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PUNE, SEPTEMBER 13, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com
PUNE’S PEOPLE WITH A PURPOSE
A youth’s effort to bring slum kids to school gets global recognition P2
Signposts SC stays Koli’s execution till Oct 29 The Supreme Court on Friday extended its order, putting on hold the execution of the death sentence of Nithari killer Surendra Koli till October 29. While extending the stay, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justicedesignate Justice HL Dattu asked the senior counsel to place before them in bullet points the grounds on which Koli is seeking a review of the judgement confirming his death sentence by the top court. The court will hear Koli’s review petition October 28.
Security net for Modi, Xi visit Chinese security personnel along with the Special Protection Group and other security agencies have virtually taken over Gujarat city, where both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to spend a day coming Wednesday. Informed sources told IANS that a posse of Chinese and Indian security personnel, including the prime minister’s elite SPG, have been camping in the city for some days now to ensure an uneventful visit of the two dignitaries.
Sensex trades flat; oil & gas stocks gain A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday was trading flat at 37.49 points or 0.14 per cent up as oil and gas stocks gained. Good buying was observed in oil and gas, banking and auto sectors, while selling pressure was seen in healthcare sector. The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,048.15 points, was trading at 27,033.36 points (at 9.15 a.m.) in the early session, up 37.49 points or 0.14 per cent from the previous day’s close at 26,995.87 points.
‘US coerced us to cooperate with NSA’ Internet giant Yahoo has said it was threatened by the US government to make it cooperate with the administration and provide its users’ data under the National Security Agency’s (NSA) controversial vigilance programme, PRISM. “We had to fight every step of the way to challenge the US government’s surveillance efforts. At one point, the US government threatened the imposition of $250,000 in fines per day if we refused to comply,” Ron Bell, Yahoo’s general counsel, wrote in the company’s blog post Thursday. The case dates back to 2007 when the US government amended a law enabling it to seek users’ data from online service providers.
SPOTLIGHT
SPORTS
Six lessons to learn from Ganeshotsav 2014 P7
Set for the big league P 16
‘Better ambulance mobility City scientists secure patents in Pune is possible’ for nano particle antibiotics
The Chennai model of ‘Green Corridor’ for ambulances is not possible in Pune but we are willing to consider an alternative, says DCP (Traffic) Sarang Avad in an exclusive interview to Gitesh Shelke
Savitribai Phule Pune University V-C WN Gade, C-MET’s officiating director Dinesh Amalenkar and Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering director Anant Bhalerao led the research on nano antibiotics BY MANASI SARAF JOSHI @TGSWeekly
Traffic police say that creating dedicated ambulance corridors is not possible in Pune as the civic authorities have planned extensive BRTS with dedicated corridors on various routes.
BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke The city traffic police are willing to explore the possibility of providing “safe and speedy passage” to ambulances ferrying serious patients in peak hour traffic when most city roads are clogged due to congestion. In an exclusive interview to The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sarang Avad said that the Pune Police are thinking on these lines on the backdrop of an initiative by Chennai Police to create ‘Green Corridors’ for ambulances on the city roads. The objective of such corridors is to provide safe and speedy passage for ambulances with serious and critical patients.
Following Chennai’s example, Mumbai Police has announced that it also plans to try and replicate the model in the state capital. Recently, Chennai traffic police transported a heart patient from a Government Hospital to another hospital at a distance of 12 km in less than 14 minutes. This was possible because of a specially created Green Corridor for ambulances. The Chennai police cleared the traffic along the route of the two hospitals to enable the ambulance to transport the patient speedily. Avad said that creating dedicated ambulance corridors won’t be possible in Pune as the civic authorities have extensively planned BRTS (Bus Rapid Transport System) with dedicated corridors on various routes. “However, a scheme can be implemented for safe and
speedy passage for ambulances ferrying serious and critical patients,” he said. Avad said this would require city hospitals and ambulance services to inform the Traffic Police Control Room in advance and specify the route on which a patient has to be transported. “We will communicate over the walkietalkie and ensure that the traffic police on different roads and chowks clear traffic for the ambulance,” he said. He said that while this would not be possible in the extremely narrow roads in the heart of the city, this would be possible in other parts. The senior police official said he would work with hospitals and ambulance services to implement this plan in the city. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com
Th ree city scientists, including Savitribai Phule Pune University Vicechancellor WN Gade have secured two American patents for research in developing a nano particle-based antibiotics formulation for diseases like Tuberculosis. A formulation based on this research promises to be more effective than existing medication for diseases like Tuberculosis wherein the TB bacteria has been found to develop a high incidence of antibiotics resistance. According to Gade, the nano particlebased antibiotics would be more effective in helping the body recover faster from the disease. The other two scientists who are part of the team include Dinesh Amalnerkar, officiating director of the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), Pashan and Anant Bhalerao, director, Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering. Speaking to The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, Gade said that the formulation is based on “nano molyphdenum sulphide” whose efficacy as an antibiotic is far more superior to the existing antibiotics.
