Industrialist Rahul Bajaj was laid to rest with full state honours on Sunday. (Express photo by Ashish Kale)Pune News Live: The last rites of former Bajaj Group chairman, Rahul Bajaj, were performed in Pune on Sunday with state honours. Representatives of India Inc, politicians and common people bidding a final adieu to the veteran industrialist were present to bid farewell to the automobile tycoon. The chairman emeritus of Bajaj Auto, who was ailing for some time, had died on Saturday afternoon at 83.
Maharashtra recorded 1,966 fresh Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths on Monday, whereas the state had reported 3,502 Covid-19 cases on Sunday. The total infection tally rose up to 78,44,915 up to Sunday evening.
After several autorickshaw unions in the city came together on Monday to protest against bike taxis, Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Ajit Shinde warned citizens off the service offered by cellphone-based aggregators, saying that the bike taxis were unsafe and didn’t have permission to operate in Maharashtra.
After several autorickshaw unions in the city came together on Monday to protest against bike taxis, Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Ajit Shinde warned citizens off the service offered by cellphone-based aggregators, saying that the bike taxis were unsafe and didn’t have permission to operate in Maharashtra.
“We have seized 275 vehicles till now and confiscation is in progress. This mode of transport is illegal and unsafe. They don’t have any kind of insurance cover. I appeal to people that as citizens we should boycott such illegal transport,” he said, adding that he had formed four teams to crack down on the bike taxis. The violators are being slapped with a Rs10,000-12,000 fine and their driving licences are suspended for three months and vehicle registrations for a month, he said. (Read More)
Maharashtra recorded 1,966 fresh Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths on Monday, whereas the state had reported 3,502 Covid-19 cases on Sunday. The total infection tally rose up to 78,44,915 up to Sunday evening.
Police raided a hotel room in Thane city and arrested two persons who were allegedly betting on cricket matches of the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL), an official said on Monday.
Senior inspector (Crime Branch Unit I) Anil Deshmukh said acting on a tip-off, a police team raided the hotel on Sunday and arrested the duo betting on one of the T20 matches of PSL.
The police seized four mobile phones, a calculator and a diary from the two, identified as Deepak Thakkar, 56, and Jitendra Chande, 48, he said. A case under various sections of the IPC and Maharashtra's anti-gambling Act has been registered against the duo, the officer added. (PTI)
A court at Palghar in Maharashtra on Monday sentenced local Shiv Sena MP Rajendra Gavit to one-year imprisonment after convicting him in a cheque bouncing case and directed him to pay the compensation of Rs 1.75 crore.
The court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, VP Khandare, stayed the execution of the order for one month to allow Gavit to file an appeal and obtain orders from the appellate court.
“The amount of compensation is huge and therefore, in my view, time can be granted to the convict for the payment of the same. Therefore, considering submissions made by advocates from both sides, I am inclined to allow both the applications and grant time of 30 days for bringing appropriate (orders) from the Appellate court," the court said in the order.
The order stated that the convict is released on bail upon furnishing a PR bond and surety bond of Rs. 15,000 each. (PTI)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said noted social reformer and educationist Savitribai Phule was a 'university' in herself and there was a need to take her teachings ahead, and asserted there should be no quarrel between members of different religions and communities.
He was speaking via video conferencing at the unveiling of a statue of the 19th century social reformer on the premises of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). (PTI)
In her Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the setting up of a digital university – a necessity triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift to virtual learning – but there has been no clarity on plans to implement it. Even as the Centre chalks out a road map for the same, the Maharashtra government is already working towards setting up a virtual varsity following an announcement it made two months ago.
On February 17, a committee set up under the chairmanship of former Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) Vice-Chancellor Dr R K Shegaonkar will meet to deliberate on the nature, function and structure of the university – its second meeting in a month.
The committee has been given the task of studying the provisions of the National Education Policy 2020 as well as the structure of online universities set up in countries abroad and suggesting a framework for setting up such an online university in Maharashtra. (Read Alifiya Khan's story here)
Cyrus Poonawalla, the chairman of the Serum Institute of India (SII), said that affordable vaccines like those produced by the SII have saved more than 30 million lives across the world.
