02-09-2013 … In a bit to give 27% reservation to people belong to obc communities the state government  have asked the state village panchayats to finalise its verification list by 31^st of Septembers so as to finalise the reservation policy for the 19 other backward communities of the state

It may be noted that the decision of the state governments to increase the reservations for Goan OBCs from 19.5% to 27% is set to exceed the 50% total reservations limit set by the Supreme Court and even though the present state government has not actually approved the decision, the government seems to be fulfilling a BJP-moved resolution in the Goa assembly to hike the OBC reservation before the end of this financial year.

 According to the information available from the state government the Notified sections of peoples who come under the other backward Class are Dhangar, Kumbhar including Christian Kumbhar, Teli, Shimpi, Christian Mahar, Kalaikar/Blacksmith/Tinsmith, Pagui/Gabit, Christian Barbar, Satarkar, Bhandari Naik, Dhobi, Rajak, Madval (including Christian Dhobies), Nhavi, Nai, Nabhik, Napit, Mhalo.Koli, Kharvi (including Christian Kharvis), Nathjogi, Gosavi, Chari/Mesta, Thakar, Komarpant and Christian Renders.

 Presently, the reservation quota percentage is as follows; OBC-19.5, ST-12, SC-2, disabled-3, ex-servicemen-2 and the reservation quota for freedom fighters, which was 2% earlier, was recently hiked to 5%. This totals 43.5%. If the OBC quota is to be raised by 7.5% to make it 27%, the total would be 51%.

 Speaking to goanreporter minister for social welfare mahadev naik said said that the survey of the 19 communities comprising the Goan OBCs was complete and scrutiny of the rolls, additions, deletions, etc were to be completed as soon as possible ….

 Naik said once the policy was finalised then all the 19 communities would be getting benefit of 27 percent reservation in jobs and education …

01-09-2013 … Sympathizing with the mining dependent people of the state Deputy chief minister francisco dsouza along with other mla’s on Saturday blamed the former congress led government for creating the mess in the mining issue and letting the people suffer due to the a halt in mining activities …

Speaking to goanreporter deputy chief minister Francisco dsouza said there were atleast 40 percent of legal mines in to the state of goa and hoped that sympathizing with the mining affected people supreme court would also give its verdict of starting illegal mining in goa as soon as possible ..

Sports minister ramesh tawadkar said blamed the earstwhile congress government for creating the mess due to its greediness

Meanwhile porvorim mla rohan khaunte said it was sad to say that the situation in the mining belt areas had totally collapsed and therefore there was an urgent need to get the mining activities started cutting across all barriers as soon as possible

31-08-2013 … Hundreds of Goan enthusiasts on Saturday thronged to the Island of Divar to witness the Annual Malar Bonderam festival with great enthusiasm and traditional fervor.

Bonderam festivities have been a traditional festival for the people of Divar and to the Goan Tourism for the last so many years and have been a festive event in to the Goan Festival Calendar

The Malar Festival of Bonderam started of with the march past parade compromising of national flags including the Indian Tri colour Portugal flag and the Malar Youth Association flag which was seen carried by the flag bearers, accompanied by the Brass Band and followed by the All Goa Fancy Dress Competition and Coconut Breaking competition known as Katoddeo.

An all- Goa fancy dress competition in subjunior, junior and senior categories was also held on the occasion which was an added attraction and was witnessed by huge goan crowd who had gathered to witness the bonderam festival where in also four wards of malar village also displayed their floats and dance performances based on various themes on the culture and traditions of Goa.

 Goa’s top band Lynx, ace percussionist Carlos Gonsalves of ‘ Talking Drums,’ DJ Ryan Nogar and DJ Kim to perform and enthrall the crowd for the evening.

 Chief guest of the function was Minister for Tourism Dilip Parulekar along with guest of honour and mla from Cumbarjua constituency MLA Pandurang Madkaikar.

