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TOI : PUNE: The principal, a teacher and a supervisor of Alegaonkar high school in Khadki have been suspended, following a copying case reported during the English paper of the ongoing secondary school certificate (SSC) exam on March 6.

Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, former MLA Chandrakant Chhajed, secretary of the Khadki Shikshan Sanstha (KSS) said, “Principal Ranjana Kanakdar, teacher Narayan Dabhade and supervisor Sudhir Bahirat have been suspended. Kanakdar was appointed principal seven or eight months ago and she has been teaching at the school for 25 years. The decision was taken at a meeting held on Wednesday in Khadki. S K Jain, president of KSS, presided over the meeting.”

According to Chhajed, an inquiry committee has been set up under Ajay Suryavanshi, member of the administrative council of the KSS and the president of the English medium school. “The committee will submit its report in a month,” he said.

The school authorities have sent a letter to the divisional chairperson of the SSC board, conveying the action taken against the three. “Vishnu Badhe, vice-principal of the school, will act as principal,” he said.

Alegaonkar high school is located off Babsaheb Ambedkar road in Khadki bazaar. A local television channel had shown the supervisor reading out answers to the English question paper to an entire classroom during the SSC exam on March 6. The students were shown writing down the answers.

Later, the SSC board sent a letter to KSS on March 15 asking what action had been taken by school authorities regarding the copying case. KSS decided to suspend the three persons after receiving this letter. Post a comment Email this article Print this article Save this article My saved articles Trekki…More

TOI : PUNE: The principal, a teacher and a supervisor of Alegaonkar high school in Khadki have been suspended, following a copying case reported during the English paper of the ongoing secondary school certificate (SSC) exam on March 6.

Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, former MLA Chandrakant Chhajed, secretary of the Khadki Shikshan Sanstha (KSS) said, “Principal Ranjana Kanakdar, teacher Narayan Dabhade and supervisor Sudhir Bahirat have been suspended. Kanakdar was appointed principal seven or eight months ago and she has been teaching at the school for 25 years. The decision was taken at a meeting held on Wednesday in Khadki. S K Jain, president of KSS, presided over the meeting.”

According to Chhajed, an inquiry committee has been set up under Ajay Suryavanshi, member of the administrative council of the KSS and the president of the English medium school. “The committee will submit its report in a month,” he said.

The school authorities have sent a letter to the divisional chairperson of the SSC board, conveying the action taken against the three. “Vishnu Badhe, vice-principal of the school, will act as principal,” he said.

Alegaonkar high school is located off Babsaheb Ambedkar road in Khadki bazaar. A local television channel had shown the supervisor reading out answers to the English question paper to an entire classroom during the SSC exam on March 6. The students were shown writing down the answers.

Later, the SSC board sent a letter to KSS on March 15 asking what action had been taken by school authorities regarding the copying case. KSS decided to suspend the three persons after receiving this letter. Post a comment Email this article Print this article Save this article My saved articles Trekki…More

TOI : PUNE: To ensure the safety of rock climbers, the Giridarshan Trekking Club and the Safe Climbing Initiative (SCI) completed phase I of rebolting four trekking spots close to the city.

A bolt is a point of protection permanently installed in a hole drilled into the rock, to which a metal hanger is attached, having a hole for a biner or ring. Rebolting is the process of replacing the damaged bolts.

On Sunday, 55 bolts were fitted on a stretch of 350 ft on the Vanarlingi peak near Junnar. Four more forts frequented by trekkers will be taken up for rebolting after monsoon.

The initiative was launched last year with Duke’s Nose in Lonavla followed by Dhak Bahiri cave in the Karjat region, Taila-Baila in Lonavla and ended with Vanarlingi on Sunday.

The technical part of this exercise was handled by SCI, while the idea was executed by Giridarshan. Speaking to TOI on Sunday, soon after rebolting Vanarlingi peak, Satish Marathe, president of Giridarshan, said, “When trekkers go to these sites, they put up bolts themselves. However, these bolts do not last for too long. In two or three years, they become weak and tend to break, putting trekkers’ lives at risk. For this reason, we launched this initiative with SCI.”

Inspired by German climber Nicholas Mylander, who introduced the German-made bolts and drilling machine to SCI, the two organisations started work on rebolting the most-frequented trekking and rock climbing sites close to Pune and Mumbai.

According to Swanand Joshi, founder member of SCI, “These German-made bolts can last for over 50 years. A special drilling machine and a chemical tube to fix the bolts has been used on all the four sites.”

The SCI team removed about 40 bolts from Vanarlingi, while the rebolting process, which started on March 11, ended on Sunday.

Once the new bolts were placed, climbers trekked…More

TOI : PUNE: Sanjay Karandikar is a hassled man. For the last month or so he hasn’t had a leisurely meal nor has he spent time with his family. He is an insurance advisor and has been running around getting forms filled, collecting cheques, collecting receipts and issuing certificates.

He is not alone. Most insurance advisors and other investment brokers are working overtime as their clients are calling them frantically asking what are the investment options to minimise their income tax liability.

