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O HERALD O
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The Voice of Goa — Since 1900 panjim, friday, december 3, 2010 postal reg. no. Goa 101 price rs. 3.00
Goa’s Heartbeat: From highest paid model to actor... Pg 1 st Francis Xavier’s feast today The feast of St Francis Xavier, popularly known as Goencho Saib, will be celebrated on December 3, with Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai, being the main celebrant for the feast mass. Thousands of people from all walks of life (Continued on page 10)
Business: Food inflation dips to 8.6 p. c. Pg 13
(air Surcharge rs 2.00) pages 16+4
Sports: Zaheer returns; Sree, Raina rested Pg 16
Centre issues order to denotify indo-Bangla film bags Golden Peacock three Goa SEZs
CURTAiNs dOwN ON iFFi HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, DEC 2
Indo-Bangladesh movie ‘Moner Manush’ was awarded the prestigious Golden Peacock for the best film at the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on Thursday. The award carries a citation and prize money of Rs 40 lakh for the film’s producer and director. The Bengali director Gautam Ghosh received Rs 20 lakh from the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Choudhary Mohan Jatua and other dignitaries. Kaushik Ganguly’s story on homosexuality ‘Just Another Love Story’, bagged the special jury award — a Silver Peacock, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh. The award was also shared with New Zealand film ‘Boy’ by Taika Waititi. ‘The Crossing’ from Turkey was adjudged the second best film. The Best Director award was bagged by Susanne Bier of Denmark for her film ‘In a Better World’. The Best Actor Award of Rs 10 lakh each went to the Turkish actor Guven Kirac for his role in the film “The Crossing” while the Best Actress Award was won by Magdalena Boczarska of Poland for “Little Rose”. The films were judged by fivemember jury led by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Antczak, Emmy award winning Canadian filmmaker Sturla Gunnars, Australian legendary actor Mick Molloy, French filmmaker Oliver Pere and South Indian film actress
Luizinho clarifies HERALD NEws DEsk PANJIM, DEC 2
Former Industries Minister Luizinho Faleiro claimed that he h a s n o t , i n a n y w a y, a t tempted to favour allotment of land to M/s Meditab Specialities Pvt. Ltd. for SEZ in the State. “When this case was received by me, I referred the same with my remarks to the Chief Minister,” he said. (Report on page 2)
HERALD CORREsPONDENT NEW DELHI, DEC 2
Bengali director Gautam Ghosh receiving the Golden Peacock trophy for the Indo-Bangladesh movie ‘Moner Manush’ at the hands of chief guest Saif Ali Khan. Also seen to the left are Susanne Bier’s son, collecting the Best Director award on behalf of her mother, and Magdalena Boczarska with the best actress award. (More on IFFI results on Goa’s Heartbeat). Photo by Rozario Estibeiro.
Revathy Menon. The 11-day extravaganza came to a close with the screening of the French film ‘The Princess of Montpensier’, directed by Bertrand Tavernier. Addressing an over-crowded auditorium at Kala Academy, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said that he looks forward to holding the 42nd edition of IFFI in Goa. He said that the new initiatives like e-ticketing in IFFI 2010 received tremendous success and sale of tickets went up to one lakh as against 80,000 in IFFI 2009.
Replying to frequently asked queries on infrastructure for the festival, Kamat said that efforts are on to set up a good convention centre in the State. He further said that they are analysing and taking corrective measures to enhance the festival every year. Jatua said that the Indian film industry is experiencing phenomenal growth of 16 per cent and by next year its turnover would cross Rs 17,500 crore. He said Indian cinema stands on the cusp of being cinema of the world but we must deliver to
sustain our position. Festival Director, S M Khan said that the Festival received entries from all over the world and offered the delegates, media critic and film buffs an opportunity to watch the best of Indian and world cinema. Starting with a note about Goa being tagged as a party place, chief guest for the function Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan told the gathering that the State can be tagged as the best film festival destination. “Goa is more than just partying. (Continued on page 10)
Air fares may hit the sky PTI NEW DELHI, DEC 2
Domestic airlines have proposed a massive hike in air fares ignoring Government’s calls not to resort to exorbitant fares after they were hauled up for abrupt rise in ticket costs even during non-peak season. The airlines, however, may not have their way with the new fare structure they have proposed since the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is unlikely to give its nod. The Civil Aviation regulator received the proposals yesterday. DGCA sources said today the civil aviation regulator is likely to shoot down the proposed price bands and may ask the airlines to rework them keeping the interests of passengers in mind. “The responses (of airlines) are under examination,” Civil Aviation Secretary S N A Zaidi said. The fare bands proposed by airlines are for the first time based on distance-based slabs. As per the proposals, an air passenger travelling economy class may have to shell out Rs 10,500 for a Delhi-Chandigarh or Chennai-Coimbatore flight and anything upto Rs 40,000 on the Delhi-Bangalore or Delhi-
NOT FARE ENOUGH l l
Delhi-Chandigarh or Chennai-Coimbatore Rs 10,500* Delhi-Bangalore or Delhi-Kolkata upto Rs 40,000*
(*Proposed fares)
Kolkata route. The domestic airlines came out with the proposal after they were asked by the DGCA to submit the planned price bands on various sectors after some of them resorted to steep hike in airfares even during the nonpeak season. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel reiterated that the airlines would not be allowed to charge exorbitantly. “DGCA will not allow any predatory or exorbitant pricing...If there is something lacking we will make necessary correction. We will not allow airlines to charge exorbitantly.
