The Golden Sparrow on Saturday 23/04/2016

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PUNE, APRIL 23, 2016 | www.thegoldensparrow.com

MOTHER OF ALL HOUSING SCAMS

Why is the government doing nothing to help these

DROUGHT-HIT VILLAGES?

SEE P06

Top Mumbai lawyer gets aboard the water train to Latur State government’s water train plan inspires philanthropic instincts in noted criminal lawyer Satish Maneshinde who donates generously to the worthy cause

BY SUSHANT RANJAN AND BAPU DEEDWANIA @TGSWeekly

The widespread drought across Maharashtra has served to bring to the fore the lop-sided or self-serving motives and approach of politicos and the elite in power, who will lavish a showpiece place like Latur with water for its gardens, while completely ignoring and leaving in the lurch the little-known villages that are See p08-09 the subject of this feature

The Jaldoot Express, the longest distance water train in India, to supply water from Miraj which is 342 km from Latur, seems like the obvious option for government to solve this crisis in droughthit Latur. While the government’s choice of picking Miraj is no surprise, considering it is one of the few areas in Maharashtra which remains unaffected by drought, what did come as a pleasant surprise is that ace criminal lawyer Satish Maneshinde, who is not from Maharashtra but hails from Dharwar in Karnataka, was the first to donate for the water train. He paid rail fare of around Rs 3 lakh for the first water train that left for Latur from Miraj on April 11.

Maharashtra is reeling under one of the worst droughts ever. To bring succour to the residents of Latur, a

water train was started, for which neither the Railways nor the state government asked for funds. But some good Samaritans voluntarily extended a helping hand for this humane project, donating generously.

“Satish Maneshinde was the first person to donate Rs 2,88,999 for the water train, while the Bombay Chamber of Commerce has donated Rs three lakh,” said a senior official of Pune rail division.

“Maneshinde and the Bombay Chamber of Commerce (BCC) personnel called the Central Railway Headquarters and spoke Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) Narendra Patil, after which they handed over their donation cheques. We are expecting NGOs, organisations and individuals to contribute to drought relief programmes,” he said.

Continued on p2

MUMBAI

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

“We will communicate our demand to the government that it must bring a Water Security Act. We will not beg before the government if it fails to respond. We will launch asli azadi (true freedom) agitation.”

— Rajendra Singh, Water Conservationist

Pig hearts may save human lives P 11

Nomination is motivation enough: Pereira P 16

Gauri Khan buys Rs 25.25 cr showroom in Juhu The celebrated interior designer is believed to have bought the commercial space in Lido Tower to expand her operations

BY YOGESH SADHWANI @yogeshsadhwani Producer and interior designer Gauri Khan has bought a sprawling departmental store on Juhu Tara Road for Rs 25.25 crore. Actor Shah Rukh Khan’s wife recently concluded the deal for the space spread over 8,700 square feet in Lido Tower.

The commercial space, which is part of a residential complex coming up on Juhu Tara Road, is spread over three floors – ground, mezzanine and first floor. Khan also gets 31 parking slots in two basements.

Gauri Khan, who already has a interior design store called The Design Cell in South Mumbai is believed to have bought the commercial space in Lido Tower to expand her operations. The 45-year-old took fancy to interior designing while doing up her bungalow Mannat, located on Bandstand, Bandra. “While redecorating my own home and amidst other related projects, I was approached by people for a variety of design work. What began as a hobby has now turned into a fulfilling profession,” she has stated on her website.

She turned into a professional designer in 2010 when she

collaborated with Sussanne Khan, actor Hrithik Roshan’s ex-wife. The duo designed exclusive interior projects together. In 2012, when Sussanne Roshan set up The Charcoal Project, an exclusive interior design store, Khan launched her own line of furniture. Sometime in 2014, she started The Design Cell at Raghuvanshi Mill Compound, Lower Parel. Khan’s Lower Parel store has a wide range of art, sculptures, lightings, antiques and accessories. “The Design Cell has been the culmination of a long-standing passion for interior design... I have carefully handpicked décor pieces and collectables from across the world. Each piece in the store closely reflects my design sensibility and showcases the diversity of concepts. My travels have given me the great opportunity to understand and work in this space,” Khan has stated on her website.

While Khan’s publicist did not respond to us, sources revealed that she is all set to set up an interior design store at the newly acquired property. yogesh.sadhwani@goldensparrow.com

Maha mulls law to make it must for units to use recycled water

Mumbai, With the drought situation in Maharashtra worsening day by day and the storage in dams hitting a low, the state government is mulling bringing in a law making it mandatory for industries to use recycled water. As part of steps to mitigate the crisis, state Industries Minister Subhash Desai has also instructed the Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC) to study the feasibility of raising the height of dams, desilting and deepening of lakes.

A 20 per cent water cut for breweries and 10 per cent reduction in supply for other units had already been clamped in the parched Aurangabad district in Marathwada region, which has a string of water intensive sugar mills and distillaries.

“We are mulling initiating longterm measures like increasing the height of MIDC dams and making recycled water mandatory for industries by amending the MIDC Act, 1961,” Desai told PTI. “The industry department will also take up a project to raise height of dams and deepen lakes and canals to preserve drinking water,” he said.

On the acute water crisis in the

Sources reveal that Gauri Khan will set up an interior design store at the newly acquired property

state, especially in Marathwada, he said there are 62 cooperative and private sugar mills in the parched region and also many liquor distilleries in Aurangabad district.

“There are more sugar mills and distilleries in Marathwada that guzzle up water in a region which is known to face acute water scarcity. In order to produce 1 kg of sugar, apart from sugarcane, you require 2500 litres of water. When you consider lakhs of tonnes of sugar being produced by these mills and the lakh metric tonnes of produce that is exported...you are actually exporting that much lakh litres of water,” Desai said.

He, however, said though drinking water is of utmost importance, industries too are vital as they provide employment to lakhs of people.

Out of 11 major irrigation dams in the state, seven have zero percentage of stock left. According to Maharashtra Water Resources Department data for the week ending April 15, only three per cent of water stock is available in all the 814 major, medium and minor irrigation projects in the Marathwada region. More PTI MM ARS NM PTI

Top Mumbai lawyer gets aboard the water train to Latur Continued from p1 A reluctant Maneshinde, on his name being made public, said that the motive for his contribution was not publicity. “I have known this pain, this is not for getting my name in the papers,” he told TGS. However, on being persuaded to say what made him do this, he agreed to talk about why he felt so moved by the water crisis in Maharashtra, and why he thought of donating to this cause. Maneshinde is a senior criminal lawyer who has represented likes of actor Sanjay Dutt, gangster Chota Rajan’s wife Sujata Nikalje, encounter specialist Daya Nayak, among others.

“The news of the government deciding to send across the water train to Latur caught my attention while reading the newspaper one morning.

I could identify with the pain of those who suffer due to the scarcity of water.

The news reminded me of my travel to Gulbarga and Raichur, which of course are not as badly hit as Latur, but they also do have paucity of water. I figured the exercise was being handled by the railways. Next, I immediately called up the Railway Minister and asked if there was a way in which I could contribute to help the train that was transporting water to Latur.

That very evening I was talking to the General Manager of Central Railways in Mumbai to understand what was required to be done,” said Maneshinde.

Maneshinde learnt that Pune was the headquarters of this exercise run by the railways and that a demand draft of the amount he wished to donate was to be drawn in favour of the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Miraj. In no time, having figured the logistics, a demand draft was drawn in favour of the railways for the amount that Maneshinde desired to contribute towards the fi rst train carrying water from Miraj to Latur.

“I was in Delhi when I got a call from the railways that a Railway Receipt had been issued in my name and the amount would be used towards the next train carrying water tanks scheduled to leave Miraj.

I felt relieved. I could not help but think of my days as a student, when I myself carried gallons of water from a distance to my home. The area where I come from does not face this severe a drought but I have known what it is to fetch water for basic necessities for kilometres. Th is is the least I can do, today when I do not face this crisis and when God has blessed me with the money to contribute towards this noble cause,” he said.

Maneshinde clarified that this act of his is not towards any governmental activity, “The government per se has made no appeal, but I did feel the need to make an appeal and which I did to my industrialist and lawyer friends, to do what they could and help people fight this water crisis. I am all praise for the railways’ vision on this.

It is not only the train, I have learnt that the railways has come up with an idea of sending 25 litre cans so that drinking water does not go waste at all. All this is possible perhaps, because the Railway Minister is a Mumbai ‘dude’ (Mumbaikar) who has seen this and has the ability to come up with a solution,” said Maneshinde.

“I could not help but think of my days as a student, when I myself carried gallons of water from a distance to my home. The area where I come from does not face this severe a drought but I have known what it is to fetch water for basic necessities for kilometres. This is the least I can do.”

Maneshinde did express sadness about how each agenda becomes politicised and how for some it’s always about the limelight. “I do not understand the political parties and their posters on this train. I do not know of any one party which has contributed towards this cause but certainly all the names were there on the train. At the same time I am a bit disappointed in some people who despite the wherewithal have not contributed their mite towards this.

It is ironic that we do have the High Court which took such a bold step to address this crisis and passed an order directing the IPL matches to be held outside of Maharashtra, and that there are many who could have come

forward in this time but haven’t. I do hope that they do and soon!” he said.

The fi rst water train with ten wagons left Miraj in western Maharashtra at around 11 am on Monday, April 11 and reached Latur at 5 am on Tuesday, April 12, taking 18 hours to traverse around 350 kilometres. Till Saturday, April 23, 11 racks of water train reached Latur.

Initial nine racks carried ten wagons, with a capacity of around 50,000 litres each. The water was fi lled at Miraj railway station in Sangli district. The tenth rack reached on Wednesday and eleventh rack carried 50 wagons each.

According to railway sources, a wagon has a 54,000 litres capacity,

but actually only 50,000 litres are fi lled. A total of ten lakh litres of water has been transported so far. A single trip from Miraj to Latur costs Rs 2.88 lakh, according to railway estimates.

Indian Railways Miraj Junction draws water from Krishna river downstream of Warna dam, using a lift irrigation scheme. The downstream has ample water and hence it was zeroed in as the best possible option compared to other water sources such as Ujani dam near Pandharpur, about 130 km from Miraj.

Krishna Basin is known for its fertile aspect. The Warna Major Irrigation Project, that came up in the area three decades ago about 100 km from Miraj, has added to water availability in the region, and has also helped farmers and farming flourish. The Warna project, on which work commenced in 1978, and was completed in 1998, has a capacity to store 34 TMC (Thousand Million Cubic Feet) of water. The water has helped the area become a hub for the cultivation of grapes, sugarcane, banana and resins. While a major part of Maharashtra is reeling under the drought now, this area has remained largely unaffected.

A jackwell at the Krishna River sends water to Railways Water Treatment Plant (WTP) 4.5 km away, where it’s treated and fi ltered before being fi lled into the passenger trains at Miraj Junction. The plan – the work on which is still in process – is to create an outlay at this WTP using bigger pipes (315 mm diameter) which will be able to fi ll in the wagons much faster than the present speed which is three hours to fi ll a single wagon with 50,000 litres of water. The system will be able to fi ll the entire 50 wagon train in ten hours. Before being fi lled in the tanks, water will be stored at a historic well next to the station – Haidar Khan Bawdi – from where it will be pumped to the wagons as and when needed. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

Unifying the strands of Indian diversity P12

“PMPML management has no control over private operators and buses breaking down. Commuters will face more hardships if additional buses are procured by private operators.”

— Vivek Velankar, President, Sajag Nagrik Manch

Cong chief turns community centre into a credit society

In another case, Congress city unit chief has been accused to usurping land meant for public toilet to build his party office TEJAS GAIKWAD

BY TUSHAR RUPANAVAR @tusharrupanavar Ramesh Bagwe, the former minister of state for home and newly appointed Congress city unit president, has set up a private credit bank on land which he had taken from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) under the pretext of using the land for social causes.

Ramesh Bagwe Bagwe has also demolished a public toilet and in its place has constructed his party office in Kasewadi area.

Bagwe, 63, from Kasewadi area, has served four terms in the PMC, before stepping into state politics, and won the Pune Cantonment assembly seat in 2004 and 2009.

A staunch supporter of former MP Suresh Kalmadi, Bagwe was minister of state for home from 2009 to 2010, in the Congress government.

Recently he has been appointed Congress city unit president. His son Avinash is a PMC corporator who won on a Congress ticket from Kasewadi area.

Kasewadi resident Bharat Kamble said, “Ramesh Bagwe, who has a

Some Kasewadi residents, on conditions of anonymity said, “Bagwe has constructed his party office illegally by demolishing parts of a public toilet.”

monopoly in Kasewadi region, and with his nefarious reputation no one dares raise a voice against his misdeeds.

“Bagwe has taken over PMC land in Kasewadi under the premise of setting up ‘Indira Gandhi Shivankala Kendra’, a sewing training centre for economically backward women, which he did, but a few months later, set up his private Rajiv Gandhi Credit bank on this land.

“Operating a private credit bank on land he has taken from the PMC for a social cause is a brazen flouting of the rules, as earning profits in

the form of interest by giving loans to the public does not amount to working for a social cause. He has demolished part of a public toilet to construct his party office. He has also illegally constructed structures on a nullah and rented it out to small scale traders.”

Some Kasewadi residents, on conditions of anonymity said, “Bagwe has constructed his party office illegally by demolishing parts of a public toilet. He has also illegally constructed several structures and rented them out, but people are intimidated by him so nobody dares

Woman run over by a bus, booked for rash driving

Supriya Shilimkar, who lay on the road for 45 minutes after meeting with an accident on Sinhagad Road, has been booked for rash driving after her death by the cops. Her family is now fighting to get her name cleared

BY YOGESH WAGH @YogeshWagh1857 The family of Supriya Shilimkar, who met with a fatal road accident on April 18, 2016, has raised questions regarding the manner of her death.

Their concerns relate not only to the issue of the cause Supriya Shilimkar and manner of her accident but also regarding the callous attitude of the onlookers as well as the delayed arrival of the ambulance.

Supriya was wearing a helmet with an ISI mark, and her brother Sunny Bandal questioned the quality of helmets available in the market.

The accident has left her children orphaned, and her family are distressed that the police and media have held her responsible for her own death through negligent driving.

Talking to TGS, Sunny said, “I am

PUNE

very confused. Onlookers say that a PMPML bus rammed into my sister’s two-wheeler. The media also reported it so but later changed their story. The police said that Supriya was speeding as the signal turned green and lost control of her bike before hitting another two-wheeler and toppling over the divider and suffered a fatal head injury.

“Her helmet with an ISI mark should not have broken only by a fall and hitting the divider. Then the problem is with the quality of the helmet and not the manner in which Supriya was driving. I believe the initial reports that alleged that the PMPML bus hit the bike and ran over Supriya are the true version. Even a good quality ISI mark helmet will break if a bus runs over it. I can see a red patch on the back of Supriya’s Activa which look like red paint from a PMPML bus. Supriya was a very careful and responsible driver, so it feels like she was run over by a PMPML bus. The police had seized the PMPML bus and the photos show that its front bumper has white scratches, just like Supriya’s white Activa. We all, especially RAHUL RAUT

The family of Supriya Shilimkar allege that she lost her life after being hit by a PMPML bus, claiming that the deceased had been driving a two-wheeler for the past 12 years

Supriya’s children, need an answer.”

Supriya’s children are eight-yearold Kaushal and three-and-a-halfyear-old Bhargavi.

With helmets made compulsory in Pune, roadside stalls were selling helmets with ISI marks. Are they are real ISI marks or dubious?

Onlookers take pictures of accidents to upload on social media.

“When my sister was lying on the road drenched in blood for nearly 45 minutes, no one helped her but they were busy clicking photos. The crowd caused a traffic jam, which made it difficult for the ambulance to reach the spot. Is there no humanity left in us?”

Supriya’s aunt Hema Jalgaonkar said that Supriya had been driving two-wheelers for 12 years, and was a careful, responsible and cautious driver. “We do not want any compensation, we only want her name to be cleared.

We want the PMPML driver to be punished. Her name should be cleared and should be removed from the complaint register at Sinhagad police station,” Hema said.

Investigating officer and police sub inspector Machindra Nagargoje denied all the allegations made by Supriya’s family. About the PMPML driver being responsible for the accident, he said that Supriya was driving her bike at great speed, lost control and met with a fatal accident. When the accident happened, passengers in the bus started screaming, and then the driver stopped the bus. When a police constable asked the driver to drive away the bus from the accident spot, many thought that it was the bus that caused the accident. The media also reported that a PMPML bus had caused a fatal accident. We seized the bus and RTO officials found that the bus did not cause the accident. He said the impact may have broken the helmet’.

Supriya’s family will have to wait longer for answers to their questions. yogesh.wagh@goldensparrow.com

to talk against him.”

PMC Additional Municipal Commissioner (Estate), Rajendra Jagtap said, “PMC had given land to Bagwe in Kasewadi to run a sewing training centre for economically backward women, as he had claimed when he was allotted the land. Our records show that he is operating the Indira Gandhi Sewing training centre on this land. About the public toilet demolition, we have to visit the spot, after which further action could be taken.”

About these issues, Bagwe said, “There used to be a money lending racket in Kasewadi area, as the poor residents of the area needed small loans, for which they were charged 25 per cent interest, which was exploitation of the people by the racketeers.

“I have set up the Rajiv Gandhi credit bank to help the poor, who are refused loans by public banks, and then they borrow money from criminals at exorbitant interest rates.

This used to be a garbage dump, with stray pigs and dogs aplenty. My bank is serving the people, so there is no issue of the misuse of PMC land. I have built my party office according to PMC norms. I am working in the interests of the people of this city.

Bharat Kamble has been making false accusations against me to malign my public image, owing to vested political interests.” tushar.rupanavar@goldensparrow.com

Nine conditions for Kanhaiya rally

BY PRIYANKKA DESHPANDE @journopriyankka The Pune police have granted permission to Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar to hold a rally in the city, but have set nine conditions. Student and youth organisations in the city, united under the banner of ‘Purogami Vidyarthi Yuvak Sangharsh Samiti Pune’, asked for police permission to hold Kanhaiya’s public rally at Rashtra Seva Dal Samiti ground near Dandekar Bridge.

The police have set stringent conditions which are impossible to fulfil, the Samiti members feel. But the police say that it is necessary to take all possible precautions, as they have been told that the rally would be stopped by some organisations.

