t t
Herald
Panjim<Sunday, January 27, 2013<Postal Reg. No. Goa 101<Price ` 4.00<Air Surcharge ` 10<Pages 18+4
www.heraldgoa.in
The Voice of Goa ~ Since 1900
I GOA STATE ASSURES PROTECTION TO GOAN TRAWLERS; DABOLIM TO CONTINUE AS CIVILIAN AIRPORT: GOVT I INDIA NANDY: OBCS, SCS & STS MOST CORRUPT I SPORTS 28 KILLED IN EGYPT AFTER FOOTBALL VERDICT
Bhardwaj said the Shettar Ministry enjoys majority but, would order a floor test if he felt it has been reduced to a minority 7
A US court has ruled that Obama violated the constitution by making “recess” appointments 11
WEATHER
REPORT Max. Temp
31.3° C
Min. Temp
24.1° C
Humidity
82%
On page 3 CM’s lucky No 13
PERNEM: Claiming 13 as his lucky number, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar hinted that those involved in corruption will be taken to task this year. Mindful of the problems associated with drugs, Parrikar said beat police teams would be set up at every beach for better drug activity surveillance.
Fishing vessels dropped anchor at fishing jetties across the state to protest the hike in diesel rates 2
Azarenka won the Australian Open. The match was stopped twice when Li Na rolled her ankle 18
Vasco girl reveals accused met her four times in school before crime FATHER TELLS...
My daughter told me the accused first met her on the school ground on January 7 and offered her a chocolate. l On January 8, he again met her near the volleyball court and offered another chocolate. l The next day, he yet again met her and offered her a chocolate. l On the next occasion, the accused was accompanied by a friend (with a guitar and conversing in Hindi), in the school campus. l On January 14, the accused met her in the school toilet and requested her to perform oral sex on him, to which she refused. He then sexually assaulted her. l
ELVINO ARAUJO bureau@herald-goa.com
VASCO: In a startling revelation, the father of the seven-year-old schoolgirl sexually assaulted in a Vasco school has disclosed that the accused had met his daughter on four previous occasions in the school campus, before committing the heinous crime. The accused was even accompanied by a friend during his fourth in-
teraction with the girl. This disclosure, which further exposes lapses in the school’s security, came to light when the girl, who is still traumatised over the incident, began opening up to her dad and revealed further details preceding the shocking incident. Speaking to Herald, the father said he had managed to get this information after taking his daughter into confidence. “Initially, she was unable to recol-
lect how she had met the accused. I then began asking her general questions, such as what subjects were taught to her and what she had done in the school during those days before January 14,” said the father. “My daughter then told me that the accused had first met her on the school ground on January 7 and had offered her a chocolate. On January 8, he met my girl near the volleyball court shortly after school and had offered
her another chocolate,” said the father. “On January 9, the accused met my daughter for the third time and offered her another chocolate near the volleyball court, again after the school hours,” he added. The father then mentioned that the accused was accompanied by a friend when he had gone to meet the girl for the fourth time on January 10 in the school campus. Continued on pg 4
PTI
speCial status
Alina blows the bugle on R-Day at Navelim Francis, Reginaldo too join the chorus Santosh Mirajkar
Environment Minister, Alina Saldanha addressing a symposium on Special Status for Goa at Navelim on Saturday. TEAM HERALD teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: The bugle in support of Special Status for Goa was blown on Republic Day at Navelim on Saturday, with Environment Minister, Alina Saldanha making an impassioned plea to Goans to join the movement and rest not till the long-pending demand for Special Status is achieved. Deputy Chief Minister, Francis D’Souza and Congress MLA, Reginaldo Lourenco also spoke of taking the struggle for Special Status to its logical conclusion by mobilising people at the grass roots. At a symposium organised by the Movement for Special Status for Goa at Rosary hall, Navelim, speakers urged members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) to unanimously adopt a resolution in the upcoming Assembly session and strongly pursue the demand with the Centre. In her spirited address, Alina Saldanha said that migrant influx is changing Goa’s demographic, social, cultural and linguistic identity. “We demand Special Status for Goa on two counts: one, when the Constituent Assembly met in 1950 to discuss the needs of the states,
