Latest news with #PuneZillaParishad
Indian Express
2 days ago
- General
- Indian Express
Palkhi: Pune Zilla Parishad's special mobile app for toilets
The Pune Zilla Parishad has come up with a mobile app called 'toilet seva' to ensure that the lakhs of devotees participating in the Ashadhi Wari during the Palkhi procession get access to clean civic amenities. It was conceived by Pune Zilla Parishad CEO Gajanan Patil. Mobile toilets have been provided at various places along the Wari route. There are nearly 1,800 toilets along the Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj Palkhi route, while the Sant Tukaram Maharaj Palkhi route includes around 1,200 toilets. There are 300 toilets along the Sant Sopan Maharaj Palkhi route. A special mobile app has been created for the management of these toilets, and services are available through the app, Chandrakant Waghmare, additional CEO, Pune Zilla Parishad, told The Indian Express. According to Amol Bhinge, founder, ToiletSeva, the app will include information about the toilets, electricity, road and sanitation at the location and a facility for people to register their feedback. QR code scanners have been installed on each toilet.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- General
- Hindustan Times
School ready to admit students in Phule's ancestral village of Khanavdi
The school named after Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule in Khanavdi village of Purandar tehsil, where the social reformer couple hailed from, is ready to admit students. Jyoti Savitri International School (JSIS), set to commence classes from April 2026, marks a turning point for educational access in a region where lack of infrastructure had long forced children, especially girls, to abandon studies after primary school. The school, first proposed in 2020, will begin with kindergarten to Class 2 and aims to serve around 1,840 underprivileged students up to Class 12 in the coming years. It will follow Christel House model of holistic education that integrates academics with nutrition, health care, transportation, school supplies, and career support. Christel House India will run the school as a secular, CBSE-affiliated institution in partnership with the Pune Zilla Parishad and the Maharashtra government. The initiative was conceived by Rishikesh Huli, principal architect at Pensive Architecture, who was asked by Khanavdi villagers to renovate a memorial for the Phule couple. Moved by the community's reverence for the visionaries, he proposed a more enduring tribute—quality education that addresses the very barriers the Phules fought to dismantle. The gram panchayat responded by donating 12 acres, and Huli's team designed the campus pro bono. The vision was soon expanded into a residential school for destitute girls and underserved communities with the support of then-zilla parishad CEO Ayush Prasad. According to Huli, the construction of phase 1 is nearing completion with CSR funding from Fiat India Automobiles Private Limited (FIAPL). The campus will feature 24 classrooms, science and computer labs, administrative offices, modern sanitation, activity areas, and dedicated language labs. A residential facility for destitute girls from Class 5 onward is also planned. A memorandum of understanding was signed earlier this year in the presence of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and school education minister Dada Bhuse, marking a public-private partnership between the Pune Zilla Parishad, Christel House India, and corporate and community stakeholders. 'The partnership is a major step towards equitable education in rural Pune,' said Pune Zilla Parishad CEO Gajanan Patil. 'Built as a tribute to Savitribai and Mahatma Phule, the school will offer high-quality education at no cost to children, especially girls from deprived communities.' Jaison C Mathew, CEO, Christel House India, called it a 'landmark partnership' that aligned closely with Maharashtra's vision for its children. 'We are committed to empowering every child with not just academic excellence but life opportunities—moving them from classrooms to life.' The need for such a facility is pressing. Research shows that while the region is home to over 13,000 school-aged children, English-medium CBSE-aligned institutions remain scarce. David Harris, CEO, Christel House International, said, 'With this school, we are planting seeds for generational change—exactly the kind of vision Mahatma and Savitribai Phule had when they first challenged the barriers to education in this country.' More than 150 years after the Phules opened their first school for girls in Pune, their legacy comes full circle in Khanavdi—this time, with a school that promises not just access, but empowerment.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Rush to beat poll code: PMC pushes to float tenders before local body election announcement
With the state government beginning groundwork for holding long-pending local body elections, following the Supreme Court's directives, the Pune district administration is moving quickly to finalise tenders and initiate development works ahead of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) coming into effect. Pune district collector Jitendra Dudi recently chaired a meeting with officials from the Pune Zilla Parishad and district administration, instructing them to expedite all pre-sanctioned development works under the District Planning and Development Committee (DPDC). 'The elections for local self-governments are scheduled. All departments must complete administrative and financial approvals and start the works before July 31. Once the model code is enforced, new works will be restricted,' Dudi said during the meeting. Under the MCC guidelines issued by the Election Commission, no new development tenders can be floated once the code is in force, except for essential maintenance and repair work—subject to prior approval. This has prompted all departments to prioritise finalising estimates, technical approvals, and tender documents within the limited window available. According to senior district officials, departments are working on a war footing to float tenders for various infrastructure projects ranging from rural roads and water supply to school building repairs and anganwadi upgrades. In many talukas, contractors have been informally told to be prepared to begin ground work immediately once orders are issued. The upcoming polls include elections to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Pune Zilla Parishad, and various Panchayat Samitis and municipal councils in the district. These elections have been delayed since 2022 due to legal issues over OBC reservation and ward delimitation. The Election Commission of India is expected to declare the local body election schedule only after September 4, 2025, once the final ward boundaries and updated electoral rolls are notified. However, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, during an event in Pimpri Chinchwad on Friday, indicated that the civic polls are likely to be held 'immediately after the monsoon and before Diwali.' PMC officials confirmed they are also working to finalise estimates and float tenders for projects under its capital budget. 'Instructions have been issued to all department heads to complete technical sanctioning and issue work orders wherever possible before the code of conduct. Projects that miss this window will be stalled for months,' a senior civic official said. Over ₹1,200 crore worth of works under the Pune Zilla Parishad and district annual plans are currently pending at various stages, and the administration is racing to ensure that maximum approvals are cleared before the code kicks in—expected sometime in late August or early September. Local political leaders have also started exerting pressure to push pending projects through before the poll code, as many hope to showcase completed or ongoing development works in their constituencies ahead of the elections.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Time of India
Neglected footbridge collapse near Pune sparks structural safety audit across Maharashtra, ET Infra
Advt Advt A structurally weak iron-and-concrete footbridge over the Indrayani river that had been declared unfit for use but not officially shut to pedestrians and bikes collapsed Sunday about 40km from Pune, killing four people and injuring 51, eight of them person was reported missing after falling into the rain-fed river at Bhegdewadi, just over a kilometre from the picturesque Kunda Mala vista that attracts hordes of tourists. More than a 100 people were on the footbridge when a portion of the structure gave way close to the stone bank of the river around 3.30pm, state minister for water resources and disaster management Girish Mahajan said. The footbridge connecting Shelarwadi, close to the old Pune-Mumbai highway, with Kanhewadi near Indori is a vantage point for people visiting the area at this time of year to enjoy the surroundings."The crowd on the bridge was beyond its capacity. There is a signboard warning people against standing on the bridge, but it seems everyone ignored it," Mahajan Dalvi, a survivor, said the bridge was so crowded that there was no space for anyone to move. "There were also some bikes on it, which made it worse. Everyone started running towards the main road as the structure heaved and collapsed," he said. Pimpri Chinchwad DCP Vishal Gaikwad identified three of the victims as Chandrakant Sathle, Rohit Mane and Vihan Mane. The identity of the fourth victim wasn't immediately of the 51 injured were discharged from hospital after treatment. The Maharashtra govt announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the Disaster Response Force (NDRF), police, fire brigade and other agencies used cranes to lift the collapsed iron structure to extricate two bodies by evening."We will resume the search for the other bodies and the missing person early on Monday," Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Vinoy Kumar Choubey officials said the footbridge was built over three decades ago and handed over to the Pune Zilla Parishad, which remains responsible for its upkeep. The state govt recently sanctioned Rs 8 crore for the construction of a new bridge parallel to the existing one, with work scheduled to begin after the authorities, including the village sarpanch, had flagged the bridge as Mala is a popular weekend getaway, especially during monsoon, to witness the Indrayani waters cascading from a rocky area that gives it the effect of a waterfall. Barely a week ago, Pune district collector Jitendra Dudi passed an order listing several restrictions for people visiting rivers, lakes, waterfalls and other popular weekend spots during monsoon in Lonavla and other places in the Devendra Fadnavis and deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who is also Pune's guardian minister, condoled the deaths in separate messages while ordering an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the tragedy. Eknath Shinde, the state's other deputy CM, said a structural audit of similar bridges across the state would be done district collector Jitendra Dudi told TOI, "A five-member committee will be constituted to investigate the bridge collapse."
Indian Express
6 days ago
- General
- Indian Express
Indrayani river bridge collapse: Officials say no clarity yet on who is responsible, minister says work of new bridge was pending
Soon after its collapse, confusion reigned supreme about who was responsible for the upkeep of the bridge on the Indrayani river at Kundamala near Talegaon Dabhade, which was over three decades old. Minister of Water Resources Girish Mahajan Sunday admitted that while tenders to build a new bridge were passed, the work was delayed due to the rain. 'The bridge was built in 1992, and recently a tender of Rs 7-8 crore was cleared to build a new bridge but the execution was delayed due to rain,' he said. Chandrakant Wagmare, additional chief executive officer of Pune Zilla Parishad, admitted they were not clear about who was responsible for the upkeep of the bridge. 'It is still not clear as to who had the responsibility, as this area fell under the Cantonment area. But action will be taken,' he said. Mahajan said that while it was a pedestrian bridge, two-wheelers used to ply on it. Local residents who spoke to The Indian Express also blamed the lack of upkeep as well as two wheelers plying on it for the collapse of the bridge. Located near the whirlpools and gorges of the river, Kundamala has become a tourist spot, especially during the rainy season. Due to the small waterfalls and the whirlpools, many tourists thronged the area, especially over the weekend. The bridge in question linked both sides of the river. For tourists, the bridge provided the perfect background for pictures and many thronged to take selfies. That the condition of the bridge was precarious was known to local residents. Aishwarya Gonte, a local resident, said that two-wheelers regularly used the bridge despite warnings. 'Locals had complained before but no one took up maintenance or repair works,' she said. Raghuvir Shelar, local corporator, said both sides had notices pasted prohibiting the entry of two-wheelers. 'But people used to regularly ply through it because no police personnel used to check the activity. The situation was so grave that protective grills were installed on the collapsed bridge around 10 days ago,' he said. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who is the minister in charge of public works, has ordered a survey of all old bridges in the state.
