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TOI : PUNE: Senior socialist leader Bhai Vaidya, who attended the meeting organised by Cummins India’s employees’ union, has extended support to the union. Vaidya has appealed to the company to accept the demands of the union, or else the workers’ family members will also join the agitation.

The meeting was attended by union chairman Mahendra Balwadkar, advisor advocate Ram Sharmale with company representative senior general manager Satish Mule and general manager Pramod Kand.

Dinesh Castellino, vice-president (legal) and company secretary of Cummins India Limited, told TOI that the company has not declared a lock out and in fact wants the workers to come back. “Our position remains the same as it was on September 15. We are willing to allow workers to enter the company premises provided they sign an undertaking about decent behaviour. We cannot compromise the safety and security of any of our people and need to ensure good conduct on the company’s premises,” Castellino said.

He informed that the company’s stand was made clear in a meeting with the Labour Commissioner on Tuesday where representatives of the union were present. Castellino made it clear that the company will not withdraw the suspension of workers for their violent behaviour last week. The enquiry will follow the suspension orders and the company will take legal action depending upon the outcome of the enquiry,” he added.

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TOI : PUNE: The following areas will not receive water on September 24 due to repair works to be undertaken at Wagholi water supply scheme. The affected areas are Kalas, Ganeshnagar, Mhaskevasti, Vidyanagar, Bhairavnagar, Dhanori, Kalwad, Khese park, Lohegaon, Gurudwara vasti, Santnagar, Dadachi padal and adjoining areas. These areas will receive water late and with low pressure on Friday.

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TOI : PUNE: The increasing number of milk adulteration rackets unearthed in the city and the district in the past few months has yet again highlighted the need to take effective steps to curb the problem.

Three major rackets have been busted in Pune and its vicinity since August. On September 17, the Pune rural police uncovered a milk adulteration racket at Patas near Daund, where the suspects allegedly mixed caustic soda and lactose powder in the milk. On the same day, the Pimpri police and the health department of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) arrested two suspects who purportedly sold watered-down milk in branded milk bags to tea stall owners in Morevasti and Chikli.

On August 4, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) detected a milk adulteration racket at Phaltan taluka in Satara district and the alleged kingpin, Sameer Mehta, was arrested by the police. The accused, the FDA said, sold synthetic milk’ in Pune.

The gang mixed vegetable oil, emulsifiers and chemicals to produce a thick white paste, FDA officials said. Water was then added to the paste until it reached the density of milk. The mixture, when heated, produced a milk-like liquid, with the vegetable oil acting as the source of fat. This concoction is harmful to health, the officials stated.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Anil Kumbhare said investigations have revealed that migrants from Mumbai and other states were involved in the rackets uncovered recently. “The gang that we apprehended on August 7 comprised migrants from Mumbai. Similarly, the suspects arrested by the Pimpri police on September 17 hailed from another state,” he said.

The health departments of the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad civic bodies have stepped up efforts to detect milk adulteration rackets. PCMC food inspector Dilip Karanjkhele told TOI, “We are always on the look-out for racketeers and conduct raids whenever we get information about such crimes. As regards the Pimpri…More

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: 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.

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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 Rani has an action flick on her agenda Audit objections not cleared yet Railways launch drive to curb malpractices NCP renomina…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 Rani has an action flick on her agenda FDA bans two ayurvedic drug distributors Railways launch drive…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 filled…More