Pune

Back in 2006, the state government launched a scheme to train tribal men and women for aviation, hospitality and tourism industries. Air Hostess Academy, a Pune-based institute, was appointed to train the rustic tribal women how to play the perfect hostess in air. It interviewed 545 women and selected 95 for a year-long training course. The state government paid Rs1 lakh for every trainee.But it has all come to nothing. Tribal minister Babanrao Pachpute said in the legislative council on Thu…

The Supreme Court on Monday set aside a Gujarat high court order directing an inquiry against judicial magistrate SP Tamang who had held that teenager Ishrat Jahan and three other alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives were killed in a fake encounter by the state police.A bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar asked the chief justice of the Gujarat high court to constitute a division bench on the petitions filed by the deceased’s kin, seeking a CBI inquiry. It also asked th…

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Monday issued a press release stating that it would not allow petrol pump owners in the city to use existing petrol pump land for purposes like building commercial complexes.City engineer Prashant Waghmare, in the press release, said that as the ratio of petrol pumps and vehicle numbers is uneven, petrol pumps are needed in the city limits.Recently, it was found that many pump owners were closing petrol pumps and erecting commercial complexes to ca…

A report by the Maharashtra state information commission says that the state has been foremost in responding to the Right to Information Act (RTI) queries in the last four years. The number of RTI applications filed in the state was also the highest in the country.The report, made public on Friday, stated that 90% of the RTI applications were cleared in 2009 ? either a reply was given to the applications, or they were disposed of saying that the specific information cannot be revealed. …