28-02-2013 … A total of 18,500 students from all over goa made their presence at various examination centers to answer their Secondary School Certificate examinations which started from Thursday..

The examination which started from Thursday would go up till April 8, at 24 centers located in big, small towns and villages of the state, with the first paper being English.

On the first day of the examination, candidates were advised to be present at the place of examination not later than 9.30 a.m. while on the other days of the examination the candidates have been asked to report 15 minutes before the commencement of the examination in the subject.

Parents along with the children were seen at the don Bosco examination centre before the start of the first ssc examination paper giving their child hope and courage for answering their exams

The board has also warned of strict action against examination malpractices.

27-02-2013 ..  With few months left for the completion of the infrastructure facilities for hoisting the lusofonia games 2013 St Andre MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh has once again raised his opposition of the state hoisting the games stating that there was a need from the state government side to clear as when the treaty was done and signed and on what basis the state was participating in the lusofonia games

It may be noted that Goa government is organising Lusofonia Games of 12 Portuguese speaking nations in November this year by spending over Rs 220 crore to build infrastructure from which an athletic ground is about to come up at Bambolim in st andre constituency.

The st andre mla has been raising his voice asking the state government not to participate in the Lusofonia Games saying that the participants for lusofonia games were from Portuguese-speaking countries and has always wondered as how a state like goa could join in such games when goa is a part of a country like India and not a part of Portuguese speaking countries …

Speaking to goanreporter st andre mla vishu wagh said that he was opposed to lusofonia games on the basis of principle though he had no personnel grudge against Portugal but the state had to maintained its identity as a state of India

Vishnu said he would anyhow oppose the conduct of of the lusofonia games though he had no problems of lusofonia infrastructure coming up in his constituency

Vishnu also stated that it was wrong to host such games on the cost of losing its self identity and respect and was not bothered to oppose it weather it was his government or any other government

With no proper facilities for the functioning of the office of its village Panchayat Deputy sarpanch of corlim village Panchayat victor Pereira along with panch members on Tuesday raised apprehensions over the dilapidated conditions of the corlim village Panchayat ghar and has now decided to write to the concerned government authorities for the construction of a new panchayat ghar ….

It may be noted that the corlim Village Panchayat Building, which was constructed under the Rural and Development Agency Scheme, was inaugurated on October 2nd 1998 but due to poor construction and waterproofing carried out in the building there has been water leakage in every rainy season from the roof slab due to which the steel inside the slab has got corroded forcing the Panchayat officials to vacate the Panchayat ghar building few years back and function its office from the village Panchayat hall

Mr Paresh Gaitonde a Private Engineer by Profession in its report had stated that as per the test conducted by him all the slabs were indicating a poor compressive strength of 115 kg/cm2 which indicated that the mix used during the concreting was less than even m15 grade of concrete

Nearly 90% of the steel reinforcement has corroded resulting in delamination of the slab ceiling which had resulted in cracking of concrete in the slab ceiling and the recent fall of concrete cover in one portion of the building

speaking to goanreporter deputy sarpanch of corlim village panchayat victor periera said that with no Panchayat ghar the officials of the village Panchayat were facing a lot problems due to which the Panchayat body would write to the government for the construction of a new Panchayat ghar

Victor said since there was no panchayt ghar the Panchayat office had no modern facilities available in it and would

Secretary of corlim village panchayat oswin mascarenha said that presently the Office of the Village Panchayat of Corlim was operating from the Village Panchayat Hall where in the Panchayat staff has no proper sitting facilities along with storage of important files

The state government on Monday informed the state legislative assembly that the election to the post of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the City Corporation of Panaji have now been slated for April reserving two out of five terms of mayor for women …

D’Souza was replying to the calling attention motion raised by his own party colleague – BJP MLA Pramod Sawant.

The government last week had suddenly postponed the Mayor and Deputy Mayor election, claiming that it is examining the demand of some citizens to keep the Mayor’s post reserved.

The opposition Congress had however created furore over the issue in the Assembly as well as outside as the new Mayor was supported by the Congress MLA Babush Monseratte.

Urban development minister Francis D’Souza also informed the legislative assembly one third of total five terms of the Mayor would be reserved for women and all the all the Panaji corporators would be brought under Lokayukta Act and they will have to declare their assets, like MLAs, before Lokayukta.

Independent mla vijai Sardessai mentioned that though the government had announced the date for elections it had failed to justify the inexplicable last minute cancellation of the mayor and deputy mayor elections

Commenting over the issue of ccp elections sardinha said that it was so unfortunate that the state chief minister had intervene when we had a democracy and it was up to the people to decided as what was right or wrong as elected members had the right to choose their own leader’s ..

