log on to thegoan.net @thegoaneveryday TUESDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2021 GOA MP found dead in Mumbai hotel MUMBAI: Mohan Delkar, an independent MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found dead at a hotel in Mumbai on Monday. Police sources say initial investigations point at suicide. The 58-year-old politician, a father of two, was found at a hotel on Marine Drive. The police said a suicide note had been found. The Goan (Playstore) 8 pages PRICE ` 6 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME VI, NO. 244 Instagram.com/thegoaneveryday RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 8 2 3 7 Polls for 11 municipalities, CCP on March 20 HPCC nod to lone bio-methanation plant for Sonsodo waste IN SHORT >> Facebook.com/thegoaneveryday GOA INDIA Mapusa MLA ducks election code, lays stone for `  crore project 1 Narayanasamy loses trust vote, Congress govt falls in Puducherry SPORTS Conway stars as NZ thrash Aussies in first T20  RESULTS TO BE DECLARED ON MAR 22  EXPENDITURE LIMIT FOR CANDIDATE @ RS 2 LAKH  FINAL HOUR OF VOTING FOR COVID PATIENTS AND THOSE UNDER ISOLATION  ELECTION CODE OF CONDUCT COMES INTO FORCE Sawant pledges `  crore each 1 to municipalities THE GOAN I NETWORK Quotas for civic polls as per law, Govt tells High Court Sensex plunges 1,145 points PANAJI The Goa State Election Commission on Monday morning announced that the elections for 11 municipal councils and the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) will be held on March 20 and the results will be declared two days later on March 22. “Voting for eleven municipal councils, the Corporation of the City of Panaji, the by-elections to village panchayats and zilla panchayats where there are vacancies will be held on March 20 between 8 am and 5 pm. The final hour of voting will be reserved for those who are Covid-19 positive and those under isolation,” State Election Commissioner Choka Ram Garg said. Garg informed that the elections would be conducted on March 20 between 8 am to 5 pm for 11 municipal councils and the CCP. As the procedure was followed during the recently held Zilla Panchayat elections there will be an exclusive arrangement for voting for the people with Covid-19 infection as they will be allowed to vote between 4 pm and 5 pm. With the announcement of elections, the election code Varavara Rao gets six months bail Mhadei diversion: SC orders joint inspection by officers of 3 States Resort goes up in flames after gas cylinders explode THE GOAN I NETWORK THE GOAN I NETWORK Jabs for above 50 from March 1 NEW DELHI: The Centre said it is gearing up for the inoculation of people aged over 50 years from March 1. It has asked states and Union Territories to step up the pace of the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination process for healthcare workers so that the same can then be started for those above fifty years of age. Toolkit: Disha gets one-day PC NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday sent 22-year-old Bengaluru-based climate activist Disha Ravi to one-day police custody as it turned down Delhi police’s request for five days custody. Disha has already spent eight days in custody — first five days in police custody and then was remanded to three days in judicial custody. MUMBAI: Spiralling lower for the fifth straight session, the Sensex plummeted 1,145 points while the Nifty crashed below the 14,700-level on Monday as across-the-board selling hammered stocks amid a prolonged spell of weakness in global equities. MUMBAI: Varavara Rao, the 81-year-old poet-activist who has been in jail for over two years in the Koregaon-Bhima case, was granted bail for six months by the Bombay High Court Monday on medical grounds. Woman gang-raped in Madhya Pradesh BHOPAL: A 20-year-old woman was gang-raped allegedly by four persons in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district, according to police. She was abducted in a fourwheeler, forced to drink liquor in a farmhouse in Gadaghat area under Jaitpur police station limits and then gang-raped on February 18 and 19, a top police official said. IMA shocked over Coronil lie NEW DELHI: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) expressed shock over the “blatant lie of WHO certification” for Patanjali’s Coronil tablet and demanded an explanation from Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in whose presence the medicine was launched. Surface-to-air missile test-fired BALASORE: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Monday conducted two successful launches of vertical launch short range surface-to-air missile (VL-SRSAM) off the Odisha coast in Balasore. The launches were carried out from a static vertical launcher from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur. WEATHER >> Max: 34 C Min: 24 C Humidity: 77% TIDES Low: High: 2.10 6.54 14.08 21.47 PANAJI The Supreme Court of India has ordered a joint inspection of the alleged diversion of the waters of the River Mhadei that Karnataka has undertaken by a team that will include officers of the Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra governments. The court has asked for a report of the inspection within four weeks. The contempt petition filed by the Goa Government