At the centre of most of the action is section 80 C of the Income Tax Act which allows tax concession on certain investments including insurance premium, contribution to Public Provident Fund and National Savings Certificates. An amount of up to Rs 1 lakh invested by an individual in these schemes qualify for deduction and no tax is payable on this sum.

“It’s the same this time of the year,” says Karandikar. “Salary earners always wait for the month of March to commence and then spring into action. I have experienced that nearly 40 per cent of my business happens in March, every year. Its very common to see salaried people rushing about making investments with the intention of reducing, to the extent possible, their income tax liability.”

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India’s policies lead the pack of investment options and the month of March, every year, witnesses a jump in the number of policies bought. Partha Samal, senior divisional manager for, LIC, Pune told TOI that out of Rs 427.36 crore first premium received by the Corporation so far this year, Rs 46.99 crore is received in the current month alone. He, however, qualifies his statement by saying that the premium collection is often a reflection of availability of plans. “Last year, there was an attractive plan available in January, so the first premium collected in that month was higher than March,” he…More

TOI : PUNE: In a unique case, twins born to a farmer couple in Wagholi are found to have clouded eye lenses (cataract) in both the eyes. Cataract at birth though sporadic, is not rare. However, two babies born at the same time and having both their eyes afflicted with cataract is a very rare occurrence in medical history, say doctors.

Twins Tejas and Shreyas Ambuskar were diagnosed with congenital bilateral cataract at the H V Desai Eye Hospital in the city on March 12. “There are rare cases of congenital bilateral cataract in twins. However, if one of the twins has a cataract, it’s quite likely that the other one will also have. Normally, such congenital cataract occur due to rubella (German measles) contracted by the mother during pregnancy. Fortunately, such conditions are preventable if rubella vaccine is administered to girls at child-bearing age,” P Vijayalakshmi, a renowned senior authority on paediatric ophthalmology at Arvind Eye Hospital, Madurai (Tamil Nadu), told TOI on Wednesday.

Paediatric ophthalmologist Nikhil Rishikeshi of H V Desai Hospital, who diagnosed the twins with the cataract, said, “The parents complained that both the children could not focus on objects and had unsteady fixation. The twins were examined and were diagnosed to have congenital cataract in both the eyes. There was no other illness detected,”

“Babies born with cataract are not rare. However, such cases are sporadic, but this is a unique case where both the babies have cataract in both the eyes. The phenomenon is called congenital bilateral cataract. This is the rarest of rare occurrence in medical history,” said Rishikeshi.

Congenital cataracts may be caused due to chromosomal anomalies, metabolic disease (for example galactosemia) or intrauterine infection (for example rubella) or other maternal disease during pregnancy, said Rishikeshi. Cataract may be unilateral or bilateral. They may not be noticed unless the red reflex is checked or unless ophthalmoscopy is done at…More

TOI : PUNE: A piece of history is set to float on the Mula river during the weekend. The world’s longest rowing wooden ‘eighter’ boat, a prized possession of the College of Engineering Pune’s (COEP) boat club for over 60 years, is set to be the star attraction during the college’s annual regatta here on Sunday.

The boat, which has now been refurbished by COEP students, experts and boatmen, has never been displayed or raced in any regatta since it was acquired, said Mahesh Dongare, secretary for the regatta event.

There are two such boats that are known as ‘eighters’ in the country and both are with the COEP, said Sagar Gambhir, a gold medal-winning rower from the boat club. “They were manufactured by the Salter brothers of Oxford in 1898 and brought to our club by the British in 1943-44. Since then, they have been with us. These ‘eighters’, so known because they can seat a maximum of eight rowers, are part of the rich heritage of our college,” he said.

According to Gambhir, what made the ‘eighters’ at COEP unique was that they were the only boats from their era which were still in use. “The boat is 58 feet long and is considered the world’s longest rowing wooden ‘eighter’,” he said. “We will invite our alumni to row the boat. Among them are acclaimed rowers Mangesh Kale and Pravin Bhagwat, who have won accolades at various national championships. It is a moment of great pride for us.” Post a comment Email this article Print this article Save this article My saved articles In rare case, twins born with cataract in both eyes…More

TOI : PUNE: Starting this year, the University of Pune (UoP) will introduce an online examination for two theory papers at the first-year engineering degree level course. “The papers relate to basic electronics engineering and engineering mechanics, which are common to all engineering batches in the first-year studies,” UoP’s dean of engineering faculty Prakash Wani told TOI.

While the papers are scheduled for April/May as part of the second semester exam for academic year 2009-10, the online exam initiative comes as an extension of the pilot project which the UoP had undertaken three semesters back to introduce online evaluation and assessment process in engineering studies.

The university then conducted the online examination for the 50 marks paper relating to ‘Fundamentals of programming languages (FPL)’ — a practical-cum-oral subject that was introduced post-revision of the first-year engineering syllabus in 2007, with a view to equip students with better programme development know-how instead of becoming mere ‘coding masters’, said Wani.