Goa was ruled by the Portuguese and hence could not be represented. Secondly, Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru had promised Special Status to protect Goa’s special identity when Goa was liberated in 1961. The Centre must honour the promise made by the first Prime Minister”, she demanded. She lamented that Goa’s unique character is being destroyed by mega housing to house the rich, adding that locals cannot afford to buy land for housing. “Goa has the highest density of population and the migrant influx has put pressure on the infrastructure”, she added. In his address, Deputy Chief Minister, Francis D’Souza appealed to the people to leave aside their differences and work unitedly to achieve the demand. “Special Status should not be a political issue, but should be looked as an issue affecting Goa’s identity”, he said. Expressing Congress support for the Special Status movement, MLA Reginaldo Lourenco asserted that certain politicians have sold the issue to lobbies for their vested interests. “It is not too late to fight for this demand. Let us keep politics behind and fight to protect Goa for posterity”, he added. Fr Eremito Rebello appealed to both the BJP and the Congress to give Goans Special Status by amending the Constitution. “The Congress at the Centre should meet the Special Status demand before the Lok Sabha polls. I want to ask the BJP what they had done when they were in power”, Fr Rebello asked, while predicting that Goans would be reduced to slum dwellers if their land is not protected by Special Status. Historian Prajal Sakhardande told the gathering that Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar has promised to pass the resolution in the coming Assembly session. “We have to continue our fight because Special Status for Goa may not be in the interest of the Centre. The elite from the country are coming to Goa to Continued on pg 4
Mechanised columns of India Army during 64th Republic Day Parade at Rajpath in New Delhi on Saturday.
Sexual assault bid on minor foiled Accused thrashed, handed over to police TEAM HERALD teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: In an incident that sent shock waves amongst the villagers of Velim and Betul, a 19-year-old native of Orissa, working as a khalashi on a fishing vessel, tried to sexually assault and outrage the modesty of a 14-year-old girl from Kerala after knocking down her mother at Cutbona on Saturday noon.
The girl was rescued from the lustful advances of the accused after local residents responded to the cries for help from the young girl. Agitated locals gave the accused a sound thrashing before handing him over to the Cuncolim police. The accused Ratu Chattu Kshatriya (19) was later arrested under the Goa Children’s Act and for outraging the modesty of the girl. The incident occurred at around 3 pm when the mother-daughter duo was
walking along the Cutbona-Betul road towards Margao to procure medicines. The mother had come with her daughter to Cutbona from Kerala on Friday to take her sister back to their native state. Since the trio was scheduled to return back to Kerala on Sunday, the mother-daughter duo was walking towards the bus stand when the accused came and pushed down the mother, before pulling the girl Continued on pg 4
Cong: Old versus new divide widens TEAM HERALD teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: In a case of the old versus the new, the old guard in the Congress and the young Turks perception on how the party should be run is causing run-ins and rumblings. This is underlined by the latest difference in opinion between the GPCC presi-
dent, veteran Congressman, and former minister, Subash Shirodkar and the young and outspoken Curtorim Congress MLA and CLP spokesman, Reginaldo Lourenco. The Congress has been in complete disarray and in an almost self-imposed sanyas since its complete rout in the March 2012 assembly elections and even though the
promised revamp has still not happened, the young guns are chaffing at the bit, upset over the perceived mistakes of the older generation who
they blame for the party losing ground so drastically. The old guard was into mining, had strong links with the establishment, and very much into maintaining the status quo, is a general feeling. Last time, the intra-party clash was on corruption, ticket distribution and the sidelining of loyal Congressmen. People Continued on pg 4
Govt not serious on handling, disposing e-waste: Report TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Discarded relays and switches, printed circuit boards from electronic items in computers are sources of mercury. This toxic substance when discarded along with household garbage, poses a threat to both health and vital components of the ecosystem. Mercury intake can lead to respiratory and skin disorders due to bio-accumulation in fish ~ most Goans are habitual fish eaters ~ and cause damage to the brain. And this is just one item. Others like lead from soldering in printed circuit boards, glass panels and gaskets in computer monitors can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, blood system, kidneys and can also affect brain development in children. The health impact of e-waste has not been taken into consideration even as the government embarks on a path towards e-governance, IT industrialisation and