In a letter given to the Samiti, Senior Police Inspector Shridhar Jadhav of Dattawadi Police Station, under whose jurisdiction the Rashtra Seva Dal Samiti ground falls, has told them to put up a fence at the venue to stop intruders.

The letter told the organisers to conduct a structural and fire audit before the rally, and arrange for ambulances and fire brigade vehicles. The organisers have been cautioned that the venue of the rally is a hub of criminals, who may obstruct the rally or destroy private property.

Purogami Vidyarthi Yuvak Sangharsh Samiti members feel that some organisations are pressurising the police to set stringent conditions, to thwart Kanhaiya Kumar’s popularity.

“These stringent conditions are impossible to fulfil. If police claim that there are 200 criminals in the vicinity of Rashtra Seva Dal ground, they should

Kanhaiya Kumar

take them into custody to ensure that the rally is not disrupted,” said Mao Lata Bhimrao, state councillor of All Indian Student’s Federation (AISF).

While the student organisations and youth political wings are excited over Kanhaiya’s arrival in the city on Sunday, the Film and Television Institute of India is trying to distance itself from this.

“We had earlier clarified that he is not coming on our invitation. However, JNU and FTII had been essentially fighting for the same things and that strengthens our solidarity for him,” said Ameya Gore, member of the FTII Students’ Association (FTII SA). Ajayan Adat from the 2008 batch plans to attend the rally, but the FTII students’ association said that it is an individual decision.

“We have already made our stand clear. There is no official representation from our side as we are not getting involved,” Gore said. About Kanhaiya and AISF claim that he is coming to Pune to meet FTII students, he said, “We are not linked to any event he does outside our campus. However, if he so wishes to come and speak in our campus about our common struggle, he is welcome.” priyankka.deshpande@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

“At present, there is a de-recognition provision which is more of a punishment to the child and parents. Hefty fines must be imposed for RTE violations. Repeat offenders should be booked under relevant sections of IPC for denying a child’s fundamental rights.”

— Mukund Kirdat, Activist

Cybersecurity $35 bn opportunity, to create 1mn jobs: Nasscom

Indian women are making the grade

P10

P12

These villages have remained on the fringe a year later

Ambulance drivers taking patients for an exorbitant ride

People’s Union taking up the cudgels on behalf of 34 fringe villages that are devoid of the most basic necessities

BY DNYANESHWAR BHONDE @dnyanesh1

RAHUL RAUT

BY GARGI VERMA @missgverma Pune is the second largest city in Maharashtra. However, its border has been f luctuating for several years. The state government told the Pune Municipal Corporation to extend the city limits in May 2015. The PMC passed a circular in 2015, citing the inclusion of 34 fringe villages in the city limits. No action has been taken on this aspect a year later, though the taxes on the villagers have been hiked.

People’s Union, a nongovernmental organisation submitted a letter to the Pune collector on April 21. “We have written to everyone, including the PMC. We even approached the judiciary, and they directed us back to the PMC. However, PMC has taken no action whatsoever. So we asked the collector to intervene,” said Dr Vikram Gaikwad, a social activist from the city. “We want the PMC to provide these villages with basic amenities and to implement law and order like in the city. It’s not just one or two villages, but concerns the residents of 34 villages, who have been assured benefits on par with the city. But they do not have even basic amenities like roads,

Private ambulances in Pune city and the district are levying exorbitant rates to ferry patients, as there is no official tariff card for ambulance fares. Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) had published a fare chart for ambulances on their website in August 2013, but it has not been updated. Pune RTO authorities admit that there are no regulations and fare charts for ambulances.

According to data available with Pune RTO, there are 1188 private ambulances registered with the RTO for district. But there is no information as to how many of the 1188 ambulances are for Emergency Medical Service (EMS). In 2010, Nagpur RTO had devised a fare chart for small, big and cardiac ambulances.

But Pune RTO has not taken the initiative and patients are forced to pay what the ambulance drivers demand.

Sanjay Shankar Jagtap, 45, of Dhanakawadi who operates an ambulance service in Pune and all over India, says that private ambulances are making huge profits owing to the absence of fare charge regulations. Jagtap’s Non Government Organisation (NGO) ‘Shuddhodhan Pratishtjan’ caters to poor patients, at nominal costs or even free of cost. In an accident on Vadgaon Budruk bridge that left six jeep passengers dead in June 2015, an accident victim was overcharged. “The local ambulance in Dhayari charged Rs 2000 to ferry a dead body from Vadgaon bridge to Sassoon hospital, a distance of ten

The fringe villages have been merged into PMC limits, but lack even the most basic amenities like roads, water and power

electricity and policing,” he said.

In their letter, addressed to both the chief minister and the collector of Pune city, the People’s Union has demanded immediate action.

“The basic rights of the residents of the 34 fringe villages have been ignored, as they don’t have potable

water, roads, electricity, hospitals and other health services, waste disposal, gardens, schools. Though the order to make these 34 villages a part of Pune city was passed in May 2015, no action has been taken after a year,” the letter states.

The 34 villages include Mhalunge, Sus, Bavdhan, Kirkitwadi, Pisoli, parts of Lohegaon, Kondhwe-Dhawade, Kopre, Nanded, Khadakwasla, parts of Hadapsar, Mundhwa (parts of Keshavnagar), Manjari, Narhe, Shivane, Ambegaon (Budruk), Undri, Dhayari, Ambegaon (Khurd), Urali Devachi, Mantarwadi, Holkarwadi, Handewadi, Wadachiwadi, Shewalewadi, Phursungi, Yewalewadi, Nandoshi, Mangdewadi, Bhilarewadi, Gujar Nimbalkarwadi, Jambhulwadi and Kolewadi. While most of these areas are already construed to be a part of the city, they don’t even have a police chowky. Infrastructure on a private scale is growing as the realtors are selling their properties by advertising them to be within PMC limits. “They neither follow rules nor do they

have to get permission as the PMC hasn’t asked them yet to work as per city rules,” said Gaikwad.

An ayurvedic doctor, Gaikwad has been striving to get the residents of these villages their rights. “First the fight was to get a declaration from the PMC authorities, which came from the state government on May 29, 2015, stating that these 34 fringe villages were to become a part of Pune city.

Now the effort is to get the city’s standards and amenities implemented in these villages,” he said. Gaikwad and his group, People’s Union, have written several letters to the chief minister and the PMC commissioner. They have also held awareness camps in these villages. “The authorities are getting away with this is because the villagers are unaware of their rights,” he said. People’s Union has also started a signature campaign.

“When we raise this issue, the authorities are forced to take action,” he said.

The collector refused to comment on this issue. gargi.verma@goldensparrow.com

City hawkers protest against massive PMC hike City hawkers up in arms against PMC’s 25-fold hike in charges

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), while rolling out its hawkers policy on ‘The street (vendors protection of livelihood and regulation of street vending) Act 2014’ at a meeting on May 9, 2014, had hiked hawkers charges 25-fold.

But only 12,000 of the 22,000 registered hackers in PMC limits are able to afford these hiked changes. PMC hiked monthly charges of Rs 250 to Rs 6000, which 10,000 registered hawkers are unable to pay. Hawkers claim that this hike is higher than ready reckoner rates per square metre declared by inspectorate general of registration and stamps in Pune this year. Angered by PMC’s decision, more than half the registered hawkers have stopped paying the charges, claiming that the PMC has obstructed their livelihood by imposing the hike.

Pathari Vyavasaik Panchayat (hawkers panchyat) suggested a hike of

From Rs 250 a month, charges have been hiked to Rs 6,000

amounts from selling eggs. PMC told me to pay Rs 3000 per month as my vendor comes under A category PMC hackers, but it is

nott possible for me to pay such a huge amount. This hike in charges of hawkers is completely irrational.

The government says that they are RAHUL RAUT

BY TUSHAR RUPANAVAR @tusharrupanavar

Rs 1000 per month from Rs 250, but PMC resorted to a 25 fold hike. PMC conducted a ground survey in 2014, which identified more than 27,000 hawkers in PMC limits. But PMC has registered only 22,000 hawkers.

Hawker Sangeeta Chavan, a vegetable vendor of Sinhagad Road said, “According to the new hawkers policy, PMC had imposed a 25fold hike which is impossible for us to pay. Earlier we paid just Rs 240 per month but now we have to pay Rs 200 per day. I have given up space PMC allotted to me on Sinhagad Road and shifted to on adjacent space, which is now illegal. I had no option but to leave the PMC allocated space, though it is registered and I have protection from PMC’s anti encroachment and police personnel as it becomes legal by registration under hackers policy. But I am unable to pay Rs 6000 per month. I earn Rs 200-300 per day. The space PMC gave me is only of 2.5 x three metres, which leaves no space for vegetables. So I moved to a new place, which is illegal. I earn Rs 10,000 a month and it is impossible to pay Rs 6,000 to PMC as hackers charges.”

Hawker Rajkumar Jadhav, who sells eggs, said, “I earn meagre

The hawkers say that they are being charged rates that are higher than what people pay for parking their vehicles

GRADE

OLD RATES PER MONTH

HIKED RATES

HAWKERS PANCHAYAT

—

—

—

SUGGESTED SPECIAL STALL

—

250

6000

1000

A

150

4000

500

B

85

2000

300

C

60

1000

200

HANDMADE

20

150

100

providing protection to hawkers by this new hawkers act, but by hiking charges they are taking away our livelihood. I have stopped paying this hiked charges and now shifted to a new location.”

General Secretary of Pathari Vyavasaik Panchayat of Pune, Balasaheb More said, “We thought that hawkers would get protection under this law. But the situation has deteriorated and many of our hawkers are unable to pay such huge amounts. PMC had declared no hawkers zones on 45 roads and 135 junctions in Pune. Hawker Panchayat had suggested a hike of Rs 1000 but PMC has hiked it 25 times. PMC must reduce charges for hawkers to be able to pay this charge. We have requested PMC to reduce charges but they have not responded. Cars are parked at prime locations like Fergusson College Road for just Rs 10 for four hours, but PMC is charging hawkers much higher rates than ready reckoner per square metre, and even higher rates than for parking.”

Chief inspector of antiencroachment department of the PMC, D R Langhe said, “It is true that some hawkers are not able to pay the hiked charges. Recently committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of PMC mayor to review the hike in hawkers charges. On the basis of the committee report, mayor will decide on hawkers charges.” tushar.rupanavar@goldensparrow.com

kilometres,” said Jagtap.

Sandeep Bhise of Hadapsar had admitted a relative in Deenadayal Memorial Hospital on Fergusson College Road a couple of months ago.

To transfer the patient to Sassoon Hospital, he called up a private ordinary ambulance. “The ambulance driver asked for Rs 1200 to ferry the patient to Sassoon Hospital, distance of barely 2.5 km,” he said. “We used an autorickshaw instead,” he said.

There are 15 private ambulances operating from Sassoon Hospital, which mostly take . dead bodies to the crematorium, or to homes of relatives in Maharashtra. The ambulance drivers overcharge the bereaved family who pay whatever they demand. A security guard at Sassoon Hospital Forensic department said, “Ambulance drivers demands a thousand or two rupees to carry per dead bodies to Vaikunth crematorium in Navi Peth or Kailash crematorium behind Pune RTO office.’’

Regional Transport Officer Jitendra Patil said that there are no guidelines for ambulances fares. “It is difficult to categories ambulances, between big, small or specialised and ordinary. So we can’t prove overcharging by ambulances. But we will make inquiries and take action against drivers accused of overcharging,” said Patil. “I don’t know what Nagpur RTO has done but there are no provisions for such rules in Pune. We didn’t have a single complaint regarding overcharging by ambulances,’’ he said. dnyaneshwar.bhonde @goldensparrow.com

14 vehicles destroyed in fires

BY TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly Seven trucks, six two-wheelers and a bicycle caught fire across the city. The fire department thinks that the scorching heat and short circuits were to blame for these fire incidents.

Six trucks at Babubhai garage, Ubale Nagar, Wagohli caught fire at 4:30 am on Thursday. Three fire tenders brought the fire under control. “There were 15 trucks in the garage for repairs and we put out the fire before it spread to the other nine. Initial reports suggest a short circuit,” said fireman Subhash Jadhav.

Six two-wheelers and a bicycle caught fire near Nehru Chowk, Mandai. The fire department does not suspect foul play. The fire was contained by two fire tenders.

Arfi Bavan, 49 has filed a complaint with the Shukrawar Peth Police Station.

They have registered the complaint and an unidentified person has been charged under IPC section 435 (Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to amount of one hundred or (in case of agricultural produce) ten rupees).

A truck from Hyderabad loaded with coal caught fire near Akashwani, Hadapsar on Wednesday night. Two fire tenders brought the fire under control. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

Farmers in distress avail of psychiatric help

BY DNYANESHWAR BHONDE @Dnyanesh1 The drought is driving the desperate farmers Maharashtra to suicide, but there are also many farmers of Marathwada and other regions are seeking counselling from the Pune based ‘Health Advice Call Centre’ (HACC) under the ‘Project Prerana Scheme’. The toll free helpline number declared under the scheme is 104.

Concerned over the spate of farmers; suicides, the state government launched

Project Prerana Scheme, a mental health scheme, to curb the number of suicides by farmers driven to desperation. “The state government, under the department of National Health Mission, uses the same 104 helpline used for the Prerana project. Since its setting up till April 10, 2016, we have received 2180 calls from farmers across the state, pertaining to depression, suicidal tendencies, anxiety and alcohol addiction,” said Nirja Banker, head of 104 HACC. The helpline number 104 was launched in 2011 for doctors and paramedical

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PMPML has no funds to build bus shleters for you

Besides its service, PMPML is also falling short on the number of bus sheds and the condition of bus stops

staff, to seek expert medical advice while administering treatment to emergency patients. It is also used for blood on call service and mental health counselling service across Maharashtra. The 104 helpline call centre at Aundh chest hospital, received a total of 50,810 calls between February 2015 and April 20, 2016. Of these calls, 2180 were made by farmers. The number of calls from farmers in distress are increasing by the day. “We have five counsellors at the centre, which receives the calls and counsel the callers.

Most calls were from Marathwada and Vardha districts. Though the scheme caters to Marathwada primarily, we get calls from farmers all across the state, and we are happy to help farmers in distress” said Banker.

A state government survey in October 2015 had identified around three lakh farmers with health problems, including 4,607 suffering from depression. This large number spurred the government to launch the Prerana project. Under the scheme, local Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers make compulsory door-to-door visits to farmers’ homes in drought-hit areas and also hand them a questionnaire. The affirmative responses to the questionnaire indicate the need for psychiatric care, and ASHA workers then call 104 to avail of counselling. Counsellors found that farmers with severe mental issues are referred to nearby civil hospital psychiatrists for treatment, said an official. dnyaneshwar.bhonde@goldensparrow.com

BY SUSHANT RANJAN @sushantranjan

released by PMC from 2010 to 2013. So we built only 39 sheds,” they said.

RTI activist and PMP Pravasi Manch founder member Jugal Rathi said that the bus shelters are hazardous. “The new bus shelters are not maintained. PMPML has constructed more than 500 new stainless steel bus sheds from the MPs and MLAs fund. More than 200 bus sheds were constructed, which was not required. It’s a waste of money. There are 1000 bus stops which need new bus shelters urgently.

“The temperatures are rising and bus stops across the city are in a poor condition, where there is no space to stand or sit, and quite a few do not have roofs. Instead of planning new routes, PMPML should improve the old stands.”

PMPML spokesperson Subhash Gaikwad said, “We are working on developing the bus stands in the city and currently we have given a contract to modify around 2,000 bus stands. We are aware that more bus sheds need to be built and we will do so very soon. We welcome complaints from commuters, which help us improve our services.” sushant.ranjan@goldensparrow.com

The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) bus service is neither reliable nor efficient, and has never been. Moreover, PMPML lacks bus sheds, and only 39 bus sheds have been put up from 2010 to 2014.

The PMPML apathy towards bus shelters is borne out by the fact that funds allocated for stainless steel bus shelters from 2010 to 2013 have not been utilised. MPs and MLAs allotted funds for bus shelters in 2014, after which construction started. Some 1500 new bus sheds were needed in 2015 but only 499 were built, and in April 2016, PMPML is waiting for funds to built bus sheds.

PMPML sources said that only 36 out of 5000 bus shelters have been renovated. “The development fund of PMPML had not been VISHAL KALE

Farmers from drought-hit areas of state seek counselling and help from Pune-based Health Advice Call Centre

The drought is driving the desperate farmers Maharashtra to suicide, but there are also many farmers of Marathwada and other regions are seeking counselling from the Pune based ‘Health

China bids for India’s rail networks

Google, RailTel free WiFi to cover 10 stations

“The existing ban on inter-district export of fodder would be lifted in some parts for the benefit of areas facing droughtlike situation. IThese arrangements will continue if need arises.”

— Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister

PUNE

Pune to get crisis centre for women under Nirbhaya fund

Pune will be the first city in the state for the setting up of Sakhi, the one-stop crisis centre for women and girl children in distress in June 2014.

“It will be a pilot project where women and girl children below 18 years of age, who have been subjected to mental, physical, sexual, emotional and financial harassment but have not lodged complaints with the police, will be provided assistance and rescued, and also helped with the filing of First Information Reports (FIR) and Non-Cognizable Reports (NCR).

Legal assistance and counselling will also be provided to the victims while protecting their identities,” said Birajdar.

The centres will also deal with issues of domestic and other violence.

The centres will be linked to telephone service number 181. The high power committee supervising the scheme includes chief medical officer, social activists and counsellors, with the district collector as its head. priyankka.deshpande@ goldensparrow.com

on April ance Day ominent World D pr Ahead of eaks with some and dance sp 29, TGS s, choreographers ve made ha er perform om the city, who eld fr en fi teachers their chos in k ar m their

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Being fashionable is her plus point

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urinals,” said Detha.

The Water ATM makes great sense for Pune, which is among the 20 cities on the smart city initiative. “As a prospective smart city, the Water ATM project will suit Pune perfectly,” said Detha. He aims to launch the project all over India.

City based entrepreneur Suraj Jhala feels the Water ATM concept is brilliant and is striving to launch it in Pune. “Residents of Pune are always open to new concepts and the Water ATM project had a number of positive benefits,” said Jhala.

Auto rickshaw driver Kamlesh Gadre said, “The Water ATM will be a boon as it will provide water at very affordable prices. And it is environmentfriendly as it will use pouches instead of plastic bottles.” ekta.katti@goldensparrow.com

With this issue

s e l b u o tr away

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Arvind Detha, 50, of Akola, has the vision of a smart India. He launched the revolutionary Water ATM initiative in Akola, which evoked a resounding response. Detha now wants to launch the Water ATM concept in Pune.

