directed Do You’ last year in his native Satara, while he was studying in Pune. The film, made with a budget of Rs 500, will end with a message from none other than critically-acclaimed filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker. “By mid-October we will shoot Gowariker’s message on saving planet Earth,” informs Sanyog, adding that the decision was taken after Gowariker showed keen interest in lending his support to the film.

Given the socially-relevant message of the film, Sanyog wants to screen it at schools. Once he shoots Gowariker’s message, copies of the film will be distributed to 100 Marathi and English-medium schools in Pune, Satara and Kolhapur. “I also want to reach out…More

TOI : PUNE: Eleven sitting MLAs, mostly ministers in the outgoing state cabinet, have been renominated by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from various assembly constituencies across the five districts of western Maharashtra. The party has denied tickets to four sitting MLAs in favour of new faces.

Late on Tuesday night, the NCP declared its first list of 80 candidates for the October 13 assembly elections23 of these nominees are from the western Maharashtra region. The party will contest total 114 seats as part of the seat-sharing pact with alliance partner Congress, which will field its nominees from 174 seats.

State NCP chief R R Patil (from Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal in Sangli district) and ministers Ajit Pawar, Dilip Walse-Patil (Baramati and Ambegaon in Pune), Jayant Patil (Islampur in Sangli), Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil (Pandharpur in Solapur), Hasan Mushrif and assembly speaker Babasaheb Kupekar (Kagal and Chandgad in Kolhapur) were among the prominent sitting MLAs, who got party nomination once again.

Other renominations were that of Shivendraraje Bhosale (Satara city), Vallabh Benke (Junnar in Pune), Shashikant Shinde (Koregaon in Satara) and Babanrao Shinde (Madha in Solapur).

Sitting MLAs Dilip Mohite from Khed-Alandi in Pune and Shalinitai Patil, Sampatrao Awghade and Balasaheb Patil from Koregaon, Man and Karad North, all in Satara district, respectively, were denied tickets in favour of fresh faces.

Shalinitai, widow of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil, had been critical about the party leadership in the recent months. Her vocal opposition of NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s approach even led to her suspension from the party.

The declaration of official nominees had an immediate fallout in terms of rebellion within the NCP ranks in Satara and Sangli and to some extent at Solapur and Kolhapur.

While Shalinitai has decided to contest as an independent candidate, Karad North MLA Balasaheb Patil resigned from the party on Wednesday and declared his move to contest as an independent. The NCP…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune division of Central railways has launched a drive to curb unauthorised sale of tickets and provision of seats in trains for a charge.

The drive will be carried out at places such as unreserved coaches of trains and places inside stations like the unreserved ticketing system (UTS) machines, reservation centres and the counters of railway travel service agents.

During a recent campaign, the division came across two such cases one of the illegal purchase of tickets and the other of collection of money for providing train accommodations.

In the first incident, a person travelling in the general coach of the Azad Hind Express, running from Pune to Howrah, was arrested for allegedly extorting money from passengers for providing them seats.

In the other incident, a person was caught on September 15 while trying to procure reserved tickets by furnishing bogus names, addresses and telephone numbers.

A railway official said complaints about such malpractices are received often. “We have observed that these incidents usually take place during the rush season,” he said.

“According to the Indian Railways Act, it’s illegal to sell or use tickets booked in another person’s name. We appeal to passengers to buy tickets in the correct manner. The division is also creating awareness about this,” another official stated. More Stories from this section Chinchwad post office gets a facelift Inter-corporate cultural fest on Oct 2 Say you care, donate a T-shirt Two test +ve for Swine flu in Satara, three in Karnawadi Sena faces unrest over …More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune division of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has prohibited two distributors from promoting ayurvedic medicines as a preventive treatment for Influenza A H1N1. It must be noted that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not recommended the use of any alternative system of medicine for prevention or cure of the swine flu.

“We have prohibited two distributors of Karnataka-based Amrut Pharmaceuticals under section 4 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (objectionable advertisement) Act 1954. Both the distributors were selling Ayurvedic medicines, promising preventive treatment of the H1N1 flu. Since the therapeutic effects of ayurvedic drugs is not scientifically validated as treatment for the H1N1 influenza, we initiated action against them,” P K Pawar, assistant commissioner (Drugs) of FDA.

Elaborating on the matter, Sandeep Khardekar said, “People fall prey to advertisements claiming that a certain ayurvedic medicine or for that matter any alternative system of medicine can protect them for contracting the H1N1 virus. People take such products home and do not consult a doctor even when they develop flu-like symptoms. This is dangerous as such a person can transmit the virus among healthy people. Hence such advertisements and sale of drugs whose therapeutic value is debatable, should be banned.”