computerisation in education. A report commissioned by the Goa State Pollution Control Board way back in September 2011 and reported in the media, has highlighted this. But the authorities have still not given serious thought to this. “Personal computer, monitor and laptop represent IT and telecom which is a main category of e-waste. E-waste components are metal, motor/compressor, plastic, insulation, glass, LCD, electrical wiring, transformer, circuit board, fluorescent lamp, BFR-containing plastic, batteries and external electric cables. Plastic, circuit board, wiring/electrical and external electric cables are present in all items,” the report says. The report further adds, “BFR containing plastic and fluorescent lamps are present in laptop. Metals found in PC base while motor and transformer are found in both PC base and laptop. CRT is found in PC while LCD and batteries are found in PC and laptop.”
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
Health effects Goa is a literate state and relatively computerised. It is also on a path towards IT-enabled industrialisation but, insiders admit that though many industries have begun a sort of electronic or e-waste programme, a majority of the public know nothing about handling e-waste and there’s no proper planning made on future e-waste projections besides giving this waste to scrap merchants to cannibalise. Goa is already sitting on a garbage and bio-medical waste time bomb. And e-waste, one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, is an add on given ~ according the M/S UPL Environmental Engineers Ltd report ~ increasing “market penetration” is happening in developing countries, “replacement market” in developed countries and “high obsolescence rate.” According to experts, e-waste has no limit for degradation even when compared to plastic. The e-waste inventory based on this obsolescence rate in India for the year 2005 was estimated at 1,46,189 tonnes and expected to exceed 8,00,000 tonnes by 2012. E-waste has already been covered for recycling/reprocessing under the Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2008. E-waste covered under these Rules is a component of waste electrical and electronic assembles comprising
accumulators and other batteries included on list A, mercury-switches, activated glass cullets from cathoderay tubes and other activated glass and PCB-capacitors, or any other component contaminated with schedule 2 constituents (e.g. cadmium, mercury, lead, polychlorinated biphenyl) to an extent that they exhibit hazard characteristics indicated in part C of this schedule. Separate Rules have recently been notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, called E-Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011. The Central Pollution Control Board has also brought out guidelines for environmentally sound management of ewaste in March 2008. However, it is the implementation that Continued on pg 4
l Following suggestions need to be implemented to manage e-waste in Goa: a) Awareness among all the stakeholders and people in e-waste chain. b) Active participation of various stakeholders of ewaste chain in Goa. c) Effective implementation of regulations and guidelines l Techniques for e-waste recycling should be based on 3R principle (Reduce, Recycle and Recover) which would minimise environment and health impacts and help save resources. l Need to create awareness among various stakeholders, general public and regulatory authorities through stakeholder participation. l Creating awareness through brochures, demonstration of pictures and ad-
vertisements in newspapers, magazines, on radio and TV. l Assist informal sectors like scrap dealers, with formal trainings and knowledge about e-waste handling and disposal options and also requirements under e-waste Rules. l Improve the existing informal collection system, as ewaste is collected by scrap dealers. A buy-back system needs to be implemented where customers are given knowledge about e-waste and encouraged to give back obsolete PCs. This system would collect large amount of obsolete PCs and improve existing informal collection system. l Looking into the existing and future e-waste trend, there is a need for authorized ewaste collection centres and recycling unit(s) for dismantling, segregating and recycling in Continued on pg 4