dna pune-8may2010

1
Abhay Khairnar It could be music to the ears of the Pune Municipal Corpora- tion (PMC), as the residents liv- ing near Bhau Patil Road in Bopodi have complimented the civic body for constructing road dividers on the busy thorough- fare at a cost of about Rs35 lakh. The road, which is about two kilometres long, had become ex- tremely hazardous for pedestri- ans, especially senior citizens, women and children to cross since it was bereft of road dividers. DNA had taken the initiative to highlight the issue of pedes- trian safety on the road and pub- lished the first article on March 11, 2009. Later, another article appeared in the newspaper on the same issue. After these articles were pub- lished, the Aundh regional ward office and local corporator Srikant Patil vowed that road divers would be erected. Over 70% of the work for con- structing the road dividers be- tween Babasaheb Ambedkar Chowk to Bopodi Gaon has been completed. Within the next few days, the total work will be completed. “There were constant de- mands from the local residents for the road dividers. Civic offi- cials too were convinced that such structures should be set up on this road,’’ said corporator Patil. The PMC has started replac- ing the existing street lights with new ones. After establish- ing the road dividers, the PMC will resurface the entire road. Patil said the PMC would also undertake plantation of rain trees along both sides of the road. The PMC regional ward of- fice has also set up pedestrian crossing in front of the Shivaji garden. Moreover, pedestrian cross- ings on the road would be estab- lished that would not only en- able pedestrians to cross the road safely but would minimise the speed of vehicles. Nilanjana Ghosh Choudhury Pune-based Serum Institute of In- dia (SII) would begin the final test of its injectable H1N1 vaccine at a laboratory in the US this week. The company is slated to launch the vaccine by May-end. The test refers to the final phase when samples from volun- teers’ bodies are taken to see what antibodies they have developed after being administered the vaccine. However, the follow up for the intranasal variety of vaccine is being done at the National Insti- tute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and other laboratories. “We have completed two phas- es of trials for both the intranasal and injectable varieties simulta- neously. The follow up of the in- tranasal vaccine is currently go- ing on in India. However, for the injectable variety we will send the samples to a US-based labo- ratory where the tests would be conducted,” SII additional medical director Dr Prasad Kulkarni said. On the company’s plan to con- duct the tests in the US instead of India, Dr Kulkarni said, “The laboratories in United States are well equipped to carry out such tests in a better way.Several oth- er global pharmaceutical compa- nies are also carrying out their trials there.” He declined to divulge any de- tails about the laboratory in the US where the company would be carrying out the trials. Over 300 people in three age groups — paediatric, adult and elderly — were enrolled for the nasal drop vaccine trials in Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Indore, Bangalore and Chennai. The same numbers were identified for the injectable variety also. “It will take about two to three weeks to complete the trials and around the same time the follow up with the intranasal variety would also be completed in India after which the final reports would be given to the Drugs Con- troller General of India (DCGI) for its final approval. Thereafter, the vaccines would be launched in the market,” Dr Kulkarni said. The company, which had al- ready invested Rs50 crore in a new plant at its Hadapsar facility for manufacturing the H1N1 nasal vaccine and the injectable one, has decided to pump in an- other Rs120 crore in the project. The current facility at SII is ca- pable of manufacturing nearly 50 million nasal doses and 1.2 mil- lion injectable doses annually. SII executive director Adar Poonawalla told DNA that the vaccine would be priced between Rs150 and Rs200 which is almost one third of the cost of the vaccines launched globally. DNA Correspondent The employees and management of SG Analytics Private Limited — an IT company— has donated Rs2 lakh to the widow of autorickshaw driver Shankar Pansare who died in the German Bakery blast. Company’s director Parminder Kaur and accounts head Naveen Deshmukh handed over a fixed de- posit receipt (FDR) to Shankar’s widow Yogita on Wednesday at her residence in Dhankavdi. Yogita has been staying with her mother and children in Dhankav- di. Deshmukh said the company is located in Vimannagar. After read- ing in the newspapers about Pansare’s death, the employees had decided to do something to help Pansare’s family. “Our employees collected Rs75,000. Meanwhile, the management also showed their willingness to help Pansare’s fam- ily. After discussions, the manage- ment contributed Rs1, 25,000 and placed the amount in a fixed de- posit in Axis Bank. We have re- quested the bank to give interest af- ter every three months to Yogita,’’ Deshmukh said. Kaur told Yogita that she should provide good education to her chil- dren. She promised to help her and her children in future too. Yogita told