Dilip Sarda, president of the city unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA), said, “There is a need to create awareness among people that they should immediately consult a doctor if they develop flu-like symptoms. Buying products that claim to provide protection against the H1N1 infection is wrong as these drugs are not scientifically validated.” More Stories from this section Chinchwad post office gets a facelift Inter-corporate cultural fest on Oct 2 Say you care, donate a T-shirt Two test +ve for Swine flu in Satara, three in Karnawadi Sena faces unrest over …More

TOI : PUNE: Pimpri Chinchwad municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma will review the progress in clearing audit objections on Thursday.

The PCMC had sent a letter to all chiefs of civic departments on May 6 asking them to clear the audit objections and furnish the requisite records in one month for audit period 1998-99 to 2004-05. But still date the civic departments have not furnished the requisite records and cleared the audit objections according to the report given by the chief auditor and audit department.

About 114 officials were given seven days show-cause notices. The period of the show-cause notice expired on September 15 but still no action has been taken against any civic official. According to independent corporator Maruti Bhapkar, PCMC officials have still not cleared objections on expenditure of Rs 264 crore. He has threatened to file a contempt of court notice against the PCMC in Bombay high court if the civic officials failed to clear the audit objections.

Speaking to TOI on Friday, Sudhir Rajderkar, chief auditor, PCMC said, “I met the municipal commissioner and brought the fact to his notice that many civic departments have not given the necessary records due to which the audit objections could not be cleared. The municipal commissioner has told us to give three days more to the engineering department to clear the objections as it has not cleared maximum number of audit objections.”

Rajderkar said that officials of his department were compiling information about clarifications received so far and a comprehensive report will be submitted to the municipal commissioner in couple of days.

Speaking to TOI, Maruti Bhapkar said, “The municipal commissioner should take strict action against errant officials and the audit objection amount should be recovered from them. Criminal cases should be lodged against them.” More Stories from this section Chinchwad post office gets a facelift Inter-corporate cultural fest on Oct 2 Say you care, donate…More

TOI : PUNE: Hundreds of cheering fans welcomed actress Rani Mukerji at a newly-opened multiplex in Fatima Nagar on Wednesday. The actor was in the city to promote her latest film that has her portraying the characters of a Punjabi girl and a youth all at the same time.

Addressing the media, Mukerji said, “I believe the film offers a paisa-vasool’ experience to the audience which I think is very essential to establish an emotional connect with the audience. I think we need to change with time and reinvent ourselves which is what I tried to do,” she said.

Mukerji plays a Punjabi girl in the film who pretends to be a Punjabi youth to get into the men’s cricket team. The film has Shahid Kapur playing the male lead. “Shahid and I would crack jokes very often on the sets. We are very similar people and we have the same kind of focus towards our respective careers,” she said.

Speaking of the film, Mukerji said that while she did not have to do any research on how to play a Punjabi youth complete with a turban, the game of cricket did require some practice. “It was a game I have never played before so it took be about six months to learn how to play it. Interestingly, no one has commented on my cricketing skills so I assume I look effortless as a cricketer,” she grinned.

Mukerji now wants to do an action flick since she believes that the preparation for the movie would involve learning a new craft. “I’m dying to do a film that has me doing some action and I would jump at any such opportunity offered to me,” she said.

So was the outbreak of the H1N1 flu a worry before she came to the city? “I did not think of the H1N1 flu till I saw people wearing masks in…More

TOI : PUNE: Ever looked at a building, one that has stood as a mute testimony to a proud history, and wondered what a fascinating tale it would tell, if only it could speak?

Filmmaker Prabhakar Pendharkar’s recently-released book Eka Studioche Atmavrutta narrates one such tale, right from the time of its establishment till date, that of Jayprabha Studios and by Jayprabha Studios.

As the book spans 75 years of the studio’s life’ – right from its construction in 1926, the transition from the silent films era to that of the talkies, the transfer of its ownership from the State of Kolhapur to the author’s father, celebrated filmmaker Bhalji Pendharkar, its destruction in the communal backlash of 1948, and eventual resurrection – the studio narrates not only the journey of filmmakers makers and their movies, but also the changing idiom of cinema.

“When you are covering 75 years, sometimes the going is easy and sometimes not. A long time has passed, memories tend to fend, but therein lies the skill of the writer,” said Prabhakar Pendharkar. “One thing was clear, though. It was the studio that was going to speak, not the people who worked in the studios. And a studio remembers not just episodes that involve actors and directors, but also lab assistants, technicians, the evolution of the language of cinema, and more.”

