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

23-08-2013 … Blaming of a political or a drug related rivalry Former calangute mla agnelo Fernandes on Friday blamed the law and order situation of the state of goa over the issue of vandalism being done at nightclub cum venue for weddings, LPK waterfront, at Battivado in Nerul on Thursday afternoon with the premises causing damages running into lakhs of rupees.

It may be noted that Around 20-25 masked men armed with sledge hammer and pickaxes, with their faces covered with monkey caps, barged in a nightclub cum venue for weddings, LPK waterfront, at Battivado in Nerul on Thursday afternoon and vandalised the premises causing damages running into lakhs of rupees.

The attackers came on 12 scooters with camouflaged number plates, threatened the security guard and the workers with dire consequences before taking away their mobile phones and went on a rampage, damaging the premises.

Speaking to goanreporter former calangute mla agnelo Fernandes said that the issue could be a political motivated one and related to the issue of certain dance bars being kept open in calangute while certain dance bars being asked to be closed

the damaged articles include three LCD television sets of 32 inches, ten soundproof glasses of the discotheque doors, 25 fog lights, seven lanterns, 2 fridges, billing counter and five CCTVs. an unique piece of artwork made of clay was also damaged by the attackers.

Agnelo said that such incidents were bad for the tourist state like goa and also mentioned that minority community would have to suffer due to the close of liquor by 1pm

22-08-2013 …. With about just a few days left for direct benefit transfer of LPG to come into effect, a total of around 60,000 LPG consumers have linked their adhar cards with the bank accounts connected with the goa state cooperative bank in to the state of goa

 Under the scheme, advance subsidy would be transferred to the bank account of the LPG consumers of the public sector oil marketing companies like Indian Oil / HPCL / BPCL, who have completed formalities of seeding their Aadhaar numbers with their LPG distributor as well as with their respective banks.

After the scheme is launched, subsidy amount would be transferred to LPG consumers through their bank account once they book for refill, enabling them to buy cylinders at market rate.

 All LPG consumers who have not linked their Aadhaar number to LPG consumer number and their bank account will have a month grace period from date of launch to do so till September 1 and during this period they will continue to get the LPG cylinders at subsidised rate, as they are getting today, with a cap of 9 cylinders.

Procedure to link Aadhaar to a bank account

 Step-1 ….. Get Aadhaar number from Aadhaar enrollment centres

 Step-2 …. Open a bank account with above Aadhaar number

 Or

If a bank account exists then get Aadhaar number linked to bank account by visiting branch of the bank. Alternatively, fill up a form available with LPG distributors and deposit it in the drop boxes placed at LPG distributors’ premises/ select petrol pump outlets for purpose

 Step-3 …. Link Aadhaar numbers to LPG consumer number at LPG distributors

 Step-4 …. After completion, LPG consumers can check whether their Aadhaar number has been linked to LPG consumer number and bank account at http://petroleum.nic.in/dbtl/linkstatus.html