Kaur that she has started working in a PMC school as a peon. Nilanjana Ghosh Choudhury When 20-year-old Kiran Ranzawane said that “I am the only educated per- son in my family and can speak Eng- lish fluently,’’ the spark in his eyes was hard to miss. Kiran, the son of a construction worker and a housemaid is one among the 13-odd students, who are now part of the upmarket hospitality industry in the city. Thanks to an initiative by city- based Estique Hotels, now several boys and girls from financially weak and marginalised families have learnt the ropes of the hospitality trade and are ready to begin a suave career in the hotel industry. Estique Hotels started this activity three years ago as part of the hotel’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). These students have been re- ferred through leading city NGOs and rigorously trained in hotel manage- ment courses to be later absorbed in the group’s hotels. “It all started in 2006 when we de- cided to recruit students from cam- puses. However, we could not find suit- able candidates who would suit the in- dustry needs. Therefore, we decided to begin this course wherein students are picked up from marginalised fam- ilies and are given complete training in nuances of the hotel industry and are later placed with us after comple- tion of the course,’’ said vice-presi- dent of Estique Hotels Kavita Amar- nani. The group runs two properties Park Estique on Ahmednagar Road and Studio Estique close to the INOX multiplex in Bund Garden. Not only are these students provided free train- ing but they also receive a monthly stipend of Rs1,500. “The students study for two simul- taneous courses. While the basic course in hotel management has been developed by us, they also undertake a three year degree course in tourism from the Indira Gandhi National Open University which gives them the stability in terms of getting a degree,” said dean of (Institute For Interna- tional Management Technology (IIMT) Gurgaon Kamal Manaktola, who is also the principal consultant for this course. So far, 22 students have benefitted from the course. Bhagyashree Kulthe Nature lovers can now make scien- tific contributions while enjoying walks and treks. All they have to do is record their observations and capture on film the specimens they see and send the data to www.spandan-bip.org. The web-based information sys- tem is an initiative by Spandan, the Bip (biodiversity inventory by peo- ple), a project by the Non-Govern- mental Organisation (NGO) World Institute for Nature (WIN), which aims at collecting millions of biodi- versity ob- servations during 2010, the In- ternational Year of Biodiversity. The data will be used for environment activities. Citizens can take photos or video clips of the object of observation (plant, animal or any living thing) and send them with data like name of the species, location and date of observation. It’s not necessary that the con- tributor of the observations needs to know the scientific information of the species. They only need to know the common name of the organism, locality where the observation was made and other general information. The information will be verified by experts, who will also do value addi- tion. The observation records will then be published by Spandan. All can contribute to the observation records, irrespective of age, class or creed. Over the next five years, Spandan, the Bip aspires to collect together over a billion scientifically useful biodiversity observation records through this movement, said chair- man of the board of trustees of WIN Vishwas Chavan. He was speaking at a meeting of collaborators on Friday. He stressed on the participation of the general public in monitoring biodiversity. WIN will hold several campaigns over the next 10 months. These in- clude urban diversity inventory, tree counting and bird observation com- petitions. They will also organise road shows and ‘Spandan - the Bip walk’ in December 2010 and January 2011. “Our core team will be located in Pune and we have volunteers across India and in other countries. The movement is started to provide citi- zens an easy-to-use framework that can transform amateur biodiversity observations into scientifically use- ful data,” said Chavan, who works as senior programme officer at Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Copenhagen, Denmark. “Spandan will be a citizens’ in- strument to let governments know that we are worried about the de- pleting state of the world’s biodiver- sity and are ready to act. We wish to pass on the legacy of sustainable na- ture with its diversity to our future generations, while it is alive and pul- sating,” he added. Biodiversity experts, naturalists, taxonomists and ecologists can join the network of experts for validating records. Individuals can also con- tribute to development of public service announcements, presenta- tions and electronic media cam- paigns in the local language. “We are seeking collaborations with local schools and colleges, in- stitutions and individuals to take the movement further,” said Chavan. Residents welcome dividers on BHAU PATIL ROAD Pedestrians used to find it difficult to cross the thoroughfare The construction work of road dividers is in its final stages —Ravindra Joshi.DNA DNA had taken the initiative to highlight