06/06/2015 … The state government has identified rivers like chapora, aguada bay, sal and zuari for the purpose of shifting casino vessels out from river mandovi …

Though nothing could be finalized in the meeting held between the state government officials and casino operators on Thursday the state government has set up its plans to provide infrastructure in any one of the identified river for the casino’s to be shifted by the end of this years

Addressing media persons after the meet ports minister dilip parulekar said that the government would provide all assistance to ensure the off-shore casinos were shifted by December 2015 and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar would consulted before taking a final decision

The off-shore casino operators have unanimously agreed to move their vessels out of river Mandovi provided Goa government provides suitable infrastructure like jetties. A feasibility report by the Ports Administration will ascertain where out of the four identified spots, the four vessels will be anchored.

Panaji:  March 28, 2016 …. Chief Minister, Shri Laxmikant Parsekar announced that the New South District Hospital at Margao a flagship project of the Government of Goa will be inaugurated on December 1, 2016 and the Nursing Institute with 100 seats will also be start functioning from July 2017 onwards.

The District Hospital will have two super specialties units – Orthopedic and preferably Cardiac, Shri Parsekar said and added that the same will be made operational as per the schedule.  The hospital will also have a trauma unit which will be made operational in 5-6 months time. The general hospital with basic facilities will be made available initially, he remarked.

 Shri Parsekar made this announcement during his visit and inspection of the ongoing works of the District Hospital at Margao, today. Minister for Fisheries, Shri Avertano Furtado; MLA’s, Shri Nilesh Cabral, Shri Subhash Fal Dessai, Shri Subash(Rajan) Naik; Director, DHS, Dr. Sanjeev Dalvi were amongst those who accompanied the Chief Minister.

 Directing the DHS to move necessary application and comply with the formalities for starting of the Nursing Institute with 100 seats in July 2017 within the prescribed time limit, he said there is an acute shortage and big demand for nurses within the country and outside, due to limited seats.  The opening of the institute will address all this issues to a large extent, he added.

 Shri Parsekar also informed that the tenders for the L.V. Systems, Steel OT, interiors, medical gas and equipments will be floated by April end to ensure that the hospital starts with all requisite facilities. Expressing satisfaction with the ongoing work, he said the work is as per schedule.

Panaji, October 21, 2017 … The Government has taken the decision to declare the awards- Goa Konkani Akademi Literacy awards and the Bhasha Seva Puraskar for the year 2015 and 2016 as “null and void”.

Further, the Government has decided to constitute committee to be chaired by Director (HE) with Director (ART & CULTURE) and Director (OL) as members to work out a plan of action to centralize the awards and decide guidelines to the awards of the Directorate of Art and Culture, Goa Konkani Akademi, Goa Marathi Akademi, Kala Academy etc.

 The Goa Konkani Akademi Literacy awards for the year 2015 and 2016 in 08 different categories and the Bhasha Seva Puraskar in 08 different categories were earlier recommended by the concerned committees. It was observed that the employees of Goa Konkani Akademi were in the selection committee for short listing of books and the same employees had recommended their own books for awards, thus showing a conflict of interest. The staff of Goa Konkani Akademi are also the beneficiaries of these awards and their opinion seemed to be biased they being the members of the selection committee.

        One of the committee member of the Award for Poetry Section disclosed to the media, assuming that the award is given to the book “Sudhirsukt”. However, all the recommendations are sealed packed and in the custody of the Secretary of the Goa Konkani Akademi.

Panaji: July 16, 2017 ….. The Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) has invited applications for National Awards for Bravery for Children (2017).

The main objective of this scheme is to give due recognition to children who perform acts of bravery with a view to inspire other children to follow their example. The deed should be “an act of spontaneous selfless service in the face of risk to life or threat of physical inquiry and or an act of courage and daring against a social evil/crime”.

The prescribed form is to be accompanied by a write-up of about 250 words giving the details of the deed performed by the applicant, proof of date of birth, newspaper/magazine clippings and/or the First Information Report (FIR) or Police Diary filed with the Police Station regarding the brave act and the account of the incident as well as the supporting documents endorsed by listed two competent authorities.