30-08-2013 … As a part of its corporate social responsibilities and to create sustainable role model schools in the state of goa dempo group of companies on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Energy and Resource Institute for a period of three years

 The Dempo Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with The Energy and Resource Institute for three years to launch project of Sustainability Tracking, Action and Reporting in School on intensive education cum action programme for sustainable development of schools in Goa.

The project STARS will start from September 2013 and conclude on August 2016 with the participation of 10 schools with over 10000 students across the state and reach out to teachers, non teaching staff and surrounding community.

The main outcome of the project would be to create sustainable role model schools wherein other schools can draw inspiration to achieve sustainable development.

The inaugural ceremony was presided over by chairman of Dempo Group of Companies Srinivas Dempo in the presence of Vishwasrao Dempo, director, V S Dempo Holdings Pvt Ltd, B T Boke, senior general manager-HR, Dempo Group of Companies and other dignitaries,

 The main ingredient of STARS project is education for sustainable development, for which young generation form a best group to achieve the change along with local participating stakeholder,” he added, pointing out that “despite economic crisis we still believed in supporting safer, cleaner and more sustainable development, while the indispensable requirement was corporate commitment and a good partner, which fell in place in the form of TERI.

 Meanwhile director of teri Ranjana Saikia also spoke on the occasion.

29-08-2013 … 31 year old left footed player Clifford rayes Miranda on Thursday received the Dilip Sardesai award for Excellence in Sports at the hands deputy chief minister francis dsouza at a function held at the kala academy black box in Panjim ….

Also present on the occasion were minister for sports ramesh tawadkar, wife of late dilip sardessai professor nandini sardessai, director of sports and youth affairs v m prabhudessai and others

The award comprises a cash purse of Rs 2 lakh, a bronze plaque of legendary India cricketer late Dilip Sardessai and a certificate.

 Earlier winners of the award include footballers like Mahesh Gawli, Climax Lawrence, samir naik, international swimmer Talasha Prabhu and chess player Bhakti Kulkarni.

 Clifford who plays for Goa’s Dempo SC started his career in football has been a part of the dempo sports club football team for the past fourteen years being a member of the i-league winnig team for five times along with federation cup, goa league and Durand cup

 Speaking on the occasion Clifford said that one to had to give lot of hard work and do lot of sacrifices if one had to achieve success in life

Deputy Chief Minister francis dsouza said praised the efforts of the house of dempos who had tried to nurture the goan talent in to the game of football in the state

 Meanwhile sports minister ramesh talwadkar said the state government was in process of coming with five to six sports academies in the state where in goan sports personalities could get coaching from national as well as international coaches in years to come

28-08-2013 …. The state congress party would support the mininig affected people in their fight against the resumption of legal mining in to the state of goa said president of goa Pradesh congress committee subash shirodkar

Addressing media persons at the party head office in Panjim gpc president subash shridoakr said that his party had informed all the congress workers from their respective areas to be a part of the rally on Thursday specially from the mining affected one’s

Subash said that it was due to the efforts of most of the congress leaders from the state and centre through which he hoped that legal mining would start in goa with in next few months

27-08-2013 … Barely days after the state bjp led government had said that no dance bars would be allowed in the state to run, the city police of Panjim on Monday late night raided a star hotel in the capital city and rescued 6 girls who were believed to have been brought down for prostitution and as dance bar girls and also arrested seven people in connection with the case

The tip off of the incident was believed to have been given by the congress mla from cumbarjua constituency pandurang madkaikar who has his residential apartments in the middle of the capital city close the hotel where in the incident was believed to have been going on in the form of six girls dancing on the tunes of songs while the males were throwing money on them …

 Speaking to goanreporter cumbarjua mla pangdurang madkaikar said the incident was very sad for the state as the incident had taken place in the capital city which was the constituency of chief minister manohar parrikar and had occurred due to the casino influx in the city and was a beginning towards porstitution

In all together the city police arrested six people in this connection namely and rescued six girls who are believed to be from Punjab, dehli, mumbai, Ghaziabad and chattigargh …