the issue of pedestrian safety on the road and published the first article on March 11, 2009 Serum to begin final trial of injectable H1N1 vaccine A US laboratory has been chosen to conduct the process this week IT firm donates Rs2 lakh to autorickshaw driver’s widow Parminder Kaur (c) and Naveen Deshmukh handed over the receipt to Yogita Pansare NATURE-LOVERS MAY SEND DATA, PHOTOS, VIDEO CLIPS OF SPECIMENS TO THE PORTAL NGO takes the lead in biodiversity Estique takes the initiative for poor Financially weak boys, girls are being trained in hotel mgmt The students are not only provided free training but also receive a monthly stipend of Rs1,500. The hotel took this initiative three years ago as part of its corporate social responsibility. So far, 22 students have benefitted from the course. GREEN PROJECT Biodiversity experts, naturalists, taxonomists and ecologists can join the network of experts for validating records Abhay Khairnar Over 350 staffers of the War- je Karvenagar regional ward office of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and a section of the employees from Cummins India Limit- ed on Friday jointly under- took a cleaning drive on the river bed for three hours. During the drive, they collected two containers full of plastic carry bags, gutkha sachets and other garbage from the river bed. The drive was carried out between Ra- jaram and Mhatre bridges. Regional ward officer Sunil Gaikwad, health in- spector Dipak Dhelwan and other senior officials of the regional ward office took part in the drive. “Since the state has com- pleted 50 years of its forma- tion, we thought that we should do something mean- ingful. Hence we decided to clean up the river bed,” said Dhelwan. Employees of the Cum- mins India Limited ex- pressed happiness in taking part in the drive, which they found to be a meaningful ac- tivity. “It was a good experi- ence to clean the river bed. It has opened our eyes to the fact that there is so much garbage on the river bed. We, as citizens should be more responsible and not throw plastic bags and oth- er garbage in any part of the city. It affects the environ- ment adversely,” said the employees of the company. PMC, Cummins staffers clean up river bed Two containers full of plastic carry bags and gutkha sachets were lifted Employees of Cummins India cleaning the river bed on Friday —Ravindra Joshi.DNA Vishwas Chavan giving a presentation on Friday Abhay Khairnar The ruling Nationalist Con- gress Party (NCP) and Con- gress have indicated that they are in favour of giving nod to the proposed move of the Pune Municipal Corpo- ration (PMC) to privatise its octroi department. Municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade has signed the proposal to be placed be- fore the standing committee on Thursday. Octroi is the main source of revenue for the civic body. However, the department has been unable to achieve the annual target for the past few years, which in turn has af- fected the financial health of the PMC. The target for the last fis- cal was Rs900 crore but the civic body was able to collect only Rs750 crore. Standing committee chairman Arvind Shinde confirmed that the civic ad- ministration will send a pro- posal to the standing com- mittee on the issue. “The NCP has already declared its support for privatisation of octroi while the Congress is also in favour of it,” he said. The standing committee will discuss the issue and take appropriate decision on Thursday, he added. There are around 20% to 30% leakages in octroi col- lection. The civic adminis- tration feels that if the octroi collection is done with the help of private parties, it will get a revenue of more than Rs1,000 crore. PMC octroi department all set to be privatised Proposal to be placed before standing panel on Thursday PUNE 02 STRIKING NUMBER 35 lakh rupees is the expenditure incurred by the Pune Municipal Corporation on constructing the road dividers Pune,May 8, 2010 www.dnaindia.com, epaper.dnaindia.com Savita Lade (Resident from the area) It is good that the PMC has erected road dividers on the busy road. It had become really difficult for us to cross the road. In fact, we had to scamper lest we meet with accidents. Now, it would be safer for us to cross the road. The mishaps on the road would reduce. Vishal Sharma (Shop owner on Bhau Patil Road) We appreciate the PMC’s decision to establish road dividers but the work is pro- gressing slowly. The civic body must speed up things. Moreover, it should have put up boards cautioning the pedestrians and motorists about the work that is being undertaken. There have been 3 - 4 minor accidents due to the ongoing work, mainly at night. Milind Gaikwad (Infosys employee & a resident of Bopodi) The setting up of road dividers is really a welcome move. The mishaps would be reduced to a great extent. Since there were no road dividers, drivers would take turns from anywhere disturbing the flow of traffic. Pratik Rangwala (Regular visitor and Airtel employee) It is good that the PMC has erected road dividers. As the width of the road is narrow, the civic body and the traffic police must start taking strong action against unauthorised parking on the road, especially by the owners of four-wheelers who park their vehicles in a haphazard manner in the peak hours. Citizen’s voice