Detha told TGS, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country would rise to new heights if each Indian steps forward. I was inspired by him to start the Water ATM plan, which has the potential to fulfill society’s needs and will also provide employment. I have built the unit without any help from the government.”

Detha and the other members of ‘Bharat Ek Kadam’ devised the Water ATM, and installed it at the Akola Collector’s Office, Government

Hospital, Panchayat Samiti and District Sports Collector Office. The 300 x 100 square feet machine has a RO water purifier and pouches for water. By putting in one rupee into the machine, one gets a litre of water, a chilled onelitre pouch of water for two rupees, nine litres of water for five rupees, and a can of water for Rs 20. It is environmentfriendly as no plastic water bottles are used.

Akola District Collector G Shrikant said, “The Water ATM does not need any maintenance and had proved to be a big boon. The unused and waste water from the RO is used for the plants in our garden.”

“With the Water ATM, we have tried to provide water at affordable prices, compared to the Rs 20 for mineral water. Excess water from the RO water purifier will be used for

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Water ATM on the cards?

BY EKTA KATTI @Ektaak

, 2016

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Pune will be the first city in the state for the setting up of ‘Sakhi’, the one-stop crisis centre for the welfare and counselling of women and girl children, as well as police, medical and legal assistance. A Union Women and Child Development’s initiative, the centre will be established under the Nirbhaya fund, which has not been utilised significantly so far.

“The centre may also provide the victims with monetary assistance and shelter,” said Meenakshi Birajdar, head of the district Women and Child Welfare department. The plan to start such centres across the country was proposed by the then UPA government in 2013, following the Nirbhaya gang rape in Delhi on December 16, 2012.

Birajdar said that a high-power committee has already been set up and district collector Saurabha Rao, who is

the head of this committee, has given a green signal for the construction of the building for the centre at a vacant plot of land in Mundhwa. “The land belongs to our and so there are no obstacles in starting construction,” Birajdar said. The centre will be run by a private institution, while the central government will finance its operation.

Initially this facility will be provided in every state and will expanded over time. “We have received proposals from 20 private institutions interested in running the one-stop centres, but the documentation was strewn with errors. As soon as the organisations submit valid documents, we will forward them to the state government and start construction of the buildings,” Birajdar said.

A total of 36 centres, with at least one in every state, have been proposed under the Nirbhaya Fund scheme. The first centre was inaugurated at Bhopal

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BY PRIYANKKA DESHPANDE @journopriyankka

The Zumba mania

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

“I have spoken to District Collector and he has assured to hand over the land as soon as possible. We are confident of starting bus operations on Ahmednagar Road BRTS corridor before April-end.”

— Prashant Jagtap, Pune Mayor

Obama calls Putin over Syrian situation P 13

PICS BY RAHUL RAUT AND VISHAL KALE

10,000 PLUS HOME BUYERS DUPED

Mother of all housing scams While the Maple scam is the talk of the town, another housing fraud to the tune of Rs 500 crore is showing up on the radar

Construction sites

While none of his customers have ever seen Suryawanshi’s other project sites, in Pune, his buyers made it a point to oversee the project at Vadgaon Shinde. On the plot spread over six acres, Suryawanshi commenced construction in 2012. The project is now stalled. Two incomplete structures stand on the plot. Workers have gone and none of the office bearers are anywhere to be seen.

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BY YOGESH SADHWANI, TUSHAR RUPANAVAR, GARGI VERMA, DNYANESHWAR BHONDE AND SANTOSHEE MISHRA @TGSWeekly Maple seems to be the flavour of the month, with the entire state machinery putting all its might in getting hold of the developer, who floated a housing scheme using the Prime Minister’s, Chief Minister’s and Pune’s Guardian Minister’s names and pictures. Owners of the Maple Group, who issued ‘fraudulent’ advertising of one bedroom flats for Rs five lakh each under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, are surely in the dock. The buyers are bound to get their money back, now that ministers are personally supervising action. But a housing scam of great magnitude in the name of Bhim Foundation’s Samyak Nivas Hakk Sangh has been in the offing since 2011, with at least 10,000 plus home buyers having paid 10-20 per cent of the flat value. Surprisingly, all the agencies concerned have turned a blind eye to the scam, which by conservative estimates, soars up to the tune of Rs 500 crore.

Madhukar Suryawanshi, the promoter of the housing scheme started in the name of ‘Apna Ghar’ and marketed as one being blessed by the government from 2011 to 2015, is on the run. Several police stations have been approached by those who have been cheated, but in vain. In Mumbai While the cops are doing nothing at all to help the victims recover their money, lawyers have come to the rescue of the home buyers. It started with one of the buyers, Sayyan Sheikh, approaching advocate Atul Nagre and advocate Shivkumar Diwan of Nagre Diwan law firm, in April 2015. “We were told that around 1,500 to 2,000 people from Pune had been duped of their money by Suryawanshi. We are fighting for over 100 people at the consumer court. The number is now increasing as the orders favouring the victims are coming out fast,” said advocate Diwan.

Suryawanshi followed a similar modus operandi to the Maple group.

“He used to tell people that he has been vested by the state government to provide cheap houses for the low income groups. His prices used to change for different people. For some, a 300 square

and Pune, cops have registered offences against him, but done nothing to bring Suryawanshi to book and recover the money he took from home aspirants.

As of now buyers from projects floated in Malvani (Mumbai), Virar, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik, Latur, Panvel, Kalyan, Solapur, Madhukar Suryawanshi Ahmednagar, Nanded, Jalgaon, Dhule, Jalna, Kankavli, Satara and Sindhudurg have come forward. If those who worked with Suryawanshi are to be believed, he deployed a simple ruse. It began in 2007 when he started Bhim Foundation and registered it with the Charity Commissioner’s office.

Devanand Pawar, one of the committee members of the Foundation, said that over the years, Suryawanshi set up several units - housing, credit society, textiles, kala academy, microfinance, among others. “He would say that the Foundation would empower people in all these areas by coming up with innovative schemes,” said Pawar.

Sometime in 2009, Suryawanshi bought a plot of one acre and two gunthas in Titwala (a suburb near Mumbai) in the name of Samyak Nivas Hakk Sangh, a part of Bhim Foundation. He floated a mass housing project and called in ‘Apna Ghar’ where he promised one bedroom houses for

as little as Rs three lakh. “First he asked people to register as members of the Sangh by paying anywhere between Rs 200 and Rs 2,000 each. Then he told people to pay 1020 per cent of the flat value as booking amount. Over a thousand people did as told. Moreover, he started Samyak Microfinance Development Foundation and asked people to deposit additional money that would help them pay the balance amount for their houses in the future. He promised to deliver the houses over the next two years. Years later, there is no trace of the housing project in Titwala.

Not stopping at the Titwala project Suryawanshi floated similar housing schemes in other cities. While in Mumbai he promised to give houses between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 35 lakh, in cities like Pune, Kalyan, Nashik, among others, they were priced from Rs five lakh to Rs ten lakh. From each of the home buyers, whose count far exceeds 10,000, he collected 10-20 per cent of the flat value as the booking amount.

Most of the housing projects were to get over by 2014. Buyers made frequent trips to his offices set up in all the cities, but were given lame reasons for the delay.

In 2015, Suryawanshi and his partner-in-crime Milind Kasade, who is a director of three Samyak companies, went underground. They are yet to be traced. Meanwhile, as word spread, several buyers started coming together and approached the cops.

Lawyers come to the rescue

Advocate Atul Nagre and Advocate Shivkumar Diwan

feet house cost Rs eight lakh, whereas for some the same house cost Rs three lakh,” explained advocate Nagre. He would then ask people to pay only 10 or 20 per cent of the base price for booking the flat.

“He promised possession in two

years and then the owners could pay the rest of the amount in EMI over 15 years,” Nagre explained. While for some Suryawanshi drew up a contract on Rs 100 stamp paper, to many he just gave an indemnity clause and an affidavit.

“He would first make the buyers take membership of the Samyak Sangh and then the contract was drawn,” he said.

Both the lawyers believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg. “We have over a 100 cases, but we believe that more than 2,000 people were affected in Pune itself. Then, he had similar schemes going on in Aurangabad, Malvani, Latur and other areas. Even in Pune, he first collected money for his Khadki project. Once the buyers of Khadki project started pestering him, he said that they would be accommodated in

Their dreams have crashed

did not go as planned. “The ad described the houses to be for the poor. So I went ahead and bought a 650 square feet plot for Rs eight lakh. I paid the deposit of Rs 80,000 and waited patiently for two years,” said Dhaware.

However, three years later, in 2014, after much agitation, Suryawanshi held a meeting with all the buyers. “He told us that water and electricity was not available. He said that even permits were not getting sanctioned. Thus, construction isn’t possible. When we asked for our money back, his bouncers beat us up and shut us down,” he said. Thus in January 2015, Dhaware lodged an FIR with Samarth Police Station. “I just want my hard earned money back. I can’t even invest in another house now,” he said despairingly.

RAVISHANKAR DHAWARE When Ravishankar Dhaware, a Sukhsagar Nagar resident, saw a newspaper ad for houses in 2011, he was unaware that a few years down the line he would find himself in such a mess. “I have lived all my life in a rented house. I wanted to have my own house. I had been working as a clerk in a private firm and thus had some savings,” he said. However, all

BALAJI SAWANT Assistant sub inspector Balaji Sawant has a similar story. He is positioned at the Yerawada jail and he lives in the Yerawada jail line. “I bought a 650 square feet plot for Rs 12 lakh and paid Rs

the Vadgaon Shinde plot (also in Pune),” said Nagre.

Starting from March end, the Pune Consumer Redressal Forum has passed over two dozen orders, all against Suryawanshi. Interestingly Suryawanshi was not present for any of the hearings despite being served notices.

The Samyak Nivas Hakk Sangh did not only dabble in real estate. “He even convinced the buyers to start putting money in his bank. The bank known as Samyak co-operative credit society was set up especially for the buyers. According to the terms of the credit society, people could deposit any amount and were offered six per cent interest. Our clients deposited Rs 25,000 to Rs two lakh, over and above the booking amount with the credit society. He even shut down the credit society,” said Diwan.

1,20,000 as deposit in 2012,” he said. It was only later that he realised that he had paid more money than others for the same plot. “I was supposed to get possession in 2014. However, Suryawanshi held a meeting and asked me to pay more money as things were getting stuck.

So I paid Rs 60,000 more and waited. When he stopped taking my calls or meeting me, I lodged an FIR in 2014 at the Samarth police station,” he said. According to Sawant, he was shown property in Uruli Kanchan, Khadki, Sangli and Vadgaon Shinde. Later he was told that every plot except Vadgaon Shinde had failed. “I have spent so much on nothing,” he said. His only hope now is the court case he has filed.

ARVIND PAITHANKAR A resident of Dhankawdi, Arvind Paithankar works at the PMC health department as an assistant. “I bought a plot measuring 1076 square feet in 2010.

The plot was worth Rs 16 lakh, so I paid Rs 1,60,000,” he recounted. Six years later, he is not sure if he even has a shot at getting even his money back. “It was my life’s saving till that point.

Mumbai Office Sometime in 2011, Suryawanshi started an office in Parel. He bought four shops and rented three more. This became his booking office, where he shared plans for various projects. The Microfinance office was also based there. He kept accepting funds till 2015. It is only when home buyers started pressurising him for refunds that he vanished.

Devanand Pawar, a committee member of Bhim Foundation explained that so far he has found 2,300 receipts from the office. That’s the number of people who have paid for their flats. “The number exceeds 10,000. I have now deployed volunteers in several cities across Maharashtra to find out the exact number of people he cheated in the name of offering affordable homes,” said Pawar. He added, “Suryawanshi has given a bad name to our Foundation. I have now written to charity commissioner to remove him from our Foundation.”

Pune Office In Pune, Suryawanshi started a booking office in Saraswati Building, Rasta Peth. The office is now locked. People residing in the vicinity said that it’s been two years since Suryawanshi locked up and left. “We are fed up of answering his customers, who frequent the office,” said a resident. The office alone, handled over 2,000 customers in its heyday. The flat buyers not only paid booking amounts for their flats, but also deposited huge sums with the credit society.

I lost it all to nothing,” he said. He has been doing the rounds of Suryawanshi’s office ever since. “He has vanished, taking all our money.

He must have stolen hundreds of crores. I was convinced that since they are using the name of Ambedkar and have government recognition, they wouldn’t be fraudulent. I got to know later that it was all a farce,” he said, looking dejected.

ROHAN SAMRAT Rohan Samrat had a dream of buying a house for his father.

In 2012, after saving a substantial amount, Samrat finally booked a house in his father’s name.

“I checked Suryawanshi’s site in early 2012. My father and I loved the plot.

When we came to see it, they had laid the foundation stone. As per the agreement, I handed him Rs three lakh. After that we were just eager to get possession,” said Samrat.

Three months later, Suryawanshi demanded more money from Samrat on the pretext that the land owners were getting greedy and had asked for more money for the plot. “I have been chasing Suryawanshi ever since, but in vain. He never responds. I have seen my dream dying. I still cannot believe

that I was duped,” said Samrat.

RAJESH SAWAKARE Rajesh Sawakare lives with his family in a rented house in Kandivali, Mumbai. In 2011, he heard about Samyak Nivas Hakk Sangh offering affordable homes in Malvani, Malad.

He jumped at the offer. “My uncle had booked two flats for Rs 32 lakh and paid Rs 3.2 lakh as booking amount. I thought that I should not miss out on the opportunity and booked a one bedroom-hall-kitchen flat as well for Rs 22 lakh. I paid Rs 2.2 lakh upfront in 2011 and was promised that I would get the flat by 2013. I waited patiently till 2015 but there was no news of my dream home. In 2015, when I asked for a refund, Suryawanshi flatly refused. That’s when I came to know that it was all a scam,” said Sawakare.

Most people like Sawakare who booked flats in Malvani ranging from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, never got to see the plot on which the construction was to take place. “He showed us brochures and said that the land was near Malvani church. We believed him and never insisted on plans. Since he was registered with the government (Charity Commissioner), we didn’t doubt him one bit. It is only after he refused to refund the money that we went to the site only to realise that there was no land parcel acquired in the first place for the mass housing project,” said Sawakare.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

“Lord Mahavira’s life and teachings exemplified compassion, coexistence and simplicity, which show us the path to a life of happiness without harming others and this will guide us forever.”

— Sonia Gandhi, Congress President

PUNE

“India is a land of diversity in terms of language, social practices, dialects and culture, adding community radio can be a powerful tool to revive culture and languages that are dying.”

— Arun Jaitley, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister

They quit their cushy jobs to unravel mysteries of maths

Dance for a cause

Two youngsters began tutoring children when they were in college and now they have also found a way to help slum children

BY SALONEE MISTRY @SaloneeMistry

It’s been just a month that Sumit Godiyal, 27, and Pravin Kalokhe, 28, have quit their jobs to make the experience of education a better one for the hundreds of children struggling to master the complex rules of mathematics and science. Aiming to fi ll the gap that exists between a coaching class and a home tutor, the two school friends fi rst began teaching at their homes and finally started Professor Pi Education Academy last month. Right after they came up with the idea of Professor Pi, they wanted to do something to give back to society that they had learned and gained their experiences from. They decided to tutor one underprivileged student in every batch for free.

The USP of the academy is the teacher-student ratio of 1:10. The duo cites the many benefits of such a system. “Our vision with the academy is to build an institute that provides to every child the attention that he or she needs to achieve his or her potential, while being easy on the pockets of their parents too. Teaching is something that brings us joy and keeps us in good spirits. Now making that as our profession has only added immense satisfaction to our lives,” Pravin said.

The inspiration for this venture came from a discussion that they were having with one another once. They

Sumit and Pravin during one of the classes. Teaching they told us was something that satisfied them immensely and gave meaning to their lives

were discussing teaching and found that there are basically two choices that parents have in the current coaching class system. Either they can go for personal tutoring which is a very expensive option and one that not everyone can afford or opt for coaching institutes where the student-teacher ratio is highly skewed. Their venture they believe provides a solution to this very problem. Keeping this in mind, their motto is to provide the quality of a personal tutor while being feasible like a coaching institute.

The two school friends took up this

noble idea a notch higher by teaching one child from the underprivileged community for free. They took children who lived in the slums near their coaching classes. The only restraint that they had was in finding children who went to English medium schools.

Two children from slums are currently being tutored by the institute for free.

To raise capital for their venture, the duo borrowed funds from their near and dear ones and added it to the savings that they had accumulated over the years. There were times when the going got a little tough financially but

Dining out to feed the underprivileged Pune-based start-up’s Trestro app has fed over 300 poor kids besides reserving tables at restaurants

BY EKTA KATTI @Ektaak What if your eat-out sessions also contributes towards needy people’s dinner? If a few Pune youngsters have their way, it actually is possible.

Trestro, a Pune-based start-up that is still in its beta phase, has developed an app which not only lets you decide your dine-out experience by helping you pre-book, it also helps feed the poor and needy. For every booking done by the app, the hotels that are registered with the fi rm donate food to be provided to the poor and homeless people.

Trestro has fed more than 300 underprivileged children in Wakad, Kalyani Nagar, Yerawada and Koregaon Park since its launch in July 2015. With an aim to provide hassle-free fi ne dining, Trestro was co-founded by youngsters Akshay Kothavale (27), Aditya Ghanekar (27) and Shahbaz Khan (25). The idea to start such a social initiative was triggered at the exchange programme that the trio attended in Georgia last August. One of the speakers at the event motivated them to launch an initiative that will benefit

the lower strata of society.

“We understand the importance of food. While developing the app we thought why not associate it with a noble cause,” said Aditya, who has completed his engineering in IT from Savitribai Phule Pune University and MBA in international marketing from United Kingdom. After a cumulative registration via the app, the team personally visit restaurants to pick up food and donate it amongst the needy kids. They have called the drive ‘Silver Spoon’.

“I have been associated with social work since my school days. I have donated a water tanker to the slum dwellers in Wagholi, besides being a part of various donation camps. The recent experience of donating food amongst the needy has helped us bond well as a team. We have found that it hardly takes any time and effort to help others,” Aditya said.

It is noble that the price also covers a meal for someone far outside the target demographic for fancy dining.