The application must be recommended by any two of the following:

·        Principal/Headmaster of the School, Head of Panchayat/Zila Parishad

·        General Secretary or President of the State Council for Child Welfare

·        Collector/DM/Govt. Official of equivalent rank

·        Supt. of Police of the area or police official of higher rank.

The child should not be below 6 years and above 18 years of age on the date of the incident.

Incidents should be occurred between July 01, 2016 and June 30, 2017 will be considered for the 2017 awards.

The award consists of a medal, a certificate and cash award. The awardees shall also receive various gifts from philanthropic organizations. The awards are in 4 categories.

Eligible awardees are granted assistance until they complete their schooling. ICCW provides financial assistance under its Scholarship Scheme to those undertaking professional courses such as engineering and medicine and to other till they complete their graduation.

The eligible child may submit their application in soft copy (CD in word/Pen Drive) and hard print in the prescribed format available in the Directorate of Women & Child Development or login on the website of ICCW (www.iccw.in) on or before 10 August 2017 in this Directorate.

For any clarifications, contact the Directorate on phone no. 2235308/2426112 during office hours.

Panaji, August 18, 2014 …. The Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa is proposed to felicitate  20 outstanding Senior Citizens above the age group of 70 on the occasion of “International  Day for the Senior Citizen” on October 1, 2014 at the State Level function  by presenting at Memento, a Shawl and a Shrifal.  One Senior Citizen from smaller Talukas and two Senior Citizens from bigger Talukas will be selected.

Interested outstanding Senior Citizen(above 70 years) may apply in the prescribed format to the Director, Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa, 18^th June road, Panaji Goa on or before September 15, 2014. Application after due date will be not entertained.

In case  further information if required may be contacted  to the Director of Social Welfare or Assistant  Director, Social Defense Branch during the normal office hours, on telephone No. 2232257 and 2223784 and Email id so***********@********il.com

The application in the prescribed format may be obtained  from Directorate of Social Welfare.

Panjim, Jan 7 – Goa Tourism along and the Mormugao Port are upbeat as the luxury cruise boat tourism is picking up as the season progresses.

The Mormugao Port plays a leading role in sustainable development of high-end cruise tourism in the state of Goa. This season, in association with Goa Tourism, it has hosted eight cruise boats till date.

The first luxury cruise vessel ‘Aida Sol’ arrived at the Mormugao Port on 21st November 2014 carrying 2,203 passengers ushering in the new tourism season. Cruise vessels ‘Voyager’ and ‘Aida Aura’ followed simultaneously thereafter on 27th Nov 2014 bringing in 463 and 1,177 high-end tourists to Goa in a single day.

Berthing of the two luxury cruise vessels, one alongside the Breakwater Berth and the other at the Mole simultaneously on a single day demonstrated the Mormugao Port’s efficiency in handling the berthing operations smoothly and extending the required logistical support facilities at the berth to the local operators.

This was followed by arrival of three more luxury cruise vessels – ‘Azmara Quest’ ‘Seven Seas Voyager’ and ‘Nautica’ arriving at the port on three consecutive days 28th Nov 2014, 29th Nov 2014 and 30th Nov 2014 carrying 610, 672 and 592 passengers respectively.

The month of November saw the highest number of luxury cruise vessels arriving at the port numbering six in all in a matter of just 10 days bringing in a total of 5717 high end tourists.

In the month of December 2014, the Port along with Goa Tourism played host to two voyages of luxury cruise vessel viz. ‘Aida Aura’ which arrived on 11th December 2014 and again on 25th December 2014 carrying a total of 2,200 passengers.

From the time of beginning of this tourism season, as on date the Mormugao Port has played host to eight luxury cruise vessels handling a total of 7917 passengers.

Most of the passengers have been foreign nationals from Germany, USA, Canada and Great Britain.

As the tourisms season progresses steadily, the Port and Goa Tourism are expecting a total of 25 cruise vessels to arrive at Mormugao. The current tourism season which extends till May 2015 is expected to witness a total of 30494 passengers indicating a phenomenal rise in the number of luxury tourist arrivals in the state during the year.

The highest number of cruise passengers numbering 3300 though will be brought in by the cruise vessel ‘Aida Prima’ when it arrives at the Port on 3rd May 2015.

In order to give the luxury cruise shipping a further boost in the State, the Mormugao Port is building a state-of-the-art cruise berth terminal at an estimated cost of 8.79 crore which will be ready by December 2015. It will be equipped with all State-of-the-art facilities as good as any international airport terminal.

