After Tendulkar, Paresh Rawal Want to Shoot Politicians

Noted film and theatre actor Paresh Rawal created storm in Pune saying that he sometimes wants to become naxalite and criticized the politicians as very substandard people.

Rawal was felicitated in the city on Monday with ‘Pu La Sanman’. After the ceremony, he vented his ire through an open interview. When asked what does he think about today politics, he minced no words in venting his anger.

“What should I say? They are very third-rate people, mean creatures with no morality. After watching corruption around me, I sometimes want to join naxalites and shoot them all. I sometimes think why no revolution takes place in our country,” he said.

He added, “People like us who have money feel the hardships. What must the common people be feeling,” he said.

This reminds of the statement made by late theatre legend Vijay Tendulkar, who created a storm about eight years ago when he said that he wanted to shoot Narendra Modi. “If I had a pistol, I would have shot Narendra Modi,” he said during one of his famous interviews.

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Bad Omen : Sharad Pawar Praises R R Patil

Notwithstanding his criticism from opposition, Maharashtra’s home minister R R Patil was praised by his party boss. This comes within a month of his criticism for losing control over the former’s ministry. However, given the history of his praise, it bodes bad for the home minister.

Sharad Pawar, Union Agriculture Minister and president of Nationalist Congress Party, supported Patil for his handling the August 11 violence in Mumbai. Pawar said that Patil is a "capable" minister doing a good job. "Patil is a capable minister, who is doing a good job. He handled the situation well. The party is fully backing him," he told reporters in Pune on Wednesday. 

Pawar said the police handled the situation well to bring it under control as use of force would have resulted in many casualties. The praise evidently made Patil happy as he told a local news channel thanking his boss for the appreciation! Given Pawar’s penchant for making statements before taking a contradictory step, it is not a good sign for Patil. 

Pawar is known to make misguiding statements and then do exactly opposite. Seven years ago, when Chhagan Bhujbal, was deputy chief minister and was embroiled in the controversy over fake stamp scam by Abdul Karim Telgi, Pawar had similarly backed Bhujbal saying that he was clean. Within a couple of days, Bhujbal resigned on the orders from high command.

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City Congress Pays Tribute To Vilasrao Deshmukh

The city’s Congress workers and leaders offered their condolences to the demised leader, Vilasrao Deshmukh, on Wednesday after the flag hoisting ceremony.  His close associates in the city remembered the departed leader’s quality as a bankable friend who made great contributions to the development of the city.

 Deshmukh had a special affinity with Pune and it was during his tenure as CM that the city got three Minisers of State. Balasaheb Shivarkar, former MoS in Deshmukh’s cabinet and a close associate, said, “He was a leader whose actions matched the words. He would shower love on workers whom he liked and I was fortunate to be one among them. I don’t have own brother, but he loved me more than a brother. He kept to his word at any cost. His death is a great a loss to Congress party.”

 Explaining Deshmukh’s role in Pune’s growth, Shivarkar said while on way to Latur for Deshmukh’s last rites, “The roads, overbridges  and railway overbridges in the city came up during his tenure. Katraj by-pass and IT park at Hinjwadi were among two big examples. As CM, he helped the city during Commonwealth Youth Games. He loved Pune very much and reminisced often about the 11 years spent in Pune.”

 Ulhas Pawar, one of the closest associates of Deshmukh not only in Pune but in Maharashtra, was inconsolable. On his way to Latur, one of his aides said he was not in a situation to speak anything. Later, the MLC said that he could not believe that his friend of 40-42 years was no more.

 Chandrakant Chajed, also a former MoS and close friend of Deshmukh since his college days, “Deshmukh, Gopinath Mundhe and I were studying together at INS Law College. I used to send him off to stand for Latur on my scootes. His speciality was that he never distanced his old friends even after assuming prominence.”

 MP Suresh Kalmadi also expressed his grief over Deshmukh’s demise. In the condolence message, he said, “The untimely death of Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has saddened me. He was a very statesmanlike, studious leader with a great presence of mind who took everyone along with him. He was a mass leader in true sense. It makes me sad to lose a virtuous friend in him. He put Maharashtra ahead always as a Chief Minister. A visionary leader with a fighting spirit has been lost with his death.”

 Nationalist Congress MP Vandana Chavan also condoled Deshmukh’s passing away. In her message, she said, “Deshmukh was a cultured politician in state as well as country with a big heart. It is saddening that a leader who communicated directly with masses who steered state & country on the path of progress through able administration has been lost. Deshmukh often guided and encouraged the functionaries including me.”

