Pune News Blog
A blog about life in Pune and various news in Pune city

There will be about 175 new buses in the PMPML and the state government has sanctioned Rs 40.5 crore for this project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Mission (JNNURM).

As per the decision taken by government on July 1, 2009, the amount will be released as a first installment to add buses in Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal’s fleet.

The funds have been released in the meeting held on last week in between Pune MP Suresh Kalmadi with state chief minister Ashok Chavan to discuss various issues regarding to Pune.

As per the announcement of the Union Ministry of Urban Development the funds are being released in January this year and the purchase of buses will be added to the JNNURM funding schemes. The decision was taken to improve the transport service in 56 mission cities of JNNURM.

Pune is one of the first cities receiving the sanction for the proposal to obtain buses. Rs 40.5 crore will be used for first batch to buy 175 buses and there will be total 650 buses that have been sanctioned.

State government is going to take review for every three months and will judge the improvement in the bus procurement process and the use of funds.

The Pune Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar suggested to PMC and PCMC to install meters for all consumers to save water.

He was speaking at the meeting called on Thursday to discuss water crisis. He said that there is need to install meters for all users of Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune. According to him the system will help to save water and will allow people to use water very carefully.

The Union government is installing meters and has set 24 hour water supply following the condition of equal cost of service and its recovery under JNNURM. The civic body has constantly tired to introduce this new water billing system to calculate water tax. However, PMC had sectioned it for domestic users from April 1, 2000.

There will be world class facilities at Pune station in future. Railway minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday in her budget that the Pune station would be one of the developed world class station amongst 50 stations. The station would be having all the facilities that the international level stations have. Railway administration has already started all major up-gradation work.

Public relation officer of the Pune railway division Y K Singh said that the work is undertaken though they have not yet received any details about the plan. Commuters of the organization welcomed the proposal but said that the facilities, which are being up-graded, are not enough.

He further added that the division has spent more than 8 crore for up-gradation and decoration of the station. Currently there are number of plasma TVs on every 15 meters and enquiry booths are also placed for passenger convenience. The other up-gradation at the places such as waiting rooms and retiring rooms has been up-graded. The station is now well equipped and having CCTV cameras.

Condition for the special lighting has been also made on stations as well as on platforms that gave a fresh look to the station. The new gates have been opened at platform number one that will avoid the passengers to take longer route.

The city is facing shortage of water in the beginning of the mansoon. To solve this problem Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to reform the water distribution system in Pune.

Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade said on Monday that Pune is a growing city and is having various demands including water supply. According to him the problem may create in future and need a plan to tackle such situations. There are some plans on cards such as leak detection, water supply from closed pipelines and replacement of old water supply.

He further added that the PMC will sketch a plan for the implementation of the event and trying to get financial support from JNNURM and the state government. PMC also help for such events. The water supply in the city is not uniform that is one part receives less water supply while other part receives more than 135 litres per head. Now the PMC is looking for supplying uniform water supply in city.

According to him the citizens may face shortage of water and it may be major crisis issue. There may be a strict discipline regarding to water use. City wastes about 300 MLD water per day because of leak and faulty pipelines. PMC is going to focus on this type of problems to solve water problems.

Students’ organization has demanded for the fix fees for professional courses during admissions. Representatives of Students’ organizations including Rashtravadi Vidyarthi Congress and Maharashtra Vidyarthi Parishad were present.

Students’ Welfare Association of Pune, Suresh Jain said on Monday that they had demanded for the fix fee structure to the SSS before starting the admission process. He added that it will be helpful for the parents to send their ward to a particular college according to fee structure.

The Shikshan Shukla Samiti (SSS) will decide a temporary fee during admissions and the fixed fee will be announced in the next six months.

These organizations have planned a meeting at Patrakar Bhavan with students and parents at 2.30pm. According to organization they will move a step of complaint if the immediate action is not taken.

The newly admission students have started to prepare for popular prizes in theatre. Purushottam Karandak, which is going to be organized by Pune based Maharashtirya Kalopasak is calling new entries to show their performance and theatrical skills.

Entry forms are available at the Maharashtriya Kalopasak office of Subhashnagar for these two days July 14 and 15 in between 6pm to 8pm. The selection process for the registration of the admission will be depending on the early entries of the participants. The waiting list will be prepared on July 14 and 15 of the participants who are looking for the participation for first time.

