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OHERALDOThe Voice of Goa Since 1900
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Rs. 3.00 (Air Surcharge Rs. 1.50) pages 18
in BrieF
Sir!! We have seized illegally ripeMangoes and calcium
carbide,what do we with these kids work-ing in the godown???
Todays Matches
north korea vs portugalat 5.00 pm
switzerland vs chileat 7.30 pm
spain vs hondurasat 00.00 Am
Agenda ready forIndo-Pak meetingsThe Cabinet Committee on
Se-curity is understood to havefirmed up agenda on Sundayfor
upcoming Home Ministerand Foreign Secretary-leveltalks between
India and Pak-istan. (PTI)
A supporter of Brazil cheers for his team during the match
between Brazil and Ivory Coast on Sunday at Soccer City stadium in
Soweto.
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 20
Ahead of the assembly sessionnext month, the Bharatiya
JanataParty (BJP) today threatened toexpose the family members
ofministers in the DigamberKamat-led government who areacting as
dalals and collectionagents on the floor of theHouse.
Wait and see, we will exposeeveryone playing the roles ofdalals
and collection agents, dur-ing the upcoming assembly ses-sion, BJP
President LaxmikantParsekar told reporters.
Every infrastructure projectis tendered for a price.
Familymembers of the ministers andruling MLAs are playing roles
of
dalals and collection agents,he maintained.
Parsekar was briefing themedia after BJP State executivepassed
political and economicresolution in their first evermeeting.
Parsekar said corruption isrampant at all levels of
gover-nance.
There are a number of ex-amples that we can quote. Cor-ruption
in work orders given incase of public works department(PWD),
various government jobs,excise scams, illegal mining andworst ever
case of police-politi-cian-drug nexus, he stated.
Parsekar criticised the chiefminister for being in the
dark,always, about the whereabouts
of his cabinet colleagues, whoare increasingly getting into
var-ious criminal activities.
A resolution was also passedover the total failure of law
andorder machinery, which accord-ing to the BJP is reflected in
thesharp increase in cases of mur-der, rape, drug nexus and
oth-ers.
Its true that due to the po-litical interference, the
policeforce is unwilling to act againstthe culprits involved in
suchacts. The very fact that policehas failed to trace and arrest
anex-minister (Mickey Pacheco),who is allegedly involved inNadia
Torrado death case,proves the inefficiency of theprotectors of law,
the resolu-tion passed by BJP legislatorDamu Naik reads.
Passing the economic resolu-tion, the party leaders allegedthat
the Congress-led govern-ment has incurred unnecessaryexpenditures
creating a dent inthe exchequer whose dept lia-bility has shot up
almost 100per cent in the last five years.
The borrowings by the Stategovernment have led to the
li-abilities exceeding to Rs 7,000crore, which amounts to a per
BJP vows to exposeagents of ministersSays family members of the
ministers and
ruling MLAs are playing roles of dalals
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 20
Even as the police checked andverified documents and recordsin
his office late last night, city-based notary, Adv Joey Ro-drigues
has said that formertour i sm min i s te r Mickk yPacheco had come
to his officefor notarizing his affidavit whichwas filed in the
High Court alongwith the anticipatory bail peti-tion.
All the records in the office
were verified by the police offi-cers. There was no hanky
pankyat all. The affidavit of Pachecowas notarized as per the
laiddown procedure, he said, evenas the police has come underthe
scanner for their failure tolay their hands on the formerminister
for moving around Mar-gao for swearing in his affidavitbefore the
notary.
Questions are being askedhow Pachecos visit to the cityescaped
the police intelligence,
and that too given the fact thatthe office of Adv Joey is
locatedin a congested area like the NewMarket. The police had
issueda look out circular for the formertourism minister and his
OSDLyndon Monteiro in the NadiaTorrado death case.
Commenting on the develop-ment, a senior police officialsaid the
police are trying to findwhether the former Ministerhad indeed come
to the officeof Adv Joey to get his affidavit
notarized.Adv Joey told Herald that no
notice or summons was servedon him by the police and he
vol-unteered to open his office lastnight for the men-in-uniform
toverify the records and registers. I have no th ing to h ide
.Pachecos affidavit was notarizedby me in my office, he said.
While social activist Adv AiresRodrigues has demanded an
in-quiry by the Goa police on the
Mickky visited my office: Notary
PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
India will soon join an eliteleague of countries,
includingAustralia and Canada, whereinvestors can get data on
freemineral blocks at the click ofa mouse and apply online
formining rights.
We have asked all mineral-bearing states to work in tan-dem with
the Land ResourceDepartment, Ministry of RuralDevelopment, for
faster digi-tisation of cadastral maps (mapshowing detailed records
ofland), Mines Joint SecretaryAjita Bajpai Pande told PTI.
The Land Resource Depart-ment has provided over Rs 600crore for
the digitisationprocess, while the Mines Min-istry has earmarked
initialfunding of Rs21 crore for acomputerised on-line registerof
the Mining Tenement Sys-tem.
Pandey said that all mineral-rich states have been asked
toreplicate a pilot project tested at iron-ore rich Bellaryin
Karnataka and Durg in Chat-tisgarh to digitise informa-t ion re l a
t ing to min ingresources, including availableblocks.
A mining tenement systemprovides online data of min-erals and
mines. It enables anyperson to see data regardingthe status of
concessions on-line on a large scale map, andaccepts applications
for vacantareas.
Only advanced nations likeAustralia and Canada currentlyhave the
system, which offersall information on mineral con-cessions, Pande
said. She saidthe system will be imple-mented in Goa ,
AndhraPradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat,Jharkhand, Karnataka,
Kerala,Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Orissa, Rajasthan and
TamilNadu.
The system has been devel-oped by the Indian Space Re-search
Organisation (ISRO)with the help of the Indian Bu-reau of Mines
(IBM). IBM hasdesigned formats on recon-naissance permits (for
explor-ing minerals), prospectinglicences and mining leases,and
circulated them to all stategovernments concerned.
The system would also beuseful to check illegal trans-portation
of minerals with thehelp of proper records. Lastyear, a staggering
42,000 suchcases were detected in 11 min-eral-bearing states. The
centrehas also appointed a task forceto curb illegal mining.
Now, book mining rightswith a click of a mouse! PTI
PATNA/NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
Bihars ruling allies JD(U) andBJP were in open war today withthe
latter daring Chief MinisterNitish Kumar to snap ties fol-lowing
the Gujarat flood aid row.
Angry over Kumar returningthe Rs five crore flood reliefmoney to
the Narendra Modigovernment, Deputy Chief Min-ister Sushil Modi of
BJP boy-cotted the Chief Minister sfunctions today.
Upping the ante, senior BJPleader Yashwant Sinha said what
Kumar has done is a childishact and that if the Chief Minis-ter
does not want to continuethe alliance with BJP, let himclearly
announce it.
There is no use of doing thisdrama, Sinha said in
Ranchi,maintaining that he did not un-derstand the logic behind
Kumarreturning the relief fund to Gu-jarat.
Apart from Sushil Modi, stateminister and BJP leader N K
Yadav,who represents the Patna Cityconstituency, also pulled
outfrom the Chief Ministers Biswas
Yatra (confidence march).I dont want to accompany
Kumar for the meeting for thearbitrary attitude of the
ChiefMinister in returning the floodrelief money to the
governmentof Gujarat, a fuming Modi toldreporters here after
cancellinghis programme with the chiefminister at Paliganj in Patna
dis-trict.
However, JD(U) chief SharadYadav asserted that his
partysalliance will BJP will continuedespite the
unfortunateepisode.
JD(U), BJP at war
Indian techieshot dead
in USPTI
WASHINGTON, JUNE 20
An Indian software engineer wasrobbed and shot dead by agroup of
five people in a motelnear Detroit in US, where hehad gone to meet
a Mexicanwoman.
The victim has been identifiedas 35-year-old Venkata SubbaReddy
Cuttamanchi, who is anative of Chittoor in AndhraPradesh.
Cuttamanchi was shot deadby a group of people in South-field
near Detroit on Wednes-day around 2:00 am, the TeluguAssociation of
North Americasaid.
The police have arrested allthe five individuals, includingthe
boy friend of the woman,who were involved in his killing.
Terror suspects allege torture, write to court
PTI
MUMBAI, JUNE 20
Two suspected terrorists, ar-rested for allegedly planning
tocarry out terror attacks in thecity, have in a letter
submittedbefore a local court sought bailalleging police
torture.
Abdul Latif and Riyaz Ali werearrested by the state Anti
Ter-rorism Squad (ATS) on March 13this year for allegedly
planningto carry out attacks at the headquarters of public sector
petro-leum company ONGC, ThakkarMall in suburban Mumbai
andMangaldas Market in southMumbai.
On June 19, when the duowere produced before the Maz-gaon
metropolitan magistratefor extension of their judicialcustody, the
accused submitteda hand written letter to the courtalleging torture
by the ATS.
Kamat is always in the dark about the whereaboutsof his cabinet
colleagues
Government has incurred unnecessary expendi-tures creating a
dent in the exchequer
Dept liability has shot up almost 100 per cent in thelast five
years
Debt liabilities have exceeded Rs 7,000 crore, whichamounts to a
per capita liability of Rs 45, 000
OPPOSITION CHARGES
A man must not swallowmore beliefs than
he can digest
Havelock Ellis
(Continued on page 10) (Continued on page 10)
pg1:Layout 1 6/21/2010 12:53 AM Page 1
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GOAHERALD
Pg2GOA, MONDAY, 21 JUNE, 2010
CIvIC fOrumOvercrowded Mapusa
Vivek Fernandes, Mapusa
Mapusa city is well known for the Friday Market and for
trafficmismanagement. The vehicles always crowd the road
startingfrom the Aldona bus stand till the taxi stand. Besides,
theMapusa market shop owners or sellers occupy the place
reservedfor parking. Due to lack of parking space, people park
theirvehicles in any available vacant space.
The Mapusa Municipality should take up this matter or oth-erwise
there will be no space for people to walk.