They are either homeless or otherwise having difficulty putting food on their own tables. The food not only fi lls their stomachs, but opens the eyes and minds of benefactor and beneficiary.

The Trestro team has served food packages to over 300 underprivileged kids around the city under their Sliver Spoon food camp. The team’s next camp is in May

For the trio, instead of helping the needy with money, providing them with food was a better option.

“No doubt our main business was to provide an app to the elite class but at the same time we wanted to donate to the underprivileged,” said Akshay.

The team provide food to the kids mainly. “We deliver food in packets that the kids have never seen. Seeing happiness on their faces when they receive the food is heavenly,” he added.

For Shabhaz, who is also the technical head of the start-up, being a part of the food donation drive was a life-changing experience for him. “I missed the fi rst food drive organised in January. I was able to be a part of the second drive. I realised that all this while I was just sitting behind the computer and coding while I could have volunteered and helped a lot of needy people,” said Shabhaz, who completed his computer engineer studies from Pune Institute of Computer Technology.

The next donation camp will be in May. The app has been flooded with reservations. Hence, to simplify their work, the team has tied up with Robin Hood Army, Pune which is a volunteer-based organisation that works to get surplus food from restaurants and provide it to the less fortunate. ekta.katti@goldensparrow.com

their persistence and self-belief pulled them through, they confessed.

Sumit used to work in retail as a store manager while Pravin was employed as an engineer. The duo completed their Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University.

They started tutoring about seven years ago when they were in college to meet their pocket money requirements and decided to utilise their educational skills and teach students during their free time.

“We initially started off by taking personal tuitions. The response that we received and our hard work that showed in the report cards of these children gave us the boost that we needed. Back then we were managing this and our respective jobs. We then decided to take it to the next level by introducing Professor Pi this year. We know it’s a small initiative but if all of us try in our own ways it would go a long way in providing education to all. This is what we both believe,” Sumit said.

The institute specialises in mathematics and science of high school education for ICSE, CBSE and state board students. They also offer English and Computers for state board students. The batches take place in the evenings between 3 pm and 9 pm at their classroom is located at Somnath Nagar. The classrooms are spacious, equipped with comfortable chairs and LCD screens for audio visual learning. salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly The audience who will visit Symbiosis Auditorium in Viman Nagar on April 27 to watch dance ballads ‘Urmila’ and ‘Dhrut’ by Indian artists will go home admiring the performance and feeling satisfied for contributing towards a social cause. The Performing Arts Festival 2016 ‘Beyond The Spotlight’ is organised by Artsphere to mark its third anniversary and celebrate World Dance Day. The proceeds from the show will be given to Vanitashray (women shelter).

Started in 1992 by Anupama Dongerdive and her late husband, NGO Vanitashray aims to provide shelter and learning for young girls who would otherwise be at the risk of abuse. She works with police and other NGOs in saving minor girls from being exploited as sex workers. Apart from setting up many self-help groups, Anupama works in rehabilitation of women who had worked as sex workers and are unable to support themselves.

She is also involved in helping the elderly and needy transgenders in the red light area in Pune. The NGO plans to start a day care centre in Vadgoansheri for children, who are uneducated, unemployed and get exploited or abused when their parents

are at work.

Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts’ (SNDA) latest production ‘Dhrut’ portrays the intricate r e l a t ion s h ip between time, space and speed.

The 30-minute programme will show elements of live music, drastic rhythm changes and reverse choreography bringing the concept of ‘time transition through space’ to life.

Dhrut’s choreographer Sumeet Nagdev said, “It is also my personal debate with time. I have had many concussion moments wherein I found some reality in déjà vu, sleep, imagination and thoughts. It almost felt real at times.”

‘Urmila: The Forgotten Wife’ is an adaptation of Pervin Saket’s celebrated novel Urmila. Inspired by the ignored story of Urmila, Laxman’s wife from the Ramayana, the narrative explores her loneliness and rejection on being left behind, rekindling questions of devotion and desire, in modern-day India. The ballad brings together three powerful classical dance forms Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kathak to represent her story, through a unique collaboration of movement and words. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

Why is the g

KARKHEL

DROU

The water that we bathe in is also used to wash clothes

K

arkhel village in Baramati district is home to some 4000 people. There are 19 borewells and hand pumps in and around the village, but they are all of no use, as the water has dried up. “We don’t have water for farming, and there is not enough water to give to the cattle, nor enough water for our daily needs,” said Kanilal Bapkar, the village sarpanch. The situation is so desperate that people are being forced to sell off their livestock. Balasaheb Bhosale, 50, owns ten acres of land and he used to have seven cows. But due to the lack of rain, he has had to sell off two of his cattle. “I have been able to manage my family’s food and other expenses on the money I got from selling my cows,” he said.

Bhosale is not alone in his travails regarding sources of income. Subhash Bhosale had planted jowar on his five acres of land, but the entire crop was scorched and laid waste with the non-existent rains. “I lost the entire crop, and all the money I spent and the effort has gone down the drain. I could have sold milk, but I don’t have enough food and water for the animals,” he said. Subhash owns 20 cows and he is now in a quandary of how to manage the expenses of feeding them all. “I may have to sell them if the situation does not improve,” he said.

Since the farmers are unable to do any farming, migrating to the cities seems like the viable option.

“Most of us have not done any planting of seeds.

Those who had planted jowar have lost the entire crop owing to the dry spell. The migration to the cities has not happened on a mass scale, but it is only a matter of time before things reach tipping point,” said Ankush Bhosale, 45. “We get water once in 1520 days. Most of the time, us villagers have to make trips to nearby towns for water. But we are forced to pay exorbitant sums for the water we get from private sources. Water has become such a scarce and precious commodity that it can cause friction among the residents of the village.”

The widespread drought across Maharashtra has served to bring to the fore the lop-sided or self-serving motives and approach of politicos and the elite in power, who will lavish a showpiece place like Latur with water for its gardens, while completely ignoring and leaving in the lurch the little-known villages that are the subject of this feature

The canal dried up two years ago, along with the 19 borewells in the village. There’s no water anywhere

Karkhel village is not a stronghold of the tanker mafia, but the trade in water is prevalent and lucrative. “We pay around Rs 3000 for a tankerful, or 8000 litres of water,” said Ashok Shinde, 55. Shinde is one of those who lost his entire jowar crop.

The women of the village do their best to make their meagre supplies of water last. “The water that we bathe in is also used to wash clothes. We use the minimum of water to clean utensils, just once a day,” said Sukanta Tawre. There is half a tub of muddy water in which the utensils are cleaned.

So what role does the village administration to play in such a grim scenario? Former panchayat member Suresh Udre said, “The water situation is grave and there is no plan to make up for the deficit.”

Sarpanch Bapkar said, “With our population of around 4000, we should be getting 80,000 litres of water. But we get only 40,000 litres. So our prime focus is to supply water to schools, temples and community compounds,” he said.

BY GARGI VERMA, EKTA KATTI, DNYANESHWAR BHONDE AND SHAILESH JOSHI

T

B

worst drought ever. We have to pay for water as the local authorities refuse to send water tankers,” said Balasaheb. A tankerful of water costs Rs 900.

The wells have run dry in Halgaon, which has a population of 1500. The soil of the village is suited for the cultivation of lemons, and before the drought, Halgaon’s lemon harvest was in great demand in Pune. But over the past four years, lemon production has nosedived.

After their father’s death in 2011, Balasaheb has been running the household. “The village has never been in such a bad state. Our onion harvest will barely suffice for our family of 15,” he said.

A few kilometres away from the Dhawale house, women of the village gather around with buckets, and vessels to collect water from the tankers.

And a melee ensues as the tanker arrives.

Shobha Kale, 28, said, “The tanker has arrived after three days. We don’t know when the next tanker will arrive, so we are trying to fi ll every utensil. The government is not doing anything for our village.”

And she has no faith that things will improve.

The Dhawale family lost its orchard of lemon trees, planted 25 years ago, to the excessive heat and no water. Ever hopeful, the family now awaits rain to replant the seeds of these burnt trees

PICS BY RAHUL RAUT AND TEJAS GAIKWAD

HALGAON

alasaheb, 34, and brother Dadasaheb Dhawale, 32, remember the times when they were kids and played hide and seek among their aromatic lemon orchard.

Their parents Dashrath and Champabai planted 500 lemon trees 25 years ago, which was for the family a lucrative source of income. The Dhawale brothers live in a joint family in Halgaon, 25 km from Jamkhed district in Ahmednagar.

The 15-acre Dhawale property today is a far cry from the flourishing lemon patch, a barren stretch with the withered remnants of the once fruitful lemon trees.

“Th is dry spell and the scarcity of water have caused our lemon orchard to wither and die in front of our eyes,” said Dadasaheb.

The Dhawales also own onion and jowar farms. “We have had no jowar harvest this year and even the onion crop is far from abundant as a large number of onions have withered due to the shortage of water and are not fit to be sold in the market.

Th is means a big blow financially. Th is has been the

@TGSWeekly

he state of Maharashtra has been reeling under a droughtlike situation for the fourth year consecutively. And things have reached desperation point in the interior villages of the state. Th is has given rise to an alternative drought economy, where the monies spent on providing water to the citizens must be taken into account while tabulating the state’s expenses. However, the action is sporadic and specifically located. While 14,708 villages have been declared drought affected, they are not being given equal attention. While on one hand the much talked about water train delivers water to Latur, enabling the watering of gardens there, on the other hand there are other villages that are ignored, to which the government is not providing even drinking water via tankers. Politicos, celebs et al fi nd Latur a perfect showcase for their largesse and generosity, while doing anything to ease the troubles of the little known villages that are the subject of this feature, will not give such people the mileage they crave, it must be said.

With the ravages of the dry spell, all the villages have taken on an arid and barren look. The expanses of sun-scorched, parched earth stretch to the horizon. The acute shortage of water means that farmers can’t even start the planting of seeds.

The once gushing rivers have dried up, with not a trace of moisture in their beds. Even the canals have dried up. The black and the rusty-red laterite soil seem to have lost their lustre and fertile virtues.

A river was the village’s main source of water. The lack of rain for two seasons has resulted in the disappearnace of the river and other water bodies. Not a trace of moisture remains, indicating depleted groundwater levels

The village has never been in such a bad state

PUNE

Only the gnarled and ancient trees are able to seek out the reservoirs of water deep below the earth’s surface with their roots, and thus provide nutrition to and preserve their green foliage. The other hardy survivors in this hostile environment are the thorny scrubs and bushes that make do with microscopic amounts of water. Even the auspicious tulsi plants show signs of the toll the rain-less seasons have taken. The residents of these villages scrounge around for precious water, and must forego many of their daily ablutions and rituals. The women folk have been forced to economise on their daily water needs to an almost miraculous degree, and manage their dishes and utensils and laundry with whatever little water they can spare. Baths are a luxury, and toddlers are dealt with on half a mug of water. The village populace seems to be in a state of limbo, not knowing what this year’s monsoon season will bring, even as they await a helping hand, and constructive intervention from the government.

According to the current government policy, an adult needs 20 litres of waters a day, and no provision has been made for children or animals.

But the supply of water is sporadic and far from reliable, so the residents have to make their own arrangements, and also pay for the water they procure from private sources. These water scarcity hit villages are not too far from Pune, where we are quite unaware of just how dire and drastic the situation really is for the people who live there.

TGS team travelled to villages in the Ahmednagar, Pune and Baramati districts to see fi rst-hand the plight of the residents.

The Sina river vanished a few years ago. The well dug on the river bed has no water any more

TEKAW

Maj

T

he r vill in P bar fert vegetables flouris Kamble, 40, who village. Her husb migrated to Pun labourers at a gar are aged two and With 70-80 population of aro migrated to the c are staying put an monsoon, but th to lock up their h cities in search o There is no su village via tanker Yashwant Thomb water through ta as we have an ou lakh. We asked t help, but they tol the bill, which w

KAWAD

If th will

F

ive yea a popu 5000. situati village the cities to earn there are just 150 remained in Kaw km from Jamkhe Kawadgaon’s on river Sina.

Datta Dhope river Sina all his river vanish in fr has been no rain years. River Sina even it has run c Dhope.

The villagers from the local au panchayat. All th of water through deaf ears. Spread Kawadgaon has which are bone d months without staged a protest a office in Jamkhe the desired effec sending water ta At 12 noon, farmers whiling tree. “We canno

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

government doing nothing to help these

UGHT-HIT VILLAGES?

WADE

jority of the population here has migrated

road winds up to Tekawade which we are unable to raise.” “Where do we get most of the time that they have power supply. lage which is in Purandar taluka the money from, if farming, our sole source of Quite a few houses in the village are locked Pune district. The ground is arid, income has been stopped owing to the scarcity of up. The construction of the temple has been rren and rocky. “Our land was water,” said Shivram Khilare, 45. stalled for two years owing to the scarcity of tile and we had fruit trees and The villagers have resorted to drawing water water. “The rains have played truant for two shing on our land,” said Manju from borewells on their farms. But all they get years. Our custard apple trees withered and o runs a grocery shop in the from the borewell is ten bucketfuls of water, and died in this dry spell, as did our jowar and bajri band Sunil , 45, and son have it is not suitable for drinking. crops. There is no guarantee that this year will ne, where they work as daily wage But drawing up water from the borewells be better,” said Pandurang Gajarmal, 39, who rage. Manju’s grandchildren who requires electricity and they have to make the owns five acres of land. But there is silver lining d one have never seen rain. to the troubled times, as the residents of houses, Tekawade has a the village have now grown accustomed to ound 2000, but many have helping each other out in this time of need. cities. Those who own land The panchayat members paint a nd hoping for a plentiful brighter picture. “We have been doing he landless people have had all we can to deal with the water scarcity houses, and migrate to the and drought, and have sought the help of of work and money. various organisations political parties. We upply of water to Tekawade hope to have a regular supply of water in a rs. Village sarpanch few months,” said Dattatreya Jinjarke, 35, bare said, “The supply of deputy sarpanch. “We are trying to procure ankers has been stopped water supply for farming which is the utstanding bill of Rs eight village mainstay. Government help would the panchayat samiti for go a long way in getting us the potable These one- and two-year-old children have never seen the rain as ld us to pay 50 per cent of water that we need,” said Prabhakar Ingale, there hasn’t been any. Tankers are the daily reality here works out to Rs four lakh, panchayat official.

Water scarcity has forced residents to migrate to the city. The incomplete temple and locked up houses tell a story of utter desolation and neglect, since the ground water levels started falling

NAGALWADI

DGAON

his continues, Kawadgaon be wiped off the map

ars ago, Kawadgaon had ulation of more than . But with the drought ion getting worse, ers have migrated to n a living. Of the 5000, 00 residents who have wadgaon. Situated 21 ed in Ahmednagar, ly source of water is the

e, 43, has lived by the s life, and he has seen the ront of his eyes. “There n in Kawadgaon for seven a was our only hope but completely dry,” said

Instead of working on their farms, the villagers loiter around, whiling away their time as without water there is nthing to be done on the fields

s have had no help uthorities and the gram heir pleas for supply h tankers has fallen on d over 1159 hectares, three wells, two of dry. Having gone for water, the villagers at the gram panchayat ed, on April 3, which had ct and the officials started ankers to Kawadgaon. there are about 30 away their time under a ot work on our farms as

there is no water. Some of us are forced to work on other people’s farms. We have no source of income nor jobs which is why we are sitting here,” said Dhope.

Vasant Raut, 45, said, “Our farms are laying barren owing to the acute water shortage. I have to provide for my family, and I have been doing odd jobs in Mumbai and Pune to earn whatever I can,” said Raut.

Laxman Banjar, 35, owned more than 20 cows when there was no shortage of water. “I used to sell more than 100 litres of milk a day five years

ago. But I sold most of my livestock, and with just five cows, I sell just 15 litres of milk a day now,” said Banjar.

The village also has a big population of livestock, numbering over 3000.

Sarpanch Nanasaheb Gore said, “The government has not done anything to help us out. Residents have migrated to the cities in search of work. If this situation continues, Kawadgaon will be wiped off the map,” said Gore. The village gets water through tankers once every five days, which is not enough for us, leave alone the livestock.

The scarcity of water is responsible for my son’s death

S

atyabhama Dhakne, 29, mother of four, lost her life when she fell into a well she was drawing water from. The incident cast a pall of gloom over Nagalwadi village. “I lost my wife because of water.

It is ironic how water is responsible for creating as well as taking someone’s life,” said Shivaji, 35, Satyabhama’s husband.

Nagalwadi got water through tanker after five days, on March 29. There was no water in her house, so Satyabhama went to the well two km away. While she was drawing water, the driver of the tanker threw a pipe into the well. But the pipe fell into the bucket Satyabhama was using, and the force of the water dragged her into the well. Her eldest child, Sakshi, 12, now has to look after her younger siblings. “The shortage of water and drought cost my mother her life,” she said.

Sarpanch Goraksh Khedkar, 53, has written to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra asking for help.

“Satyabhama drowned before help could arrive. The driver of the tanker couldn’t swim so he couldn’t help her. We have fi led a case against the driver. The family

The water scarcity has caused their mother’s death as she was dreawing water from a well, and the orphaned Dhakne children have a lifetime to grieve over their loss

hasn’t received any compensation. None of the local authorities have bothered to visit the family,” he said.

Nagalwadi is situated in a hilly area of Shevgaon taluka, 70 km from Jamkhed in Ahmednagar. There have been little or no rains in the village for two years. A tankerful of water, 5000 litres, is not enough for 1,500 people.

Sudham Bhorde, 84, of Walunj, lost his son Gangam, 24, who slipped and fell into a well. Around 2000 trees on his farm have withered and died due to the shortage of water. Bhorde said, “Th is year is worse than the 1972 drought.

Many people have left the village due to the shortage of food. I wonder what the future holds for our village,” he said.

tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

TECH/START-UP

“The first hard drive was made by IBM in 1956 and was called IBM Model 350 Disk File.

The first-generation storage unit was huge, with a cabinet the size of a cupboard that held 50 24-inch disks and held an impressive 5MB of data.”

— http://kb.soluto.com/

Allowing unauthorised places of worship is ‘insult to god’: SC P 12

Indian Cos focus more on digital APP WORLD Shake a leg the investments globally: Survey online way Firms with high Digital IQ scores are twice as likely to achieve rapid revenue and profit growth compared to laggards

Indian companies are focussing more on digital investments in marketing and IT compared to their global counterparts, but less on operations and customer experience, a global survey has said.

