Maharashtra News Archive: February 2006

Auditorium named after M S Subbulakshmi
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 | AY

Newly renovated auditorium of the 50-year-old Bharatiya Music and Arts Society at Matunga in central Mumbai has been named after the queen of Carnatic Music Bharat Ratna late Dr M S Subbulakshmi. The auditorium was inaugurated on Monday by Vijaya Rajendra, step daughter of the legendary singer, who is fondly called "MS Amma". The fully airconditioned hall has a seating capacity of 350 in the second floor and an open hall in the ground floor which can accommodate about 500 persons. Among those present at the function included Kalki Rajendran, son in law of Subbulakshmi, K S Mahadevan a 90 year old Carnatic music critic and Gouri Ramnarayan, the singer's granddaughter.

Aptech has new plans
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 | AY

Aptech Ltd is all geared up to expand its global presence, with plans to acquire two firms, one in the US and the other in India. It is also going to speed up operations in its learning services division, Pune, by raising its headcount to 400 from the present 200. This process is expected to be complete by the end of 2006. Aptech will set up a training centre for Apple in Mumbai. It is also setting up an IT training services institute and a BPO unit in Kolkata, the two of which will become operational in March.

GoAir expands its services
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 | AY

Mumbai-based GoAir, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for 10 Airbus A320 Family aircraft, plus 10 options to expand services to major business and leisure destinations across India. GoAir launched services with two leased A320s in November 2005, with a further four leased A320s scheduled to enter the fleet during 2006. All of the A320 aircraft on firm order will seat 180 passengers in an all-economy layout. The A320 Family is the preferred choice of all leading Indian operators.

Doctors put forward their demands
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 | AY

Following two cases of manhandling of doctors by patients' relatives, the resident doctors of seven government hospitals are on an indefinite strike demanding greater security in hospitals. Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) spokesperson Ajay Oswal said that their demands included better security for resident doctors as well as reducing the disparate ratio of doctor and patients in government hospitals. The resident doctors in other parts of Maharashtra are also likely to join the indefinite strike.

Marathi films now earning good money
Monday, February 27, 2006 | AY

The Marathi film industry was known to bring out an average of 50 new Marathi films a year, but in the last six months alone, more than 70 films have hit the theatres. Films like Mahesh Kothare's hit comic 'Khabardar' are among those which pulled in the crowds back to the cinema halls. Marathi film producer and director, Mahesh Kothare comments that this pull back of crowds is mainly due to technically better films. They are now using dolby digital sound and so, they are suitable for multiplexes and this draws in the higher middle-class group, which was for some time, not coming in because the theatres were not good. And with the government announcing a grant of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 30 lakh for Marathi filmmakers, new directors are being encouraged to make quality cinema. Unconventional movies like Dombivli Fast are also ushering in a new, urban viewpoint in a traditionally rural oriented cinema.

SEZ in Pune gets huge investments
Monday, February 27, 2006 | AY

Country’s largest exporter of vaccines and immuno-biologicals, Serum Institute of India, is planing to invest Rs 1,200 crore in the first biotech special economic zone (SEZ) at Hadapsar, near Pune. The institute will set up six units in this SEZ. The SEZ, which is being developed by Serum Biopharma Park, a unit of the serum institute is meant for biotechnology and pharmaceutical products. The company would invest at least Rs 500 crore in the first phase. Serum Biopharma Park would raise funds through internal accruals as well as borrowings. The total project is expected to be completed by 2010. The new zone would manufacture vaccines for pneumonia, rotovirus, and combination vaccines for the entire range of meningitis and influenza. Oncological products for the US and EU markets are also expected to be manufactured at the new facility.

A festival for sports movies
Monday, February 27, 2006 | AY

Screenings for India's first ever film festival dedicated solely to sports, is slated to take place between March 2 and March 5, at Mumbai's Fun Republic theatre in Andheri. Organised by the Federation Internationale Cinema Television Sportifs (FICTS), Italy in association with Ten Films, it represents India's entry into the the grand finale of the Sport Movies & TV festival to be held in Milan for the coveted Guirlande d' Honneur Award. The jury for the festival will comprise Michael Ferreira, Shobhaa De, Ranjan Kapoor, Sudhir Mishra and Sarika.