The new terminal will be spacious and house the Customs, Immigration Centre, baggage clearance centre, duty free shops, recreational facilities, lounge, cafeteria and electrical cars for the benefit of the visiting tourists.

Tourism Minister Shri Dilip Parulekar said, “Like air charters, Goa is getting a good response of tourist arrivals from luxury cruises and high-end tourists are arriving into Goa from the high seas.”

“We are looking forward to a successful season from luxury cruise vessel arrivals to Goa at MPT and Goa Tourism will give all the support required in this regards,” Shri Parulekar said.

23/01/2016 …. There seems to be a sense among the bjp party workers all over the state in support of giving grants only to konkani and marathi medium schools but not to English says st andre mla Vishnu surya wagh

Speaking to goanreporter.com over the issue of medium of instruction st andre mla Vishnu surya wagh said that in the past few days as he had attended a number of party meeting among the bjp party workers all over the state a number of bjp supporters had felt that the party should keep up to its earlier promise over the moi issue of giving grants only to kokani and Marathi medium schools and the same should not be change for anyone …

There were also some suggestions from the party workers that the grants should not only be kept for English medium schools but had to be given for everyone but his personnel opinion was that he was in support of mother tongue not for English medium schools

Commenting over the statements of bbsm members to start jana jagran abhiyan against the bjp party in the state Mr wagh said that the members of bbsm should wait till the passing of moi bill in the next assembly session

11/04/2015 … Defense minister Manohar parrikar along with chief minister laxmikhant Parsekar, gsidc chairman dr pramod sawant and other government officials on Friday inspected the ongoing works for the upcoming new mandovi bridge in the capital city …

It may be noted that Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, had laid the foundation stone of the new Mandovi bridge at Goa last year …

The third Mandovi bridge is receiving 90 per cent of its financing from NABARD the financial institution which is the main lender for the infrastructure project, and has sanctioned Rs 390-crore loan out of total project cost of Rs 514 crore.

Sources said that almost 66,000 vehicles travel over the Mandovi bridges every day and with the construction of a third mandovi bridge it is expected that at least 25,000 of these will go over the new bridge directly to Margao or Ponda once it is built. This is expected to greatly reduce the present traffic congestion near the Panaji KTC bus stand.

Addressing media persons at the site defense minister Manohar Parrikar said that he was happy to see that the work was going on as per the schedule time and was sure that the bridge would be completed in the given limit

Panaji: – December 1, 2017 …. The Registrar of Supreme Court of India has proposed to create artworks in the form of Paintings, Murals etc. for the Additional Office Complex for Supreme Court of India that is being constructed adjoining Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. The idea is to involve tribal/regional artists to create artworks panels of the size 1800mm x 1800mm with a 50mm depth. The artwork will be in form of permanent Paintings / Murals / Artifacts / Sculptures etc. The theme of artwork can be decided by artists. Some of the suggestive themes can be depicting landmark judgments by Supreme Court, a journey of Supreme Court of India for the last 70 years and the Cultural Heritage of different States and Union Territories.

The Registrar of Supreme Court of India has called upon applicants of all the States and Union Territories to submit the design of permanent installation of Paintings / Murals / Artifacts / Sculptures etc. as per the above-mentioned dimensions/sizes.

All interested applicants may submit their designs to the office of Directorate of Art and Culture, Sanskruti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji on or before  December 18, 2017, between 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (except Saturday, Sundays and Public holidays). A panel of expert Artists will screen and select projects/designs/concepts etc so as to send exceptional projects to the office of the Supreme Court of India at New Delhi for further selection.

Panaji, September 19, 2018  … The Naval Coast Battery, Mormugao will carry out practice firing of 40/60 Anti Air Guns from Mormugao, Headland, Sada between 9.00 a.m to 12.00 p.m.  on    September  24, 2018 . The Danger Zone lies within an area bounded by 200^o  to 260^o  from Mormugao Headland Flag Staff position up to a distance of 10 Nautical miles to seaward and up to height of 6,100 mtrs.

            The shipping, harbor craft, other vessels and general public are therefore informed to keep a distance from the above area for safety purpose on above mentioned period.