So be it a description of how the bank of a river was recreated in the famous movie Brahmachari, as actress Meenakshi refused to wear a swimming costume for an outdoor shoot, or actress Tanuja’s remark that her mother Shobhana Samarth made her first film in the studio, the fact that Vijay Tendulkar had never written a cinematic script before Saamna, there are anecdotes aplenty.

“The studio also narrates the changing approach to making movies. When my father (Bhalji) acquired the studio in the pre-independence era, makers and artistes like him were…More

TOI : SATARA: Nasal and throat swab samples of 12 people, including two small children, were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) from Karnawadi village in Khandala taluka of Satara district on Wednesday.

An increasing number of villagers have been showing flu-like symptoms since September 16. So far, six students of the Karnawadi primary school have tested positive.

“While three students have been discharged, the rest are still under treatment at the Khandala rural hospital,” said S N Chavan, taluka medical superintendent, while speaking to the TOI. Initially, as many as 89 school children had showed symptoms similar to that of the H1N1 flu.

District health officer Bhagwan Pawar said that as many as 97 people from the village, most of them students, were administered Tamiflu tablets and syrup on Wednesday. “A team of 12 medical officers is also conducting door-to-door surveys in nearby villages, like Ghadgewadi, Lohom, Kanheri, Aswali and Atit, to check if any person was showing H1N1 symptoms. All preventive measures are being taken to curb the spread of the virus,” Pawar stated.

At Satara’s Krantisinh Nana Patil government hospital and medical college, two confirmed cases of H1N1 and one suspected case are under treatment. “A 25-year-old woman from Limb village and a 23-year-old youth from Karad tested positive, while the report of a 13-year-old student from New Era high school in Panchgani is awaited,” said Padmakar Kadam, head of the quarantine ward at the hospital.

Meanwhile, all the nine students from the New Era high school who tested positive for H1N1 and were quarantined at the school itself, have recovered fully and have come out of the isolation facility, said district civil surgeon Suresh Jagdale. More Stories from this section Chinchwad post office gets a facelift Inter-corporate cultural fest on Oct 2 Say you care, donate a T-shirt Two test +ve for Swine flu in Satara, three in Karnawadi Sena…More

TOI : PUNE: In order to facilitate maintenance and repair work, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) will switch off power in Kothrud, Shivajinagar, Parvati and Bund Garden areas, between 10 am and 5 pm, on Thursday.

A statement released by MSEDCL stated that consumers who need information about the shut-down may contact the toll-free number 18002333435 or mobile numbers 9960677021-025.

The areas to be affected include:

Kothrud: Savta Mali, Cosmos bank, F C road, Bhonde colony, Kalmadi house area, Prabhat road, Bhandarkar road, Bharati Niwas, Erandawane gaothan and nearby areas, Sanjeevan hospital, ILS law college road, Karve road, Sharda centre, Anandnagar, Rambaug colony, Shivteerthnagar, Sutardara, State Bank area, Mayur colony, Ideal colony area, Karishma, City Pride area, Gananjay, Warje, NDA, Pashan pumping station, Warje water works and Khadakwasla.

Shivajinagar: Bavdhan, Ranwara, Ramnagar, Pashan, Sus road, Mutha associates, Neeljyoti, Defence colony, Mafco, MIG, RBI, Model colony, Harekrishna mandir, Dalvi hospital, Wakdewadi, Shivajinagar ST stand, LIC, Pride hotel, PMT depot, Athashree, Government polytechnic, Model colony, Symbiosis hotel management, Wadarwadi, J M Road, Narayan Peth, Shaniwar Peth, Khadki station, Range Hills, Military hospital and QMTI.

Parvati: Spark society, Sainagar, octroi post, Vitthalwadi, Hingne, Manikbaug, Venutai Chavan college, Jaidevnagar society survey no. 130 to 133, Neelayam, Sinhagad road, Panmala, Saritanagar area, Janata vasahat, Sharadamath

Bund Garden: Manjri vasti, Shewalwadi, VSI, Satyapuram, Gondhalenagar, Bankar colony, Solapur road, Mahadevnagar.

Meanwhile, there were major power breakdowns in parts of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad on Tuesday due to heavy rains that caused falling of trees on the 22 KV supply line from Chinchwad sub-station. Another 22 KV supply line from Hinjewadi sub-station too snapped disrupting power supply. All repair works, including underground cable work at Bhumkar chowk near Wakad flyover, have been completed. More Stories from this section Chinchwad post office gets a facelift Inter-corporate cultural fest on Oct 2 Say you care, donate a T-shirt Two test +ve for…More