Shinde has new strategies in Maharashtra
Monday, February 27, 2006 | AY

Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde indicated that the per unit tariff of the naphtha based Dabhol Block II (740 MW) would be below Rs 5.50 and Maharashtra can get relief from the same during the peak period. He reiterated that the Block II would be commissioned on May 1 which is the foundation day of Maharashtra state. Mr Shinde explained that Maharashtra would benefit commercially as in any case. It can save the money it spent on the payment of unscheduled interchange (UI) charge of Rs 5.50 by overdrawing from the grid during peak period. Power secretary RV Shahi said that currently 37,000 tonnes of naphtha is stored at the plant site and more naphtha would be procured till LNG supply is firmed up.

Rs 24 cr for Mumbai studio
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 | AY

Rs 24 crore has been invested by UTV, the media and entertainment company, at its Andheri Studio, for setting up an an animating facility. Currently, the company has work output for 15 movies for direct-to-home video of international classics, plus a 52 episode TV series in addition to 20 short series. The facility operates 24X7 with a built up capacity to execute over 150 minutes of high quality animation a month in 3D. With this investment, the company is creating a facility over 25,000 sq ft -equipped for high definition (HD) work for its clients in North America and Europe.The facility has 225 workstations with blade render farms and Max software.

Online check -in facility available in the state
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 | AY

Air-India has made electronic check-in facility online from Mumbai. Passenger can e-check-in 36 hours prior to departure of the flight by logging on to the Air-India website and clicking on e-check-in. Passenger on successfully checking-in obtains a print-out, which states the boarding gate number and seat number along with instructions stating to present this print out at the airport along with travel documents and baggage at least 90 minutes prior to departure of the flight. E-check-in facility is not permitted for families with infants, unaccompanied minors, medical cases, wheel chair passengers. This facility is available up to four hours prior to departure of flight.

A tribute to Bimal Roy
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 | AY

In the memory of the legendery filmmaker, Bimal Roy, Ashutosh Gowarikar is organizing a workshop 'Enduring Image - Bimal Roy' in Mumbai on February 23. On March one, BRMC, Bimal Roy memorial committee (BRMC), will stage a musical programme 'Smriti Sandhya' in Roy's memory which will feature Manna Dey, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Jasvinder Singh and others. Number of experts will throw light on different aspects like human relationships and music in Roy's films in the workshop, which will be organised by the Bimal Roy memorial committee (BRMC).

Davis cup may be held in Mumbai
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 | AY

The AITA is considering the possibility of holding India's Davis Cup tie against Pakistan from April 7 to 9 at the grass courts of the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. The AITA Executive Vice President, Anil Khanna, is scheduled to visit Mumbai on February 25 and hold meetings with the Maharashtra association officials as well as the State Government before taking a final decision. The tie is scheduled to be held from April 7 to 9.

Pailteer
Monday, February 20, 2006 | AY

Marathi movie 'Pailteer', directed by Shyam Joshi and starring Arun Nalavade and Rama Joshi was released in Pune on Friday, February 10. Pailteer was inspired by a real-life incident. This film depicts the dark and stark realities of familial relationships. In a nutshell this movie tells about a husband and wife who travels all the way to Canada, hopeful of spending their retired life with their only son. But fate has it otherwise when he misuses them for his materialistic needs.

Shiv Sena wins the Shrivardhan Assembly seat
Monday, February 20, 2006 | AY

Shiv Sena candidate Tukaram Surve won the by-polls for the Shrivardhan Assembly seat of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. Surve defeated Congress candidate and his nearest rival Shyam Sawant by a margin of 15752 votes. The by-election was necessitated after Sawant quit as Shiv Sena MLA and joined Congress. Earlier last month, the Congress party had emerged the single largest party in the Maharashtra State Assembly after sweeping the by-polls in three assembly seats, elections for which were held on January 21.

PMC has new plans in Pune
Sunday, February 19, 2006 | AY

Pune municipal commissioner Nitin Kareer, who presented a Rs 1,188-crore draft civic budget, has promised wi-fi connectivity within Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits in fiscal 2006-07. Kareer said he had held discussions with information technology and telecom majors and they had asserted that it was technically possible to make Pune the first wi-fi city in the country. The second special project which Kareer aims to execute in 2006-07 is installation of touch screens in all municipal health department store units (arogya kothi). Kareer said he planned to modernise these units so that they could be used as mini-ward offices by citizens to lodge complaints about civic issues and also for accessing all information about the PMC's services.