According to Hemant Vaidya, secretary of Maharashtriya Kalopasak, they have around 45 entries for the competition for every year. He added that the first choice will be for the first and second runner up of last year. The interested participants willing to register for the competition have to submit their scripts by July 26 with Maharashtriya Kalopasak. According to Vidya the scripts will be sending to the censors and after that the announcement of selected entries will be done on August 2 and 3.

The preliminary rounds will be held from August 8 to 14 and August 16 to 21 and final round will be on September 5 and 6 at Bharat Natya Mandir. While, the award distribution ceremony will be held on September 13 at the same place at 5pm. Veteran singer, Ramdas Kamat will present the awards to winners, he is also in chair at that evening.

The Pune Municipal Corporation is launching a scheme of free traveling for school students in PMPML buses and service will start from August. According to Devnikar, additional municipal commissioner, the students from PMC limits may get the passes to travel between 6 am to 7.30pm.

To get the passes, students need to fill the application form and submit with two photographs, address proof and school certificate stating that the student is studying in that reputed school. The forms will available at civic ward offices without any cost from June 29. Last date of accepting the forms will be July 10 and the passes will be issued on July 27. Devnikar further said that both PMPML and PMC will sort out all details of the scheme and will present the report to PMC on July 22.

The budget made by PMC of 9 crore was insufficient where as the transport undertaking would require Rs. 48.9 crore to get the progress of the scheme. Devnikar said that they will stand a committee if they need more fund. There are about 864 government schools in which 285 are PMC schools. The students from these schools take benefits of this free travel. It will be limited only from home to school.

The Kolhapur HSC topper Raj Kiran Joshi was on the edge to miss his seat at Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences because of his weak family background, but now he can complete his engineering degree without warring about the tuition fee.

The city based Creative Foundation make announcement at press conference here on Thursday that they are going to cover all spending incurred on Raj’s studies. According to Sandeep Khardekar the head of foundation, first installment of 1 lakh has been handed over to Raj.

The foundation is also ready to help his twin brother Ravi with his higher studies. The foundation hopes for the help from public for this cause. Raj and Ravi were present at press conference with their parents.

According to Khadekar, scholarship provided for meritorious students by state education board is insufficient and they should need to extend financial help for the students who have a very weak financial background.

Raj was aiming to join IIT for his further studies but not succeeded to signup for the IIT entrance coaching classes. But his performance in XII examination has given him an excellent opportunity to join the very reputed Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences. The course requires Rs 1.37 lakh as annual fees.

Shakuntala Kale, the divisional board secretary conformed on Thursday that the order has given to Vimlabai Garware high school for revaluation of internal marks given to 146 students in social studies and mathematics. The decision of revaluation of marks has taken following complaint that the school had gifted more internal marks.

According to Kale the Zilla Parishad education officer Prakash Parab give out information in his preliminary enquiry that the school had given more marks in internal assessments than required marks in two subjects.

They asked for the revaluation of marks and the school has also agreed to do so. The results were declared again with new marks along with the other schools today.

Chandeasena Murkute, Principal of Vimlabai Garware School denied the incident telling that she is working since June 1 as a principal and there is no any happening like this in the school and was not any preference of any kind.

According to Kale the special committee will be appointed for further investigation and the teacher responsible for giving excess marks will be punished or the necessary action will be taken against them. The revaluation of marks is done for the future of students and results were declared to not to wait them for results.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is on the mission to remove garbage and hyacinth from Pavana River, which flows through the municipal limits. Around 15 tonnes of garbage has been removed from the river so far.

Health executive officer R. B. Chavan said that the civic employees have removed the garbage and hyacinth in large quantities over the last fortnight.

Chanvan told that for this process the river stretch has been divided into two parts; from the Military Dairy Farm to Dapodi, and from the Military Dairy Farm in Pimpri to Kalewadi. In this mission there are 10 employees from zone B and 20 employees from zone D.

Chavan said that boats are being used to remove the garbage and water hyacinth. Other wastes like tyres, plastic bottles etc. are also being removed from the river. He added that the removal of garbage will continue till the beginning of the monsoon season.

In this mission, the environmental organization Indryani Bachav Kruti Samiti is also participating actively. The founder of IBKS, Vikas Patil said that they have inspected the river stretch and have identified the polluted area, which is now being cleaned by the civic employees.