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O HERALD O The Voice of Goa — Since 1900 panjim, friday, august 20, 2010
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India: Eesha miffed at ‘item’ girl tag Pg 9
Business: India has no plan to ban Dow Chemicals Pg 13
Sports: Probe corruption charges against CWG — Fennell Pg 18
Karnad withdraws resignation HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, AUG 19
Pak violates ceasefire again Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire yet again today firing rockets and mortars at Indian forward posts along the Line of Control in Poonch district in the wee hours with an aim to send militants across the border. — (PTI)
In an interesting development, celebrated playwright Girish Karnad today withdrew his resignation after Chief Minister Diagamabar Kamat personally spoke to him, the chief minister’s office said here. Media advisor to the chief minister Suresh Walve told Herald that the actor withdrew his resignation after the chief minister convinced him to be a part of the Golden Jubilee Development Council. “The chief minister convinced him on the importance of his presence on the golden jubilee council,” Walve said adding “… following this, the actor withdrew his resignation.” The official further said that Karnad was of the opinion that
since the chief minister had personally spoken to him he is withdrawing the resignation. Karnad, who was named one of the members of the council – which is to be headed by the renowned scientist Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, had expressed shock over the attack on Jose Pereira exhibition recently. “Let me say how deeply shocked I am to hear of the at-
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tacks by self-styled standardbearers of Hindu culture on the works of Jose Pereira, a scholar and artist of eminence,” Karnad had said in a letter to Chief Minister Digamabar Kamat. “I should like to withdraw my name from the high level committee which you were kind enough to invite me to serve on since this is not the culture of Liberation I had hoped to celebrate,” Karnad had said. The Hindu Janjagruti Sangh protested against an exhibition at the XCHR which has on display some epiphanies of Hindu gods by Jose Pereira. The groups have continued a sustained campaign branding the paintings “obscene”. Following the protests the paintings were withdrawn.
Don’t divulge Modi remark on riots: SC PTI NEW DELHI, AUG 19
The Supreme Court today asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT) not to make public Gujarat Chief Mi n i s t e r N a r e n d r a Modi’s statement in connection with post-Godhra riots and disapproved the conduct of activist Teesta Setalvad in contacting a prosecutor in one of the cases. “We direct the SIT not to divulge any information collected during the course of investigation to anyone except the trial court and public prosecutor concerned,”a special bench headed by Justice D K Jain said. The direction came when it was pointed out to the bench by the SIT that the commission headed by Justice G T Nanavati, probing the sequence of events in the 2002 riot cases, has sought the statement of Modi recorded by the investigating team.
9 GMC students booted out from hostel for ragging HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, AUG 19
Nine senior students of Goa Medical College were expelled from the boys hostel for ragging their juniors. They were later arrested by the Agassaim police under different sections of the Indian Penal Code for offences bailable under the law. In his complaint to the police, Director (administration) GMC S V Naik said the nine students had indulged in ragging seven students of first-year MBBS in room number 10 of the hostel. He stated the seniors used criminal force and intentionally insulted their juniors. Naik gave the names of the senior students as Bhanu Mishra, Vivek Kaser, Ankit Jain, Lalit Kumar, Vaibhav Shakya, Praveen Sen Shahi, Prosenjit Haldar and Manish Ujjwal.
10 senior officials to Safety kit scheme fails oversee CWG projects to hook trawler owners PTI NEW DELHI, AUG 19
With questions raised over completion of Commonwealth Games projects in time, the government today announced appointment of 10 senior officials to oversee preparation of major venues of the event, a move seen as further stripping of powers of Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had stepped in to clear the mess in the wake of controversies in the run-up to the games beginning October 3, approved the appointment of these experienced bureaucrats to solve coordination problems. However, Kalmadi maintained these officers have been appointed at the request of the OC.
The officers have been empowered to take on-the-spot decisions to tie-up any loose ends or resolve conflicts between government agencies and organisations before the games, the cabinet secretariat said in its order. Of the 10 officers, four are of the rank of additional secretary in the government and the rest joint secretaries. They are Subhodh Kumar (ASTelecom), S R Rao (AS-IT), R C Misra (AS-UD), Amarjeet Singh, Executive Director, Health Ministry, J S Deepak (JS-Commerce), Rohit Nandan (JS-Civil Aviation), Shashi Shekar (OSD-Power Trading Corporation), Tara Dutt (JSCabinet Secretariat), Gopala Krishna (Secretary, Sports Authority of India) and Rajeev Kapur (JS-Personnel and Training).
VIbHA VERmA PANJIM AUG 19
Even after a year, the Central government’s scheme of supplying safety equipment to fishermen is yet to be accepted completely. Of the four major fishing jetties at Malim, Cutbona, Vasco and Chapora, only first two jetties have been supplied with Garmin marine devices. Speaking to the media, Fisheries Director S C Verenkar said that the supply was in quick response to proposals put forth by trawler owners belonging from respective fishing jetties. “Basically, trawler owners were not aware of the scheme and if some of them did know, they lacked financial backing,” the director replied to a question
on the poor response to the scheme. The safety device kit comprises a global positioning system (GPS), very high frequency (VHF) wireless sets and fish finders, fitted in each of the trawlers. The kits under the scheme – supply of safety equipments under development of marine fisheries – are supplied by Mega Soft Pvt Ltd, who is the authorised dealer of Garmin Equipments in Goa. Verenkar stated that the department has received 150 fresh proposals from more trawler owners including Cortalim fishing jetty. When the 90-lakhs scheme was announced to fishermen across the coastal states, the government assured to bear 75
percent of the total expense of the kit, each of which costs about Rs 70,000. Whereas, the remaining 25 percent had to be borne by each of the trawler owners. Verenkar informed Herald that 118 trawler owners at Malim jetty and 73 from Curbona society have already received these devices. Chairman of the Mandovi Fishermen Cooperative Society Menino Afonso stated that of the total only 88 trawlers boats are outfitted with the devices. Each of the kits helps trace location of the trawler, communicate immediately without any hindrance and spot deep sea fish. According to an officer, who (Continued on page 11)
Act to save damaged records gathering dust HERALD REPORTER MARGAO, AUG 19
Where is the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act, 2005? Has the 2005 Act and the Rules framed in 2008 been confined to the record books by the government instead of implementing it to help reconstruct torn and mutilated records in the offices of sub registrars. It seems so, as the government has been dragging its feet to set up a mechanism to enforce the law, which could have helped save precious documents lying in ruins in sub registrar offices. State Registrar, V G Salkar was
Damaged records in the office of Salcete Sub Registrar.
candid in admitting that the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act, 2005 has not been enforced till date. Another senior officer informed that the act could not be implemented since the last half decade for want of any mechanism. According to Salkar, the post
Nuclear Liability Bill embroiled in new row PTI NEW DELHI, AUG 19
The Nuclear Liability Bill was today embroiled in a fresh row with the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and Left objecting to an amendment proposed by a parliamentary panel on suppliers’ obligation in case of an accident but the government sought to allay the apprehensions of opposition parties. The Union cabinet meeting scheduled to consider the bill was postponed till tomorrow, apparently to consider the objections raised by the opposition. BJP and Left parties raised objections to addition of a word ‘and’ in the Clause 17 which says that “The operator of a nuclear installation shall have a right to recourse where — (A) such right is expressly provided for in a contract in writing”. The parties fear that insertion of the word dilutes the obligations on the suppliers of equipment in case of a nuclear accident. The government, on its part, sought to allay apprehensions over the recommendations of the standing committee, saying all concerns would be addressed. “I assure my friends in BJP and Left that we have already
taken their concerns on board. If there are any concerns, there are some concerns that have been raised today, all those concerns will be addressed in all seriousness,” Minister of State Prithviraj Chavan told reporters. “Wait till the amendments are brought to parliament,” he said when his attention was drawn to objections raised over the amendments. The report of standing committee on science and technology, which examined the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill 2010, proposed that the Clause 17(A) may end with word ‘and’. It also proposed modification of Clause 17(b) to say “the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of latent or patent defect, supply of sub-standard material, defective equipment or services or from the gross negligence on the part of the supplier of the material, equipment or services”. BJP, which had agreed with Congress on changes in the bill, shot off a note to the government, saying clubbing of Clause 17(A) and (B) dilutes provisions relating to the liability of suppliers.
of deputy district registrar has been created only a couple of months ago. “A deputy district registrar is a competent authority to decide applications received from the offices of sub registrars for reconstruction of the documents. Since the post is finally created, the Act will be implemented in the forceable future”, he said, adding that the deputy district registrar will be required to sit in the office of the Directorate of Planning and Statistics Herald, however, understands that it may take time for the law to be finally given effect as the post of the deputy district registrar will have to be filled up
by the Goa Public Service Commission. “Yes, the post of deputy district registrar is a gazetted post. It has to be filled up by the GPSC”, Salkar said, adding that it may take a couple of months before the post is filled up and the mechanism established to implement the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act. What has surprised present and past officials is the inordinate delay by the government to give effect to a law which was passed half-a-decade ago. “First, the act was not implemented on the pretext that the rules were not framed by the (Continued on page 11)
He stated Guigwang K Nagam, Deepak Sehrawat, Abhishek Singh, Suyash Gupta, Brajmohan Joshi, Ashitosh Swarankar and Gautam Gondal are the junior students who were ragged on August 18 between 9 pm and 11 pm. Medical Superintendent GMC Dr Rajan Kunkolienkar said the anti-ragging committee of the college met under the chairmanship of Dean V N Jindal. “The committee decided to expel the students from the hostel until further orders as per the Medical Council of India,” he said. Goa Prohibition of Ragging (Amendment) Bill, 2010 was passed on August 4 in the Goa legislative assembly during the monsoon session. The bill contains strict measures to maintain a vigil over ragging activities in educational institutions.
Centre asks States to be on high alert PTI NEW DELHI, AUG 19
The country has been put on high alert following intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based terrorists may strike during the upcoming festive season. The Centre has asked State governments to take all possible steps to foil attempts by militant groups, particularly Lashkar-eTaiba, to disrupt peace during ongoing Ramzan and the upcoming festivals of Raksha Bandhan, Idd-ul Fitr and Onam. Sources said the advisory issued by Home Ministry asked all States to increase vigil and take precautionary measures to ensure security as Pakistanbased groups may strike at public places. The ministry asked states like Delhi, Karnataka and Kerala to deploy additional forces in sensitive locations. Onam will be celebrated on August 23, Raksha Bandhan on August 24 and Idd-ul Fitr on September 13.
Make sure only the ship is going to be removed, not my government.