Maharashtra fixes its next IT destination
Sunday, February 19, 2006 | AY

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Saturday said his Government's next IT destination was Nagpur. He said efforts were being made to see that loadshedding did not come in the way of functioning of IT industry. Deshmukh admitted infrastructure and power were serious problems, the state was facing for development of IT sector. Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State said with regard to software development, new segments namely cartography, bio-metrics and geographical positioning system (GPS) were awaiting to be exploited and there was a need to launch a second IT revolution particularly in the field of hardware, patents etc.

Bird flu hits Maharashtra
Sunday, February 19, 2006 | AY

Govt of Maharashtra confirmed that dead poultry in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district tested positive for the H5NI bird flu virus. It is suspected that over 50,000 birds in the vicinity might have been affected. At an emergency meeting in the evening, the Cabinet secratariat decided to create a protective circle within 10 km radius of where the dead birds were found, to avoid spread of the infection which can be transmitted to humans. All birds within three km from the spot will be culled, and those in the next 10 sq km would be vaccinated. Around 10 lakh doses of vaccines and 1 lakh doses of the drug oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu) are being made available incase of any reports of the infection in humans.

TIFR physicists will access with 4,000 scientists
Saturday, February 18, 2006 | AY

A DIGITAL world map is spread out on a large computer screen at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in south Mumbai, with hundreds of red, pink and green dots and squares that blink fast and furious across Geneva, Chicago and Taiwan. TIFR is entering a new age of high-power computing in pure science — imagine data storage capacity 3,000 times that of a PC — with connectivity to a worldwide high energy physics grid. It will enable TIFR physicists to access and analyse endless scientific data emerging from experiments of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) at Geneva. The experiments now involve more than 4,000 scientists in over 30 nations. CERN, incidentally, is where the worldwide web was invented, and is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. The computing project aims at giving global scientists access to data from CERN’s experiments scheduled for 2007, which involve a search for the Higgs particle presumed responsible for generation of all mass in the universe.

Advanced technology eliminates middleman for land records
Saturday, February 18, 2006 | AY

The State government initiative of uploading rural saat baara extracts on its website — www.mahabhulekh.mumbai.nic.in will be a great help for those in need of the crucial saat baara — 7/12 Record of Rights of a Land Holding. Users can now access any one of the 2.21 crore rural 7/12 extracts of 44,000 villages in 34 districts of the State free of cost at just a click of the mouse. The USP of the website, an endeavour of the State Land Records Department, is that it will be updated every fortnight. Saat Baara (7/12) or Record of Rights of a Land Holding is required to establish the owner’s right over a piece of land. It is a combination of Village Form 7 (Record of Rights) and Village Form 12 (Record of Crops).

Stamp duty lowered in the state
Saturday, February 18, 2006 | AY

The Maharashtra government has decided to reduce stamp duty on all loan agreements to 0.1 per cent from 0.25 per cent. To corporates’ relief, it is also reducing the ceiling on stamp duty on loan agreements to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 10 lakh. Stamp duty is a type of tax paid for a transaction performed by way of a document or instrument under the provisions of state stamp Acts and the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. Following the reduction, all corporate and retail borrowers will have to pay Rs 100 as stamp duty per Rs 1-lakh of loans availed. Maharashtra accounts for nearly 30 per cent of all loans disbursed in the country. The total credit offtake in the country in 2005-06 is expected to be around Rs 3,00,000 crore.

Govt confirms absence of bird flu
Thursday, February 16, 2006 | AY

The Maharashtra government is doing its best to calm fears of a possible avian flu outbreak in the state after thousands of poultry chicken were reported to have died over the past few weeks along the Maharashtra-Gujarat border. The government issued a release stating the disease killing the chicken is likely to be Newcastle — commonly known as Ranikhet disease. The government official stressed that vigilance had been stepped up and that no case of avian flu has been reported so far. The disease which originated in Asia has now emerged in some countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Technical guidelines have been developed on clinical management, laboratory and public health measures.

Maharashtra to come up as an IT hub
Thursday, February 16, 2006 | AY

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, addressing a gathering at the Nasscom-2006 session, said that IT giant Microsoft, is keen to invest in Mahrashtra. He added that Satyam Computers has already signed a MoU with the Maharashtra government for setting up a unit in Nagpur. Promising all support to Nasscom in its bid to make India an IT superpower and Maharashtra a preferred destination for IT investments, Mr Deshmukh called for private sector participation in providing low-cost IT education at the school-level. He, however, admitted to some problems in the power and infrastructure sectors, but promised that these would be addressed on a priority basis.

