Pune

The Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration’s (Yashada) website has been adjudged as the best Marathi government website at a competition held by the state government. The contest was organised by Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha, an apex institute established by the state for promotion of Marathi. The website www.tukaram.com launched from Pune received the third prize among the non-government Marathi websites.The competition was organised in cooperation with the sta…

A major fire gutted 12 shanties at Hanumannagar slum in the Wadarwadi area on Thursday. No casualties were reported.The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, but fire brigade officials said it could be due to short circuit. There were three blasts as LPG cylinders exploded.Four fire tenders and two water tankers were pressed into service and managed to douse the blaze.Local residents said a major fire had broken out in the slum about five years ago. "Today’s fire was …

Two elected members and two former vice presidents of the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) are under the scanner of city police on charges of allegedly issuing extortion threats, cheating and resorting to criminal manipulation of cantonment board records during the allotment of the Vehicle Entry Tax (VET) contract recently. The police have served notices to four members for alleged involvement in extortion and harassment of the VET contractor. Confirming the development, ACP (Wanavdi divisio…

Delhi lad and seventh seeded Garvit Batra lifted a memorable double crown by winning the boys’ singles and doubles titles, while Jasmin Kaur Bajaj lifted the girls’ singles title at the Bilcare-ATF Trophy Under-14 Series Tennis Tournament. The tournament organised by Econ Ace Tennis Academy and PYC Gymkhana at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, got over on Friday.Batra, who upset top-seed SD Prajwal Dev on Thursday, scored an emphatic 6-2 6-2 win over wildcard entrant…

Over 350 staffers of the Warje Karvenagar regional ward office of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and a section of the employees from Cummins India Limited on Friday jointly undertook 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 Rajaram and Mhatre bridges. Regional ward officer Sunil Gaikwad, health inspector Dipak D…