“The idea was to curb the tendency of extending common marks to FPL, which would give us no judgement as to what the student had learnt,” he said. The pilot paper involved multiple choice questions solved online, he added.

Growing in confidence from this experiment involving between 20,000 to 25,000 students who took each of the last three semester exams for FPL, the engineering faculty has now decided to venture into the theory papers, he said.

A strong advocate of the online examination process, Wani said, “Going for such technology-based option is imperative if universities are to stand up to the competition vis-a-vis foreign varsities that are to soon enter into Indian higher education sector and the innovative evaluation and assessment mechanisms and tools they are expected to bring.” Already, there are a slew of competitive exams like the GRE and the IIM CAT, which are conducted online, he said.

The growth in the number of engineering…More

TOI : PUNE: The Regional Transport Office (RTO) recorded a steep increase in its revenue on the auspicious day of Gudi Padwa, on Tuesday. According to RTO officials, Rs 73 lakh was earned in registration fees alone.

“The response is always good on auspicious days,” said Hemant Ganbote, an RTO official. “Gudi Padwa is one of the most popular days in which to take a vehicle home,” he added.

As per figures available at the RTO, an average of 370 vehicles get registered in Pune every day. “On a normal day, revenue collection from vehicle registration is around Rs 40 lakh. On Tuesday, we collected almost twice as much. The exact figure earned was Rs 73,63,765,” Ganbote said. “More than 900 vehicles were registered,” he added. “This included 150 cars, 750 bikes as well as some transport vehicles and heavy vehicles.”

“We have a rush of customers during Gudi Padwa,” said Rupesh Kothari, chief executive officer (CEO) of a two-wheeler dealership in the city, “The demand gets so high that sometimes we have to send customers away,” he said.

Mangesh Joshi, who had just bought a Honda Activa, said he chose this day because it was propitious to do so. “We were thinking of buying a scooter for a long time. We waited for around a month, just so that we could get the vehicle on this special day,” he said.

Every year, nearly one lakh vehicles get registered at Pune RTO. Around 74 per cent of the over 19-lakh vehicles are two-wheelers. Cars and jeeps account for around 14 per cent. Post a comment Email this article Print this article Save this article My saved articles PCMC proposes road in Pimpri Camp JNNURM projec…More

TOI : PUNE: Four years after the central government launched the ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to improve infrastructure in 63 cities to match rapid urbanisation, questions are being raised about the sustainability and appropriateness of the development projects in Pune.

The mission encourages cities to improve the existing infrastructure in a financially sustainable manner. It has two sub-missions including the Urban Infrastructure and Governance and Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP).

As part of the mission, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) drew up the City Development Plan (CDP) with an outlay of Rs 6,643 crore with 70% of the funds coming from central and state governments. As many as 15 projects are being covered by the mission including roads, storm water drains, Bus Rapid Transit System, water supply, solid waste management, sewage treatment, river and lake improvement, slum improvement and rehabilitation.

But city-based urban planners say even after four years many projects are incomplete, the planning is inadequate and there is growing inconvenience and dissatisfaction about the projects among citizens.

“When it comes to urban infrastructure in Pune, there is no renewal mission at all. The projects the civic body is implementing under the mission are for a specific purpose and unplanned. It is not according to the objectives of the mission. The civic body’s efforts are just a waste of the taxpayers’ money,” said executive director of Centre for Development Studies and Activities Anita Gokhale-Benninger.

The concept of development and renewal should be clear before projects are started, she said. “Replacing old infrastructure including water pipelines would have helped citizens while widening roads will not solve traffic problems,” Gokhale-Benninger added.

Corporator Ujwal Keskar agrees that the development under JNNURM must be reviewed. “Looking at the projects and their implementation, we don’t feel that the mission has really benefited the city,” he said.

Former assistant director of the state town…More

TOI : PUNE: The Hadapsar police have detected 11 cases of housebreaking and vehicle thefts and recovered loot worth Rs 2.63 lakh following the arrest of two suspects on March 11.

The suspects are Kashinath Gaikwad (20) of Kalepadal in Hadapsar and Nitin Gaikwad (21) of Undri in Haveli taluka.

Acting on a tip-off received by senior police inspector Pandharinath Mandhare, a police team arrested the suspects at Mantri market recently. The police also recovered a motorcycle from them. During questioning, they admitted to stealing a computer and motorcycle from a society in Magarpatta city recently.

Investigations revealed that Kashinath, who was in police custody earlier, had escaped from the Sassoon general hospital while he was undergoing treatment on November 10, 2009. Since then the Bund Garden police was on the lookout for Kashinath.

To evade arrest, Kashinath had later changed his name to Sagar Datta Pawar. He befriended Nitin Gaikwad and together they committed several house break-ins in Pune.

After Kashinath’s arrest, his father Chandrakant Gaikwad fled with a part of the loot. The Pune cantonment court has sent the duo to police custody till March 17. Post a comment Email this article Print this article Save this article My saved articles 2 e…More