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Press coverage of Spandan, the bip event held in Pune on 7th May 2010

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Page 1: dna pune-8may2010

Abhay Khairnar

It could be music to the ears ofthe Pune Municipal Corpora-tion (PMC), as the residents liv-ing near Bhau Patil Road inBopodi have complimented thecivic body for constructing road

dividers on the busy thorough-fare at a cost of about Rs35 lakh.

The road, which is about twokilometres long, had become ex-tremely hazardous for pedestri-ans, especially senior citizens,women and children to crosssince it was bereft of road dividers.

DNA had taken the initiativeto highlight the issue of pedes-trian safety on the road and pub-lished the first article on March11, 2009. Later, another articleappeared in the newspaper onthe same issue.

After these articles were pub-lished, the Aundh regional wardoffice and local corporatorSrikant Patil vowed that roaddivers would be erected.

Over 70% of the work for con-structing the road dividers be-tween Babasaheb AmbedkarChowk to Bopodi Gaon has beencompleted. Within the next fewdays, the total work will be completed.

“There were constant de-mands from the local residentsfor the road dividers. Civic offi-cials too were convinced thatsuch structures should be set up

on this road,’’ said corporatorPatil.

The PMC has started replac-ing the existing street lightswith new ones. After establish-ing the road dividers, the PMCwill resurface the entire road.

Patil said the PMC would alsoundertake plantation of raintrees along both sides of theroad.

The PMC regional ward of-fice has also set up pedestriancrossing in front of the Shivaji

garden.Moreover, pedestrian cross-

ings on the road would be estab-lished that would not only en-able pedestrians to cross theroad safely but would minimisethe speed of vehicles.

Nilanjana Ghosh Choudhury

Pune-based Serum Institute of In-dia (SII) would begin the final testof its injectable H1N1 vaccine ata laboratory in the US this week.

The company is slated tolaunch the vaccine by May-end.

The test refers to the finalphase when samples from volun-teers’ bodies are taken to see whatantibodies they have developedafter being administered the vaccine.

However, the follow up for theintranasal variety of vaccine isbeing done at the National Insti-tute of Virology (NIV) in Puneand other laboratories.

“We have completed two phas-es of trials for both the intranasaland injectable varieties simulta-neously. The follow up of the in-tranasal vaccine is currently go-ing on in India. However, for theinjectable variety we will sendthe samples to a US-based labo-ratory where the tests would beconducted,” SII additional medical director Dr PrasadKulkarni said.

On the company’s plan to con-

duct the tests in the US insteadof India, Dr Kulkarni said, “Thelaboratories in United States arewell equipped to carry out suchtests in a better way. Several oth-er global pharmaceutical compa-nies are also carrying out theirtrials there.”

He declined to divulge any de-tails about the laboratory in theUS where the company would becarrying out the trials.

Over 300 people in three agegroups — paediatric, adult andelderly — were enrolled for thenasal drop vaccine trials in Pune,Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Indore,Bangalore and Chennai. Thesame numbers were identified forthe injectable variety also.

“It will take about two to threeweeks to complete the trials andaround the same time the followup with the intranasal variety

would also be completed in Indiaafter which the final reportswould be given to the Drugs Con-troller General of India (DCGI)for its final approval. Thereafter,the vaccines would be launchedin the market,” Dr Kulkarni said.

The company, which had al-ready invested Rs50 crore in anew plant at its Hadapsar facilityfor manufacturing the H1N1nasal vaccine and the injectableone, has decided to pump in an-other Rs120 crore in the project.The current facility at SII is ca-pable of manufacturing nearly 50million nasal doses and 1.2 mil-lion injectable doses annually.

SII executive director AdarPoonawalla told DNA that thevaccine would be priced betweenRs150 and Rs200 which is almostone third of the cost of the vaccines launched globally.

DNA Correspondent

The employees and managementof SG Analytics Private Limited —an IT company— has donated Rs2lakh to the widow of autorickshawdriver Shankar Pansare who diedin the German Bakery blast.

Company’s director ParminderKaur and accounts head NaveenDeshmukh handed over a fixed de-posit receipt (FDR) to Shankar’swidow Yogita on Wednesday at herresidence in Dhankavdi.

Yogita has been staying with hermother and children in Dhankav-di. Deshmukh said the company is

located in Vimannagar. After read-ing in the newspapers aboutPansare’s death, the employees haddecided to do something to helpPansare’s family. “Our employees

collected Rs75,000. Meanwhile, themanagement also showed theirwillingness to help Pansare’s fam-ily. After discussions, the manage-ment contributed Rs1, 25,000 andplaced the amount in a fixed de-posit in Axis Bank. We have re-quested the bank to give interest af-ter every three months to Yogita,’’Deshmukh said.

Kaur told Yogita that she shouldprovide good education to her chil-dren. She promised to help her andher children in future too.

Yogita told Kaur that she hasstarted working in a PMC schoolas a peon.

Nilanjana Ghosh Choudhury

When 20-year-old Kiran Ranzawanesaid that “I am the only educated per-son in my family and can speak Eng-lish fluently,’’ the spark in his eyes washard to miss.

Kiran, the son of a constructionworker and a housemaid is one amongthe 13-odd students, who are now partof the upmarket hospitality industryin the city.

Thanks to an initiative by city-based Estique Hotels, now severalboys and girls from financially weakand marginalised families have learnt

the ropes of the hospitality trade andare ready to begin a suave career inthe hotel industry.

Estique Hotels started this activitythree years ago as part of the hotel’sCorporate Social Responsibility(CSR). These students have been re-ferred through leading city NGOs andrigorously trained in hotel manage-ment courses to be later absorbed inthe group’s hotels.

“It all started in 2006 when we de-cided to recruit students from cam-puses. However, we could not find suit-able candidates who would suit the in-dustry needs. Therefore, we decidedto begin this course wherein studentsare picked up from marginalised fam-ilies and are given complete trainingin nuances of the hotel industry andare later placed with us after comple-tion of the course,’’ said vice-presi-

dent of Estique Hotels Kavita Amar-nani.

The group runs two propertiesPark Estique on Ahmednagar Roadand Studio Estique close to the INOXmultiplex in Bund Garden. Not onlyare these students provided free train-ing but they also receive a monthlystipend of Rs1,500.

“The students study for two simul-taneous courses. While the basiccourse in hotel management has beendeveloped by us, they also undertakea three year degree course in tourismfrom the Indira Gandhi NationalOpen University which gives them thestability in terms of getting a degree,”said dean of (Institute For Interna-tional Management Technology(IIMT) Gurgaon Kamal Manaktola,who is also the principal consultantfor this course.

So far, 22 students have benefittedfrom the course.

Bhagyashree Kulthe

Nature lovers can now make scien-tific contributions while enjoyingwalks and treks. All they have to do is record their observations and capture on film the specimens they see and send the datato www.spandan-bip.org.

The web-based information sys-tem is an initiative by Spandan, theBip (biodiversity inventory by peo-ple), a project by the Non-Govern-mental Organisation (NGO) WorldInstitute for Nature (WIN), whichaims at collecting millions of biodi-

versity ob-servationsduring2010, the In-ternational

Year of Biodiversity. The data will beused for environment activities.

Citizens can take photos or videoclips of the object of observation(plant, animal or any living thing)and send them with data like nameof the species, location and date ofobservation.

It’s not necessary that the con-tributor of the observations needs toknow the scientific information of

the species. They only need to knowthe common name of the organism,locality where the observation wasmade and other general information.The information will be verified byexperts, who will also do value addi-tion. The observation records willthen be published by Spandan. Allcan contribute to the observationrecords, irrespective of age, class orcreed.

Over the next five years, Spandan,the Bip aspires to collect togetherover a billion scientifically usefulbiodiversity observation records

through this movement, said chair-man of the board of trustees of WINVishwas Chavan. He was speaking ata meeting of collaborators on Friday.He stressed on the participation ofthe general public in monitoring biodiversity.

WIN will hold several campaignsover the next 10 months. These in-clude urban diversity inventory, treecounting and bird observation com-petitions. They will also organiseroad shows and ‘Spandan - the Bipwalk’ in December 2010 and January2011.

“Our core team will be located inPune and we have volunteers acrossIndia and in other countries. Themovement is started to provide citi-zens an easy-to-use framework thatcan transform amateur biodiversityobservations into scientifically use-ful data,” said Chavan, who works assenior programme officer at GlobalBiodiversity Information Facility,Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Spandan will be a citizens’ in-strument to let governments knowthat we are worried about the de-pleting state of the world’s biodiver-sity and are ready to act. We wish topass on the legacy of sustainable na-ture with its diversity to our futuregenerations, while it is alive and pul-sating,” he added.

Biodiversity experts, naturalists,taxonomists and ecologists can jointhe network of experts for validatingrecords. Individuals can also con-tribute to development of publicservice announcements, presenta-tions and electronic media cam-paigns in the local language.

“We are seeking collaborationswith local schools and colleges, in-stitutions and individuals to take themovement further,” said Chavan.

Residents welcome dividers on

BHAU PATIL ROADPedestrians usedto find it difficultto cross thethoroughfare

The construction work of road dividers is in its final stages —Ravindra Joshi.DNA

DNA had taken theinitiative tohighlight the issueof pedestrian safety on the road andpublished the first article on March 11, 2009

Serum to begin final trialof injectable H1N1 vaccine A US laboratoryhas been chosento conduct theprocess this week

IT firm donates Rs2 lakh toautorickshaw driver’s widow

Parminder Kaur (c) and NaveenDeshmukh handed over thereceipt to Yogita Pansare

NATURE-LOVERS MAY SEND DATA, PHOTOS, VIDEO CLIPS OF SPECIMENS TO THE PORTAL

NGO takes the lead in biodiversity

Estique takes the initiative for poorFinancially weak boys, girls are beingtrained in hotel mgmt

The students are notonly provided freetraining but alsoreceive a monthlystipend of Rs1,500. Thehotel took this initiativethree years ago as partof its corporate socialresponsibility. So far,22 students havebenefitted from thecourse.

GREENPROJECT

Biodiversityexperts,naturalists,taxonomistsand ecologistscan join thenetwork ofexperts forvalidatingrecords

Abhay Khairnar

Over 350 staffers of the War-je Karvenagar regional wardoffice of the Pune MunicipalCorporation (PMC) and asection of the employeesfrom Cummins India Limit-ed on Friday jointly under-took a cleaning drive on theriver bed for three hours.