Meanwhile st cruz mla babush monsoratte said that he was waiting for the truth to come out from the court order over the writ petition which was filed at the Bombay high court at goa

24-march-2013 … South goa mp Francisco sardinha on Monday termed the state bjp led government budget which had no roadmap as well as weight-age for setting up of new industries which could cater jobs to the goan youth …

Addressing media press conference sardinha said that though the state government should have tried to get new industries the doles announced by the state government in its budget through various schemes were making goan youth and others lazy …

 Commenting over the state mining issue Sardinha said that there was a need from the state government side to clear the mining issues as soon as possible so that the mining dependent people do not depend on doles

 Commenting over the goa-mumbai bus tragedy incident which took place recently Sardinha also stated that the he had taken up the issue with the concerned minister who had promised him to take up the repair of culverts along the nh-17 goa-maharashtra highway road inside Maharashtra

The state bjp party on Thursday criticised the statements made by the st cruz mla babush monsoratte stating that he would bring down the number of 21 to 15 of the state bjp legislators in view of seeking a revenge against the act of the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar of postponing the mayoral election of the Corporation of the City of Panaji

Addressing media press conference at the party head office in Panjim South Goa district president Subhash Phaldesai, said that since ccp was an independent body and due to the certain amendments if the elections of ccp for the post of mayor and deputy mayor were postponed for few days monsoratte had no right to criticize the bjp party for it

North Goa district president of the BJP party Michael Lobo mentioned that Monserrate should be more concerned about retaining number of its Congress legislators as there were at least four out of nine MLAs of the Congress party are standing outside the state BJP headquarters hoping to get an entry,.

22-march-2013 … Annoyed with the stand taken by state government of postponing the elections of mayor and deputy mayor of the corporation city of Panjim 14 corporators of the monosratte led panel along with independent corporators surendra and ruth furtado on Friday filed a writ petition at the Bombay high court at goa challenging the order of postponement of elections done by the state government …

It may be noted that in an unprecedented situation elections to the post of mayor and deputy mayor of the corporation city of panaji were postponed at a last minute on last Wednesday by ccp commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues on the request of the decision of the state government who had written from the office of directorate of municipal administration stating that the state government had received various representations regarding the reservations to the post of mayor and dy mayor in the corporation due to which the matter was under examination and therefore the elections were postponed till the matter was properly examined

After filing the writ petition corporator surendra furtado speaking to media reporters said that all the sixteen corporators had full faith in judiciary and were hopeful to get justice as soon as possible

Surendra said if the chief minister was so much interested in reservations of seats then there were many bjp mlas who were from the same reservations class of sc/st/obc who were eagerly waiting to take up the post of chief minister and minister jobs

 corporator rudresh chodankar said that advisors of chief minister Manohar Parrikar were putting mr Parrikar in trouble by giving him wrong advises

 Meanwhile revenue minister francis dsouza said that there was a need to amend reservations in ccp which would be done in the ongoing assembly session within the next fifteen days

22-march-2013 … Hitting out at the state bjp led government for taking credit of the projects which were started during his tenure as a Tourism Minister state ncp president nilkanth halarnkar on Wednesday termed Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s 2013-14 budget as ‘anti-aam aadmi’ and also questioned the government’s revenue generating targets and figures.

Addressing media press conference halarnkar said the recent announced budget nothing special where in the state bjp led government could earn revenue from and mentioned that only 40% of budget was realized in the last year’s announced budget.

Halarnkar said that Projects such as the golf course, marina, heli tourism, amusement parks, etc were the proposals which were started when he was the tourism minister and now the present government was taking credits out of it.

21-march-2013 … In a view of giving compensation to the deceased families of those who were killed in the in the tragic incident involved in the Goa-Mumbai bus at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra transport minister sudhin dhavlikar said that the state government would study the entire issue within the next few days and would come out on a package of those killed in the incident ….

It may be noted that the Goan death toll in the bus mishap at Khed that had taken place this week went up to 16 with a dead body identified on Wednesday out of the 37 people, who were killed and 14 critically injured after a Goa-Mumbai bus in which they were travelling had plunged into Jagbudi river near Khed taluka of Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.

Speaking to goanreporter trnasport minister sudhin dhavlikar said that the state transport department would start its process of verifying those killed in the incident and would then give a favourable decision

Leader of Opposition pratapsingh rane said at the moment there was a need to find out if the bus had legal documents or not along with the driver and had to be made accountable for it

20-march-2013 … Member of the fishing community on Wednesday expressed happiness over the state chief minister decision of increasing the days of ban on fishing from 45 days to 75 days though stating that if the same had to be implemented then the state government should take care of strictly amending it ….

Though the fishing community said that they would be happy even if the ban was made for 60 days there had no problem of 75 days which the chief minister had announced in his state budget speech

Speaking to goanreporter various chairman’s of the fishing community gave their views over the state government decision of putting a fishing ban of 75 days in the state saying that it had to be strictly implemented …