K Sera Sera adopts new strategies
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 | AY

The Mumbai-based production house K Sera Sera is planning to shift its focus from mid size to big budget films this year. The company has struck deals with Percept Picture Company and Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision to produce ten films each for them. The company has also decided to refurbish its profile by roping in industry stalwarts such as Rumi Jaffery, Kundan Shah, Anubhav Sinha, Abbas-Mustan, Ram Gopal Verma and Priyadarshan. K Sera Sera, to finance the movie production business, will be entering the capital market with a public issue of 50 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each, at a premium to be decided by the book building process. The issue has a reservation of 2.5 lakh equity shares for eligible employees. The issue is being made to raise funds for infrastructure facility which is mainly for acquiring an office as well as some editing machines, distribution activities and to augment working capital resources for movie production.

Rane vs Uddhav
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 | AY

The two Maharashtra assembly constituencies which are set for a by-election on February 16, is, actually, between Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and Sena rebel Narayan Rane. The poll campaign in the two constituencies came to a close on Tuesday. In Shrivardhan, Sena's Tukaram Surve is locked in a fight with Congress's Shyam Sawant. Surve is a Kunbi while Sawant is a Maratha. Sawant's USP is his three-term stint as Shrivardhan MLA. In Naigaum, in central Mumbai, Rane and his acolytes run Kalidas Kolambkar's poll machine. The portly, soft-spoken legislator represented the Naigaum assembly seat for four back-to-back terms. Kolambkar was the first Sena MLA to join Rane. The Sena is optimistic that Manoj Sansare, also in the fray as the Bharatiya Republican Party of India candidate, will upset Congress's poll calculations. Sansare is a Dalit and a corporator too.

Pune is the right place for higher education
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 | AY

Foreign collaboration is the latest buzzword in educational institutes in Pune. Pune University has 27 active MoUs with international universities through which they organise student exchange programmes and interact with faculty from foreign institutes. There is huge demand from foreign students for courses in bio informatics, bio technology, international relations, political science, mass communications, education, zoology and chemistry. The International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT) has collaborations in China, Korea, Thailand, France, Canada, the US, Hungary and Russia. The Symbiosis Institute of International Business has collaborations with the University of Bremen (Germany). A global experience gives students an exposure to international curriculum and business practices. With over 200 colleges and seven universities, the city is host to five lakh students and the influx of students from other countries will further contribute to the city’s multi-cultural environment.

No V-day in Mumbai colleges
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 | AY

Colleges in Mumbai have ordered their students not to celebrate the valentines day in campus. These instructions have been issued not because the colleges are opposed to the celebrations but because they fear violent trouble from the Shiv Sena. Principals of different institutions dont want kids to be beaten up or couples insulted within the college campus because they are celebrating Valentine's Day. The Sena's alliance partner, BJP, has no problems with V-Day though. That clearly isn't solace enough for college authorities worried about the Sena's violent record on Valentine's Day.

Mumbai wins in Ranji ODI
Monday, February 13, 2006 | AY

Mumbai has beaten Gujarat by 73 runs in Ranji ODI match played at Moti Baug Palance ground. Batting first, strong Mumbai side had made just 195 runs for loss of seven wickets in 50 overs. Major contributions were made by Ashok Kadam, Amol Mazumdar, Hiken Shah and Bhavin Thankkar with 49, 28, 35 and 34 runs, respectively. Chasing the small target of 196 runs to win, Gujarat began its essay on dismal note with loosing as many as six wickets in just 39 runs.

Maharashtra gets an aid for its power shortage
Monday, February 13, 2006 | AY

Maharashtra currently faces a shortage of nearly 4,500 MW. As an aid to the situation, centre has granted 100MW power at Rs1.50 per unit. Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had made this announcement yesterday. He also said that the 700 MW Phase I of the Dhabhol power project will begin by May. At present, consumers in the state pay Rs 2-7 per unit of power. Earlier, the state government has asked power companies in the state to cut down power consumption by up to 20 per cent.

Yesteryear actress passes away
Sunday, February 12, 2006 | AY

Bollywood actress Nadira passed away recently at her Mumbai home after a cardiac seizure. The screen queen was aged 74. The feisty Nadira, who took Indian cinema by storm with her debut film "Aan", passed away in her south Mumbai flat where she had been living alone for many years.

Good news for music lovers
Sunday, February 12, 2006 | AY

International three day live music in India, the Johnnie Walker One Tree Music festival, began at the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai yesterday. The festival started on February 10 and will continue till February 12, 2006. Over the next two days, the Johnny Walker One Tree Music Festival will feature stimulating performances by renowned international artists like Indus Creed, Uriah Heep, Earth Wind and Fire Experience featuring Al Mckay, Kool and the Gang, Water Trout and The Radicals and the Blues Brothers Band.