 Out of seven those six males arrested in connection with the incident are ajay pratap singh, dharmendra Prasad, mahendra kumar singh all of uttar Pradesh, sanjeev sah, komal thapa of Nepal, baburajenraprasad ghanta from taleigao while one of the accused is believed to have been absconding till date 

 The city police arrested all the six accused under section 3/4/5/6 of itp act and investigations are still in progress

 Ngo activits tara kerkar who is also trying to help the city police in to the investigation process as an ngo said there could have been a possibility of using the six rescued girls as sex workers after being asking to perform dances in a dance bar

 former calangtue mla agnelo Fernandes said that in days to come he wouldn’t be surprise that the present bjp led government could give permission to operate dance bars all over goa

 Meanwhile tourism minister dilip parulekar said that his government was firm on taking strict action on those who were operating dance bars in to the state of goa

 26-08-2013 … Stating that setting up of a garbage treatment plant was a need of the hour Pwd minister sudhin dhavlikar on Monday said that time had common goan’s to be less vocalist opposing to the set up of a garbage treatment plant at baigunim at old goa and mentioned that he would not mind even to talk to the mutt swamiji as well as to the priest’s of old goa churches over the baigunim issue …

It may be noted that past few years there have been opposition over ccp’s proposal of setting up of a garbage treatment plant at baigunim for where along with the local mla pandurang madkaikar, the former st cruz mla Victoria Fernandes, present st andre mla Vishnu surya wagh, state mgp party along with the surrounding locals from old goa has raised their opposition over the set up of the baigunim plant

Speaking to goanreporter pwd minister sudhin dhavlikar said that he was of the opinion that there had to be less of opposition for the garbage treatment plant at baigunim in future and therefore would not mind to talk to mutt swamiji, old goa priest’s, over the issue after chief minister manohar parrikar had assured of using German technology for setting up the garbage treatment plant

Dhavlikar said even though the swamiji of the mutt and old goa priests also do not want the plant to come up the same issue had been put forth before the chief minister manohar parrikar by stated that the technology method adopted by chief minister manohar parrikar was of german technology from which one could not get smell not only to 10 mts but also till on 50mts far

On asked about opposition being raised by local mla’s and st andre mla dhavlikar also stated that everyone has to rethink on their decision as garbage was everyone problem and therefore everyone has to come at one table and sort out this problem as soon as possible.

25-08-2013 … Vodafone india in partnership with goa football development council on Thursday announced the launch of its first of its kind of grassroots league initiative titled the Vodafone gfdc rising stats football festival 2013 …

The festival is a six month long intra and inters centre football championship tournaments exclusively for the kids up to the age of 12 years in order to provide an excellent platform to identify and cultivate young local football talent across the state

The league would kick off on September 1^st 2013 and concludes in February 2014 and would showcase over 600 matches featuring 650 young talented players across six centre of gfdc in goa such as valpoi sulcorna, aldona-moira, navelim, benaulim and khandepar ….

Each team would have seven members and have been split in to four different categories such as boys below 10years, girls below 10years, boys aged 10-12 years and girls aged 10-12 years

Speaking on the occasion gfdc chairman dr rufino monterio said that the event was focusing more on children to enjoy the game of football and would be held at all six centre of gfdc

Business head of Maharashtra and goa for Vodafone india ishmeet singh said that vodafone was happy to be a part of the event which was connected towards community at large

24-08-2013  …. Members of the pilerne citizens forum along with saligao citizens forum on Saturday asked the state government to carry out environment impact assessment report over the setting up of a garbage treatment plant atop of the saligao hill

Addressing media persons legal advisor for the pilerne citizens forum advocate yatish naik said though the villagers did not had a problem with the state government trying to set up a garbage treatment plant at saligao the first thing the state government needed to do was to inform locals as what was the project all about giving its complete details 

Yatish said there was a need from the state government side to get the German experts in goa and explain the locals as how the garbage treatment would be put up using the german technology

Yatish also stated that there was a fear in the minds of locals from pilerne and saligao concerning about the technology that would be used for the set up of the plant or else it could be another type of sonsoddo in north goa