came before SC Bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice M R Shah. Goa’s counsel senior Advocate Narsimha told the court that Karnataka had already breached the banks of the existing stream leading to the automatic diversion of the waters towards Karnataka. Adv Narsimha told the Supreme Court that Karnataka had given an undertaking to the Tribunal as well as the Supreme Court that there would THE GOAN I NETWORK THE STAGE IS SET „„Elections will be conducted on March 20 between 8 am and 5 pm „„Exclusive arrangement for voting for people with Covid-19 infection from 4 pm to 5 pm has been made applicable now and government cannot make any decision that will affect the process during this period. The election commission has appealed to people to follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which will be issued soon. Unlike the ZP elections, these elections will be held on non-party lines. However many leaders have filed their panel to retain control over the voters in their constituency. Meanwhile, the SEC said that filing of nominations will „„EC to announce Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) soon „„Election code made applicable and the government told not announce any decisions begin on February 25 and end on March 4 from 10 am to 1 pm except on Sundays. “Scrutiny of nominations will be held on March 5 and withdrawal of candidate will be allowed on March 6,” the SEC said Garg said the Code of Conduct will be imposed only in the areas where elections are held. “Expenditure limit for CCP is Rs 2.5 lakh per candidate, municipal councils Rs 2 lakh per candidate. The total number of voters participating in all elections on March 20 are 3,10,995,” he informed. PANAJI On a day when the State Election Commission announced the civic elections on March 20, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced that each of the municipalities and the CCP will be allocated Rs one crore from the Central grant of Rs 300 crore allotted for the 60 years of Goa’s liberation celebration. Sawant made the statement at the launch of the Swayampurna Goa initiative in 14 municipalities. Municipalities will be required to submit ideas of development projects through the Swayampurna Mitra’s appointed by the government to avail the funds. STATE REPLIES Goa Advocate General Devidas Pangam told the court that the policy of rotation that the state has adopted for reservations is as per the constitution. “Our response is that it is not arbitrary. It has been in accordance with law. The argument of the petitioners is that you have to only reserve those seats where there is concentration of the reserved category people. Our argument is that it is not possible that way. Reservation has to be by a policy of rotation,” Adv Pangam said after the day’s hearings concluded. “One seat where there is SC did not issue notice to Karnataka: Minister SAVING MHADEI „„The court has asked for a report of the inspection within four weeks „„Goa’s contempt petition came up before SC Bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice M R Shah „„Goa’s counsel told the court Karnataka had already breached the banks of the existing stream leading to the automatic diversion of the river „„The counsel told the court that Karnataka given an undertaking to the Tribunal and SC that there would be no automatic diversion of the water be no automatic diversion of the water and orders to that effect were issued by the Tribunal. Goa’s advocate also told the Supreme Court that when a group of officers from Goa visited the site of the project, they found that diversion of the waters had begun. However, the Karnataka counsel denied that they were diverting water as alleged by Goa saying that all orders by the Tribunal were being respected. The Supreme Court bench then first suggested that an independent team be sent to inspect, but later agreed that Cyclonic winds leave a trail of destruction in Sattari THE GOAN I NETWORK VALPOI ne person was injured while about 16 houses and several plantations were damaged when cyclonic winds struck Kankire and Guleli villages of Sattari early Monday evening. The damages to the houses and crops have been estimated at Rs 30 lakh. According to reports, cyclonic winds struck Kankire and Guleli between 2.30 pm and 3 pm, damaging several houses in the two places. In some houses, roof sheets were blown away and roof tiles in other houses came crashing down. Anil Palkar of Kankire got THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI The State Government has told the Bombay High Court at Goa that the reservation policy they have adopted for the municipal elections is as per law and not arbitrary as alleged by the petitioners. O Anil Palkar was injured after roof tiles came crashing down on him in KankireSattari on Monday.   