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

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.

The delay in the arrival of monsoon is causing a decrease in the level of water at four dams that supply to the Pune city. Because of this, there will be a 20 per cent cut in water supply from Sunday, June 21, 2009.

On Friday, the district guardian minister Ajit Pawar said that the dams are currently holding an average water level of 4.11% (1.14 TMC) of their capacity. He further added that the water cut will continue till the dams get a considerable increase. All the dams have a capacity of 27.72 TMC.

The Pimpari-Chinchwad area will not face the problem of water shortage as the Pavana Dam has sufficient water to cover the area. Currently, Pavana dam has 30% water of its total capacity.

The meeting of the state urban development department (UDD) was held on Thursday to discuss the bus purchase plan by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) under the JNNURM.

Maheh Zagade, Pune Municipal commissioner told to TOI that they will provide excellent public transport to citizens. At the meeting there were other members along with Zagade including Ashish Sharma (Pimpari-Chinchwad municipal commissioner), Nitin Khade (PMPML managing director) and Ramanand Tiwari (principal secretary of UDD).

The decision of buying 200 A-C buses on public private partnership of PMPML has flak from some organizations and cooperators. According to the decision held in meeting the buses purchased under JNNURM will stay with PMPML only and not with private owners.

A 23 year old Vijendra Seeram a software engineer committed suicide on Monday after the death of his mother. He was working in Tata consultancy Services (TCS) in Magarpatta.

His mother was suffered by cancer and died a fortnight ago that he couldn’t bear her death and forced him to committed suicide. Seeram hung himself in a flat where he was living with his colleagues.

The incident came in light on Monday evening when his friends saw that the room is locked from inside. Seeram wrote a suicide note apologizing for the act.

The case filed as an accident case. Sub-inspector A V Nikam is investigating the case and is looking for other factors behind the suicide. The police got the news of suicide of Seeram from his friends. Seeram was sent to the Noble Hospital in Magarpatta that time he was unconscious. He was then shifted to Command Hospital in Wanowrie where he was declared dead. His body was sent to his native place Nanded after completing the required procedures.

According to Nagendra Seeram, elder brother of the decease Vijendra had never told about any irritation regarding to his workplace. He further added that Vijendra was quite sensitive and special bond with their mother. He also added that his brother frightened when their mother was at last stage of cancer. After her death Vijendra became depressed.

He back to his work on June 1 and keep regular contact with his relatives. He called up all his relatives and friends in Monday morning before committing suicide. According to all the people he contacted, he sounded quite normal that day. His suicide note simply said ‘Love to all and sorry to all’.

According to hospital authorities, five new cases of suspected swine flue have been reported during last two days in the city.

The family of three including a 30 year old woman with her two children is suspected to be having swine flu. They arrived from Singapore and admitted to a hospital in Pune. Remaining two cases includes two young men who came from the US.

The official sources said that the blood samples of these five persons have been sent for tests to the National Institute of Virology (NIV).

However, two of cases had then tested negative that were reported fortnight ago here.

The energy audit of water supply and drainage department is going to undertake by the Pimpari-Chinchawad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).

According to Pravin Tupe, joint city engineer they will appoint the contractor who will help in the preparation of reports for managing energy audit of pumping stations, raw and pure water drawing centers, streetlights and buildings.

Except this, they will get 5% share per year in the energy savings after the agreement get assigned. According to him PCMC will have to spend only 25 per cent of the expenditure on energy because the state government is going to give a fund of 75% on the total expenditure on energy audit. It requires three months for preparing project reports.

Tupe said that the PCMC spends Rs 27 crore on electricity bills of pumping machines and on other streetlights per year. Meanwhile, the standing committee is agreed to appoint a contractor for the project for witch they will be paid with Rs 7.80 lakh. The decision was approved in meeting held on Tuesday.

The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) is facing shortage of investigators to conduct the surveys. To solve this problem the NSSO is looking for the recruitment on contact basis.

NSSO’s deputy director general, Survesh Kumar, the NSSO is facing the shortage of around 600 investigators. They need the permission by government to appoint the investigators on contact basis. According to him the NSSO has embarked on the public awareness programs on surveys that is going to conduct in nearest days, which is impossible without active cooperation if citizen.

According to Kumar the 66th round will start from this July and will end in June 2010. Survey will be focused on employment and socio-economic survey. The survey will be held in about three lakh households across the country by the existing investigators. Last year the NSSO focused on domestic tourism and housing that was started in July. The reports will be sending to concerned ministries after analyzing the data of survey.

NSSO is having well-defined and elaborate system to manage the surveys but all the surveys are completed in timely manner without any delay.