“Thirty six per cent of Indian companies are focussing digital investments on marketing versus 27 per cent globally while 37 per cent Indian companies are focusing on IT as against 32 per cent globally,” according to PwC’s digital IQ survey.

The global average spend on customer experience is higher at 12 per cent as against 7 per cent in India, the report noted.

The survey was conducted among 1,988 companies from across the world, including 100 firms from India.

“Enterprises will have to develop a comprehensive digital strategy and reimagine their traditional business models which are getting disrupted in order to become a

Viber to now encrypt user conversations Following the footsteps of larger rival WhatsApp, instant messaging app Viber will encrypt user messages to protect texts and calls on its platform from “interception”.

“Our team at Viber has been working hard to give you more control over your private conversations. Today we are taking another step in this direction by making your private communication even safer through endto-end encryption, hidden chats and message deletion,” Viber COO Michael Shmilov said in a blogpost.

He added that the company has been working on this for a long time and users can “confidently use Viber without fear of their messages being intercepted - whether it is in a one-to-one or group message, on a call, on desktop, mobile or tablet”.

Earlier this month, Facebook-owned WhatsApp had announced end-to-end encryption to protect conversations of its over one billion users from hackers and “regimes”.

The development came close on the heels of a legal battle between Apple and FBI over the US agency’s demand that the iPhone maker help unlock its mobile phones. Many Silicon Valley players had supported Apple citing that user data privacy needs to be respected. According to Viber website, it has more than 600 million unique users in 193 countries.

PTI

Survey was conducted among 1,988 firms from across the world, including 100 from India

true digital business,” Arnab Basu Partner (Technology Consulting and Digital) PwC India said in statement.

“It is equally important for enterprises to integrate digital into the fabric of their corporate culture,” he added.

The India cut of PwC’s 7th Digital IQ Survey also revealed that companies with high Digital IQ scores are twice as likely to achieve rapid revenue and profit growth compared with the laggards.

Most companies globally are primarily

adopting a technology-driven approach towards adoption of digital technologies rather than a business-driven approach.

This is particularly true for the US where 18 per cent of digital adoption is driven through business vis-a-vis 66 per cent through technology. However, their Indian counterparts are giving equal importance to technology (43 pc) and business (42 pc).

In over 43 per cent of Indian enterprises, the chief executive is championing the digital strategy, which is lower than the global average, it said.

Majority of firms in India (81 per cent) claim outdated technologies as an obstacle in achieving the desired results from digital initiatives as opposed to 67 per cent, globally.

Further, in India, 68 per cent of executives said they rely on industry analysts as sources for applying emerging technologies in new ways to solve business problems, while it 63 per cent globally.

In India, 79 per cent view lack of properly skilled teams as a barrier, globally it is 70 per cent, while 79 per cent believe that integration of new and existing technologies is an obstacle (globally - 73 pc).

PTI

Cybersecurity $35 bn opportunity, to create 1mn jobs: Nasscom Increasing incidents of cyber attacks and data protection efforts globally are expected to create USD 35 billion revenue opportunity and employment opportunities for about a million professionals by 2025 for India, IT industry body Nasscom said recently.

“We estimate that cybersecurity is about USD 2.5-3 billion or Rajendra Pawar about 2 per cent of the close to USD 150 billion Indian IT sector. With the sector on track to reach USD 350 billion by 2025, we estimate 10 per cent of this to be cybersecurity,” Nasscom Chair Cyber Security Task Force Rajendra Pawar said.

He added that this will create an employment opportunity for about a million people as well.

“Another important aspect will be start ups. We expect to see about 1,000 start ups coming up in this area. This is because these smaller companies are light footed and yet have the best of technologies. Also, there has been a lot of investor interest in this area as enterprises look to stay secured against rising incidents of cyber attacks,” he said.

Last year, Nasscom had set up the task force, aimed at positioning India as a global

Nasscom estimates IT security market to be about USD 77 bn in 2015 growing at over 8pc annually

hub for providing cyber security solutions, developing cyber security R&D plan and developing a skilled workforce of cyber security experts.

It had estimated the IT security market to be about USD 77 billion in 2015 and growing at over 8 per cent annually. It had estimated demand for security workforce to rise globally to six million by 2019, up from 4 million in 2015, with projected shortfall of 1.5 million.

Nasscom, along with Data Security Council of India (DSCI) and security software firm Symantec, today launched the ‘National

Occupational Standards’ for 10 cyber security job roles, aimed at creating a pool of certified cyber security professionals in the country.

Symantec has also instituted scholarships to 1,000 women undertaking the cyber security certification by SSC NASSCOM. “Building the next generation of cyber professionals is key to securing India’s critical information infrastructure, battling cybercrime and making the Digital India initiative successful,” Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar said.

PTI

Stations include Pune; RailTel will be the ISP while Google will provide wireless area network and set up points of access at platforms

RailTel owns a pan-India optic fibre network exclusively on railway track

is the real need of the hour, he stressed.

The service will be formally inaugurated

by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu soon, Azad added.

Starting today, users in Pune, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Ranchi, Raipur, Vijayawada, Kacheguda (Hyderabad),

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Google, RailTel free WiFi to cover 10 stations Google in collaboration with RailTel, the telecom arm of the Indian Railways, has rolled out free WiFi service at 9 more stations, taking the total to 10 where it will offer high-speed Internet to an estimated 1.5 million passengers and visitors. Free WiFi by Google-RailTel took off at Mumbai Central in January this year. The new stations include Pune, Bhubaneswar and Ranchi.

The formal launch in Bhubaneswar is slated for Sunday, said a senior railway ministry official.

Jaipur, Ujjain and Allahabad will go live next week. “The network is now live in 10 key stations across the country and will enable about 1.5 million people to access high-speed Internet service. We are scaling up our efforts to roll out the network quickly to cover some of smaller stations where connectivity is much more limited,” Google India Head of Access Project Gulzar Azad told PTI. As Internet adoption grows in India, easy and affordable access to high-speed network

Party Mixer

Ernakulum Jn (Kochi) and Vishakhapatnam will be able to access the network using their smartphones for free.

According to Azad, about one lakh people use the service per week at the Mumbai Central station.

Google and RailTel have collaborated to make WiFi network available across 100 stations to deliver high-speed Internet to 10 million Indians a day by the end of the year.

The project will eventually be rolled out to cover 400 railway stations across India.

“This project will be the largest publicly accessible highspeed WiFi network in the country, but our real hope is that this project will set new benchmarks in delivering a reliable and consistent network connectivity,” Azad said.

RailTel owns a pan-India optic fibre network exclusively on railway track. It has laid out over 45,000 kms of optic fibre network across the country, which Google looks to utilise for its WiFi. The network is built for a wide coverage and high capacity usage unlike a typical WiFi hotspot which offers connectivity in limited area. As per the plan, RailTel will be the ISP while Google will provide the wireless area network (WAN) and set up points of access at platforms.

PTI

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In this new version it has a total of 8 tracks where you can mix a total of 40 loops of the highest sound quality. Now you can record all your mixes to record and pause function. keyboards and piano function and pads for loops and fx sounds. You’ll perform all of your mixes of your favorite songs and practice enjoying songs with the sounds of the piano, saxophone, organ, strings.

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Play your favorite songs with ultimate adjuster available in this player. To give extra bass effect use EQ system. Tune yourself with real audio effects and balance sound with Left-Right stereo adjuster. Became a master of music to control everything on your fingertips in single apps. Adjust 10 band equalizer to enhance sound quality and save your bands to listen same anytime anywhere.You can select sound effect instantly by default presets. UI and swipe feature of Bass Booster and Equalizer allow you to easy control of music player. Easily listen vocal only of songs with vocal tuner.

Zulu IOS/Android: Free Zulu Free provides users with an easy to use interface that makes mixing your music simple and fun! This mixer also allows users to apply sound effects to your music on the fly. With Zulu DJ Mixer, your music will always stay on beat with automatic beat detection. Simply add your music into the app and preview the file before adding sound effects.

Zulu DJ makes mixing your music into a fun hobby. The included sound effects in this mixer makes this app perfect for an on-the-go mixer. This app is also ideal for mixing your own recorded sound and music into a personal audio file.

ENVIRONMENT

Union Minister Shripad Naik said a research has proved that yoga can cure diseases like cancer and propagated the use of AYUSH as alternative medical practices.

“A Bengaluru-based institute has proved with research that diseases like cancer can be cured by yoga,” Naik said during the inauguration of National Arogya fair in Goa. The minister, however, did not mention the name of the institute and appealed to the people to practice Ayurveda, Yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) as alternative medicines.

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar also made a similar claim during his speech while launching ‘Common Yoga Protocol’, a guide to the upcoming World Yoga Day on June 21.

“It is said that diseases like AIDS and cancer can be cured by Ayurveda.

We should conduct necessary research on this aspect so that India can revolutionise the health sector of the world,” Parsekar said.

“All the forms of medicines should have health of patient at its focus point,” Naik said.

He said there should be integration of medicines so that ailments like cancer, high sugar, obesity and others are uprooted. “During the last one and half year, (the knowledge of) AYUSH has travelled places including the US. We will soon be signing a memorandum of understanding with America in the field of research on curing cancer by AYUSH medicinal practice,” Naik said.

He said World Health Organisation (WHO) also wants to join hands with India to spread awareness about AYUSH. PTI

India has the highest number of people — 76 million — in the world without access to safe water supply, followed

by China and Nigeria, a WaterAid report said.

The people end up incurring high costs for access, which is primarily due to poor management of water resources, says the report ‘Water: At what cost? The State of the World’s Water’ — released by the global

agency to mark the World Water Day 2016.The report placed India on the top of 10 countries in the world with the greatest numbers of people living without access to safe water, followed

by China and Nigeria. Pakistan figures at the 10th place.

“Nearly 76 million people in India have no access to a safe water supply.

Most of those people are living on around GBP 3 a day. If they have the opportunity to buy water from a tanker it can cost 1 Rupee (GBP 0.01) per litre, sometimes double if supplies are scarce,” says the report.

WaterAid, an international charity working on improving access to safe

Volcanoes and associated geological activity would have made it warmer and lighter than the rest of the Moon, they said.

Drop in density produced enough wobble to explain the two “palaeopoles” researchers detected in the Lunar Prospector data, they said.

“The Procellarum region was most geologically active early in lunar history, which implies that polar wander initiated billions of years ago,” researchers wrote in the journal Nature.

PTI

NATION

CITY

Get your voice heard on NetaG P6

No damaged goods please P3

GRANDCHILDREN SUE THE COMPLETE MAN

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Dr Vijaypat Singhania’s grandchildren from his estranged son Madhupati have moved Bombay High Court seeking their share in ancestral property. They have filed a suit against their grandfather, father, mother and Raymond Limited. Detailed story on p7 TGS LIFE

When hunger strikes past midnight

NATION

CITY

Bakery worker’s daughter gets her wings P 12

Why are traffic cops taking selfies these days?

P3

DITCH THE

AUTO,

HAIL A

CAB

GAUTAM SINGHANIA

or long distances (depending on their mood), overcharge or ask for obnoxious fares, often refuse to ply by meter – the list is endless.

TGS Team members decided to give the ‘victimised’ autorickshaw drivers a chance.

Five members of the team tried

Intentions of Dr Singhania were ‘malafide and illegal’ with a motive to grab the share of Madhupati and Anuradha as well as grandchildren and to achieve the same he directed that his son and daughter-inlaw move to another country ‘instead of Collectively Pune Municipal continuing to stay in India with the family.

DEHU

6

Corporation, PimpriChinchwad Municipal Corporation and Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited have spent `1,816 crores on constructing dedicated corridors and flyovers along major routes, erecting bus shelters, and buying buses.

Despite this not a single route is operational or has succeeded in years. Citizens residing in twin cities continue to cry foul over pathetic public transport system. And from the looks of it nothing is going to change in near future.

See Spotlight on p8&9

said director of the school, who

DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL

CHINCHWAD BHOSARI

4 THERGAON HINJEWADI VILLAGE

KALEWADI FATA

WAKAD

DIGHI

NASHIK PHATA

5

LOHEGAON

DAPODI 50

PIMPLE GURAV

WAGHOLI

3 4 BANER

VISHRANT VIMAN WADI NAGAR YERWADA

AUNDH

2

SANGAMWADI PASHAN

AH47

WADGAON SHERI

MUNDHWA

SHIVAJI NAGAR

GHORPADI

9

BAVDHAN

CAMP

HADAPSAR

KOTHRUD

SWARGATE PARVATI

WANOWRIE

1

NANDED AMBEGAON BUDRUK

KONDHWA

UNDRI

KATRAJ

4

Had it not been for a Pune-based activist everybody had forgotten about a film on Lokmanya Tilak commissioned in 2001 by Central Government at the cost of 2.5 crores. Three years after Vishnu Kamalapurkar raised questions about the film,

the FIR and kept in touch with “We are feeling fitheled investigating officer and public prosecutor The director is let down by the PUNE, MARCH 14, 2015throughout. | www.thegoldensparrow.com

prosecution and the system.

It is upsetting because we do not how to face the parents and students who came forward to give their statements.”

ALANDI

AKURDI

RAVET

Sab golmal hai...

The creative writing teacher from a reputed school in Baner was booked and arrested in February 2013. A special court acquitted him on the grounds that police bungled up in collecting evidence

RITU GOYAL HARISH

CHIKHALI

KIWALENIGDI

~ Suit filed by the siblings

Precious man hours are lost every day at Hinjewadi just because planners forgot to make more entry and exit points. Over a decade after Hinjewadi was planned to house country’s best IT firms and saying is true. But what they are not telling us or willing to talent, planners have finally woken up to the plight of citizens. concede is that their enemy lies within. Their enemy number one They have now planned five alternative roads. But the authorities is not private cabs but members of their own ilk – many of whom are in no hurry to complete them. See spotlight on p8 & 9 are rude, refuse to ply short

The case created ripples across the city. A teacher was accused of sexually abusing 22 students all from fi fth standard of a reputed school in Baner.

In February 2013, Chaturshrungi police registered a case of sexual abuse against the creative writing teacher and arrested him immediately. Two years after the cops went all out to claim that they had a watertight case, the teacher has been acquitted by a Special Court. The court ruled that the prosecution made out a weak case. The management of the school and parents of students are not only disappointed but also irked with the outcome.

“We are feeling let down by the prosecution and the system. It is upsetting because we do not how to face the parents and students who came forward to give their statements.

We believe we were on the right,”

Parents teach them more than exams do P 10

`1,816 1,816 crores spent on BRTS,

~ Suit filed by the siblings

What a mess!

Teacher booked for sexually abusing 22 students acquitted

COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

CITY

Truly, a tree lady P4

And yet no respite for commuters

DR VIJAYPAT SINGHANIA

Madhupati Singhania (57) and his wife Anuradha (54) with their children Ananya (29), Rasaalika (26), Tarini (20) and Raivathari (18)

Rickshaw unions across the city want us to believe that private cab service providers or radio cab operators, as they are popularly known as, are villains.

Around 12,000 radio cabs have made their lives miserable for 50,000-odd autorickshaw drivers in twin cities of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The auto drivers want us to believe that corporate houses with deep pockets behind the cab services are eating into their share. Essentially poor rickshaw drivers are getting poorer because of stiff competition from private cab operators.

While Gautam Singhania ‘in a span of 14 years as CMD of Raymond Limited has built a personal net worth of `1.4 billion, Madhupati belonging to the same family was struggling to settle down in a new country, educate his children and make a new life.’ Gautam and his family led a luxurious life ‘with fancy cars, private jets, yachts and expensive holidays.’

RAHUL RAUT

agreed to announce a new global tiger estimate by 2016, based on full, systematic national surveys. However, not all countries have completed or published these surveys and the new minimum estimate of close to 3,900 tigers is based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species account for tigers, updated for countries where national tiger surveys have taken place since the IUCN assessment.

According to WWF, 100 years ago there were 100,000 wild tigers while by 2010, there were as few as 3,200.

In 2010, tiger range governments agreed to act to double wild tigers by the next Chinese Year of the Tiger in 2022 and this goal is known as Tx2.

“This is a pivotal step in the recovery of one of the world’s most endangered and iconic species,” says Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of wildlife conservation at WWF. “Together with governments, local communities,

TGS LIFE

Run for... yourself

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

In a shot in the arm for wildlife conservationists, the global wild tiger population has seen an increase for the first time in a century after many decades of dwindling numbers and India has more than half of the wild cats.

According to figures provided by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there are now at least 3,890 tigers in the wild, up from an estimated 3,200 in 2010. This updated minimum figure was compiled from International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) data and the latest national tiger surveys.

WWF attributes this updated minimum number - compiled from national tiger surveys - to rising tiger populations in India, Russia, Nepal, and Bhutan; improved surveys; and enhanced protection of this iconic species. The report was released on April 11, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the third Asia Ministerial Conference on tiger conservation where tiger range countries discussed key issues, including antipoaching strategies. The conference was the latest step in the GTI process.

While India’s tiger count stands at 2,226 according to the latest survey, Russia holds the second highest number of wildcats at 433. Indonesia has 371 tigers while Malaysia 250.

Nepal, Thailand, Bangladesh and Bhutan have 198, 189, 106 and 103 tigers each, according to the data compiled by the wildlife groups.

In 2014, tiger range governments

philanthropists, and other NGOs, we’ve begun to reverse the trend in the century-long decline of tigers. But much more work and investment is needed if we are to reach our goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022.”

“For the first time after decades of constant decline, tiger numbers are on the rise. This offers us great hope and shows that we can save species and their habitats when governments, local communities and conservationists work together,” says Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International.

In 2008, the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) was launched by founding partners - the World Bank, Global Environment Facility, Smithsonian Institution, Save the Tiger Fund, and International Tiger Coalition (representing more than 40 NGOs. Led by the 13 tiger range countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam, the GTI is a global alliance of governments, international organisations, civil society, the conservation and scientific community, and the private sector committed to working together toward a common agenda to save wild tigers from extinction. The GTI Secretariat, based at the World Bank in Washington, assists the 13 tiger range countries to carry out their conservation strategies and drive the global tiger conservation agenda, through planning, coordination, and continuous communication.

PTI Feature

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ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

BY ZAFRI MUDASSER NOFIL

After corneas from pig’s eyes, one day not very far away heart patients may enjoy a new lease on life with pig hearts beating in their chests.