We will not let them take advantage of a situation,” he said. DGCA sources made it clear that there should not be a situation where the airlines fleece passengers through a huge fare increase. The average price would be lower if tickets are bought in advance. The fares would reach their peak if purchased on the day of travel or just a day before, the sources said. The regulator, which has established a Tariff Analysis Unit to keep a tab on the prevailing fare levels, would take a decision on the matter very soon, the (Continued on page 10)
Raja overruled PM’s advice on 2G: sC PTI NEW DELHI, DEC 2
The Supreme Court today came down heavily on former Telecom Minister A Raja for “bypassing” and even “overruling” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s advice to defer the allocation of 2G spectrum by a few days. The apex court also took strong exception to the tone and tenor of Raja’s letter to the P r i m e M i n i s t e r, s a y i n g i t amounted to showing “disrespect” to the highest authority in the country. The Bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said Raja had not paid heed to the Prime Minister’s letter asking him to wait for some days before taking any action on the allocation of spectrum. Resuming hearing on the petition by NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL, on the spectrum scam, the court raised
questions on Raja ignoring the Law ministry’s advice seeking opinion of the AG as “out of context”. The court made the remarks after noting that the Law Minister has given an opinion that the matter be referred to the Empowered Group of Ministers for seeking the opinion of the law officers like the Attorney General and Solicitor General. “Raja first received opinion of the Law Ministry which he overruled by saying it was out of context, then he received a
letter of PM on the same day asking him to wait and let me (PM) know further action you (Raja) take. That is also ignored,” the court said. “The letter of Law ministry for taking opinion of AG was ignored. The PM’s letter was ignored. Is this the way the government functions?” the court asked. Senior advocate T R Andhyarujina, appearing for Raja, however, contended that the former telecom minister never ignored the opinion of the Law ministry or the advice of the Prime Minister. The Bench shot back, “The question is what led him to say that the law ministry’s opinion was out of context.” “Nothing could have happened if you would have waited for two-three days after receiving the letter from the Prime Minister,” the bench snapped.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday issued an order kicking off the process for denotification of three SEZs (Special Economic Zones) in Goa. The actual denotification, however, will take time as the proposal has to go before the Board of Approval that sanctions SEZs and no meeting of the board is still fixed. “We have not yet fixed the next Board meeting after the 43rd meeting held on November 18 and the proposals for denotification will have to be put on the agenda for clearance”, a Department of Commerce official said, adding that the Government has to go by the board’s decisions and cannot act on its own to reverse the decision. It is the statutory board that gives clearance to the SEZs and as such cancellation of any clearance is also required to be referred to it, the official said, pointing out that formal approval was granted for seven SEZs in Goa but only three were notified. Congress MP Shantaram Naik said he called on the Commerce Minister who issued orders on his memorandum for denotifying the three SEZs without wasting any time. He expects the formal notifications “soon”. Naik had approached the minister to point out that the Panjim Bench of the Bombay High Court had disposed off the pending SEZ petition, holding land allot-
The actual denotification will take time as the proposal has to go before the Board of Approval that sanctions SEZs. ment to them as illegal and as such there should be no problem now in their denotification. According to Naik, there was even otherwise no injunction against the Centre from denotifying the SEZs, but Anand Sharma had taken the stand that the Government won’t denotify them when the matter is pending before the court. Naik said he told the minister that the SEZ developers no longer have land with them and as such he can proceed with denotification without any difficulty.
I think their meaning is same. One that is scheme for ‘Aam Aadmi’ is scam for ministers