 City party president Abhay Chhajed, convened the condolence meeting for the departed leader at 11 AM on Wednesday. A board was put up at the party’s headquarter Congress House  on Tuesday and also conveyed to the party members informing about the meeting.

 Ramchandra Bhuvad, a veteran of Congress party and Seva Dal, said, “The party’s flag can not be hoisted above the height of the national tri-colour. Hence, we removed the party’s flag from the building on August 9. Now, we are to hold the flag hoisting ceremony at 10.15 AM and then bring the tri-colour at half as a grief periodAfterwards, when the national flag is taken down, the party flag will be hoisted and it will also be brought at half.”

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Kite Festival Comes To Maharashtra

Giving a boost to the agri-tourism and trying to take advantage of the experiences elsewhere, the state is to emulate the Kite Festival way. For the first time ever, a Kite Festival will take place next month thanks to Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), the cultural department of the state and Agri Tourism Development Company (ATDC) at Baramati.

The kite festivals are organised in states like Gujarat and Kerala and it has brought windfall for those states. Taking a cue from those experiences, the same festival is to take place at Baramati from August 15 to 20. Pandurang Taware, CEO of ATDC, said, “The timing of the festival here will be different because traditionally the kites are flew in this season in Maharashtra. During the month of Shravan, an important festival of farmers Bail Pola takes place which is when kites are in vogue.”

In Gujarat and other northern states, the kite festivals takes place in January around the Makar Sankranti time. In Maharashtra, Bail Pola is celebrated on the new moon day (Amavasya) of the month of Shravan to pay respect to bulls. On this day, the farmers take out their bulls to the river and clean them after which they are decorated and moved around in procession. Villages have fairs and cometitions on the occasion.

“That is why we have organised the kite making competition. Along with it, the people will be encouraged to fly Vavadi, a variant of the kites. The event was organised on small level last year but it has been given the official status this year only,” said Taware.

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Frustrated Fort Lovers Start Repairing Fort Themselves

Frustrated over the inaction by authorities, the fort lovers and history enthusiasts took the repairs of the Sinhgad fort into their hands. They claimed that parts of the fort’s Kalyan Gate were collapsing continuously putting a question mark on the stability of the fort. That is why a group of the volunteers went up the fort and carried out the repairs of about 2 feet of the wall.  

About 50 members of Sahyadri Pratishtan had warned that it will rebuilt relics at the Sinhgad fort, about 30 kms from the city. The actually did the same on Thursday even as the state archaeological department opposed the act. Shramik Gojamgunde, founder of the organization claimed that the campaign was successful and the members repaired the tower at the Kalyan Gate. They also reported that a major portion of the tower along the door has collapsed fighting with monsoons.

“A major chunk of the tower collapsed last year and since then 10-15 stones are falling time and again. This has happened this monsoon also. All the stones which fell off from the tower were lying near the wall and steps going down to the Kalyan village. We removed those stones and piled them in a side so that they could be placed in their original place,” said Gojamgunde.

A team from the organization visited the fort on July 11 and found that outer wall and towers  at the forts are either fallen off or in the danger of falling off.

However, V N Kamble, assistant director of the state archaeology department, blamed the police for inaction. said, “The Sinhgad is a protected monument. The organization had given me a letter to repair the tower within 7 days but it could not have been done. A certain procedure has to be followed and our headquarter has to be conveyed. I had conveyed to him not to do this agitation and don’t harm the structure. I had informed the district collector as well as police officials but they didn’t take any action.”

The archaeological department has sent a team of experts on Friday to the fort to assess the situation. Kamble said the team will submit its report and then action will be taken against the organization for ‘vandalizing the monument’.  “I will first get the report and will talk to my seniors. By Monday, we will decide the future course of action. They could have adopted the fort which is legal way of conservation and approved by our department,” he said.

Kamble had told earlier that a tender of Rs 1.21 Crores has been floated and sent to the state government for approval. That tender includes the works of restructuring the Kalyan Gate, cleaning and desilting of the wells found on the fort and weeding out the bushes grown on the outer walls of the fort.”

The plans for the renovation of Sinhgad were in pipeline since 2005. The proposal was approved in 2005 and the actual work began in 2008. The budget allocated was Rs. 3.76 crore however most of the that budget has been  spent in making roads or other works rather than maintaining the monuments. The state archaeology department had prepared a plan for the renovation of Sinhgad Fort at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. The work was to be completed by this May.