Scientists from the United States and Germany said that they had succeeded in keeping transplanted genetically modified pig hearts alive in baboons, nearest primate cousins of humans, for a record two and a half years. Baboons were chosen because humans share more than 90 per cent of their DNA with baboons.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is an organic molecule that carries most of the genetic instructions used in the development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms. The scientists – medical researchers were reporting about advances in xenotransplantation - organ transplantation from one species to other - in a layman’s language.

Given the acute shortage of organ donors, the use of animal hearts, kidneys, lungs or livers to save human lives has long been the holy grail of medical

science. But organ rejection has stood stubbornly in the way all these days.

In the words of Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Maryland, USA, “Their method uses a combination of gene modification and targeted immunesuppressing drugs. It is very significant because it brings them one step closer to using these organs in humans,” “Xenotransplants could potentially save thousands of lives each year that are lost due to a shortage of human organs for transplantation.” He further added.

The first and most significant drawback of the xenotransplantation is the issue of immune rejection. The second greatest risk of xenotransplantation is the existence of latent viruses inside the donor animal’s tissues which can become active once it gets inside a human host after transplantation.

As far as the ethics and religious arguments surrounding xenotransplantation are concerned, those are the subjects of future discussion when xenotransplantation becomes common.

PTI Feature

THANK GOD IT’S S AT U R D AY

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

Tiger population roars

BY GV JOSHI

PICS ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

axis, ‘BBC News’ reported.

According to Matt Siegler, from the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, and his colleagues, it describes a gradual wobble, or “true polar wander”, adding up to about a six-degree shift altogether.

A likely explanation for this shift is volcanic activity in a region called the Procellarum, which took place over several billion years, researchers said.

Th is swathe of territory includes most of the Moon’s dark patches that are visible from the Earth.

Pig hearts may save human lives

water, hygiene and sanitation, in its report says poor management of water resources was the biggest problem holding India back from reaching all of its population with water supplies.

Aquifers provide 85 per cent of drinking water, but levels are falling in 56 per cent of the country, it warns.

“Hand pumps are exacerbating the crisis in many areas by depleting shallow aquifers. Misappropriation in planning and execution of water supply projects is another key factor.

“And projects often use inadequate sources or pipelines do not reach habitations. As a result, millions of people get insufficient or poor quality water,” it says. The report further says communities depend on a single or distant source for drinking water, often leading to disputes and increased discrimination against the main water fetchers: women and girls.

WaterAid’s analysis shows that in the developed world, a standard water bill is as little as 0.1 per cent of the income of someone earning the minimum wage.

However, in a country like India, a person reliant on a water vendor (tanker) for their water supply would spend as much as 17 per cent of their daily income on water to get just the recommended daily minimum supply.

PTI

Moon spun on a different axis The Moon used to spin on a different axis and show a slightly different face to the Earth, according to a new study which also indicates the presence of water ice on the lunar body.

Scientists used data from NASA’s Lunar Prospector mission collected in the late 1990s and spotted two hydrogen-rich regions near the Moon’s poles, probably indicating the presence of water ice.

The icy patches are opposite each other - the line between them passes through the middle of the Moon - so it appears that this used to be its spin

PUNE

“I fear climate change is increasing at such a rapid rate because of global warming due to humans’ excess of burning fossil fuels. If we didn’t have air pollution, we probably wouldn’t have global warming.”

— Mark Stoll, Professor, Texas Tech

76 million people in India have no access to safe water: Report

Global agency Water Aid cites poor management of water resources for the crisis

APRIL 23, 2016

yet to get a copy of the order.

The case dates back to February 2013 when some of the students studying in class five walked up to their class teacher and alleged that their creative writing sir had touched them inappropriately. The class teacher in turn informed the principal and management.

School authorities spoke to several other students and found that 22 girls in all had levelled similar allegations. Director of the school approached Chaturshrungi police station and lodged an FIR under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSOA).

The investigation was carried out by Supriya Bhoite from Chaturshrungi police station.

Contd on p4

advance, and second instalment was to be released after completion of certain formalities. The very next year second instalment was also disbursed.

Cut to October 2012 – Kamalapurkar fi led an RTI with chief public information officer (CPIO) of Ministry of Culture seeking information about the fi lm on Tilak.

The CPIO was clueless about the

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

Research shows yoga can cure cancer: Minister

H EALTH

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

“We have asked PMC to carry out an active surveillance and visit households located in the vicinity of a positive dengue patient. We will carry out cleanliness and sanitation drives to check larvae growth.”

— Kanchan Jagtap, Joint Director, State Health Department

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

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Hum

expected to get over in a year’s time.

Fourteen years later, there is no sign of the fi lm. Vishnu Kamalapurkar, Pune-based activist, sought details of the project in 2012 from the Central Government only to be told that they had no records left, the concerned ministry had been wound up, and that fi lm-maker could not be traced.

Essentially, the government acceded that it had been duped of `2.5 crores, the sum that was transferred to the fi lm-maker.

It has taken Kamalapurkar three years since he sought details about the fi lm under Right to Information Act to get the government to launch a fullfledged investigation. Dhumale has

light only after receiving his RTI finally been traced by the government with the help of police and claims that the fi lm will be released in “next two to four months”. He still hasn’t answered several questions raised by the government about the script and the star cast.

It all started in December 2001, when Commemoration Bureau under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture commissioned a fi lm on Lokmanya Tilak. A sum of Rs 1.25 crores was paid to Dhumale immediately as an

Saath Saath

When

HUNGER STRIKES past midnight

A family that prays together stays together. Pune’s joint families on why they agree to disagree

TGS takes a night trail around the city to look for places that will silence a grumbling tummy in the dark of night

The Kamdars

Run for…

yourself

Puneites are running to fight depression, lethargy, even physical disadvantage. Marathoners are taking over the street and making the city fitter than it has ever been

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PUNE

“India is a country of 800 million strong population of youths below 30 years of age and this is a wealth pool equalled by no other country in the world. Knowledge is the driving force of the 21st century and India has enough wealth of knowledge to lead the world.”

— Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

Tobacco industry loses Rs 500 cr daily over health policy P 14

Allowing unauthorised places of worship is ‘insult to god’: SC The bench pulled up states and union territories over illegal religious structures on public roads, pavements

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has expressed anguish over inaction of authorities for allowing the existence of unauthorised places of worship on roads and pavements across the country, saying “it is an insult to god.”

“You have to demolish such structures. We know you are not doing anything. None of the states are doing anything. You have no right to allow it. God never intended to obstruct the path. But you are obstructing the path. It is an insult to god,” a bench comprising Justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra observed.

The remarks were made as the bench pulled up states and union territories for their failure to comply with its directions to file affidavits spelling out steps they have taken to remove illegal religious structures from public roads and pavements.

The apex court gave them a final chance with a direction to file the affidavit within two weeks failing which the Chief Secretaries of the concerned states will have to be present personally to explain non-compliance of various directions of the apex court passed from time to time since 2006.

“We don’t appreciate this type of

attitude,” the bench said, adding that the orders and directions of the apex court “are not passed for keeping in the cold storage”.

“If this is the attitude of state administrations and the chief secretaries, why do we pass orders?

Do we pass orders for keeping in cold storage? If you have no respect for court orders, we will deal with the states,” the bench said.

The bench, which was about to pass an order for summoning the Chief Secretaries at the first instance, modified it after a plea was made by some lawyers appearing for various states.

The apex court was hearing

Indian women are making the grade NEW DELHI: Women are still underrepresented across Asia Pacific boards but three countries including India have displayed significant improvement in broadening w o m e n representat ion on boards, says a Korn Ferry Navnit Singh report.

According to a study by Korn Ferry and the National University of Singapore Business School’s Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations, companies with greater female representation in the boardroom tend to be more profitable, but women still remain underrepresented across Asia Pacific boards.

According to the findings, three countries in the Asia Pacific region, Australia, India and Malaysia, showed significant improvement in broadening women representation on boards across the companies.

On India, the report said: “India has made significant progress in broadening female representation across companies. Companies there reported an increase in female board representation from 7.3 per cent to 8.6 per cent in 2014.”

“The Company Act, which

required all listed companies to have at least one woman on the board, has helped enable this broadening female representation,” it added.

The study, titled ‘Building Diversity in Asia Pacific Boardrooms’, examined the largest 100 publicly listed firms’ 2014 annual reports in 10 Asia Pacific economies: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.

“Most countries reviewed in this study showed little or no improvement.

However, India, Australia and Malaysia have seen regulatory action or governmental support for promoting board diversity. This is why you can see a 1.3 per cent change in India,” Navnit Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of India for Korn Ferry International said.

The report noted Asia Pacific still lags substantially behind major economies.

“Asia Pacific falls far behind benchmark global economies such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

For the region to reach parity with these markets, it would require another decade of growth at the current pace,” the report said.

All-male boards are no longer a majority in Asia Pacific region with a significant drop from 53.2 per cent in 2012 to 39.0 per cent in 2014.

PTI

Vol-II* lssue No.: 45 Editor: Yogesh Sadhwani (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867) Printed and Published by: Shrikant Honnavarkar on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 and printed at PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 at Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai.

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the petition filed in 2006 in which directions were passed to states to remove unauthorised structures, including places of worships, from public places.

It had on March 8 received a contempt petition against Chhattisgarh government, following which it had asked the state to ascertain the factual position on the basis of allegations made in it.

The apex court had directed all other states’ counsel to take instructions with regard to the compliance of the interim orders passed by it from time to time in this regard.

The bench in its order noted that despite the March 8 order “none of the

states have filed affidavit”.

“What is the compliance? What is the survey of your state? How many temples, mosques, churches and other (illegal places of worship) are there,” the bench asked the counsel appearing for one state.

At the outset, the bench said contempt action would be initiated against the chief secretaries if the directions were not complied with by the states.

When the bench was informed by the Centre that states should be named in alphabetical order about the noncompliance of its directions, it said the question should be who has complied with the order and filed the affidavit.

The apex court was initially of the view to direct the state chief secretaries to appear before it to “answer why they have not complied with directions of this court,” but modified it later on the plea of counsel, saying chief secretaries of those states, which fail to file affidavits, will have to appear before it.

The bench made it clear that the affidavit should contain the action taken report and verifications and the compilation has to be supplied to Additional Solicitor General P S Patwalia, who represents the Centre and was complaining that none of the states has filed their affidavit.

The apex court was hearing Centre’s petition challenging the Gujarat High Court order of May 2006 asking municipal corporations in the state to demolish all illegal structures, including places of worship, on public roads.

Expanding the scope of the petition by covering all states and union territories, it had earlier said that since 2006, several directions and observations were made and that the states would be in “serious trouble” and face consequences if any fresh place of worship like temple, mosque and church is allowed to be constructed at public places.

Earlier also, the apex court had cautioned the Chief Secretaries of states and Administrators of UTs against taking its directions casually.

PTI

Hindutva outfits aloof from freedom struggle ALIGARH: Historian Mridula Mukherjee has said the idea of nationalism in India, as in all third world countries, is essentially rooted in ‘anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism’ and asserted that proponents of Hindutva had nothing to do with it.

“It is ironical that the proponents of Hindutva brand of nationalism, who are presently trying to appropriate the mantle of Indian nationalism had nothing whatsoever to do with the ideas of anti-colonialism and antiimperialism.

“The other three essential elements of any sort of nationalism Equity, Civil Liberties and Democracy - also have no space whatsoever in the Hindutva brand nationalism,” Mukherjee, a former director of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, alleged while delivering a lecture at the Aligarh Muslim University on ‘India and the Road to Nationalism and Freedom’.

She claimed that even as late as 1942, organisations like Hindu Mahasabha and RSS had deliberately stayed away from the movement of freedom struggle. She said that there was no role whatsoever of these forces in the Quit India Movement.

The past two months following the upheaval in Jawaharlal Nehru University have been very edifying in the growth of democratic movement in contemporary India. She said that a vital fallout was that “after quite some time the youth of India have once again started examining the roots and the future of democratic functioning of institutions, freedom of speech and civil liberties in India”.

PTI

Unifying the strands of Indian diversity Scientists believe that pilgrimages to such regions unify the highly diverse cultures of India

BY PALLAVA BAGLA NEW DELHI: What makes the Kailash Parbat, the Ram Setu and the Kedarnath temple such hallowed places? Scientists, believe it is the unique geological locations where they are situated that makes them stunning and worthy of veneration.

Kailash Parbat made of shale rocks resembles a Shiva Lingam; Ram Setu connects India to Sri Lanka and visible from space is a unique set of coral islands; while Kedarnath temple that withstood the 2013 flash floods sits on an unstable glacial moraine, where usually nothing would survive.

Interestingly scientists now also believe that pilgrimages to such diverse regions are a way of unification of the

Couple on train gets help after tweets DHANBAD ( Jharkhand): A couple travelling on Ajmer Sharif-Sealdah Express was immediately attended by authorities after they sought help through a tweet directed to the twitter handle of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Suresh Prabhu About 20 youths started harassing the woman and her husband soon after the train left Ajmer Sharif last night.

After complaints to officials at Kanpur and Agra railway stations yielded no result, they tweeted to the Railway Minister, drawing his attention, In-charge of GRP, Dhanbad, Shashi Bhusan said.

Police detained five youths when the train reached Dhanbad station while others f led, he said.

PTI

highly diverse cultures of India, which they think has ‘brought about a crossfertilisation of thoughts’.

Writing about these unique sites, Kharag Singh Valdiya, a highlyregarded geologist and former vice chancellor of Kumoun University, Nanital, says, “Wandering sages and saints in ancient India (who) were unable to unravel the mystery of their origin and regarding them to

be nature’s singular rather fantastic handiwork, imparted to them an altogether new meaning by investing them with the aura of divinity.”

When it is difficult to explain certain natural phenomenon with the existing knowledge humans often try to associate with divinity.

The much-venerated Om Parbat situated on the tri-junction of IndiaTibet and Nepal when viewed from a

distance gives the perfect impression of the letter ‘OM’ including the rightly placed dot.

Valdiya explains the Om Parbat is made up of “rocks folded twice in manner that the depressions within the arms of the overturned folds are filled round the year with ice and snow”, giving rise to geological calligraphy depicting the Hindu word ‘OM’.

Incidentally, the 6,191-m-high peak, on whose face the letter ‘OM’ is etched, is made of rocks that bear lots of fossils, scientifically that means that millions of years ago the rocks were submerged under the sea, like most of the Himalayas were when the Indian plate was still drifting northwards. .

The Amarnath cave in Jammu & Kashmir, another big pilgrimage spot, houses a Shiva lingam made of ice. This is very rare formation since water has to drip down from the roof and then freeze and the temperature has to be just right for a ‘lingam’ like structure to be formed.

PTI

BATTLE TANK THRILLS

Students from various schools of Mumbai on a reverse tour, being given a tank ride in Akhnoor

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

State drought hits football too P 16

‘N Korea preparing for nuclear test’

“I want to visit Beirut again when there is a president in Lebanon but the issue lies in the hands of Lebanese lawmakers who should resolve the deadlock and elect a head of state. France stands with Lebanon and is keen on consolidating security in Lebanon through military cooperation.”

— Francois Hollande, French President

Obama calls Putin over Syrian situation The leaders of the US and Russia affirmed the need to end attacks and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas

BY LALIT K JHA

South Korean army soldiers pass by a TV news program showing a file footage of a missile launch conducted by North Korea at Seoul Railway Station, South Korea

SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye has said North Korea appeared to be readying for a fi fth nuclear test in defiance of tightened UN sanctions imposed after its last test in January.

“Signs that it is preparing a fi fth nuclear test have recently been detected,” Park told a cabinet meeting.

Her remarks followed South Korean media reports in which unnamed government and intelligence officials spoke of a spike in activity at the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

A fresh test would see Pyongyang doubling down in the face of tough sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council, and would throw down a gauntlet to the international community as it struggles to find new ways to curb the North’s nuclear ambitions.

North Korea is gearing up for a rare

and much-hyped ruling party congress early next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country’s nuclear weapons programme to new heights.

Numerous analysts have suggested the regime might carry out a fi fth nuclear test as a display of defiance and strength just before the congress opens.

“It is uncertain what kind of unexpected provocations it would stage,” Park said at the cabinet meeting.

The South Korean Defence Ministry said it was alert to the likelihood of a fi fth test.

“Given current activities, we believe that there is a possibility that the North may stage an underground nuclear test, and are monitoring the situation accordingly,” ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.

AFP

PUNE

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to express his concern over the status of cessation of hostilities in Syria as the two leaders affi rmed the need to end attacks and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas.

“President Obama spoke by phone with President Vladimir Putin of Russia to share his concern over the status of the Cessation of Hostilities in Syria between the Syrian regime and its allies on the one hand and the

armed opposition on the other,” the White House said.

During the call, Obama stressed the importance of pressing the Syrian regime to halt its offensive attacks against the opposition.

“The two leaders committed to intensify their efforts to shore up the Cessation of Hostilities and affi rmed the need to end attacks by all parties and ensure humanitarian access to all besieged areas,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama also said that progress on these issues needed to be made in parallel to progress on political

This photo released on the official Facebook page of Syrian Presidency, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad casting his ballot in the parliamentary elections

transition to end the confl ict in Syria, it said.

On Ukraine, Obama asked Putin to take steps to end the significant uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine and stressed the urgent importance of moving forward with full implementation of the Minsk agreements, the White House said.

The White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, said Obama continues to make a forceful case to President Putin that he should abide by the commitments that he made in the context of the Minsk talks.

“The United States continues to believe and President Obama continues to make a forceful case that Russia needs to abide by their commitments, and by doing so, they can begin to relieve some of the isolation they have sustained as a result interfering in the sovereign activities of their neighbours in Ukraine,” he said.

The Obama Administration, he said, has for years now encouraged Putin and the Russian government to use the influence that they have with the Assad regime to compel them to act constructively and more recently that means to live up to the commitments that they made in the context of the cessation of hostilities.

PTI

US helped Bangladesh in uncovering plot

BY LALIT K JHA WASHINGTON: The United States provided assistance to Bangladesh in its investigation that unearthed the plot to abduct and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son in the US, a senior American official has said, a day after the police claimed to have uncovered the conspiracy.

“The United States Department of Justice responded to the Government of Bangladesh’s request for legal assistance related to this case,” the official told PTI. The remark was made in response to a query about reports that the Justice Department and the FBI provided evidence of links of opposition BNP mouthpiece Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman to the plot to kill Hasina’s son Sajib Wajed Joy, 44.

“As a general matter, when the US government shares law enforcement information as part of a request for legal assistance, we do not comment on it,” the official said.