Uday Sawant injured when roof tiles fell on him. He was shifted to the Valpoi Community Health Centre in a 108 ambulance and was later sent home after treatment. In Kankire, a number of houses were damaged after trees got uprooted and came crashing down. The Valpoi fire services attended to a number of calls to clear the debris from the damaged houses and to assess the damages. Firefighters were seen at work in the affected places till late night and Fire Services Officer Santosh Gawas said work will continue on Tuesday morning. Fire officials said the damages to the houses were estimated at Rs 15 lakh. Sattari Zonal Agriculture Officer Vishwanath Gawas also rushed to the spot to take >Continued on P5 BELAGAVI: Karnataka Minister for Water Resources Ramesh Jarkiholi on Monday claimed relief as the Supreme Court did not issue notice to Karnataka in the contempt petition filed by Goa. “Action will have to be taken to convene a meeting of the joint monitoring committee of the three superintending engineers of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, to be constituted by the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) to implement the order by the tribunal on April 17, 2014,” said Jarkiholi, while reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday. It may be noted that Jarkiholi had recently stated that the Goa government would suffer a massive jolt in the Mhadei issue for filing a false contempt petition against Karnataka.  >> See pg 3 a joint committee of officers be formed. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant confirmed the development. “In a contempt petition filed by the Goa government against Karnataka on the issue of diversion of water and breach of orders of Mhadei Tribunal and the SC, the apex court today directed Joint Inspection Committee consisting officers of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka to inspect Kalsa project and submit a report within four weeks,” Sawant tweeted. The matter has been posted for April. a concentration of people of a particular community that can never be forever reserved for a particular community. That will be contrary to the constitutional provision which speaks about rotation. Otherwise what will happen is particular wards where there may be some number of reserved category people and then the other people in the very same ward will not get an opportunity to contest the election and the reservation will be restricted to those particular seats only which will be unconstitutional,” he added. Nine different petitioners had approached the High Court alleging that the reser- CANACONA A seasonal resort at Palolem beach went up in flames when three gas cylinders are reported to have exploded on Monday night. While there were no human casualties, the cottages, huts, store room and an open air restaurant were all destroyed in the inferno. According to local sources, the fire broke out after three back-to-back blasts were heard from the kitchen of Dream Catcher Resorts, which operates seasonal cottages and huts, yoga classes and an open-air restaurant at the northern end of Palolem beach. Flames soon spread in all directions, destroying cottages, huts, storeroom and an open-air restaurant in the resort. The fire also damaged a portion of a residential hut of a local family, as well as toi- Our response is that it is not arbitrary. It has been in accordance with law. The argument of the petitioners is that you have to only reserve those seats where there is concentration of the reserved category people. Our argument is that it is not possible that way. Reservation has to be by a policy of rotation,” —- Devidas Pangam, Advocate General vations are arbitrary and have been selectively done by the ruling party to target those in the opposition and scuttle their chances. The reservation policy has been opposed even by those within the BJP who say the haphazard manner will be to the detriment of the ruling party as well. The burning Dream Catcher Resorts at Palolem beach on Monday night.   Kathy Fernandes lets and three wood storage huts of locals located close to the resort and a number of coconut trees. According to some eyewitnesses, the inferno could be seen from afar as the flames rose as high as coconut trees in the vicinity. The Canacona fire services were alerted and two fire tenders rushed to the site. However, sources said none of the water pipes could reach near the burning cottages, huts and restaurant of Dream >Continued on P5 Principal’s car damaged, burnt at Fatorda residence; cops clueless FOUR WERE CAUGHT ON CCTV CAMERA COMMITTING THE CRIME THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO In an incident that has sent shockwaves amongst residents, a group of four miscreants set fire to a car belonging to the principal of a higher secondary school. The car parked at the principal’s residence at Ambaji-Fatorda was set afire by the four miscreants with some explosive substance in the wee hours of February 20. While the Fatorda police had registered a case of mischief, Principal Trevor Barretto and his lawyer said the Police and a forensic team inspect the car which was allegedly set afire at Ambaji-Fatorda in the wee hours of February 20.  Santosh Mirajkar police did not invoke strict provisions of the IPC even though he had named the suspects involved in the case. While the Fatorda police station in-charge PI Kapil Nayak said the forensic team has inspected the charred vehicle on Monday, Trevor said that the fire incident should be treated with all seriousness by bringing the culprits to book. “I and my family members were sleeping inside when the miscreants set my care afire at around 2.50 am. The four came on two bikes, of which >Continued on P5