During the drive, theycollected two containers fullof plastic carry bags, gutkhasachets and other garbagefrom the river bed. The drivewas carried out between Ra-jaram and Mhatre bridges.

Regional ward officerSunil Gaikwad, health in-spector Dipak Dhelwan andother senior officials of the

regional ward office tookpart in the drive.

“Since the state has com-pleted 50 years of its forma-tion, we thought that weshould do something mean-ingful. Hence we decided toclean up the river bed,” saidDhelwan.

Employees of the Cum-mins India Limited ex-pressed happiness in takingpart in the drive, which they

found to be a meaningful ac-tivity. “It was a good experi-ence to clean the river bed.It has opened our eyes to thefact that there is so muchgarbage on the river bed.We, as citizens should bemore responsible and notthrow plastic bags and oth-er garbage in any part of thecity. It affects the environ-ment adversely,” said theemployees of the company.

PMC, Cummins staffersclean up river bedTwo containersfull of plasticcarry bags andgutkha sachetswere lifted

Employees of Cummins India cleaning the river bed onFriday —Ravindra Joshi.DNA

Vishwas Chavan giving a presentation on Friday

Abhay Khairnar

The ruling Nationalist Con-gress Party (NCP) and Con-gress have indicated thatthey are in favour of givingnod to the proposed move ofthe Pune Municipal Corpo-ration (PMC) to privatise itsoctroi department.

Municipal commissioner

Mahesh Zagade has signedthe proposal to be placed be-fore the standing committeeon Thursday.

Octroi is the main sourceof revenue for the civic body.However, the department hasbeen unable to achieve theannual target for the past fewyears, which in turn has af-fected the financial health ofthe PMC.

The target for the last fis-cal was Rs900 crore but thecivic body was able to collectonly Rs750 crore.

Standing committeechairman Arvind Shindeconfirmed that the civic ad-

ministration will send a pro-posal to the standing com-mittee on the issue. “TheNCP has already declared itssupport for privatisation ofoctroi while the Congress isalso in favour of it,” he said.The standing committee willdiscuss the issue and takeappropriate decision onThursday, he added.

There are around 20% to30% leakages in octroi col-lection. The civic adminis-tration feels that if the octroicollection is done with thehelp of private parties, it willget a revenue of more thanRs1,000 crore.

PMC octroi department all set to be privatisedProposal to beplaced beforestanding panelon Thursday

PUNE 02

STRIKING NUMBER

35 lakh rupees is the expenditure incurred bythe Pune Municipal Corporation on constructing the road dividers

Pune,May 8, 2010

www.dnaindia.com, epaper.dnaindia.com

Savita Lade (Resident from the area)

It is good that the PMC haserected road dividers on thebusy road. It had becomereally difficult for us to crossthe road. In fact, we had toscamper lest we meet withaccidents. Now, it would besafer for us to cross the road.

The mishaps on the road would reduce.

Vishal Sharma (Shop owner on Bhau Patil Road)

We appreciate the PMC’sdecision to establish roaddividers but the work is pro-gressing slowly. The civicbody must speed up things.Moreover, it should have putup boards cautioning thepedestrians and motorists

about the work that is being undertaken. Therehave been 3 - 4 minor accidents due to theongoing work, mainly at night.

Milind Gaikwad (Infosys employee & a resident of Bopodi)

The setting up of roaddividers is really a welcomemove. The mishaps would bereduced to a great extent. Since there were no road dividers, drivers would take turns from anywhere disturbing

the flow of traffic.

Pratik Rangwala (Regular visitor and Airtel employee)

It is good that the PMC haserected road dividers. As thewidth of the road is narrow,the civic body and the trafficpolice must start takingstrong action against unauthorised parking on the road, especially by the

owners of four-wheelers who park their vehicles in a haphazard manner in the peak hours.

Citizen’s voice