While Bhalerao wrote the formula for the sulphide, the nano sulphide was tested on Bacillius subtilis to develop this antibiotic. A paper on this research has been published in the reputed international journal from Europe, Applied Nano Science. Amalnerkar and his students Neelam Qureshi, Govind Umarji, Uttam Mulik and Manish Pillai and Gade’s students Rajendra Patil also worked on the project. The Pune University vicechancellor said that a lot of work now needs to be done to develop the formulation further and test its efficacy as an injection or a tablet on both, adults and children. A noted scientist and life sciences expert, Gade is a recipient of the Lupin Endowment Award instituted by the University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, and has served as a scientist in the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology of CSIR in Delhi for 20 years between 1983 and 2003. Gade said the scientists want to work further on the project till it is ready to be taken up by pharma companies and made available in the market. “We will call ourselves successful once the medicine is in the market, bringing relief to patients,” he said.
IIMM to assist public transport utility in spare parts BY ASHOK BHAT The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has sought assistance from the Indian Institute of Material Management (IIMM), Mumbai, for the management of spare parts and other materials for the fleet of 2,200 buses, said PMPML CEO Mayuri Shindgikar. In the September 7 meeting of PMP Pravasi Manch at Institute of Management Development and
Research (IMDR), many passengers raised the issue of poor PMPML services due to number of breakdown buses. Shindgikar said, “Spare parts are very crucial for public transport vehicles. There was no system for stores department of PMPML and because of non-availability of spare parts percentage of breakdown vehicles increases.” “Buses breakdown in rotations and to avoid this, every bus needs fortnight servicing. Then only the percentage of
Funds for infrastructure
While talking to passengers, MP Anil Shirole said, “The central government is providing funds for procurement of new buses and now the government has decided to allot funds for infrastructure like depot, workshops. Apart from this, I am ready to give additional funds from my MP funds to PMPML. But PMPML needs good governance to spend these funds. BRT is good system, we are in favour of it but there were many errors in basic of BRT. Being an MP, I will keep close watch on utilisation of these funds.”
this rotational breakdown could be minimised. It requires better store management and for this PMPML contacted IIMM, which has given the positive response and is ready to help the PMPML.” About funds she said, “PMPML buses’ daily average running is about three lakh km. Monthly revenue collection of PMPML is Rs 42 crore. In which expenses on
salary, pension and administration is Rs 28 crore while expenses of diesel-CNG is Rs 16 crore. PMPML is suffering daily loss, which is an operational loss. State government ordered both stakeholder corporations to provide funds against this operational loss. The PMPML has requested that instead of giving bulk amount once or twice in year, it should get funds in every month amounting Rs 1 or 1.25 crore from both the PMC and the PCMC.” editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Doctors, medicines Radio FTII gives voice to auto drivers rushed to Srinagar BY PRACHI BARI
NEW DELHI: A 30-member team of doctors, including pediatricians and gynaecologists, 100 tonnes of medicines and water purifiers have been rushed to flood ravaged Srinagar, union health ministry said here Friday. The ministry said they have set up control rooms (phones 23061469, 23063205, 23061302) and are regularly monitoring the situation arising out of the floods in Jammu and Kashmir. “Around 100 tonnes of medicines have been sent so far,” a official statement issued here said. “A 10 member clinical team comprising physicians, pediatricians and gynaecologists have been positioned in Srinagar since Sep 10 to provide medical relief to the affected population.”
But following a request from the state government, the union health ministry rushed another 20-member team of doctors Thursday. “On the request of the state government, another 20 member clinical team comprising physicians, pediatricians and reproductive health specialists was deployed in Srinagar yesterday (Thursday),” the statement added. Srinagar is battling the worst floods in 60 years. The floods have left nearly 200 people dead. While hundreds have been rendered homeless, the main city of Srinagar has been partially submerged under water. Continued on p 11
“We also have complaints about passengers just like the passengers have about us. Where do we go to register them?” This is voice of autorickshaw driver Krishna Marne speaking to you on Radio FTII at 90.4 MHz. He is among the auto drivers who volunteered to become a radio jockey for the Radio FTII community radio to tell his side of the story. Aired since the first week of September, the programme, Mitra Punyache Aaaple Rickshawwale (Your friend, your rickshawala) was conceived by Radio FTII head of department, Sanjay Chandekar. “This radio series is mainly to provide a platform to auto drivers in the city where they can tell their stories,” said Chandekar. He thought of this programme after failing to get a rickshaw to go home from Pune Railway
Radio FTII plans to air at least 15 episodes and try and popularise the programme amongst auto drivers through their associations
Station to his home at Sadshiv Peth. “The rickshaw drivers would blatantly refuse or ask for double fare simply. This set me thinking that if we commuters face so many problems, then what would the auto drivers be going through? I soon began my research,” he said.
Chandekar noted that Puneites have a number of complaints about auto drivers such as refusal to take the passengers, demand for excess fare, disregard for traffic rules and regulations and rough language. His research showed that auto drivers hail from a variety of backgrounds with
some being owners and others renting out the vehicle to earn a living. Some specialised in picking and dropping school children, providing airport service, working in pre-paid counters and also hailing from other towns and cities with their own associations. “Through the Community Radio project, we seek to have a dialogue to understand problems from all sides and thus want to involve auto drivers, passengers, RTO officers, autorickshaw owners, school authorities and consumer bodies like the Grahak Manch. This project will try to bring some awareness amongst all and also promote respect for traffic rules in the public,” he said. A joint venture between two community radio stations, Radio FTII and Vidyavani, this project has received the support of NGO Manch, Delhi who will also feature the programme on their website.