Zee Gaurav awards distributed
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 | AY

The seventh edition of the Zee Gaurav awards,which acknowledge excellence in the Marathi entertainment industry was held on 5 February. This year, Zee Marathi has felicitated legendary actor Nilu Phule and veteran music director Shreenivas Khale for the lifetime achievement award -Zee Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar. The jury was comprised of renowned experts like director Kanchan Nayak, cinematographer Suryakant Lavande, lyrist Mangesh Kulkarni, editor Vidyadhar Pathare and film critic Sudhir Nandgaonkar for films; Suresh Khare, Prakash Buddhisagar, Rajan Tamhane for commercial plays; and Pratima Kulkarni, Premanand Gajvi, Anil Bandiwadekar for experimental plays.

Structured learning in films needed for next generation
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 | AY

A stress has been made at the the 9th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), in utilizing film institutions for providing exposure to the world of movies and structured learning to facilitate the next generation. K Hariharan, who is the director of L V Prasad Film and TV Academy in Chennai, said there are only two components as far as film schools are considered -- aesthetic and technological. Kiran Ganti, who has graduated from FTII, said digital technology would help film schools in selecting good students. Hariharan was of the opinion that films should be in private domain and the same should be the case with film education. Among the films screened at the festival were ''Health Matters'' directed by Shikha Jhingan and ''Nagaram'', a students film directed by R Swaminathan from the Film and Television Institute of Tamil Nadu.

WWE performer will be in Mumbai
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 | AY

John Cena, World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) star performer, will be in Mumbai on 9th and 10th of February, thanks to Ten Sports. 2006 will also see Cena play the lead role in the major motion picture -- The Marine. India represents a very important market for WWE and everyone recognizes and appreciates the continued support from the fans and Ten Sports. In response to this support we are bringing John Cena, one of our biggest superstars to India to say thank-you to these partners and fans in person. Bringing Cena down to India is part of our efforts to go beyond the telecast and bring the WWE experience closer to the viewers," said Sharmista Rijhwani, managing director, Taj Television India Pvt Ltd.

Google opens office in Maharashtra
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 | AY

The world's largest search engine company Google Inc, has commenced its operations in India by setting up two sales and marketing offices, in Delhi and Mumbai. The Google India team will forge relationships with businesses, partners and agencies throughout the region and enable them to take advantage of this growth in e-commerce. These operations complement existing centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad and are designed to enable Google to develop business opportunities, provide locally relevant products and services, and deliver advertising services to its users, advertisers and partners throughout India.

Cardiac centre at Jehangir hospital
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 | AY

Jehangir Hospital, a city landmark in Pune has opened a new cardiac centre. Integrated into the operation theatre complex, the unit will provide comprehensive cardiac facilities and will have a team of cardiac experts who will monitor patients round the clock. The unit is installed with flowmetry, an equipment that is used while handling complex procedures like the re-do beating heart surgery and beating heart surgery. Jehangir is the first hospital in Maharashtra to have flowmetry, which is used to measure the actual blood flow in the grafted vessel after surgery. Children with congenital heart diseases will also be treated non-surgically and they would safely be discharged within a few days after undergoing procedures like ASD/VSD PD closures.

Digital cinema coming up in Maharashtra
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 | AY

Digital cinema, which first opened in Chennai, is fast gaining currency among corporate groups like Adlabs and PVR, who are planning to set up such halls in smaller cities soon. The technology for digital cinemas was developed three years ago and nearly 75 per cent of Hollywood Productions are digital now, says PVR Digital Cinema CEO Sunil Patil. PVR Cinemas is in the process of constructing two digital cinemas in Maharashtra. A normal celluloid print costs a producer Rs 60,000, which makes it difficult to release large number of prints, the primary reason behind delay of latest releases in provinces. Whereas, a digitised print costs only Rs 3,000. "Moreover there is no loss of reproduction costs," informs Patil.

Pawar to be honoured on Feb 12th
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 | AY

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will be honoured by the Maharashtra Animal Science university with the varsity's highest title 'Gopal Ratna' on February 12. Mr Pawar would be felicitated for his love and affection towards livestock and advice to the farmers to adopt milching business to add to their earning sources. Most of the farmers, especially from West Maharashtra, were influenced by Mr Pawar's advice and had adopted the milching business, which proved to be a better earning source to them.