Water crisis in CandolimG Madhu Sudhan Rao, Candolim
There has been erratic PWD water supply in Candolim areaforcing
the residents to buy water for drinking purpose. Wateris available
just once or twice a week for one or maximum twohours, with very
low pressure. It is pathetic to note that hotelsin Candolim area
get 24 hours water supply throughout theweek. It seems the PWD
officials are releasing more water tocommercial areas. The matter
should be urgently looked intoby the concerned authorities.
Improve BSNL serviceAugustus Alphonso, Vasco
The Vasco BSNL Telecom customer care office should strictlylimit
their service of accepting bill payments to maximum2 or 3 bills per
person. Several people are left waiting in aqueue for a long time
as receipts for telephone bills arebeing issued by a single person.
Such inconvenience to cus-tomers should not be repeated under any
circumstances inthe future.
Parking at High Court Melwin Ribeiro, Panjim
For quite some time, I have been commuting to and fro
fromFontainhas to downtown Panjim, taking the short route
whichpasses through the High Court at the Lyceum.
What I fail to understand is why the concerned authoritiesdo not
locate a suitable parking place for all four and two-wheelers.
These vehicles, belonging not only to a few com-mon citizens, but
also to High Court advocates andgovernment personnel, are parked in
such a way that it be-comes difficult for pedestrians and vehicles
to negotiatethe sharp turns at two points. The vehicles are even
parkedin front of entrances of residences, and on both sides ofthe
road! Will the concerned authority kindly look intothis?
Lethargic BSNL service Savio Pinto, Nagoa
Come monsoon, and my BSNL telephone line plays hideand seek
every alternative day. I have been bitterly com-plaining to the
BSNL office in Verna for months now, butthere seems to be no end to
my misery. I was a proud cus-tomer with a broadband connection, but
its functioning isa nightmare.
Very often when I complain, the line/Internet starts working,but
by evening the connection disappears. I cannot hear thecall, as the
line has erratic disturbances.
I feel this is daylight robbery by BSNL. We regularly pay
thebroadband fees, but rarely get connectivity. The Verna
Exchangepeople blame it on theft of cables or shortage of
manpoweror the linesman being on leave Is that any excuse?
Pleasesomeone in BSNL help me.
Negligent linesmanPravin U Sardessai, Adpai
On Saturday 12 June, a sodium vapour lamp in a faulty
positionnear the Kapdi residence at Varkhandem in Ponda was
re-fixedin a correct position. But the dirt accumulated inside this
lampwas not cleared. Shouldnt the concerned linesmen removethe dirt
to assure sufficient light on the road?
The higher authorities at the Electricity Department in
Pondashould take a serious view of such a negligent and
lethargicattitude from the concerned linesmen; those who do
incompletework need to be taken to task without succumbing to any
po-litical pressure. The interests of pedestrians should be
firstpriority.
Lack of traffic senseMauro Fernandes, Anjuna
The governments proposal to make wearing of helmets manda-tory
for pillion riders needs to be applauded. It is absurd tomake
protection compulsory only for the rider because, incase of a
mishap, both the rider and the pillion rider are
equallyvulnerable.
Another decision that is baffling is the mandatory use ofhelmets
only on highways. Our interior village roads are verynarrow and
dangerous, and more prone to accidents than theNational
Highways.
But simply issuing challans to errant riders will not solvethe
problem. It will only fill the government coffers and thepockets of
some RTO and Traffic police officers. They are notat all committed
in inculcating road sense and traffic disciplineamong
motorists.
The Transport Department should make the rules morestringent,
increasing fines threefold. The RTO and TrafficCell should function
more cohesively, without political in-terference.
Tar ball menaceAdelmo Fernandes, Vasco
The appearance of tar balls, oily substances and discolorationof
the sea-water along the shoreline of Baga-Sinquerim, Anjuna,Vagator
and Morjim in North Goa is a matter of concern. Un-fortunately, the
government has not shown any willingness tofind the cause of this
phenomenon, which occurs every yearbefore the monsoon.
It appears that some ships are discharging oil waste on thehigh
seas which washes up as tar-balls on the shore. This canbe a health
risk, as some sea water is invariably swallowedwhile swimming. The
oily residue can have an adverse effecton the skin and the
eyes.
The government should show some concern for the healthof the aam
admi and tourists, and get to the bottom of theproblem. If need be,
the Coast Guard could be asked to keepa watch on ships discharging
oil on the high seas.
Do you have a complaint against some authority or service?Are
there any violations of the law that you would like tobring to the
notice of the public? Do you have any suggestionsfor improvement
and/or redressal of services?
If you do, then write to us at [email protected]. Withthe
aim of improving the quality of our civic life, every MondayHerald
will publish the best letters on these subjects receivedduring the
week. This is in addition to our regular Letters tothe Editor
column.
HERALD REPORTERMARGAO, JUNE 20
Garbage disposal dominated thegram sabha meeting of the
Be-naulim Village Panchayat on Sun-day, with villagers
questioningthe Sarpanch over steps takento identify garbage
disposalsites.
At a meeting held on Sunday,the gram sabha members askedthe
Sarpanch Carmelina Fernan-des in respect of the affidavitfiled by
the Panchayat body inthe High Court on garbage dis-posal. They
demanded to knowfrom the Sarpanch the locationof the
vermicomposting site setup by the Panchayat body andto explain how
and where the
panchayat is collecting plasticwaste from the village.
The gram sabha membersfirmly opposed any plans by thePanchayat
body to shortlist openspace for garbage disposal, say-ing the open
spaces can be uti-lized only for recreation. Themembers demanded
that theproposal to use open space forgarbage disposal be
droppedimmediately saying the matterwill only end up in
litigations.
Agitated members contendedthat the Panchayat by filing
anaffidavit that the village hasstarted collection of plasticwaste
has misled the High Court.The Sarpanch, however, said shehas
started plastic collection in
her wards and has no idea aboutthe situation in other wards.
When members questionedwhere the plastic waste col-lected from
the ward is beingdumped, the Sarpanch repliedthat it is stored in
the PanchayatGhar. However, the panchayatsecretary, upon
questioning bythe members, told the gramsabha that no register is
beingmaintained of any plastic wastecollected in the village.
Gram sabha member RudolfBarreto also questioned theSarpanch over
the appointmentof a private contactor for dis-posal of waste and
demandedto know the Panchayat hadpassed any resolution to
appoint
the contractor.Former Sarpanch Benny Fer-
nandes expressed dismay overthe affidavit filed in the HighCourt
by the Panchayat. Thegram sabha demanded to knowfrom the Sarpanch
as to whohad opposed identification ofgarbage disposal sites in the
vil-lage as stated in the affidavit.
The gram sabha membersdrew attention of the Sarpanchto the
resolution passed by themeeting dated October 2007identifying a
site in the villagefor waste disposal.
Meanwhile, the gram sabhamembers asked host of ques-tions on the
audit report andthe failure by the Panchayat torecover revenue on
variousheads.
After discussions the gramsabha resolved to recover therevenue
from the salary of thePanchayat members.
The inaction against illegal-ities including a builder,
alsofigured during the meeting.While the Sarpanch said thatthe
panchayat would seek legaladvice before initiating actionagainst a
builder, the gramsabha members said that legalaction would further
delay thematter. The gram sabha alsoadopted a resolution demand-ing
change in the lawyer rep-resenting the Panchayat.
The Sarpanch later adjournedthe meeting to July 11, even asthe
gram sabha members de-manded that the meeting be ad-journed to next
Sunday.
Benaulim sarpanch grilled over garbage disposal sites
Benaulim gram sabha members during discussions on garbage
disposal at todays meeting.Photo by Santosh Mirajkar
HERALD REPORTERVASCO, JUNE 20
Around 112 passengers and six crew members on board the Go-Air
Mumbai-Goa-Mumbai flight had some anxious moments, afterthe
aircraft developed technical snag while landing at Dabolimairport
on Sunday at 6.45 am.
The flight with 112 passengers and six crew members landedat
Dabolim airport, after the pilot informed the Air Traffic
Controller(ATC) about the snag he might encounter in the front
landing gearwheels while landing, said sources at the airport.
However, after assessing the snag, the pilot assured the ATCthat
he could safely land the aircraft, for which the ATC agreedand
allowed the pilot to make a landing.
Sources further informed that the pilot had failed to reset
themanual switch in the cockpit, due to which the snag indicated
inthe cockpit, thereby creating panic among the crew.
When the flight took off in Mumbai, the pilot had failed toreset
the manual switch, due to the snag was indicated in thecockpit,
added sources.
Not taking a risk after landing, the pilot summoned the
towingtractor to take the aircraft to the parking bay, but the
tractorcould not be utilized as the flight engineer immediately
pointedout that the pilot had failed to reset the switch and asked
thepilot to take the aircraft on its own to the parking bay.
Later, the flight flew back to Mumbai safely for it return
journeywithin an hour after the engineer cleared the flight stating
that itwas a small error of not resetting the manual switch.
Technical snag gives 112 air passengersanxious moments
KEEPING THE TRADITION ALIVE! With the onset of monsoons, a
farmer ploughs a field at Santa Cruz on Saturday maintaining the
age-oldtradition inherited from his forefathers. Photo by Rozario
Estibeiro
Corlim Forumchalks out
various activities HERALD CORRESPONDENT
OLD GOA, JUNE 20
Members of Corlim Citizens Civil and Consumer Forum (CCCCF)on
Sunday chalked out various activities in the next one month toput
forth their demand of asking the government to scrap wideningof the
national highway passing through Corlim.
The Forum at the public meeting at the Monfort Hall at
Molar-Corlim on Sunday has decided to submit a copy of its
memorandumto PWD Minister Churchill Alemao, North Goa MP Shripad
Naikand South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha to look into their
griev-ances.
At the meeting, which was attended by the residents of
Corlim,the Forum has decided to lead a delegation to PWD
MinisterChurchill Alemao in his office at the Secretariat on Monday
toapprise him about the grievances of the residents of Corlim.
The Forum has also decided to convene a public meeting atCorlim
panchayat hall on June 27 at 9.45 am inviting local MLAPandurang
Madkaikar, North Goa MP Shripad Naik, concerned ZPmembers and all
the panchas from nearby panchayats along withthe locals to apprise
about the impact of national highway, whichwould be seen in the
years to come.
The Forum has also decided to organize a chain rally on July
4,which will start from the Konkan Railway Bridge at Old Goa
andculminate at the Banastarim Bridge. If the demands are still
notmet by the government, then the Forum has decided to hold
aprotest march at the State assembly on July 19.
Speaking to Herald, CCCCF Secretary Baptist Pereira said: Weare
objecting because NH4 national highway will pass throughour Corlim
village. We ask for diversion, as we do not need thispresent
highway to be altered into a national highway.
We have decided to make an appeal to the National
HighwayAuthority of India to do a resurvey and re-align the
national high-way, he said.
Our movement will continue till the State government decidesto
scrap the widening of NH4 national highway, said Pereira.
It may be recalled that CCCCF members had raised fears overthe
likely demolition of over 40 houses along the highway inCorlim,
with the Central governments plan to widen the NH4highway, which
passes through Corlim.
The CCCCF members in order to save the houses from demolitionhad
suggested the diversion of the highway through fields ofCarambolim
and Corlim, connecting to the highway at the Banas-tarim
Bridge.
NH WIDENING
Cops take custody of girl
HERALD REPORTERMARGAO, JUNE 20
The police on Sunday took intotheir custody a six-year-old
girl,believed to be from Karnataka,after she was found in theGandhi
market.
The girl was later handed overto a city-based NGO. Sourcesin the
know said the minorgirl, speaking in Kannada, wasfound in the
Gandhi Market.She could not explain how shehad landed in the market
andthe whereabouts of her par-ents. Given that she hails fromthe
labour class, the police tookthe girl across the city, but couldnot
trace the parents.
HERALD REPORTERMARGAO, JUNE 20
The Maina Curtorim police have arrested two persons, bothnatives
of Jharkhand, for an attempt to commit house burglaryat Chandor on
Sunday morning.
The police said the duo Andrew and Mahavir were seeninside the
compound of a closed house.
Their movements were spotted by neighbours and they werecaught
by the residents, before being handed over to the po-lice.
The Maina Curtorim police later arrested the duo for theabortive
attempt to commit house burglary. Further investiga-tions are
on.
Corlim Citizens Civil and Consumer Forum Secretary Baptist
Pereira interact with the residents fromCorlim during a meeting in
Corlim. Photo by Kanzil Rodrigues
HERALD CORRESPONDENTCANACONA, JUNE 20
PWD Minister Churchill Alemaoon Sunday morning inauguratedRs
60.14 lakh worth 15 mtrshigh overhead water reservoirat Gowal-Khola
and releasedabout 100 free water connec-tions to individual houses
inKhola.
Alemao said the tank willservice 1,000 households in thearea,
even though the presentdemand is a meager 152 con-nections,
including the 100 freewater connections providedunder tribal sub
plan of Cana-cona constituency.
Inaugurating the tank in theST-dominated area of Khola,Alemao
said: It is the ST com-munity which dressed-up andtook our State
forward and Iam of the opinion that thiscommunity deserves the
fruitsby way of getting most of thebenefits.
Earlier, Quepem MLA BabuKavlekar lauded Alemao sayingmost
developments taking place
in the State are mainly due tothe positive outlook of
PWDminister and demanded that asuitable playground and a com-munity
hall is the need of thehour in this part of village area.
Alemao also declared that thegovernment is taking up twovillages
on trial basis for con-sidering all the NREG cardhold-e r s a s BPL
f ami l i e s andaccordingly extend all BPL facil-ities to all
these families.
Alemao declared Rs 1,000 toa student of Gowal GovernmentHigh
School, who secured firstclass and Rs 500 each to all
otherstudents, who passed out fromthat school netting 100%
passpercentage.
He congratulated SchoolHeadmistress Celina and otherteaching
staff for molding thestudents correctly.
Responding to demands ofQuepem MLA, Alemao also de-clared that a
playing ground anda hall will be constructed inGowal Khola.
Canacona MLA Vijay Poikhot
and Khola ZP member KrishnaVelip, besides many panch mem-bers
were not present on theoccasion.
Khola Sarpanch Archana Velip,Gowal Panch and DeputySarpanch
Ujwala Velip, Betul-Naqueri Sarpanch WillunaDSilva, PWD (water
supply) Ex-ecutive Engineer Dhond, Cana-cona As s i s t an t Eng
inee rVelingkar, JE Prakash Bhanglewere present among several
oth-ers present on the occasion.
Interestingly, many apprehen-sive residents left the place
afterit was vehemently declared thatthe newly constructed
overheadtank will be used exclusively forlocal residents and not
for anycommercial players.
Speaking to scribes, KholaBachao Abhiyan President Pre-copio
Fernandes said: Whereare 1,000 households in thearea, besides with
CRZ stronglyagainst new constructions, it isunlikely that even in
future 1,000residences will come up in thelocality.
Overhead water reservoir inaugurated at Khola
Items stolen CALANGUTE, JUNE 20 (HC) --
Burglars stole items worth Rs8,800 from the WAFA Founda-tion
Trust Teaching Institutionat Saligao on Saturday.
According to reports, the bur-glars broke into the institute,run
by Reemah Nweilaty, anddecamped with two gas cylin-ders, a mobile
handset and acooking range, all worth Rs8,800.
Calangute PSI Gaurish Parabis investigating the case.
Jharkhand duo heldfor burglary bid at
Chandor
PWD Minister Churchill Alemao inaugurates Rs 60.14 lakh
overheadwater reservoir at Gowal Khola. Photo by Kathy Pereira
pg2:Layout 1 6/21/2010 12:36 AM Page 1
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GOA, MONDAY, 21 JUNE, 2010
GOAHERALD
Pg3
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CANACONA, JUNE 20
Parishioners, opposing handing over ofCabo-de-Rama fort to a
central agency, re-ceived further boost, as Quepem MLA toojoined
the chorus denouncing the govern-ments move.I am with the people
and will shortly meetChief Minister Digambar Kamat requestinghim
not to accept the INTACH proposal tohandover Cabo-De-Rama fort to
them,Quepem MLA Babu Kavlekar told Herald.When reminded that
Cabo-de-Rama Fort isalready in government possession by wayof 1984
gazette publication and legally hasno problem to handover the fort
to anyagency the government may deem fit,Kavlekar retorted saying:
A working churchexists in the area and government at the bestshould
not disturb present arrangement.It should not be handed over to a
thirdagency, as a religious structure which devo-tees regularly
visits, the church existing inits precincts, so the best way is to
keep itremain that way, he said.It may be recalled that
Cabo-de-Rama parish-
ioners and Khola residents have raised analarm over governments
reported move tohandover Cabo-de-Rama fort to INTACH, acentral
agency, to undertake restoration,renovation, re-erection and
reconstructionof the fort and to put it in adaptive reuse.When PWD
Minister Churchill Alemao wasasked to comment on the issue,
Alemaoremained elusive, but added cautiously:Since people have
objections, the govern-ment may have to do re-think on the
issue.Alemao asked the people, who met him onthe matter after
inauguration of an overheadwater reservoir at Gowal, neighboring
Cabo-de-Rama, to meet the chief minister on theissue.When
contacted, Khanaguinim Parish PriestFr Saluzinho, who also looks
after the Cabo-de-Rama parish, said: We will be supportingthe
parishioners struggle to retain the churchfor local residents
posterity and we are alsoassured of support by Bishops house on
thematter.By a government gazette published in1984, the entire fort
is now a governmentproperty, as none at that time filed any ob-
jections within 3 months, said Fr Saluz-inho.My predecessors in
the past have takenup cudgels with the government
authoritiesincluding Governor to handover at least10% of this fort
area having our religioushouse to church authorities, but
nonehelped us, saying the matter is already set-tled by way of
government gazette publi-cation in 1984, said Fr Saluzinho.Legally,
we may not have strong base, butparishioners are strongly committed
to havethis church for the posterity of future gen-erations, which
sentiment, present day gov-ernment should honour, Fr Saluzinho
toldHerald.KBA President Precopio Fernandes said thechurch is
important not only to Christians,but several other belief s
residents of neigh-bouring Gowal, Kurdi and even beyondcomes to
this church to pray and requestfavours.Previously, this church used
to serviceChristian faiths of Betul and Khanaguinim,who now their
own parishes, said Fernan-des.
Kavlekar backs parishioners, denounces govts move
Cabo de Rama fort and St Anthonys Church inside the fort, bone
of contention between government and parishioners. Photos by Kathy
Pereira
CABO-DE-RAMA FORT HANDOVER
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 20
Even as the fate of anticipatorybail petitions filed by
formertour i sm min i s te r Mickk yPacheco and his close aide
Lyn-don Monteiro would be decidedby the High Court tomorrow,the
crime branch today quizzedPachecos close friend from Be-naulim.
A businessman, who owns arestaurant and a resort in SouthGoa
coastal belt, was questionedover the whereabouts of
formerminister.
Crime branch officials con-firming the interrogation re-fused to
name the businessman,who is Pachecos political sup-porter.
Sources stated that police hadalso sent teams to residence
ofNotary Joey Rodrigues, who hadnotarized the affidavit sworn inby
Pacheco before the highcourt.
The crime branch which hassought custodial interrogationof
Pacheco and Monteiro haskept its hopes on the high courtorder. They
hope that duo willsurrender, if their anticipatorybail is
rejected.
Earlier last week, High courtjudge N A Britto had recused
Mickkys close friend quizzed
himself from hearing the case.The case is now transferred
toJustice A S Oak, who will hear iton Monday at 4.30 p.m.
Pacheco is in trouble afterdeath of Nadia Torrado, who
al-legedly consumed poison anddied on May 30.
Crime Branch which is inves-tigating the case had heldPacheco
responsible for herdeath while his OSD, Monteiro,has been accused
of destroyingevidence.
Assembly sessionHERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JUNE 20
Governor Dr Shivinder SinghSidhu has summoned the GoaLegislative
Assembly, to meet atAssembly Hall on July 19 at 11.30am.