Bangladesh police claimed to have found evidence about links of two detained pro-opposition senior journalists to abduction and murder plot of Hasina’s son in the US. Journalist Shafik Rehman, 81, an editor and an adviser to ex-premier Khaleda Zia, has been detained over the plot and is being quizzed by the police. For 62-year-old Mahmudur, in jail since 2013 under several other charges, legal procedure is underway to secure a court order for his remand for interrogation, police has said.

PTI

India rues double standards in terror issue Drone hits plane at Heathrow in UK

BY MANASH PRATIM BHUYAN

MOSCOW: Seeking strong global action against terror networks, India warned the international community that if it continues to adopt “double standards” in dealing with the menace there will be “serious consequences”.

In her address at the Foreign Ministers meeting of RIC (RussiaIndia-China), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the grouping must lead the world in fighting terrorism.

Significantly, Swaraj’s remarks came after she raised with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, before the tilateral, the issue of China blocking India’s bid at the UN to have JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as terrorist.

“India believes that the foremost

challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism.

The RIC countries must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN,” Swaraj said.

“We must not fail in this regard. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international community as a whole,” she said.

Her remarks come in the backdrop of China stopping UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case “did not meet the requirements” of the Security Council.

Talking about the UN Security Council reform, she said a greater urgency was required on the issue and sought support of Russia and China.

KUMAMOTO CALAMITY

“Let me also touch upon the issue of reform of UN Security Council, on which there has been some positive movement with a text being put for the fi rst time on the table for intergovernmental negotiations. However, we need greater urgency on this issue.

I seek the support of my Chinese and Russian colleagues for taking the IGN process forward,” she said.

The External Affairs Minister said the slowdown of the global economy has created its own set of issues for economies of all the three countries and they must join hands in spurring growth.

“As three large, emerging economies, we share similar approaches and could benefit from coordinating our positions,” Swaraj said. .

On BRICS, Swaraj said it is an important framework to boost economic growth.

BY ADITI KHANNA LONDON: A British Airways plane with 137 people on board struck a suspected drone while it was landing at Heathrow airport here, prompting police to launch a probe.

The Airbus A320, with 132 passengers and five crew on board from Geneva was hit as it approached Heathrow airport.

After landing, the pilot reported an object - believed to be a drone that struck the front of the plane.

The Metropolitan Police’s aviation security unit based at Heathrow which is leading the investigation said no arrests has been made so far in the case.

If confi rmed, it’s thought it would be the fi rst such incident in the UK, the BBC reported.

A British Airways spokesperson said, “Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next fl ight”.

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said it was “totally unacceptable” to fly drones - which are generally used to capture aerial fi lm or photographs close to airports.

Flying drones near airports is a punishable offence which could attract up to five years in prison in the UK. PTI

China bids for India’s rail networks China bids for high-speed railway on other routes, claiming that it has the technology and expertise

BY SANJAY GANJOO

A bridge is cut off by landslides after the earthquake in Minamiaso, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. The village near Mount Aso volcano appears to have been the hardest hit by the second earthquake

“We look forward to active participation of all members in the meetings of BRICS during our presidency this year. We hope to have a very successful BRICS Summit in Goa in October,” Swaraj said.

“Let me end by re-emphasising the importance of RIC for consultations on regional and global issues of common concern.

I look forward to our consultations today,” she said.

Swaraj said RIC provided a good opportunity to our three influential countries to exchange views on how we could jointly contribute to international peace, security and development.

The last ministerial meeting of RIC, that comprises the three emerging market economies with important influence at international and regional levels, took place last year.

PTI

BEIJING: India’s fi rst bullet train project may have gone to Japan but China is wooing the country to help build high-speed railway on other routes, claiming that it has the technology and expertise which could bring enormous economic and social benefits to the people.

With questions being raised on the cost factor involving setting up of high-speed railway networks, China has cited its own example of the profits that it is reaping now.

“The reason of introducing or promoting our high-speed railway (HSR) to other countries...is that we are confident in our technologies. The second reason is that we share a lot of similarities with southeast Asian countries in terms of large population and we are all developing countries,” Vice General Engineer of the China Railway Corporation Zhao Guotang told visiting journalists from India and some ASEAN nations at the China Railways headquarters here.

“We are also quite happy to share our experiences with these nations.

The advantages brought by HSR to our economic and social development is quite remarkable and quite well known,” he said.

Zhao, who holds the rank of a Deputy Minister, also asserted that the construction and operation of highspeed railway is economically sound.

Significantly, questions have been raised in India about the financial viability of setting up the HSR. “For example Nanchang to Shanghai high-speed railway line started generating profits in the fi rst year of its operation after opening to public. Beijing to Shanghai HSR, with a total distance of 1318 km, has been earning money in third year after being thrown open. Last year, it made a profit of over six billion RMB (USD 927 million) and this year, it is hoped it will exceed 10 billion RMB,” Zhao said.

“Beijing to Tianjin inter-city high-speed railway line has also realised profitability and Beijing to Guangzhou high-speed rail line realised balance. So, some people may say that profitability of high-speed railway is some kind of magic thing or marvellous thing, but I should say it is needed for country’s economic and social development. It is a good thing,

we are happy to share our experiences with other countries,” he said.

Earlier, India’s move to opt for Japanese bullet trains on the MumbaiAhmedabad route had raised concerns in China which is competing with Japan to build high-speed rail networks in India.

In addition to conducting a

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar being welcomed by Gen Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of the China’s Central Military Commission in Beijing

feasibility study to build a highspeed rail track on the 2,200-km Chennai-Delhi route, an India-China consortium is also conducting a study for the 1,200-km New Delhi-Mumbai corridor.

The proposed Chennai-Delhi corridor could be the second largest in the world after China’s 2,298 kmlong Beijing- Guangzhou line which was launched three years ago. Zhao said that “actually, people often tend to pay more attention to maximum speed of HSR, but what matters most for passengers is the average operational speed”.

“For our Beijing to Guangzhou HSR line, the average operational speed is 287 kmph, which is the highest in the world, the second is in France which is 246 kmph and third in Japan at 239 kmph,” he said.

On the feasibility studies in India, Zhao said the party responsible for such work is Th ird Railway Survey and Design Institute Group Corporation (TSDI) of China.

“They have taken about 50 per cent of feasibility work of our overseas rail projects, so they have rich experience in this area,” he said.

“Actually, national conditions in India are somewhat similar to what we have in China,” he said.

PTI

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

MONEY MATT ER S

“With our new ‘ROG’ series launch, we have tried our best to cater to the demands of all the gaming segments - from entry and mainstream levels to professional gaming” — Peter Chang, Regional Head, ASUS India

Signpost Probe team on money stashed abroad With 500 Indians being named in leaked ‘Panama Papers’ for alleged offshore holdings, the Modi government has formed a multi-agency group to monitor exposes in this regard and vowed to take action against all “unlawful” accounts held abroad. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the issue with him and on his advise the group has been set up comprising agencies like CBDT, RBI and FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit). The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money also said it will investigate thoroughly the reported secret list exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

“The new Chromecast brings your favourite entertainment from your mobile devices to the big screen with ease. Chromecast Audio, our newest addition, lets you enjoy your favourite music, podcasts and radio from anywhere.”

— Mickey Kim, Head, APAC Chromecast Partnerships

Global economic situation grim: Jaitley

Minister said each of the regions in the world is trying to do its best within the limitations that exist

BY YOSHITA SINGH

The global economic situation is “grim” and “worrisome” that has prompted the nations to put up “firewalls” around their own systems to save themselves from the slowdown and grow within the limitations, Finance Minister of India Arun Jaitley has said.

“If you were to ask me how’s the global situation, I think it’s grim and worrisome and what will be the state of play a year or two years from now, I don’t think anybody has been able for sure to hazard even a significant guess,” Jaitley said at the Asia Society when asked what his prognosis is for the global

Arun Jaitley speaks at the Asia Society in New York

economy for the next couple of years.

He said given the challenging global economic situation, the level of ambition in nations is such that even an one-two per cent economic growth is considered “good growth under the circumstances”.

“The global situation is challenging,” he said, adding that global factors

India busy in implementing key reforms India has its “hands full” in bringing about structural changes and implementing key reforms to boost economic growth, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said and hoped that the country will be able to improve its growth this year from the 7.6 per cent achieved last fiscal.

Jaitley said the country still requires a lot of structural changes and the government has taken steps to ease processes, make the business environment easier and bring in greater transparency into the system.

Jaitley expressed hope that the bankruptcy law would be approved over the next few weeks and said the government “is in the final stages” of passing a law that deals with commercial indebtedness.

Hunt begins for Tata Steel UK biz Tata Steel has put its entire UK business on the block, putting thousands of jobs at risk amid a deepening crisis in the country’s once-storied sector that the Indian conglomerate had entered nearly a decade ago with a USD 14-billion takeover with much fanfare.

Jolted by the decision, announced in the wee hours of March 29 by Tata Steel after a marathon board meeting at its Mumbai headquarters, the unions have given a call for nationalisation while the government authorities have assured nearly 17,000 workers at the company’s plants across the UK that all possible options would be explored to safeguard their interest.

Tata Steel, one of the flagships of the over USD 100-billion Indian conglomerate Tata Group, said it has decided to “explore all options for portfolio restructuring including the potential divestment of Tata Steel UK, in whole or in parts” amid a “deteriorating financial performance of the UK subsidiary in the last 12 months”.

Tatas entered the British steel sector,

which once dominated the British economy, in early 2007 with acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus after a fiercely fought takeover battle — which till date remains the biggest ever overseas acquisition by an Indian group.

It had emerged the winner after a months-long takeover battle with Brazilian rival CSN that ended with a regulator-conducted auction running into nine rounds.

Corus came into the being in 1999 after the merger with Koninklijke Hoogovens of the erstwhile British Steel Plc, which was known as British Steel Corporation before being privatised in 1988. The decision was taken by Tata Steel after intense deliberations till late night on March 29, including with the members of British trade unions, who also participated in the deliberations.

Tata Steel said, “Following the strategic view taken by Tata Steel Board regarding the UK business, it has advised the Board of its European holding company, Tata Steel PTI

have impacted India also and “they are hurting us in terms of exports in particular. He added that the Chinese were “reasonably optimistic” because in the first quarter their economy had picked up 6.7 per cent.

He said like the rest of the world, China too has its own challenges “because a transformation is taking place in China with their emphasis toward domestic consumption and services in play.” Jaitley said each of the regions in the world is trying to do its best within the limitations that exist.

“Low commodity prices have hurt some people and helped some people.

Low oil prices have helped some people, it has hurt some people...Each one is trying to put firewalls around their own system so that within the limitations how best you can save yourself from the slowdown and grow within the limitations that the world has created for you,” he said.

Jaitley, who had participated in the spring meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, addressed analysts, economic experts and business executives at a session organised by CII and the Asia Society Policy Institute.

On protectionism, Jaitley said, “I can tell you that developing economies being protectionist is much less worrisome (than) when (in) the most developed countries you hear noises of protectionism.”

PTI

Govt rolls back PF withdrawal norms Buckling under protests and street violence in Bengaluru, the government rolled back its order tightening rules for withdrawal of provident fund money, within hours of keeping it in abeyance for three more months.

“The notification issued on February, 10, 2016 is cancelled. Now the old system will continue,” Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said at a press conference.

“I will take ratification from CBT (Central Board of Trustees of EPFO),” he said after violence rocked Bengaluru when garment industry workers torched several buses and attacked a police station protesting against the tightening of rules.

Later, the Labour Ministry issued a statement to say that “the workers are now free to withdraw the entire amount from the provident fund as per existing provisions... including the employers’ share of 3.67 per cent”.

Earlier in March, the government had to withdraw a proposal to tax

provident fund withdrawals, after widespread criticism of the move that was mooted in the Union Budget.

The February notification put curbs on full withdrawal of provident fund by members after unemployment of more than two months, while it also barred withdrawal of the employer’s contribution before the age of 58 years.

The decision was first to come into effect immediately, but was first deferred till April 30 and then till July 31, before being scrapped totally this evening.

Giving reasons for the rollback, Dattatreya said, “The reason is the request of trade unions. The earlier decision (to tighten the PF withdrawal norms) was also taken by the opinion of the trade unions. Now, when the trade unions are requesting, then we have rolled back the decision.”

Dattatreya said employees and workers need not have any misconceptions in the wake of the cancellation of the order.

PTI

Charred buses which were torched by garment workers during a protest rally over EPF withdrawal norm in Bengaluru

FDI norms to benefit offline retailers

BY SHRUTI VERMA KHARE Traditional brick and mortar stores will get a boost in cash flows and see an improved profitability after the government’s recent announcement of FDI guidelines for online marketplaces, says a crisil report.

The government recently permitted 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in marketplace e-commerce retailing, however, it said that such entities will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods and services and shall maintain a levelplaying field.

With these new norms, e-retailers, like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal may now find it difficult to provide lucrative discounts to attract customers as the new guidelines on online marketplaces prohibit such players to influence the prices of goods and services.

“Aggressive discounting by e-marketplaces had hurt the profitability of B&M retailers. Facing what seemed like an existential crisis over the past couple of years, these retailers gamely fought back by reorienting store profiles, increasing private labels, and sharpening

focus on Tier II & III cities thereby improving overall operating efficiency,” Crisil said a report.

It add that these clarifications will “cushion the impact of marginally higher capex intensity and support their (retailers) credit profiles”.

Anuj Sethi, Director, Crisil Ratings, said: “Revenue growth for B&M retailers, especially in the apparel and consumer durables segment, should improve as pricing gradually gravitates

towards parity with online marketplaces.

This, coupled with expectedly greater pricing power and store productivity, will provide a fillip to profitability.”

The report added that a better operating environment will also mean B&M retailers will continue to focus on store additions over the next 2-3 years.

The report further pointed out that better operating environment will also mean brick and mortar retailers will continue to focus on store additions

With new FDI norms, e-retailers, like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal may now find it difficult to provide lucrative discounts to attract customers

over the next 2-3 years. “Crisil expects the pace of store additions to be faster than the 10 per cent of existing space presaged earlier. Further, better cash flows will support the credit profiles of B&M retailers,” it said.

Better cash flows will support the credit profiles of brick and mortar retailers. The new sourcing norms will impact emarketplaces heavily dependent on group companies and restrict deep-discounting that had become synonymous with the sector.

Amit Bhave, Director, Crisil Ratings, said: “The e-marketplace sector will undergo gradual transformation in the near term to a more sustainable business model and will focus more on optimising processes (supply chain, warehousing and overall fulfillment) from a deep discounting for customer acquisition strategy.”

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotions (DIPP), while defining the marketplace model of e-commerce, permitted 100 per cent FDI under the automatic route. In addition, it has also stipulated some restrictive conditions for the marketplace model.

PTI

Tobacco industry loses Rs 500 cr daily over health policy Firms say implementation of any change in the health warnings on the cigarette packages is elaborate process

BY KUMAR RAHUL The tobacco industry which includes cigarette manufacturers as ITC, Godfrey Phillips and Beedi makers has suspended their production by halting their respective units against the government’s circular which mandates them to have 85 per cent pictorial warnings is costing a combined loss of around Rs 500 crore every day.

A notification by the Health Ministry on September 24, 2015, for implementation of the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labeling) Amendment Rules, 2014, came into force on April 1, 2016. These prescribe larger pictorial warnings, covering 85 per cent of packets on tobacco products.

Opposing the move, on April 1 major cigarettes manufactures including ITC, Godfrey Philips and VST decided to shut all their factories and stop manufacturing in the wake of larger pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the packaging space coming into force.

The companies, which are members of Tobacco Institute of India, accounting for more than 98 per cent of the country’s domestic sales of duty paid cigarettes, had claimed the estimated production revenue loss of over Rs 350 crore per day for the tobacco product manufacturers.

Supporting them, Beedi manufacturers across India also joined cigarette makers by stopping production from April 7 saying it’s “not possible to print” warnings covering 85 per cent of packets as required under a new government rule.

All India Beedi Industry Federation (AIBIF), a body of over 240 manufacturers controlling over twothird of total branded beedi production,

said the loss due to stopping production will be around Rs 200 crore daily.

It has also started impacting the tobacco farmers as their crops particularly Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco, a variant used by cigarette industry could not fetch standards price

in auctions in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, said Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA).

FAIFA, which claims to represent two lakh farmers who grow tobacco used for making cigarette besides others who are into plantation of palm oil

Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labeling) Amendment Rules, 2014, came into force on April 1, 2016. These prescribe larger pictorial warnings, covering 85 per cent of packets on tobacco products

and chilli, said the continued closure of tobacco products manufacturing is creating panic among the community as Rs 700 crore of bank loans outstanding with farmers are under risk. Requesting the industry to resume the production, the association said that unsold Tobacco crop over Rs 1,200 crore are lying in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh alone.

“This crisis has come at the worst time as this is peak season for tobacco farmers to sell their tobacco crops,” FAIFA said, adding demand from international buyers has been extremely poor.

ITC, a market leader in the segment said till a clarity emerges on the matter, it is not ready to print larger pictorial warnings on its cigarette packs as required under a new government norm and its factories will remain shut.

Insisting that “the question of the legality of the new warnings has been and continues to be pending before the Court”, ITC said it “did not commit to wasting substantial resources in creating the large number of cylinders and other

tools necessary for a changeover of the warnings”.

“As a result, the company is at present not in readiness to print the health warnings,” the company said adding that “, ITC has been compelled to shut its cigarette factories with effect from April 1, 2016, until clarity emerges in the current uncertain state of the rules on health warning”.

The company further said the implementation of any change in the health warnings on the cigarette packages is an elaborate process for the manufacturers, entailing months of preparation involving substantial cost and effort.

Companies as Godfrey Phillips India Ltd has said it is preparing to comply with the new government rule of larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packs although it has suspended production for the domestic market.

However, the company is manufacturing for its export market which is immune from 85 per cent pictorial warning.

PTI

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

Our voices need to be heard

PMPML bus fiasco sunglasses, shorts and pastel shirts to enjoy the summer heat with their wide array of magnificent cocktails and worldly cuisine to end your weekend in style.

When: April 24, 5 pm onwards Where: Atmosphere 6, Viman Nagar

PLAYBOY BEER GARDEN CELEBRATE WORLD BOOK DAY

THE HOMESUKH HOSTS “TALENT HUNT”

With an aim to promote upcoming talent in the field of music, dance, drama and fine arts, ‘Talent Hunt at The HomeSukh’, is a unique opportunity for Punekars to showcase their talent and win lucrative rewards.