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Least Rains In This June

It is official now. As the June comes to end, it recorded lowest rainfall in this month during the last decade. The city has recorded only 34.5 mm of rainfall since June 1 which is only one third of the average rainfall for the month.

As per the India Meteorological Department, The average rainfall for the city in June is 116.1 mm. However, the rainfall recorded at Pune station of IMD since the start of this month was only 34.5 mm, at Lohegaon it was 25.1 mm while at Pashan station it was 34.4 mm. This trend is in line with other districts in the state where only 7 out of 35 districts have registered the average rainfall for this month.

The lowest rainfall in June for city during last decade was three years ago, when 117.5 mm rainfall was recorded. But the situation in 2009 was helped by 55.5 mm rains during the 24-hour period on June 6. This time around, the maximum rainfall did not go beyond 3 mm.

Meanwhile, scant rains in the catchment areas of the dams have helped the water scarcity situation a little. The Temghar dam has recorded 2 mm of rains and Warasgaon and Panshet dams have recorded 3 mm of rains overnight. This has meant an insignificant increase in the level of water in all these dams.

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Can LPG Diversion Stop in India?

The government of India has embarked upon an ambitious project to check the pilfering of the LPG cylinders, a major component of the domestic fuel in the country. Recently, S. Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas, launched a unique initiative - the 'LPG Portal' - that will host data on the last mile delivery of domestic LPG cylinders, supplied by PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to nearly 10.4 millions households in the country. This is expected to curb the black marketing of the LPG cylinders.

The LPG Transparency portal can be accessed through the official website of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas : www.petroleum.nic.in. It can be also be accessed through the websites of oil marketing companies Indian Oil (www.indane.co.in); Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (www.ebharatgas.com) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (www.hindustanpetroleum.com).

For decades, the Indian OMCs supplied the cylinders to consumers at their doorsteps. Since the advent of economic liberalization in the country, this scenario changed with the demand for LPG cylinders by commercial establishments like eateries, hotels etc. Some cylinders even were fitted in the four wheelers. It was but natural that this surge in demand was fulfilled with diverting the LPG cylinders meant for domestic consumers to commercial customers.

In late 1990s, the government came up with idea to separate both cylinders and having color coding to identify the cylinders for each segment. However, given the level of corruption in supply cycle and absence of effective vigilance mechanism, that scheme has produced minor results when compared to the total volume of diversion.

The potal allows the consumers to know their individual pattern of LPG usage, LPG booking status, LPG refill history or request for surrender of their connection, highest consumption consumers, subsidy availed etc. The information on the portal can also be sorted by consumer number, consumer name and by distributors' name easily.

The government has expressed hope that this measure will emerge as a powerful tool for social audit for all domestic LPG supplies. This portal not only benefits consumers but is also a unique resource for civil society to access LPG distribution information, report discrepancies and register their feedback on the anomalies in supply, if any, an official release said.

Minister Reddy said at the occasion, "OMC's have been making efforts to increase coverage of LPG so that it is available in all parts of the country. However, the high prices and volatility experienced in the prices of LPG and our high dependency on imports of LPG makes it very challenging to maintain the supply of LPG to the customers at the subsidized price. The three Oil Marketing Companies supply over 32 lakhs cylinders per day and are expected to incur a subsidy burden of Rs.43,000 crore this year. Thus the need to curb unauthorized usage of LPG for commercial purposes has become acute in the recent times."

This is just one of the schemes launched by the government to curb the unauthorized use of LPG cylinders. For example, in Pune (Maharashtra), Mysore (Karnataka) and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), the HPCL has launched a scheme wherein the finger prints of the consumers are registered. Similarly, IOC has decided to provide Unique Identification Numbers to the consumers. For this, the companies have joined hands with UID authority also. As per the plan, the delivery men of the company will check the finger prints of the end consumer before delivering the cylinders. These prints will be stored on the servers of the company.

In April 2012, R. P. N. Singh, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, informed the Lok Sabha that till April 1, OMCs had blocked 8,89,267 LPG connections of Piped Natural Gas consumers, in an effort to stop diversion of subsidized domestic LPG. PNG connections are provided to households in cities having City Gas Distribution projects to supply natural gas as cooking fuel. He also informed that the Government has enacted "Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order, 2000" and formulated "Marketing Discipline Guidelines, 2001" which provides for penal action against LPG distributors indulging in diversion/black marketing of LPG.

However, these measures have failed to throw up the expected results. During 2010 alone, OMCs had taken action in 140 established cases in the country for release of benami/bogus LPG connection

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