“Our vaccines are low cost and high value – this is the secret of our success,” he said, while speaking at a felicitation ceremony organised by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) in Pune on Monday.
Serum Institute’s vaccines had been used to save the lives of children in more than 170 countries, he said. “I can say that those lives were saved because of our vaccines,” he added. (Read More)
The Shiv Sena on Monday lashed out against its former ally BJP saying the party will “expose” its leaders at a press conference to be held at the Sena headquarters in Mumbai on Tuesday, while also threatening to put BJP leaders behind bars.
“Tomorrow, the Shiv Sena will hold a press conference at the Sena Bhavan. We will expose the BJP and its machinations. The BJP will be in trouble now. They thought they can do anything and get away. No, not any more. The Sena will make it miserable for its leaders,” Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.
“The BJP is repeatedly saying that this person will be in jail and that person will be jail… They are saying that our leaders will be in the company of Anil Deshmukh in jail… I want to tell the BJP that in the next few days, three and a half of its leaders will be in jail. And they will be where Deshmukh is lodged while Deshmukh will be out,” he added.
Pune's KEM Hospital Research Centre and PRERNA (Platform for research excellence related to national aims) will conduct an online science meeting on anaemia during pregnancy and childhood from February 14 to 16, 2022. Anaemia is a major public health issue globally and in India despite numerous health programmes organised across the country over decades.
The meeting aims to identify and prioritise research areas in iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy and childhood and to develop research proposals on the same in collaboration with national and international partners. It will have presentations and discussions on various topics related to the subject by national and international experts.
Dr Angela de Silva, from the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for South-East Asia, will speak on the ‘Impact of iron deficiency during pregnancy and childhood – low to middle-income countries’, while Prof Molly Jacob from CMC, Vellore, will address the topic of challenges in the diagnosis of true iron deficiency.
Pune recorded 13.3 degrees Celsius on Sunday and this will rise and fluctuate between 13 degrees Celsius and 15 degrees Celsius till February 19, the IMD’s forecast said.
The minimum temperatures recorded in other places on Sunday were Jalgaon (10 degrees Celsius), Nagpur (10.4 degrees Celsius), Malegaon (11 degrees Celsius), Nashik (11.7 degrees Celsius), Satara (14.7 degrees Celsius) and Aurangabad (12 degrees Celsius).
Maharashtra this week will remain free from cold conditions as night temperatures are set to rise, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
For a week now, minimum temperatures have not only risen over 10 degrees Celsius but have started to remain on the higher side of normal for this time of year.
Since the early hours of Sunday, all roads in the industrial city of Pimpri-Chinchwad seemed to lead to one destination — the Bajaj Auto plant at Akurdi area. It was here that Rahul Bajaj’s body was laid for people to pay their respects.
And they all came. Industrialists and workers. Politicians and commoners. Many remembered a man with the conviction to take on the powers that be. Others talked of a boss who always felt like an ‘aapla manoos’ (our man).
At 5.30 pm, the titan of Indian industry was cremated with full state honours in Pune. His sons, Rajiv and Sanjiv Bajaj, performed the last rites.
The Pune city police have arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly attacking a 35-year-old woman, a sex worker, with a blade following a dispute over money.
The accused has been identified as Rajappa Sidhlingappa, a resident of Wadarwadi. As per her complaint to the police, around 9 pm on February 11 (Friday), the accused went to the red-light area of Budhwar Peth and approached her for sex.
The complainant and the accused got into an argument over the money to be paid for the service and she refused to go with him, said the police. The accused got angry and attacked her with a shaving blade, severely injuring her below the chest, added the police.
The Pune Rural police said that they have arrested four men from Ratnagiri district for allegedly murdering and throwing a newborn baby in Tamhini Ghat area on February 5. The 27-year-old mother of the newborn had approached the police on February 11 after which the probe was launched.
An FIR in this regard has been registered at Paud police station under Pune Rural jurisdiction. The woman (27), who currently lives in Mulshi Taluka of Pune district, had given birth to a baby boy on January 30 from her relationship with a 27-year-old man from Ratnagiri district.
The police probe has now revealed that in the early hours of February 5, the man, his brother and two more accomplices forcefully took the mother-baby duo to a secluded area in Tamhini Ghat in a car. They took the kid with them and returned after a while without him.