PUNE: An educational cum motivational tour consisting children in the age group of 15 to 19 from remote and underdeveloped areas of Reasi and Rajouri district of J & K visited BEG & Centre, Khadki, NDA Khadakwasla and Pune City on Sunday. The tour is visiting various cities including Mumbai, Agra, Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil as part of Operation Sadbhavana .

MUMBAI: Scores of tourists from Maharashtra, who are stranded in Leh following the cloudbursts on Thursday night and Friday, are reported to be safe.

Santa Cruz family has fingers crossed

The Vermas from Santa Cruz were relieved when they learnt that their son Harsh and his two college friends, all of whom are on a trip to Manali, were safely taken to a military camp.

PUNE: Deputy commissioner of police Sanjay Jadhav (Zone IV) on Friday felicitated housewife Rupali Rane and security guards Janak Bahadur Bhist and Narendra Bahadur Bhist for the courage they displayed while nabbing a criminal involved in series of house break-in and chain-snatching cases.

The suspect Rakesh Purohit (34) of Orissa was overpowered by the guards due to the alertness of Rane at Sopannagar in Wadgaonsheri on August 2.

PUNE: The traffic branch of the Pune police has now decided to arm its 925 constables with light-weight aluminium batons, as against the earlier fibre ones, for self-defence against possible incidents of aggressive behaviour by citizens.

With increasing cases of citizens attacking traffic constables (see box), the traffic department, last year, purchased 700 batons made of fibre to arm its personnel. The purpose was that these could be used for self-defence and would not cause any serious harm to the offender. But most of the batons broke due to poor quality and were rendered useless.

PUNE: Officials from the special investigation team (SIT) of the Pune crime branch on Friday arrested criminal on police records Bapu Prabhakar Nayar (30) from a restaurant in Bibvewadi. Nayar, a resident of Upper Indiranagar in Bibvewadi, has been absconding for the last one year.

He was wanted in dacoity attempt case at the Sahakarnagar police station. Acting on a tip-off, the SIT team, led by inspector Bhanupratap Barge, laid a trap at Bibvewadi and arrested Nayar.

PUNE: Here's the truth straight from the horse's mouth. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has no system to measure the quantity of water it receives from the state irrigation department.

This means that the city's water supply system is based on approximate calculations with no exact figure of the water supply available.

This information tumbled out of the details sought by civic activist Major General ( retd) SCN Jatar who had filed an application under the Right of Information (RTI) Act, 2005 recently.

Pune : Senior police officers in Pune, both serving and retired, have obtained licences in the name of their wives and sons to float private security agencies. Some have actually begun operating the agencies from their official residences.

The Pune police website — www.punepolice.gov.in — has a list of 180 licenced private security agencies in the city. Many in the list are in the names of kin of officers and politicians.

PUNE: In the wake of a decision taken by the state government to increase fine for traffic violations by three times, the city traffic police hope better sense prevails among motorists.

The number of traffic violations reported in the city are not only high, but are increasing every year. In 2008, the daily average number of violations was about 1,750. In 2009, it swelled to 2,290. The average number of cases has remained approximately the same in the first seven months of the current year.

Pune :

With more than 50 per cent posts of public prosecutors (PP) in Pune district and sessions court lying vacant, existing PPs are struggling with work load and mounting pendency of cases.

“Seven out of nine posts of additional PPs in Pune district court are vacant. They are appointed by the home ministry to plead criminal cases,” said Maharashtra State Public Prosecutors Association (MSPPA) president advocate Sanjay Pawar who is attached with the Pune district sessions court. He added the posts have been lying vacant for at least two to three years.

A 48-year-old Pune resident fell off the Pune-Mumbai Deccan Queen near Sandhurst Road on Thursday morning and died. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) government railway police said Shaukhat Jilani Shaikh was coming to Mumbai with his son Sohail (21) to visit a relative. As the train was nearing CST, Shaikh, who is a labour contractor in Pune, leaned out of the door.

“Shaikh did not see the local train, which was coming from the opposite direction, and lost his balance,” said Senior Inspector Dilip Mane.