The competition will be held in the categories of tabla, harmonium, guitar, keyboard, sitar, violin, vocal (Indian classical), vocal (light music), kathak, bharatnatyam, monologue, vocal (western solo), drawing, essay writing and poetry writing. It is one-of-its kind opportunity to flaunt your talent in just two minutes and let the world know.

When: April 23, 6 pm onwards Where: The HomeSukh, Aracade 4, Ishanya, Yerwada

CLASSICAL MUSIC & DANCE COMPETITION FOR CHILDREN

City

based

NGO

-

Kalanubhav

EDITOR

LETTERS TO THE

As we all know that theatre has a very wide dimension and it works not only as a personality enhancing tool but functions as a science. Body and mind work together to hone each other and strengthening abilities of mind, body and soul. Considering this as a very tool to impart creativity, observation, listening, learning skills, Swatantra Theatre holds Children Theatre Program twice a year. This year’s Children

DISCOVER TREES OF PUNE & JOYS OF CYCLING

Every year the Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 and the theme for 2016 is Trees for the Earth. To commemorate this day, join the Virasat Pune Club this Sunday for a wonderful morning cycle ride and discover some unique trees of Pune. See local and exotic trees and receive botanical insights from our tree guide.

When: April 24, 7 am Where: Starts from Rajaram Bridge

MURUD TRAGEDY: TRUSTEES OF COLLEGE BOOKED FOR NEGLIGENCE

The struggle for justice by the parents of the students of Abeda Inamdar College, who drowned in the sea at Murud Janjira on February 1, 2016, has finally borne fruit. A complaint has been registered at Murud Police station against 17 staff members of the college, including the teachers and trustees, on April 19, 2016.

In his complaint, Salgar, father of the deceased Swapnali Shivaji Salgar, mentions that he had sent his daughter with great trust on the picnic organised by the college

on February 1, 2016. He received a call from his daughter after they had reached Murud and were going to the beach after lunch. In the evening he received a call from an acquaintance, who told him about the Abeda Inamdar students drowning, which was being aired on television. The complaint has been registered under Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) and Section 34 (acts done be several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

ARCHITECT HAFEEZ CONFERRED ‘VASTU RATNA HONOUR’ Padma Bhushan and renowned architect Hafeez Sorab Contractor was conferred with ‘Vastu Ratna Honour’

by Wide Angle Forum and Ravi Paranjape Studio at an interaction event organised recently in the city.

The architect also inaugurated an exhibition of handillustrated perspectives of his works rendered by artist Ravi Paranjape. The exhibition will be on till May 1.

Wide Angle Forum is an organisation comprising architects, design professionals and creative people.

Hafeez unveiled a coffee table book titled ‘Hafeez Contractor Illustrated’ prepared by Architects Saleel Savarkar and Priya Gokhale. Later, Hafeez freely discussed various topics, including his career as an architect, urban planner and speaker on urban issues.

He also talked about his schooldays, design, influences,

Women should be free to wear what they want to

The feature about law colleges and universities being asked to consider a dress code for students just shows how warped some people’s minds are. A college professor in Bengaluru commented about what a girl student was wearing. What does it matter what a person wears, but the professor must have been prone to having sexual thoughts about the girl in question. India is a country where women wear all kinds of clothes, from being all wrapped, to the urban emancipated women who show off all the skin they want to. It is the male population of India that is to blame, most of them showing streaks of chauvinism and god knows what else.

With a population that is bursting at the seams, it is amazing that there are so many sex-starved perverts in India. No wonder rape and molestations are an every day affair in India.

— Rucha Ghate

The apathy at PMC schools is appalling

The shortage of headmasters, teachers and staff at corporationrun schools just shows how little the civic fathers care about the education of children. The statistics are shocking, where for 310 PMC schools, there are only 145 headmasters, and 35 schools run without a headmaster. The PMC schools are attended by children from the lower strata of society, people who cannot afford the astronomical fees charged by private schools. How are underprivileged children supposed to rise above their station and make their way to a brighter future?

— Shashank Dave

education, talent, and practice with the audience that mostly included youngsters. Visitors also got to know about his early years as a struggling architect. “Make the most of college days. This is the best time to be armed with all the ammunition,” Hafeez said.

The ice hockey revelation It is quite a surprise to know that there are so many budding ice hockey players in Pune and Maharashtra. Ice hockey is a sport well suited to northern climates where ice and snow are common. Therefore it is all the more laudable that there are people here who love the sport so much that they will battle against seemingly insurmountable odds to play the game, and also teach others. It was a feature truly worthy of spotlight, and reading about the youngsters who are so devoted to such an arduous sport was really inspiring. Imagine what would happen if the civic corporations lend a helping hand, and give the ice hockey players adequate facilities to practice the sport.

— Pushpa Deshpande

PIC

OF

It was a very special day for Mahadev Dhavale and Poonam Kale as they were setting out on a life together, tied by the sacred bonds of marriage.The police took the bride and groom and their parents to the Wakad police chowky.The Ashtavinayak marriage hall at Kalewadi Phata was abuzz, with guests from both the bride’s and groom’s side mingling with each other in great bonhomie. Just when they thought that everything was going according to plan, a tiff broke out between the families of the groom and bride, and before they knew it, it had turned into a very tense situation that was threatening to spiral out of control.

One of the concerned guests then called the police control room, which in turn alerted Wakad police chowky in-charge, sub inspector Amar Kadam, who rushed to the marriage hall and brought the situation under control.

Sanjukta Arun brings her art to the art lovers of Pune with her presentation “Celebrating The colors of Divinity”.

This series reveals her unusual visual language of artistic expression through the apt use of colours, mediums and textures.

When: Till May 6, 9 am to 6 pm Where: Bliss Art Gallery, Lane E, North Main Road, Koregaon Park

T

here is a long list of complains when it comes to the public transport in the city. The public utility service provided to the city is not up to the mark. I regularly commute by PMPML buses, and so many times there have been instances of bus breaking down midway. It really is a frustrating experience. Besides it causes great deal of inconvenience to the passengers, who have to reach to work on time.

Buses plying on the long routes from the Pune Station bus depot to Pimpri, Chinchwad, Akurdi and Nigdi should be checked before they embark Maya Walunj on their journeys. Breakdowns are frequent case. I have experienced at least seven breakdowns in the past two months. A lot of time goes into waiting for the next bus, which is also often too crowded.

This causes delay. And all the passengers are forced to complete their journeys standing. Also the lack of quality checks and poor maintenance are to be blamed for these snags. The buses make a lot of noise when on move, causing inconvenience to all. The PMPML officials should test these buses before sending them for further transport.

PMPML really needs to tackle the issue seriously. Quality of the buses is important. They may look neat from outside, but from inside they are dirty, sometimes even the seat are torn. I believe, their negligence has only resulted in adding to the vehicular crowd on roads.

Each time I mention my means of travel to be the infamous PMPML buses, I am received with mocking laughs, expressions of bewilderment, and at times sympathetic looks. I do not blame them, as the condition of public transport buses in Pune is pathetic and extremely commuter unfriendly.

Public transport system in the city scores low in all terms ranging from quality of service, to route coverage, to breakdown of buses and so on.

It is a matter of serious concern that Pune Metropolitan area doesn’t have an adequate and effective public transport system in place. I have my experiences of agony, frustration, risky behaviour of the PMPML service.

The city as a whole is so beautiful, green, clean and safe. But if clubbed with an efficient and effective Public transport it can play wonders. A shift in the pattern of commuting from the citizens with the civic support for a greener commuter experience can make Pune a real world-class city.

VISHAL KALE

WEEK THAT WAS A MARRIAGE THAT ALMOST ENDED BEFORE IT BEGAN

CHILDREN THEATRE WORKSHOP

SWAG DJ AKSHAY AT ATMOSPHERE 6

Atmosphere 6 is known for its beautiful set up, four different decks with four different themes to choose from. This Sunday come down to Atmosphere 6 to listen to the best of Chill-Out House where you can wear your favorite

CELEBRATING THE COLOURS OF DIVINITY

E WE K

This Saturday let your hair down and wear your Playboy merchandise and apparels and get ready to bounce to the beats of Pune’s “inhouse DJ” DJ Abhishek Mantri. All you girls wearing the bunny hair bands and guys wearing bunny t shirts will be grooving to Mantri’s latest and own composed Funk Deep Disco + Nu Disco +Deep House beats.

When: April 23, 8 pm onwards Where: Playboy Beer Garden, Balewadi Highstreet

Charitable Trust that provides guidance and support to young artists is organising a Classical Music & Dance Competition for the school children of 13 to 16 years of age. Titled as ‘Kalanubhav Interschool Music Competition’, this competition will be organised in association with SEED Infotech Ltd. When: April 26, 9 am to 2 pm Where: Sahakar Sadan, Bharati Niwas Society Hall, Prabhat Road For registration, call: 9011017053 or email kalanubhavatrust@gmail.com

THE

FEAT. DJ ABHISHEK MANTRI

Books allow us to see beyond our circumstances; it has the power to shape our lives! To commemorate World Book Day will be celebrated this weekend.

Phoenix Marketcity in association with Rebirth is organizing one-of-its kind art exhibition that will showcase lifesize installations shaped by recycling books into works of art.

When: Till May 1, 11 am onwards Where: Ground floor, Phoenix Marketcity, Nagar Road

Theatre Program will offer extensive training of theatre orientation, not only in acting but also various aspects of theatre such as speech and diction, voice modulation, character building, dialogue delivery, body movement, imagination, improvisation, emotional memory, stagecraft, rhythm and music.

When: April 25 to May 22 Where: Swatantra Theatre, FC Road For registration call: 9767178857, 9923643335

THROWING CAUTION TO THE WIND: A man is working at the flyover construction site at Swargate without wearing any safety gear

Life means little in overpopulated India

The bereaved parents of the Inamdar college students who drowned at Murud beach may get some consolation, now that the college authorities have been charged with gross negligence in the organisation of the picnic. Of course, that is not going to bring back their children, but it may give them a sense of closure. The entire incident actually highlights how careless we Indians are about such matters, where we have no lifeguards at public swimming pools, forget about lifeguards at all the beaches in the country. Life means little in overpopulated India, and a few people drowning, or dying in train accidents, floods or earthquakes does not the rest of us in the least. But the fact is that we do not care.

— Shubha Dahiya

India is a heartless place

The story of Supriya Sopan Shilimkar, who lay injured on the busy Sinhagad Road for nearly 45 minutes without any medical assistance, is a reflection of how truly apathetic and insensitive we have become.

Even after the police arrived, it took them another 45 minutes to take her to hospital. Meanwhile, the crowd of onlookers just caused more obstruction to the traffic, but no one had the sense to give the injured person any help. Once upon a time, India was a humane, caring place, where even strangers would go out of their way to help someone in need.

Those days are long gone.

— Deepak Lande

Write to Us

Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com, yogesh.sadhwani@goldensparrow.com or mail it to The Editor, Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

PUNE

SPORTS

“I am not a star. Nothing like that. I don’t think on those lines. My job is to keep working harder and bring laurels for the country.

Doing well in the Olympics is my immediate target now.”

— Dipa Karmakar, Indian Gymnast

Signposts Anvesh Prasade wins three gold

“Shikhar’s form is not a worry for SRH team. He is a gifted player and when he plays well he finishes off the match. He is a match winning player.”

— VVS Laxman, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s mentor

‘Pune needs more go-karting tracks’ Experts believe that Pune can play a vital role in the grassroots development of motorsport in India by promoting go-karting

City swimmer Anvesh Prasade won three gold medals in the 6th Dubai International Aquatic Meet. Siya Ranade, also of the city, won a gold and a silver medal. Anvesh, who trains with Narendra Acharekar, won the 50m butterfly event in the under-11 category. He finished the 100m butterfly, followed by the fastest finish in the 200m individual medley.

Sahil wins district chess tournament Sahil Khose won the under-9 category in the District Selection Chess tournament held at Gandhi Bhavan last week. Dakshayani Chavan won the girls’ under-9 category. At the end of the 8th and final round, Sahil was tied with Anshul Baswanti with seven points each. However, Sahil emerged victorious in the tie-breaker. Dakshayani remained unbeaten in the tournament.

Karan wins National Super Cross Pune’s Karan Karle won the junior title in the National Super Cross event held at Madgaon, Goa. The standard V student of Sahyadri National School will participate in the international tournament to be held in Sri Lanka, next week.

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish Go-karting is the foundation of motorsport and it is considered a stepping stone to track racing. It is an ideal form of racing for amateurs, and many of India’s top drivers have gone on to greater glory after beginning with go-karting.

Pune was a go-karting hub until 2004, after which time the sport faded out, and now there is just one karting track in the city. Motorsport experts believe that more karting tracks are necessary to revive and promote the sport in the city On the sidelines of the upcoming JK Tyre IndiKarting National Series, Rayomand Banajee, director, RR Motorsports Management Pvt Ltd, said,

State drought hits football too

Water shortage in Maharashtra forces FC Pune City to postpone their academy plans TGS NEWS SERVICES @TGSWeekly While there is debate over the hosting of Indian Premier League matches in Maharashtra, another sport has also suffered due to drought conditions in Maharashtra.

FC Pune City, a club in Indian Super League football, kickstarted the 2016 edition with talent scouting festivals, workshops, ‘Train the Trainer’ programmes and addition of more junior squads. In addition to that, the Rajesh Wadhawan Group and Hrithik Roshan co-owned club had plans to develop a football academy in Kolhapur. However, the drought conditions have forced them to postpone the plans.

“As a part of our grassroots development plan and to provide platforms to talented footballers, we started our programme ‘Forces of Football’. Apart from just nurturing the talent, we had plans to go for a full-fl edged academy in Kolhapur. However, it requires at least two developed grounds and good amount of water for maintenance purposes. Therefore,

considering the severe conditions in several districts in Maharashtra, we decided to postpone the plans. We might start the development may be after the monsoon season,” said Gaurav Modwel, FC Pune City chief executive officer.

Currently, the club is hosting training programmes with their head of grassroots development, José Hevia, who is UEFA pro-coach along with fi rst team assistant coach Steve Charles by reaching out to schools across the city.

“We need to align and integrate all the raw talent and nurture them which in turn will catapult Pune City into a new bastion of Indian football.

Ours is a young city and no doubt with huge talent potential, need of the hour is to provide opportunities through high-level training and development programmes. To begin with, we are initiating two programmes, the fi rst being a coaching workshop for school kids, followed by a talent scouting programme,” said Modwel.

Last year, the club had organised such workshops across top 40 schools in Pune tapping close to 40,000 kids. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

“Unfortunately Pune has been out of gokarting for many years. We had a lot of enthusiasm in 2004, but eventually it died down. However, we are now planning to revive the sport and we are getting a good response.

“Currently there are few talented youngsters who have produced promising results at the national level. However, they don’t have other options but to come all the way to Kharadi for practice. With the increasing number of enthusiasts, we should have enough karting tracks in city,” he said.

About their plans to develop such tracks in the city, Banajee said, “The talks are going on, but it’s a costly affair. First of all we need a couple of acres of land and around a crore of rupees to develop a proper track. So, right now our target

Nomination is motivation enough: Pereira TGS NEWS SERVICES @TGSWeekly Pune I-League club DSK Shivajians’ head coach Derrick Pereira, 54, was recently announced as a nominee for the prestigious PFAI Coach of the Year accolade for the second time.

Pereira, whose professional coaching career spans over 16 Derrick Pereira years, was named as the ‘PFAI Coach of the Year’ in 2012. Prior to becoming a coach, Pereira played professionally for over 20 years at the top level of Indian football.

Regarding his nomination, Pereira said, “It means that people appreciate the work we’ve done and it’s a happy feeling. Being nominated is an acknowledgement of the hard work which has gone in. It helps going forward as it means that people recognise you and your work. Nomination for PFAI Coach of the Year in itself is motivation to do better.”

Pereira started his coaching career with Vasco SC in 2000, and shifted to Mahindra United in 2005, before moving to Pune FC in 2009. He managed the team for two seasons, leading them to a top five finish in each season. At the start of the 2013-14 I-League campaign, Salgaocar replaced David Booth with Pereira, and they finished in third place, a marked improvement over the last two finishes.

Pereira had been nominated for the award four times in the past and won in 2012. The coach also praised his team, which was among the top five for most of the season, but dropped to 8th place last week. In the last league match of the season, DSK will take on Mumbai FC at Cooperage ground this Sunday.

“It was our strong showing in the second leg of the I-league, when everyone performed well, the players did their job, and the team got the results. Our aim is always to get better and making sure that we have a good team with talented players, which would set up and establish DSK Shivajians at the highest level of football in India,” he said. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

is to promote the sport by hosting more tournaments in the city.”

RR Motorsports is planning to host 4-6 events annually to get the feel of racing. That includes national events like the JK Tyre IndiKarting National Series.

“There is a misconception that motorsport is very expensive and limited to the elite class. However, our aim is to make motorsport accessible and affordable to all. We are offering full sponsorship for talented racers and they can jump to even the Formula 3 grade,” said Banajee.

The first round of the IndiKarting will take place at Kharadi from today (April 23). This karting series is the latest link in the clear path to higher forms of single-seater racing, up to F3 racing. The winners will get a direct and sponsored

drive in the JK Tyre National Rotax Max Karting Championship, which is the country’s only nationally recognised karting championship. Apart from that, winners in the senior category will get opportunities to race with some of the leading teams in JK Tyre National Racing Championship.

The first event in Pune is expected to see large participation. After the first round in Pune, other rounds will be held in Goa, Vadodara and Ludhiana before culminating in the National Capital Region. This series will comprise three categories, viz, Pro Cadet for racers aged 7-12 years, Pro Junior for racers aged 12-16 years and Pro Senior for racers for above 16 years of age.

In addition to the three Pro classes, there will be seven classes of support races

including Senior Amateur, Interschool, Corporate, Masters (Age 32+), Women’s and Media.

About this initiative, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, corporate communication and motorsports head, Sanjay Sharma, said, “I look forward to seeing some good raw talent emerge from this initiative, whom we can nurture to become India’s next racing star.”

India’s first F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan, as well as Karun Chandhok, Armaan Ebrahim, Aditya Patel and Arjun Maini have gone on to become international stars. Apart from them, national champions such as Vishnu Prasad, Saran Vikram and Ameya Walavalkar have also emerged from karting initiatives promoted by JK Tyre. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com