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
VALPOI, JUNE 20
To reduce chances of floods in some villages in Sattari taluka,
thewater resources department (WRD) has commenced the work
ofremoving plates of Bhandara at Ganjem.
It may be recalled that WRD had constructed the bandara inriver
Mhadai at Ganjem few years ago under Central Governmentscheme Pani
Adva Pani Jeerva. The bandara is located near rawwater pumping
station for Opa water works, Ganjem.
According to sources in WRD, water from Ganjem bandara isused at
Opa water treatment plant.
WRD officials Arvind Salelkar, Arun Naik, Promod Badami
andShailesh Pokle are guiding the workers in removing the
plates.
Sources informed that the work will continue for some moredays.
Meanwhile, villagers from Guleli, Dhamshe, Padeli, Birondeand
Kankeri have urged WRD to complete the work of removingthe plates
soon to minimize chances of floods due to heavy rainsin
Sattari.
Plates being removed from the bhandara at Ganjem-Valpoi. Photo
by Ashraf Khan
Work to remove Bhandara plates begins at Ganjem
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BICHOLIM, JUNE 20
Sanquelim Municipal Councils (SMC) contractlabourers on Sunday
resolved to intensify the ag-itation and formed a committee to put
forwardtheir demand of regularization.
It may be recalled that about 34 contractworkers of SMC had
resorted to a days strikeon June 8 in protest against governments
ap-athy to consider their demands. They resortedto the strike after
Chief Minister DigambarKamat failed to act upon the assurance
givento the workers.
Following the agitation, the chief minister onceagain promised
that he would regularize theworkers within 15 days. Since even
after 15 days,nothing fruitful came out, the workers on
Sundayconvened a meeting and formed a committee tointensify their
agitation.
According to sources, about 12 workers whowere appointed in 1996
and later are yet to beregularised.
After Sanquelim panchayat was converted intomunicipality, about
three clerks and a market in-spector was regularized, while another
12 workerswere just given assurance, SMC driver Manohar
Kamat told Herald.The workers meeting was held in Samaj
Mandir
hall, Sanquelim. Indian National Trade Union Con-gress (INTUC)
President V V P Nair, General Sec-retary Adv G S Kubal and Women
Representativeof Gomantak Municipal Workers Union MinalVaigankar
were present for the meeting.
In his speech, Nair informed the workers aboutvarious benefits
that the municipal workers shouldget as per the amendments. He also
expressedfull support in the workers struggle.
INTUC General Secretary Adv Kubal said in anymunicipal council,
the workers are most impor-tant. The workers are entitled for the
benefit ofmedical, children education, safety and wages.What is
most important in this struggle is theunity, he said.
Later, a committee was formed with ShivanandHosmani as its
president. Other members electedare Manohar Kamat (general
secretary), JyotiKanekar (treasurer), Ashok Unchamani and
oth-ers.
It was also decided to forward a memorandumto the Labour
Commission, chief minister andothers. The workers also expressed
their opinionon the occasion.
SMC contract labourers to intensify agitation
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 20
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) thinktank today decided to work
outa comprehensive roadmap eye-ing for 2012 Goa polls.
In next 15 days, we will decidethe roadmap for next
elections,BJP President Laxmikant Parsekartold reporters today
afternoon.
The state executive commit-tee which met today decided tocome
out with a plan of reachingto a maximum number of elec-
torate, including minorities. Congress has pictured us as
an anti-minority party. But recentlythe perception of these
commu-nities has changed. There aremembers of minorities, who
havetaken up membership with BJP.By 2012 polls we will cover
theentire minority section, Parsekarsaid. Parsekar believes that
theanti-government sentiments,prevailing in the state wouldwork in
favour of the BJP.
When asked, president said
that BJP will be more aggressivein the coming days. In the
com-ing assembly session (July) wewill have an opportunity of
ex-posing the State Governmenton the floor of the House fornearly
15 days, Parsekar said.
He said that during 15-daylong session, 70 to 80 ques-tions
would be raised anddebated, which means thatthe state government
wouldbe exposed at all these in-stances.
BJP to work out roadmap for 2012 polls
pg3:Layout 1 6/20/2010 11:49 PM Page 1
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GOAGOA, MONDAY, 21 JUNE, 2010
HERALD
Pg 4
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
PORVORIM, JUNE 20
The tender may have been approved by thePWD five months ago, but
the governmentis yet to issue the work order for the ex-tension of
Malim Jetty on the western sideby 50 metres.
Unhappy over the inordinate delay,trawler owners met in Betim a
few daysago and have decided to launch an agitationif the work
order is not released immedi-ately.
The Mandovi Fishermen Marketing So-ciety Ltd. (MFMSL) at Betim
had demandedthat the Malim Jetty may be extended byan additional
100 metres as the existing120-metre long jetty cannot
accommodateall the trawlers.
The government had agreed to extend
the Malim Jetty by 50 metres on the westernside and PWD
accordingly had invited ten-ders for the project.
The PWD had even shortlisted the con-tractor but since the past
five months thePWD is yet to issue the work order to thecontractor,
despite repeated requests byMFMSL.
When contacted, MFMSL ChairmanMenino Afonso said they had met
Ministerfor Fisheries Department Joaquim Alemaoand PWD officials
several times, requestingthem to expedite the work.
The minister has assured us that he willdo the needful. At
present, 315 trawlersare operating from the Malim Jetty and inthe
next season, 25 additional trawlerswhich are 64 feet in length will
join thejetty, said Afonso.
Trawler owners are blaming us for nothaving taken the matter
seriously with thegovernment.
Meanwhile, Afonso informed that thegovernment has agreed to pay
compensa-tion of Rs 1 lakh to the families of fishermenwho lost
their lives in the storms last year.
However, the government has so far re-leased only Rs 50,000 as
compensation inthis connection. Four trawler owners losttheir
trawlers and purse seine nets duringthe last season and sustained
loss of aroundRs 4 crore, but the government did not payany
compensation to them.
If the government does not take interestin the welfare of the
fishermen and thetrawler owners, it may have an adverseaffect on
fishing activities in the State,warned Afonso.
The side of the Malim Jetty to be extended by 50 meters. Photo
by Anil Shankhwalker
Govt yet to issue work order for Malim Jetty extension
Trawler owners to launch agitation
SHORT TAKES
UPCOMING EVENTS
Personality development at PanjimPANJIM (HND): Personality
Development and Mind Controlcourse will be organised on June 29,
from 10 am to 11 am, atInstitute of Personality Development, Pinto
Chambers, BlockA, 2nd floor and conducted by Prof Agnel Crasto,
Director ofthe Institute of Personality Development, Panjim. The
courseincludes voice culture, communication skills, public
speaking,interviews techniques, hospitality, human relationship,
con-centration and assertiveness training. The duration is of 5
daysonly. Those interested may contact Prof Agnel Crasto on
tele-phone number 2435838 and mobile 9420818302.
Ebony and Ivorys musical concert
PANJIM (HND): Lindas Ebony and Ivory Academy held its
fourthannual concert and prize distribution at Grace Church Hall,
Margaorecently. The students of the academy put up a breathtaking
andcolorful musical extravaganza of dances, song and individual
per-formances on the piano. Over 40 students participated in
theconcert.
Mayor of Margao, Savio Coutinho was the chief guest. He
de-scribed the show as one of the best he had ever witnessed in
Goa.The guest of honour, Fr Glen DSilva, sfx, Director of Pilar
MusicSociety, while also full of plaudits, recalled Lindas humble
journeyto the pinnacle of music success as a music teacher,
director andchoreographer.
Seminar on Robotics organised
MARCEL (HC): Fourth year Electronics and
Tele-communicationstudents from Goa Engineering College (GEC),
Farmagudi, con-ducted a seminar for the students of St Marys High
School,Ponda, on Robotics. On the occasion, students were
informedabout robotics, basic working and formation of robots. Live
demoof a robot developed by GEC students was also conducted. Thisis
excellent and I must thank the GEC team headed by Pranav,who
enabled us to know about robots and its working. Roboticsalways
been a fantasy to us, but now we know what it reallymeans, said
Ashish Nair, student of St Marys High School, Ponda.According to
GEC student Pranav Pai Vernekar, his group hastaken the initiative
to spread the knowledge of robotics to thestudents. He said they
will continue conducting such programmein school and colleges.
Robotics is a fast-developing field and we thought school
andcollege students should be aware of it, said Vernekar. As weknow
that computer technology is considered most advancedtoday, but
within 20 years the robotic field will be the mostadvanced field.
According to us, the students from schools shouldbe given knowledge
of robotics and this will definitely help themin the long run. Even
our country can benefit from it, said Vernekar.Group members
include Amol, Vaibhav Sathe and Upesh. Thegroup as part of their
project work has developed a web-based in-terface from where the
commands given to a robot can be trans-mitted over the Internet. A
demonstration of their project wasalso conducted. Members have
requested schools and colleges,who wish to have robotics seminar in
their institute, to contactthem at GEC, Farmagudi-Ponda.
Students of Ebony and Ivory Academy at the annual concert
atGrace Church Hall, Margao.
Students attending the seminar on robotics at Ponda. Photo by
Amresh Parab
HERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JUNE 20
Minister for Civil Supplies JosePhilip DSouza has expressed
sat-isfaction with the deliberationson consumer protection
andstressed the need to strengthenthe consumer protection move-ment
by active participation ofconsumers and consumerfriendly initiative
by the con-cerned authorities in the State.
Jose Philip was speaking atthe meeting of Goa State Con-sumer
Protection Council organ-ised in the Conference Hall,Secretariat,
Porvorim, on Friday.
The meeting was attended bythe Acting Chief Secretary,Narendra
Kumar, the Secretary,Civil Supplies, D C Sahoo, Rep-resentatives of
Consumer Pro-tection Council and seniorgovernment officers.
During the course of delibera-tion at the meeting, the Civil
Sup-plies Minister assured to providefull support for creating a
publicawareness and related other ac-tivities for the benefits of
con-sumers particularly in rural areas.
The issues discussed thread-bare included water and powersupply
problem almost all overGoa, parking charges in all KTC
bus stands areas, improvementof Goa dairy milk
distributionsystem, setting up of StateRoad Safety Council (SRSC),
foodand drug issue, protection offlat/apartment owners
issue,availability of updating of citizencharter of ah departments,
andrelated other matters.
Need to strengthenconsumer protectionmovement stressed
Reduce tariff
of Goa Niwas,
says Adv BhosleHERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JUNE 20
General Secretary of NCP, AdvAvinash Bhosle has urged
theGovernment of Goa to reducethe tariff of Goa Niwas and GoaSadan
in New Delhi from Rs1500 to Rs 500. State guesthouses are meant to
give resi-dential facilities at a reasonablerate to the people of
their Statewho visit the capital and there-fore the increase in
rates is notjustified.
Adv Bhosle also urged the gov-ernment not to increase the
li-cence fees by 100% as proposedin the budget as it directly
affectsthe Aam admi, however theamount of fines may be double.
HERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JUNE 20
Eminent artists Unnati Singhand Salvador Fernandes in
as-sociation with Armando Gon-sa l ve s o f He r i t age J azz
,organised an art workshop withunderprivileged children fromthe St
Inez bundh, at GonsalvesMansion in Campal, which cul-minated with
an exhibition ofart works of the works producedby these kids as
well as withcontemporary paintings fromthese senior artists. The
exhi-bition will be on till June 30from 11 am to 5.30 pm.
RIMC admission test in December
HERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JUNE 20
The next RIMC entrance examination for admission to the
RashtriyaIndian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun (UA) for July
2011 termwill be conducted at scheduled centres on first Wednesday
andsecond Thursday of December, 2010.
Only boys are eligible to apply for the admission to the
RIMC,Dehradun. Candidates appearing for the above test should notbe
less than 11 years in age but should not have attained theage of 13
years as on 1 July, 2011 i.e. they should not be bornearlier than
July 2, 1998 and not later than January 1, 2000.They should either
be studying in class VIIth or passed classVIIth from any recognized
school at the time of admission tothe RIMC.
The examination in English will be conducted on December 1(10 am
to 12 noon), Mathematics (2 pm to 3.30 pm) and generalknowledge
paper on December 2 (10 am to 11 am). The Mathematicsand general
knowledge papers may be answered either in Hindior English. The
examination will be held simultaneously for allthe candidates.
Minimum pass marks in each paper including interview will be50%
and if the candidates fails to secure 50% marks in any paper,he
will be declared ineligible for admission. The selection of
thecandidates will be purely on merit.
Copies of the prospectus with application forms and set of
oldquestion papers can be obtained from the Commandant,
RIMC,Dehradun (UK) on payment of Rs 250 through demand draft
infavour of Commandant, RIMC. These should be dispatched by
reg-istered post or courier only.
Locally printed/Xeroxed and without the Hologram (seal),
formswill be rejected. Application forms duly completed in
duplicateon prescribed forms accompanied by a bank draft, payable
atState Bank of India, Tel Bhavan branch (bank code no
01576),Dehradun only will be accepted, for Rs 50 (Rs 5 in case of
SC/STcandidates) in favour of Commandant RIMC, Dehradun, must
besent to the Asstt Director of Education, Panjim on or before
Sep-tember 30.
Application forms must be sent to the respective State
govern-ments and not to the Rashtriya Indian Military College,
Dehradun.
Art exhibition at Gonsalves Mansion
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CANACONA, JUNE 20
With Canacona receiving goodrainfall since the last many
days,few rivulets, which have gonedry past February-March,
havebecome active from Wednesdaynight with water sprouting
fromnatural spring sources otherthen normal rainwater.
According to sources, onlyfew of the rivulets got runningtill
date, while many well-knownsprings are yet to break open,as delayed
rains are yet to hithard enough in the mountainousregions so
far.
Delay in activation of naturalstreams could be related to
thehottest summer witnessed dur-ing the year warming the landeven
past the first week of June,informed sources.
Barring three major talukarivers at Galgibaga, Talpona andSaleri
and a couple of tributariesat Agonda and Devabhag-Palolem
displaying water, al-most all other water bodiesincluding various
lakes andponds, besides several tributar-ies running in the taluka
are to-tally dried-up.
Environmentalist Budhu Ma-hale said it may take another 8-10
days of heavy rainfall to
sprout most other springs so asto bring back the remainingwater
bodies active and aliveand bring all the rivers in flowingmode.
One land part of Chapolireservoir had even developedcracks in
its once water storagearea, displaying acute chagrinof
earth-warming disaster takingits toll amid one of the hottestsummer
in recent years.
The Chapoli dam reservoirwas tottering at the barest min-imum
water storage of just28.33 RL (reduced level) till June15, as the
releasing depth ofwater at dams releasing pointstood at less than 3
mtrs inheight, informed sources.
It was only past June 16 thatthe dams reservoir began toshow
improvements, as rainswas hitting hard. Finally, thewater began to
add to the reser-voir capacity and became richerby 0.28 RL as on
Friday after-noon with the water capacitypresently standing at
28.61 RL.
Rains provided only intermit-tent respite on Friday, as
Cana-cona recorded about 35 mm ofrainfall at 6 pm, even as
seasonalrainfall has touched 290 mm,sources from taluka
observatoryinformed.
These painting lessons haveprovided full liberty to the
chil-dren to choose their favoritestyle and paint down their
vividimaginations. It was definitelya gleaming opportunity for
artmaking and creative expressionin order to build their
confi-dence, self-esteem, and criticalthinking skills.
Unnati Singh and SalvadorFernandes appeal not to missthe works
of the underprivilegedchildren now camouflage thelovely verandah of
the GonsalvesMansion into a vivacious artgallery of the
contemporary cre-ations. The artists are keen ontaking this highly
successful ex-periment to all the corners ofthe State, and any
schools/or-ganisations interested in makinguse of their services as
well asthe services of Heritage Jazz inmusic and art, may please
visitwww.heritagejazz.com andwrite to Armando Gonsalves.
A flowing rivulet with source from natural springs at
Dumane-Cana-cona. Photo by Kathy Pereira
Rains resurrect dry rivulets in Canacona
Bus rams into Ponda hillock; 6 escape with minor injuries
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
MARCEL, JUNE 20
Six persons, including a bus driver,escaped with minor injuries,
aftera passenger bus rammed into ahillock near Opa Water
TreatmentPlant, Opa-Ponda, on Thursday atabout 6.45 pm.
According to reports, the ac-cident occurred when the busdriver
lost control over the busand rammed against the hillock.The bus
(GA-01-W-4234) was pro-ceeding from Ponda towards Opa.
Bus driver Shanu Gaonkar, whosustained leg injuries, was
shiftedto ID Hospital, Ponda, while thefive other passengers were
dis-charged after administering firstaid at ID Hospital. Ponda
policeis investigating the case.
Valpoi students yet to receive
text booksHERALD CORRESPONDENT
VALPOI, JUNE 20
Although the new academic yearcommenced on June 7, studentsin
Valpoi are yet to receive thetext books.
Some parents complainedthat their children are forced togo to
school without textbooksalthough two weeks are aboutto be completed
since theschools re-opened.
According to sources fromsome schools in Valpoi, only stu-dents
of Std 7 received almostall the books. Students of Std6 got only
one text book, Maths,while students of Std 8 got onlyScience
textbook and are wait-ing to get other books, in-formed
sources.
Interestingly, the students ofStd 5 did not get a single
textbook. Some parents of Govern-ment primary schools (Urdumedium)
have complained thattheir children are yet to receiveUrdu text
books.
Parents have urged the Edu-cation Department to makeavailable
all the text books soonso that their children do not suf-fer in the
first mid-term test tobe conducted in the first weekof August.
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
PORVORIM, JUNE 20
Environment Officer from De-partment of Science and Tech-nology
Sujitkumar Dongre saidplastic is non-biodegradable ma-terial and
remains in the envi-ronment for several yearswithout degrading.
Dongre was speaking as thechief guest at the programmeorganized
during the plastic col-lection drive conducted by StateCouncil of
Educational Researchand Training (SCERT), Porvorim,in collaboration
with the De-partment of Science and Tech-no logy, Sa l i gao a t D
IET,Porvorim.
Plastic waste clogs the drainsand thus hit sewage system.
Theplastic waste which is dumpedinto rivers, streams and
seascontaminate water, soil and ma-rine life and also the air
webreathe, said Dongre.
Chocked drains provide ex-cellent breeding ground formosquitoes,
besides causingflooding during the monsoons.Plastic thus causes
seriousdamage to the environment.So the only way to reduce haz-
ards of plastic is to reduce theuse of plastic, informed
Don-gre.
Plastic plays the role of villainright from the stage of its
pro-duction. The major chemicalsthat go into the making of
plas-
tics are highly toxic and poseserious threat to living beingsof
all species on earth, addedDongre.
When burnt plastic releasesa host of chemicals into the
air,besides hitting hard the eco-
system, some chemicals in plas-tic can cause array of
maladiesranging from birth defects tocancer, damage nervous
systemand also adversely affect bloodand kidneys of human beings,he
said.
Dongre stated that plasticonce thrown in the open be-comes a
major environmentalproblem. We need to makean effort to reduce or
ratherstop usage of plastic carrybags and instead use clothbags
whenever we go for mar-keting. Students can play avital role in the
campaign ofplastic eradication, said Don-gre.
In his speech, District Insti-tute and Education and Train-ing V
ice Principal GovindHawaldar advised the studentsto avoid the usage
of plasticcarry bags and impressed uponthe illiterate people about
theill-effects of plastic and how itcauses damage to the
environ-ment.
The students should makethis as mission and strive tomaintain
environment clean inthe interest of mankind, addedHawaldar.
Students from schools in Por-vorim participated in the
plasticcollection drive. Programme Co-ordinator Maria de Fatima
Cruzof SCERT proposed the vote ofthanks.
Meet deliberates on ill-effects of plastic on environment
Environment Officer Sujitkumar Dongre speaks on ill-effects of
plastic. Photo by Anil Shankhwalker
Road mishap, tree uprooting
reported at VascoHERALD REPORTER
VASCO, JUNE 20
Vasco traffic police and Vasco firebrigade personnel were kept
ontheir toes on Thursday morning,after two incidents of road
mishapand tree falling occurred, blockingthe traffic along the
NH17A andSwatantrapath in Vasco.
In the first incident, driversof two vehicles escaped withminor
injuries in a head-on col-lision between a tempo andtruck on
Chicalim slope onThursday morning, blocking thetraffic along the
main road lead-ing to Vasco.
Traffic police had to leave thetraffic one-way till both the
ve-hicles were removed from theaccident after four hours.
However, by the time trafficpolice could clear the vehiclesat
Chicalim slope, an old Ashokatree came crashing down on
theSwatantrapath road, blockingentire one-way traffic.
The fire personnel swiftlycleared the road within an hour,while
Vasco traffic police PIDharmesh Angle monitored thetraffic along
Swatantrapath road.
Local councillor KrishnaSalkar, who along with SouthGoa BJP Vice
President DigambarAmokar present at the site, in-formed that no one
was presenton the road when the tree camecrashing down.
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REGIONGOA, MONDAY, 21 JUNE, 2010
HERALD Pg 5
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELGAUM, JUNE 20
Belgaum will now have moreadept arrangements as far asthe
control of law and orderand police assistance is con-cerned.
The city has become one ofthe few selected cities in Kar-nataka
for getting the servicesof special vehicles to assist thepolice in
controlling crime andserve the citizens better.
Superintendent of PoliceSonia Narang flagged off the ve-hicles
on Wednesday pressingthem into the service of the peo-ple at a
simple ceremony thatwas held in the premises of theSP office.
These special vehiclesnamed as Cheetah, will beequipped with a
PSI/ASI, a policeconstable and will be well armedto offer
appropriate police as-sistance, she told reporters.
The vehicles will be also firstaid and communications gadg-ets
to assist the police, shesaid.
These vehicles have beenstrategically located at
differentvantage points in Belgaum cityand will be at service round
theclock. Apart from preventingcrime, assisting in
accidents,natural calamity these vehicleswill be also keeping an
eye onthe suspicious persons.
Controlling violence will
now be easy for the Belgaumpolice with the arrival of Chee-tah,
said SP Sonia. The vehicleswill act swiftly on the informa-tion
from police control room,public and the police station ofthat
area.
Additional SP Umesh Pangamand other senior police officialswere
present on the occasion.
SP Sonia Narang flags off Cheetah at Belgaum in the presence
ofAdditional SP Umesh Pangam, DySP G M Desur, Shataraju andother
officials.
Special vehicles to assist patrolling in Belgaum
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
The CBI's Mumbai branch on Sat-urday trapped Major
DipendraBhushan taking bribe from anewly selected jawan for
clear-ance of the medical examination.
A CBI spokesman here saidMajor Bhushan is a medical of-ficer of
the Army and posted atthe recruitment office at Colabain Mumbai. He
demanded Rs50,000 from the jawan to clearhim medically.
The major and his driverBharat Oram were caught red-handed while
accepting part ofthe bribe from the complainant.The driver is a
civilian.
The complainant who hadbeen selected as a soldier (tech-nical)
was asked to make partpayment of Rs 10,000 when hemet the officer
Saturday eveningnear CST Railway station.
The major was caught red-handed near Bombay Gymkhanawhen his
driver Oram got downfrom the vehicle to collectmoney. The CBI had
independ-ent witnesses to trap the officer.Search of the driver
yielded an-other Rs 9500, besides thetainted amount of Rs
10,000.
The spokesman said themajor and his driver brokedown, confessing
that Rs 9500were the bribe received by themfrom another candidate
to passhim in the medical exam. Bothconfessed to have taken
illegalgratification from several can-didates to get them passed
inthe medical examination for thepost of soldiers (technical)
andsoldiers (general duty).
Searches are on at the officeof the major and the
residentialpremises of both the major andthe driver, the spokesman
added.
PTI
MUMBAI, JUNE 20
After failed attempts by seniorShiv Sena leaders to bring
to-gether Sena executive chief Ud-dhav Thacke ray and h i
sestranged cousin and MNS chiefRaj, local Sena activists havetaken
initiative for that.
The initiative called 'MaziChalval Mi Maharashtracha'
(MyMovement,I Belong To Maha-rashtra) led by a senior ShivSainik
from Worli in CentralMumbai, Satish Walunj and sixothers would
launch 'ThackerayJodo' campaign here on Monday
to bring the cousins togetherfor betterment of Marathi
peo-ple.
"Marathi votes were dividedbetween Sena and MNS whichis paving
way to outsiders torule us. If this continues Maha-rashtra will not
have any future,"Walunj told PTI.
The campaign is purely onthe basis of public support andthere is
no involvement of anybig political leader, he said.
"We want, the cousins shouldlisten to the public opinion
be-cause they are the voters andshould respect them," Walunj
Thackeray Jodo campaign to be launched todaysaid.
The sainiks also want Uddhavand Raj together win the 2012BMC
elections else Congress-NCP would come in power.
Asked if he has spoken to anyof the cousins on the issue
per-sonally, he said no. "I have not
spoken personally to them butwritten letters to Sena chief
Bal-saheb Thackeray and Raj aboutlaunching the campaign,"
Walunjsaid.
Mumbai army officer, driver held taking bribe
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELGAUM, JUNE 20
Politicians and administratorsof Belgaum might boast of tak-ing
the city to new heights ofprogress, but there is one area,hardly a
few metres from thecity, where residents have beendeprived of basic
amenitiessince the last two decades.
The misery of residents of Ma-halaxminagar and surroundingareas
near Laxmi Tek, here, havebeen deprived of basic amenitieslike
proper supply of water, elec-tricity and proper approach roadsince
the last 20 years.
The irate residents here arenow up in arms and are planninga
strong agitation to catch theattention of the officials andpeoples
representatives to-wards the problems faced bythem.
The condition of the main ap-proach road to Mahalaxminagarwhich
is already in a dilapidatedcondition has further deterio-rated due
to heavy rains sincelast week.
Few patches of the approachroad have gone so bad that ithas
become difficult for the res-idents to travel to others areas.
School and college students,women and elders also face
dif-ficulties while negotiating withthe road.
The road has become soslushy that people riding bicyclesand
motor cycles frequently slipon this road and sustain minorto major
injuries. The conditionsbecome worse due to absenceof street lights
along the road.
Despite requests to theBenkanhalli gram panchayat,
theauthorities have turned blindeye to the road leaving the
largenumber of residents of the lay-
out at the mercy of the mostawful conditions.
Since last couple of months,the residents have been receiv-ing
assurances from the govern-ment authorities and
electedrepresentatives. District inCharge minister Basavraj
Bom-mais through a letter has re-cently directed officials to
takenecessary measures to providebasic amenities to the
residents.To the shock of the people, noofficial has turned up to
the lay-out, despite the ministers or-ders.
Mahalaxminagar deprived ofbasic amenities since 2 decades!
The slushy approach road to Mahalaxminagar in Belgaum.
Poor selling daughters to flesh trade agents: BJP
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELGAUM, JUNE 20
Belgaum District BharatiyaJanata Party womens wing hasalleged
that poor villagers dueto their intense poverty are sell-ing their
young daughters tothe agents engaged in fleshtrade.
The members of the wing,who have submitted a memo-randum to
Superintendent ofPolice Sonia Narang, have com-plained about the
rise in missinggirls cases in and around Bel-gaum.
In a memorandum submittedto the SP, the women leadershave
alleged that some peoplefrom Rajasthan with the involve-ment of
some local people forcepoor villagers to sell their youngdaughters
under the guise ofgetting them married with richpersons.
The women have urged thepolice department to identifysuch
anti-social elements in thesociety and take stringent actionagainst
them.
Belgaum socialworker
Saudagargoes missing
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELGAUM, JUNE 20
Abdul SalamS a u d a g a r(68), a socialworker fromhere who
lefthome onJune 5 afterthe suddendemise of hiswife, is
stillmissing.
Soudagar is the founder andowner of the popular HotelNiyaz,
opposite bus stand here.
Apart from being a successfulbusinessman, he is also involvedin
the local educational institu-tions and associated with vari-ous
social organisations hereand has rendered help to theneedy in all
possible ways.
He has an excellent rapportwith a large number of peoplein Goa
too. Family members ofSoudagar are in distress and havefiled a
missing complaint at theMarket Police Station here.
The public is requested tocontac t mob i l e Ph :09880000370 and
09880000371in case of any information aboutSoudagar.
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELGAUM, JUNE 20
Belgaum ZP may have won accolades fromPrime Minister Manmohan
Singh for effec-tive implementation of National Rural Em-ployment
Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), butlittle did it knew about the drawbacks
inthe scheme that left hundreds of poor peo-ple unemployed.
It may be recalled that former ZP CEOand present Belgaum Deputy
Commis-sioner Dr Ekroop Caur had proudly receivedthe award from the
Prime Minister in Feb-ruary.
It was observed at many places that theproject has failed
miserably to provide em-ployment to the poor in many villages.
The purposeful lethargy of the authoritiesto oversee the sincere
implementation ofthe projects under the scheme has attrib-uted to
the failure in guaranteeing the em-ployment to the needy.
It is observed that many of the projectstaken up under the
scheme are incomplete,mainly due to the rampant corruption.
In once such incident that has raised sev-eral questions over
implementation of theproject, villagers of Mekalmardi in
Belgaum
district have filed a complaint withLokayukta, alleging
corruption in the im-plementation of the scheme.
Mahantesh Hiremath and Basavraj Hos-mani of Mekalmardi said: The
GramPanchayat records show that about Rs70-80 lakh has been spent
on the drainwork in the village which is far from thetruth.
Many labourers have not been paid asingle rupee even after
working for manydays. Since March this year, no works havebeen
either decided upon or taken up bythe panchayat, the villagers
alleged.
NREGS fails to provide employment in Belgaum!
Kareena to play
a sex-worker in
'Heera Mandi'AGENCIES
MUMBAI, JUNE 20
Kareena to play a sex-workerin `Heera Mandi`KareenaKapoor and
San jay Lee laBhansali will finally be work-ing together on
Sanjay's nextfilm after Guzaarish. The twohad been hoping to work
to-gether for a long time buttheir plans fell through everytime.
Once Kareena returnsfrom shooting for Agent Vinodin Morocco, the
two will meetand finalise their project to-gether.
Kareena and Sanjay weresupposed to work on a film onMahatma
Gandhi's son afterDevdas, but circumstancesforced Sanjay to shelve
the film.
They then planned BajiraoMastain with Salman Khan, butthat had
to be scrapped afterKareena and Salman's Kyon Kiflopped.
Then Sanjay got busy withBlack and Kareena could notbe a part of
it as her sisterKarisma and Black's male leadAmitabh Bachchan's son
Ab-hishek had just broken theirengagement. But now, it seemsthe two
will finally get to-gether.
-
GOA, MONDAY JUNE 21, 2010
HERALD
Pg7INDIA
Devotees performing pooja at Khirbhawani temple at Tulmulla in
Jammu & Kashmir during the annual Mela Khirbhawanion
Saturday.
PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
New safety rules have been put in place for VIPoperation of
planes and helicopters to avoidmishaps like the one which killed
former AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy.
The rules, framed by the Direc-torate General of Civil
Aviation(DGCA), encompass all aspects offlight operations -- from
acquisitionof aircraft, employment of crewand engineers to
definition of VIPs.
The new rule says that a VIPflight would mean having amongstthe
passengers any one of the eightcategories of dignitaries.
The categories include the LokSabha Speaker, Rajya Sabha
DeputyChairperson, Cabinet Ministers,Chief Justice of India,
Governors,Chief Ministers, State Cabinet Min-isters and the SPG
protectees whoenjoy 'Z-plus' category security.
The President, the Vice Presidentand the Prime Minister travel
onIAF aircraft as a rule.
While no flight would be allowed to be operatedwhen "weather
conditions are not conducive tosafe operations", every VIP flight
would be oper-ated with "a multiple crew composition", the
CivilAviation Requirement says.
Stringent conditions have been laid down forthe pilots of planes
and helicopters.
A Pilot-in-Command (PIC) should either have aCommercial Pilot
License (CPL) or an Airline Trans-port Pilots License (ATPL) with
at least 3,000 hoursof flying experience, of which 2,000 hours
shouldbe as a PIC on the type of aircraft to be flown. Heor she
should also have a minimum of 50 hours
of night flying experience.For helicopter pilots, the com-
mander should possess similar li-censes, with 2,000 hours of
flyingexperience including 500 hours asPIC on the same aircraft
type. Theyshould also have at least 10 hoursof night flying
experience.
In order to regulate flight oper-ations of state governments
andPSUs, many of which have a fleetof planes or choppers, the
DGCAhas specified rules for recruitmentof pilots, crew and
engineers andalso their training programmes.
Similar rules have also been laiddown for aircraft maintenance
andrepairs, besides other airworthi-ness requirements.
The aircraft should be fitted with all suitableequipments needed
for instrument flying and pi-lots should hold valid instrument
ratings, therule stresses.
The aviation departments of state governmentsor aviation
divisions of PSUs would have to applyto the DGCA for undertaking
aircraft operationswith a fee of Rs one lakh.
New safety rules for VIP use of planes, copters
The rules, framedby the DirectorateGeneral of CivilAviation
(DGCA),encompass allaspects of flightoperations -- fromacquisition
ofaircraft,employment ofcrew andengineers todefinition of VIPs.
PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
Delhi University has earned thedubious distinction of being
thecountry's only violator of ra-dioactive waste disposal
norms,according to the Atomic EnergyRegulatory Board.
The AERB which is responsi-ble for regulating and monitor-ing
the safety of nuclear facilitiesand materials said that morethan
800 organisations had ap-proached it in last five years
fordecommissioning nuclear ma-terial.
"There are no reported casesof disposal of radioactive ma-terial
violating the 'Atomic En-ergy (safe disposal of radioactivewaste)
Rules, 1987,' except theGamma Cell which was auc-tioned by Delhi
University," theAERB said in an RTI reply to ap-plicant Abhishek
Shukla who
sought the details of such vio-lators.
The infamous episode of auc-tioning the radioactive
materialsurfaced in April this year wheneight scrap dealers working
inDelhi's sprawling Mayapuri scrapmarket suffered radiation
expo-sure.
One person lost his life whileremaining seven were in
seriouscondition because of bone mar-row damage resulting from
ra-dioactive radiation emitted bycobalt pencils of the gamma
cell,auctioned by the University.
The Board cited security con-cerns to withold the names
oforganisations decommissioningnuclear material from their
fa-cilities.
It, however, said in most ofthe cases seeking disposal
ofradioactive waste, the AERB hadtaken action within seven days
and issued export permissionfor imported sources.
"For sources to be disposedof at the authorized waste
man-agement agency in the country,AERB takes about one month'stime
to issue disposal permis-sion since the concurrence fromthe waste
management agencyis to be obtained first," AERBSecretary Om Pal
Singh said.
According to rules laid downfor the disposal of nuclearwaste,
the user has to providedetails of the material to be dis-posed of
locally (in India) or tobe exported (to original
supplierabroad).
These details are forwardedto the authorised waste man-agement
agency for its concur-rence and only after that doesthe Board
permit the user totransport the material to theagency.
DU country's only radioactive polluter
PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
Prime Minister Manmohan Singhis expected to announce the
de-cision on signing a memoran-dum of understanding on Gangariver
basin management planbetween the government and aconsortium of IITs
during hisvisit to the IIT-Kanpur on July3.
Singh has been invited to at-tend as the chief guest the an-nual
convocation of the premierinstitute, which is celebratingits golden
jubilee this year.
"Prime Minister will visit theinstitute on July 3. One of
themajor announcements on theday will be about the signingof the
pact for Ganga cleaningplan between the Centre andthe
IIT-consortium," IIT-Kanpurdirector Sanjay G Dhande toldPTI.
He said that the actual signingwill happen a few days later
inNew Delhi between the Envi-ronment Ministry and the
IIT-consortium which comprises theseven leading IITs --
Kharagpur,Madras, Roorkee, Guwahati,
Delhi, Kanpur and Mumbai.They will be pooling in their
talent to prepare a Rs 18-crorecomprehensive basin manage-ment
plan for revival of theGanga under the National GangaRiver Basin
Authority (NGRBA),which is headed by the PrimeMinister and includes
chief min-isters of the states throughwhich the river flows.
The plan, which will outlinecomprehensive measures
forrestoration of the Ganga withregard to the issue of
competingwater uses in the river basin,
will be completed within 12-18months.
Dhande said unlike the pre-vious Ganga action plan whichfocused
mainly on water, thistime concentration will be onthe entire basin
and how to en-sure quality and quantity flowin the river.
Pinning hopes on the IITsbrain to revive the holy
river,Environment Minister JairamRamesh had recently said, "I
ex-pect that the project will buildhuman resources in this area
inthe IITs. The next generation of
water resources experts shouldbe developed through this
proj-ect.
"That is why I preferred goingto the IIT consortium rather
thanto a consulting company, whichwas the original plan,"
Rameshsaid.
Once the IITs do their job,the implementation of the planwill
have to be done under theNRGBA, whose mandate amongother things is
to ensure pre-vention of entry of untreatedsewage in the river by
the year2020.
The work would broadly beundertaken by many thematicgroups, each
involving varioustasks such as preparation ofgeo-spatial database
manage-ment, water resources engineer-ing, fluvial
geomorphology(effective stream channel man-agement) and
socio-cultural as-pects.
Capacity building and publicparticipation, maintenance
andrestoration of Ganga system andimprovement of its
ecologicalhealth will be the other majorarea of focus, Dhande
said.
PM may decide on Ganga MoU soonThe PM will visitIIT-Kanpur
onJuly 3. One of themajorannouncementswill be about thesigning of
thepact for Gangacleaning betweenthe Centre andthe
IIT-consortium
Scheme to boost Waqf
boardsPTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
In a bid to check rampant en-croachment of Waqf properties,the
Centre has launched ascheme to strengthen all of itsstate boards in
the country.
The move comes a little morethan a month after the UPA
gov-ernment passed a bill to amend theWaqf Act, 1995, on May 7 in
the LS.
As the amended waqf Act pro-vides for penal provisions aswell to
prevent encroachmentof properties owned by it, thefocus of the new
scheme wouldbe to impart training and tech-nology to the boards so
thatthey can work in the changedscenario, sources in the
MinorityAffairs Ministry said.
The government has sanc-tioned Rs 7 crore for the
currentfinancial year for the scheme.Fifteen Waqf boards will
benefitfrom the scheme, which will alsobe extended to remaining
14state boards later on.
Youths related to ultras denied passports in J-K
PTI
SRINAGAR, JUNE 20
Procedures for issue of passportsmay have been eased
elsewherebut youths in Jammu and Kashmir,said to be relatives of
militants,do not get their travel document.
Many of them claim they aredenied passport but are not in-formed
about it formally.
The state government, whichintervened in the matter, claimsthat
passport of relatives of mil-itants are being issued but theirkin
complain that they are stilldenied the 'right to travel'.
Police refutes these claimsand say the process is on.
'Campaign for Right to Travel',a group formed by Kashmiriswho
have been denied pass-ports, allege that the govern-ment has
blacklisted more than60,000 people from receivingpassports on the
basis of intel-ligence reports that they couldpose a security
risk.
Longest day of the year
todayPTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 20
Tomorrow is the longest day ofthe year and some school stu-dents
plan to visit the nearly300-year-old observatory JantarMantar to
conduct astronomicalexperiments.
Science Popularisation Associ-ation of Communicators and
Ed-ucators (SPACE) is organising a'Khagol Mela' (Astronomical
Fare)at the eighteenth century monu-ment to educate people aboutthe
summer solstice, when theearth's axis tilts towards the sun.
Jantar Mantar, in the heart ofthe city, was built in 1724
byMaharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur.
Solstice, a term derived fromLatin words sol, meaning sun,and
sistere, which means tostand still, is an astronomicalevent which
occurs twice a year,when the tilt of the earth's axisis most
inclined towards or awayfrom the sun, SPACE PresidentC B Devgun
told PTI.
This causes the sun's apparentposition in the sky to reach
itsnorthernmost or southernmostextreme, so the Northern Hemi-sphere
points directly towardsthe sun while the SouthernHemisphere points
directly op-posite the sun, he said.
-
The issue dominating the headlines is theBhopal tragedy, and how
and why UnionCarbide Chairman Warren Anderson got
away. But the fact is that the health consequencesof exposure to
the poisonous Methyl Isocyanate(MIC) gas were and continue to be
grosslyunderestimated.
It not only caused immediate fatalities, buthas continued to do
so over the years, often inthe most excruciatingly painful manner,
with con-sequences for future generations as well. Thisnew evidence
should have been collated and usedto revisit and reassess the
compensation.
Instead, we have permitted the culprits to takerefuge behind the
fact that Union Carbide wastaken over by Dow Chemical, which claims
tohave acquired only assets and not liabilities. Doesthis have any
legal basis? Has no one heard ofvicarious corporate liability? Or
is this yet anotherexample of our governments generosity?
We are now the laughing stock of the worldbecause we let our
people get trampled uponlike this. If our own laws were inadequate,
as hasbeen alleged in some quarters, why was no amend-ment tabled
and passed in the Lok Sabha, or anordinance promulgated? The truth
is that ourlaw makers were caught with their pants down;totally out
of their uneducated depths. This ex-plains the shocking reality
that even today, thesite remains contaminated.
At the same time, we have the ridiculous spec-tacle of the
countrys Law Minister attacking hisown judiciary for a verdict
issued by the SupremeCourt way back in 1996. If an attack was
calledfor it should have come in 1996, for the sloppymanner in
which the Central Bureau of Investi-gation (CBI) investigated the
case after they tookit over from the Hanumanganj Police Station
in1984. But was the CBIs sloppiness a result of in-efficiency or
was it politically appropriate at thetime? What possessed the
government to settlefor such a paltry compensation for the
worldsworst industrial disaster?
The text of the Supreme Court order suggeststhat the case was
presented such that the learnedjudges could do little else. The
assessment ofthe medical fallout of the leak the crucial issue was
totally inadequate. The justification forchanging the charge from
Section 304-A (deathby negligence) to Section 304 II (culpable
homicidenot amounting to murder) was poorly presented,
in spite of clear evidence in Union Carbides owninternal
assessments that there was a danger of a leak.
As for getting Anderson back, we have as muchchance as a
snowball in hell. Apart from the age-related sympathy factor, the
US government inits usual hypocritical manner will politely tell
usto take a walk. Or they might get truly imaginativeand suggest we
get the required funds from allthose billions our politicians and
businessmenhave stashed away in Swiss banks!
B S Raghavans article in Business Line titledA riddle, wrapped
in a mystery, inside an enigmamakes intriguing reading. Anderson
was givenVIP treatment and permitted to leave the countryon 7
December 1984. A man named Adil Shahriyarwas granted a US
presidential pardon as a good-will gesture for reasons of state on
11 June1985. Shahriyar had been sentenced in 1982 to35 years hard
labour in the US for drug trafficking,illegal possession of fire
arms, transporting armsacross state borders and attempting to blow
upa ship. His appeal was turned down in the USCourt of Appeals
because the evidence presentedsupports the verdicts. Adil happens
to be theson of Muhammad Yunus, who was very closely
linked to the Indira Gandhi family, and a mentorto both Sanjay
and Rajiv Gandhi!
More recently, there was an uproar in the UKbecause 340 million
of aid to India for the SarvaShiksha Abhiyan had either been
misused or dis-appeared. Misuse included purchase of cars,
tel-evision sets, luxury beds and even funding theproduction of a
film! The news was not the resultof an undercover operation; it
simply quoted thereport of the Comptroller and Auditor Generalof
India (CAG). Why the deafening silence in India,both from the
treasury benches and the opposi-tion? This implies either total
ignorance of theimplications, or that everyone has a finger in the
pie.
The local papers have been full of Nadia Tor-rados death. What I
find disturbing is that writerafter writer, even some very
reputable ones, choseto go into her background, missing the wood
forthe trees. There are two essential facts: first, shedied of
Ratol poisoning. Second, she had ante-mortem bruises on her body.
These should haveprompted the investigating authorities to
swinginto action. Instead, we witnessed the silly spec-tacle of the
alleged perpetrators residence beingraided and a computer seized
more than two
weeks after the incident; enough time to evenchange the hard
disc.
The problem is that every time a young womandies a violent death
in mysterious circumstances,the first thing we look into is the
victims character.This happened in the Scarlet Keeling case,
theNadia case and even when the perpetrator hadbeen arrested, in
the Margao stabbing case. Ourauthorities seem to take perverse
delight in muckraking, forgetting that the victim was a humanbeing
who had as much of a right to life as youor me. I simply cannot
understand when the self-confessed murderer is in custody, what
purposeis served in publicising how many affairs thevictim may or
may not have had?
Good governance is a cohesive effort betweenthe legislature, the
executive and the judiciary,with the press and media keeping a
watchful eye.Someone said: A good politician is as unthinkableas an
honest burglar. Unfortunately, our politi-cians have taken the
executive down with theminto the cesspool. That leaves the
judiciary andthe media. Already, we have seen cracks appearingin
the judiciary. Senior judges are at each othersthroats in the
public domain. Occupants of thehighest judicial chair in the
country refuse to fol-low simple norms like declaring their assets,
untilpublic outrage forces the issue.
This leaves only the Fourth Estate like theFourth Horseman to
pull us out of the morass.I will never forget my sense of pride at
seeing ablank editorial in Indian Express in the era ofcensorship
during the Emergency, in 1975. It iscommendable that this spirit of
defiance for free-dom continues. But alas, even that is under
threat,with corporate houses controlling newspapersand people like
Ram Jethmalani declaring on TVthat he is starting his own newspaper
becausehe is not satisfied with media reporting (just be-fore he
walked out of Karan Thapars interview).
My concern is that in situations like this, thingsgenerally tend
to get much worse. History hasshown that events move in one of two
directions.Either a star is born in the form of a leader wholifts
society out of the depths of despair, or amadman like Hitler or Bin
Laden, arrives on thescene. We know the reign of terror that both
un-leashed. Only time will tell which direction we take.
(The writer is a member of the National Exec-utive Committee of
the Voluntary Health Associ-ation of India - VHAI)
Sonsodo spic and spanValmiki Faleiro, Margao
On 18 June, Goa Revolution Day, on my wayto senior friend Rafael
Viegas residence atCurtorim, I passed by the stinkyard
calledSonsodo. What I saw was another Revolu-tion. Never before had
Sonsodo sportedsuch a spic-and-span sight. Both AvdhutTimblo and
his project manager in Margao,Eng Shridhar Kamat, deserve
congratula-tions. Hope their technical collaboratorsfrom Delhi will
also do a neat job and ridMargao of one of its
long-standingheadaches.
The Sonsodo story bears a message: itpays to trust and entrust
responsibility toproven locals, rather than fly-by-night
out-station operators. In that vein, if the RiverPrincess is to be
safely removed, the jobneeds to be entrusted to the Madgavkars,who
have an outstanding track record onsome of the worlds most
challenging salvageoperations.
Many will remember how the Madgavkarsbrought out the huge
monolithic Buddhastatue that had sunk to the depths of
Hy-derabad-Secunderabads Husain SagarLake.
Fight highway expansionFrancis Braganza, Verna
Hats off to Leader of the OppositionManohar Parrikar for taking
up the issue ofland acquisition for the expansion of Na-tional
Highway 17 in right earnest. Thisissue is a litmus test for our
politicians tofind out whether they are for or againstGoa and
Goans. The Kerala government isto be complimented for taking up
cudgelson behalf of their people and directing theNHAI to keep the
highway width to only 35metres.
Land is a scarce commodity in Goa andthe highway should be only
four-lane, meas-uring a maximum of 30 metres. Or else, letus keep
the present highway as a state high-way and build a new highway
through thefields, where the crossroads would be fewerand the cost
will be less.
Rebellion DayCedrick Fernandes, Margao
Our freedom fighters need to inform usabout who created the
infrastructure of aradio station, airport, railways, roads,
port,healthcare and education and, more impor-tant, law and order
and human values? Was
it not Portugal? Our government is not decisive on gotra
marriages and honour killings. Whobanned Sati? Was it not the
colonial rulers?
Today, we have highly qualified peoplein and out of politics.
Who imparted moderneducation and healthcare to their
forebears?Freedom fighters were saying: Be Indian,buy Indian. Many
of their children are study-ing and working outside India; why?
Not everything about colonial rule wasbad. They should not look
at things purelyin black and white.
Another election card? Praxy Fernandes, Sanquelim
I cannot understand why, when a properelection card with my
photo on it was al-ready issued to me in 2004, I have nowbeen given
a form at my residence withspelling mistakes in my name and my
sur-name jumbled up, with a request to submittwo photographs and
Form 8 for makingthe relevant corrections, so that a new cardcan be
issued. What happens to the correctlyissued existing card?
How many times is this exercise of issuing
election cards going to be conducted? Whomanipulates the
records, which have to becorrectly maintained? It looks like such
jobsa re de l i be ra te l y re - t endered
tocontractors/suppliers, so public money canbe siphoned.
Malgonkars lamentP K Pal, Panaji
Manohar Malgonkar, the well known Englishwriter who died on 15
June at Jagalbet, aremote villager in Karnataka near Londa,praised
the Goa government in his book,written 30 years back, saying:
Unlike someothers [Goa] does not permit normal forestdepartmental
operations in its sanctuaries;the welfare of animals takes
precedenceover the need to exploit forest produce.
And how disappointed he must have feltmore recently, when he
came to know thepresent state of affairs in Goa and said:Today, the
mining industry has destroyedthe greenery of Goas rich forests;
haschoked its rivers and has polluted the freshair. The present
government is not seriousabout protecting Goas nat