IT conference in Mumbai
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 | AY

Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd, in an effort to view the latest technologies and skills that will help them meet the evolving IT needs of enterprises today, is hosting its first ever IT Professionals Conference in Mumbai on February 7th and 8th. The event includes four tracks titled IT Leadership, IT Architecture, IT Security and IT Infrastructure. The event will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Powai.

Marathi films earning dollars
Sunday, February 5, 2006 | AY

Marathi films are sure improving, the screening of 'Blind Game' in California on Makarsankrant became the first Marathi movie screened internationally before it releases in Maharashtra. Director Rajiv Patil said the screening of the two-and-a-half-hour movie was organised by California-based Maharashtra Mandal. About 250 Maharashtrians attended the screening that took place in Premont’s Nazz Eight theatre. The comedy-thriller has five characters— Anant Jog (Vitthal), Mangesh Desai (Pandurang), Prashant Patil (Ajay), Upendra Limaye (Karamchand) and Mukta Barve (Kitty). Based on the story written by Chandrashekhar Phansalkar, Blind Game throws light on the unexpected turns in a person’s life and the need to cope with them.

Bryan Adams set to rock Mumbai
Sunday, February 5, 2006 | AY

The mumbai music lovers is all geared up to watch their favourite singer Bryan Adams perform today. Adams who is on his third visit to India, loves India and its culture. Adams, a winner of 10 Grammy awards, will also perform in Bangalore on Sunday. Adams expressed his interest in working with Indian artistes. He said of all the Indian artistes, he knew only sitarist Anoushka Shankar and her legendary father Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Strike by petrol pumps
Sunday, February 5, 2006 | AY

Around 1,200 petrol pumps in the State will be launching an indefinite strike from Sunday midnight to press demands for ‘one country one rate’ system. However, company operated petrol pumps and outlets of Reliance will function. The strike has been called by the FAMPEDA which claims that the rates of petrol and diesel in the State will decrease by Rs 7 to Rs 8 if sales tax and octroi are replaced by Value Added Tax (VAT). Maharashtra has highest sales tax (31 pc) as against 20 to 22 pc in other States. The FAMPEDA has also demanded that oil companies implement fuel marker system to computerise the system of checking fuel adulteration.

More resignation of Sena leaders expected
Sunday, February 5, 2006 | AY

Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane said that he is expecting more shiv sena leaders to quit their post by 10th of this month. Out of his ten staunch loyalists, five sittting MLAs from Vengurla, Rajapur, Sangameshwar, Srivdardhan and Naigaum, have already resigned. Three of them have returned to the Assembly on Congress tickets from Vengurla, Rajapur and Sangameshwar in the January 21 by-elections, while the polls for Srivardhan and Naigaum are scheduled for February 16. It is expected that Mr Prakash Bharsakale from Daryapur in Amravati district and Vijay Vadettiwar from Chandrapur district, both sitting Sena MLAs, are likely to resign though Mr Rane did not name them. Mr Rane reiterated that 80 per cent of the Sena MLAs would come into the Congress fold before the 2009 Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

New proposals from Board of Education
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 | AY

The Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education have come out with a new proposal wherein the board exam mark sheets will be having the students photograph, not only that the students will be able to get their answer papers back, so that they know where they lost marks. A final decision on the proposal will be taken at a meeting in March. If passed, the proposal is likely to be implemented from the academic year 2006-2007. Since the marksheets state the academic performance of the students, the photograph will enhance authenticity. But the proposal has got mixed reactions from principals of various schools and colleges. Some believe it will reduce the board’s workload. But others are of the view that the procedure will be time-consuming.

Surajkund Mela from Feb 1
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 | AY

Surajkund Mela which happens every once in a year in Haryana, showcases the essence of one Indian state every year. This year the honour goes to Maharashtra. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Maharashtra Tourism Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, and Minister of State for Tourism Suresh Shetty will be present. The entire ambience of the Mela will resemble a miniature version of Maharashtra with the ''Kandils'', ''Rangolis'' and ''Warli'' art paintings adorning the Mela, presenting the true flavour of Maharashtra. Surajkund will put the diversity and richness of handicrafts, handlooms, culture, cuisine, music and melody of Maharashtra under the spotlight. Vibrant folk performances from Maharashtra like ''Lavni'', ''Waghya Murli'', ''Gondhal'', ''Povadas'' and traditional folk instrument concerts will be held.

Read also: