log on to thegoan.net @thegoaneveryday FRIDAY MARCH 31, 2023 GOA CM’s speech sends a ray of hope atop Moti Dongor IN SHORT >> Guj tourist robbed at Arambol hotel PANAJI: In yet another incident of tourist fleecing in North Goa beach belt, a robber decamped with valuables from the room of a tourist. The incident occurred at Arambol, Pernem wherein unidentified robber stole valuables worth Rs 2.5 lakh from the room of a tourist from Gujarat. Higher taxes in Margao on cards MARGAO: Madgaonkars and Fatordekars may have to brace up for higher doses of taxes, including house tax and garbage tax as the Margao Municipal Council has made provision for higher taxes in the financial year 2023-24.  >> See pg 2 Restricted power supply to Bardez PANAJI: Power supply for Bardez and Pernem Talukas will be affected on April 2 due to emergency shutdown of Thivim Sub Station. Electricity Department, Thivim has issued a public notice stating that Thivim Sub-Station will be availing emergency shutdown on April 2 from 7 am to 9.30 am for attending severe red hot on 100 MVA-1, 220/110Kv main bus isolator. Accused in stabbing case nabbed Facebook.com/thegoaneveryday 13 pages PRICE ` 8 2 The Goan (Playstore) PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME VIII, NO. 282 GOA Govt to consider new higher secondary schools on case basis 3 THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO As Chief Minister Pramod Sawant sought to revive the shrimp and fin fish hatchery project in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model on the government acquired-10 acre land at Benaulim via the 202324 Budget, traditional fishermen have red flagged the project again, as they vowed to oppose the project tooth and nail. In his budget speech on the floor of the House while placing the 2023-24 budget estimates, the Chief Minister has announced setting up of the shrimp and fin fish hatchery project on the 10-acre defunct Benaulim prawn hatchery land. The traditional fishermen from Benaulim, however, say the shrimp and fin fish hatchery project mooted through the PPP model is the very same project, which they had vehemently opposed a little over two years ago on the „„The government intends to set up a stateof-art shrimp and fin fish hatchery on PPP basis by redeveloping the existing hatcher spread over 10 acres at Benaulim „„The Fisheries Department expects the private partner to design, build, finance and operate the proposed project on a long term concession basis and transfer the facility to the government at the end of the concession period „„The land would be provided on right of way basis and the existing infrastructure will be transferred to the concessionaire on “as is where is” basis „„Interested developers told to furnish their expression of interest in the form of a detailed report comprising proposed conceptual design, methodology, technology and any other good industry practices in vogue globally to make it a world class facility „„The applicants are also required to give the organisational details, contact details, experience/expertise, financial capability, net worth and any other relevant point concerning the proposal ground that the project has been mooted with a sinister design to hand over the prime sea facing land close to the Benaulim beach to the private players. In fact, the fishermen had staked claim on a portion of the government-acquired land to meet their fishing require- ments, including anchoring of fishing canoes, fishing nets during the monsoons, besides space to sell fish. Says Benaulim fisherman Goa’s daily cases cross 100-mark, one dies of Covid THE GOAN I NETWORK 11 killed in Indore temple tragedy TIDES Low: High: 05:31 11:05 17:20 ------- Ways to live a quality life with hepatitis PROJECT ON PPP BASIS PANAJI: Rohit Monserrate and Sanjeev Naik have been re-elected as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) respectively. Only one nomination each was received from Monserrate for the Mayor’s post and from Naik for the Deputy Mayor’s post.  >> See pg 3 Max: 00.00 C Min: 00.00C Humidity: 00% INFO 9 VOW TO OPPOSE GOVT’S MOVE TO REVIVE PROJECT TOOTH AND NAIL Rohit, Sanjeev re-elected to CCP WEATHER >> RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 Fishermen red-flag fin fish hatchery plan in budget VASCO: Verna police arrested Pankaj Sharda (21) at the Vasco railway station, while he was attempting to flee the State after allegedly stabbing a person in Consua. The accused was arrested under Sec 326 IPC.  >> See pg 3 BHOPAL/INDORE: Eleven persons died after the roof of a ‘bawdi’ (well) collapsed during a ‘havan’, a fire ritual, on the occasion of Ram Navami at a temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore city on Thursday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. Instagram.com/thegoaneveryday JAI SHREE RAM: A child carrying the idol of Lord Ram on the occasion of “Ram Navami” at Ram Mandir in Bhatlem, Panaji, on Thursday.  Narayan Pissurlenkar PANAJI After almost a year, a death of a Covid patient has been reported in the State which also saw the daily count of new cases cross the century mark at 108. Health officials reported that one Covid-19 patient died at the GMC. The last fatality due to the disease was reported almost a year ago, the officials added. Officials also said that seven more patients were admitted to the dedicated ward at the GMC on Thursday. Goa’s positivity rate also breached a worrying 11 per-cent as active caseload now stands at 453. Smart City spend crosses `467 crore THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI A total of Rs 467.10 crore have been spent till date on ‘Smart City’ projects in the capital, Urban Development Minister Vishwajit Rane told the Goa Legislative Assembly. Rane said, since its incep- tion in 2017, the Centre has sanctioned an aggregate of Rs 465 crore for the ‘Smart City’ project. The minister furnished the information in response to a query raised by Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, who had sought the funding details as well as utilisation of the funds in relation to the Smart City project. “Expenditure incurred on Smart city Projects till date is Rs 467.10 crore,” Rane said in his reply. Rane also said that of the ongoing works, the project for improvement of roads including footpath, cycle track, dedicated utility corridor and laying of new utilities like electrical, water supply, sewage are costing a total of Rs 145 crore. These have progressed to the extent of 30%, he said. Rane also told the House >Continued on P5 Pele Fernandes: “We fail to understand why the government is still pursuing the shrimp and fin fish project at the defunct Benaulim prawn hatchery land by roping in private players. When the traditional fishermen have been demanding with the government to allot space admeasuring 5,000 square metres in the acquired property to pursue their traditional occupation, we have still received no communique from the Fisheries Department till date.” He added: “If this sea facing land is given to the private players for the so-called shrimp and fin fish hatchery, the traditional fisherman from the village will have no other place other than the shore to anchor their boats and fishing nets”. That’s not all. When the Fisheries department had in early August 2020 floated an Expression of Interest inviting bidders to set up a state of the >Continued on P5 Union Law Minister’s tweet Welle, for “taking note of how democracy is being compromised in India through the persecution of Rahul Gandhi”. Bartender attacks foreign tourist in Mandrem resort Accused held; second attack in a week THE GOAN I NETWORK PERNEM A bartender at a resort in Dandos wada in Mandrem has been arrested for allegedly attacking a foreign tourist and a local person, who had gone to her rescue, with a knife in the wee hours of Wednesday. This is the second incident of a staffer allegedly attacking a foreign tourist after trespassing into a hotel room in the wee hours along the Mandrem-Morjim coast in less than a week. According to reports, the incident took place at around 2 am when the accused, Abhishek Verma (27), hailing from Dehradun-Uttarakhand, trespassed into the rented tent of the complainant at the resort and tried to hold her. When she started to scream for help, a local person went to rescue her from the accused and seeing his presence, Verma ran away. The accused later returned with a knife and at- THE STATS THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI There have been slight concerns about the effectiveness of the police in detecting and investigating certain types of crimes, particularly theft, burglary, and chain snatching amid claims of a high detection rate in the State. The data from 2019 till date suggests that their performance in detecting these crimes, where women have been the victims, is not impressive as over 50 investigations are closed while around 47 are pending trial out of over 150 cases registered during this period. As per figures in reply to a question tabled by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, 26 cases of thefts including house break-ins have remained undetected as against 24 detected whereas nine cases of burglaries were undetected and only three detected. In a marginal improvement in chain snatchings cases, 51 have been detected compared to 46 undetected. One of the primary con- THE GOAN I NETWORK Remember, Indian Judiciary can’t be influenced by foreign interference. India won’t tolerate ‘foreign influence’ anymore because our Prime Minister is:- Shri @ narendramodi Ji,” — Kiren Rijiju, 13 tacked the local person and the woman, before fleeing from the site. The complainant and the local sustained grievous injuries and were both shifted to hospital for treatment. Acting on a complaint filed by the woman, a police team led by PI Dattaram Raut, PSI Vivek Halarnkar and PSI Harish Vaigankar began investigations and arrested Verma under Sections 452, 354, 506(ii), 307 IPC. Police also recovered the knife used in the crime. PSI Halarnkar is investigating the case under the supervision of PI Dattaram Raut, Pernem SDPO Rajesh Kumar and under the overall supervision of SP North Nidhin Valsan. Earlier on March 24, two staffers were arrested on charges of assaulting and injuring a Russian woman at her room in a hotel at Morjim in the wee hours of Friday. The 30-year-old Russian >Continued on P5 Effectiveness in detecting, probing crimes a concern Germany ‘takes note’ of Rahul’s disqualification U NEW DELHI Amidst an ongoing face-off between the Congress and the BJP over Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha, Germany has ‘taken note’ of the issue, triggering a fresh political slugfest on Thursday with the ruling party accusing the opposition party of “inviting foreign powers” to interfere in internal matters. The BJP attack came after senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh thanked the German foreign ministry and Richard Walker, Chief International Editor of Deutsche Sindhu, Srikanth enter quarterfinals of Madrid Spain Masters „„Performance in detecting crimes, where women have been the victims, is not impressive as over 50 investigations are closed while around 47 are pending trial out of over 150 cases „„26 cases of thefts including house break-ins have remained undetected as against 24 detected whereas nine cases of burglaries were undetected and only three detected „„In chain snatchings cases, 51 have been detected compared to 46 undetected cerns is the recovery of stolen property. Despite police’s claims of making efforts to trace the accused, in many cases, the stolen property is not recovered. In some undetected theft cases, the police claimed, “Accused person was placed under arrest and interrogated but the stolen property was not recovered” while filing closure reports before the Court. In other FIRs, remarks such as “All efforts proved futile and the case remained undetected,” “CCTV footages were verified, local intelligence was active, but no clue,” “Maximum efforts were made to detect the case.” “Enquiry is being conducted with the Ex-convicts, H/Sheeters (history sheeters) and suspected persons. So also watch is maintained through beat staff and Robot Staff.” “Efforts were made to trace the accused person, however, remained untraced,” etc were mentioned in the closure reports of undetected cases. With several cases pending trial and under investigation, the department achieved around six convictions and four acquittals. Goa has recorded the highest crime detection rate but at the same time, the crime graph has also seen a rise. However, for grave offenses such as rape, kidnapping and molestation; the department has achieved maximum detection. Mumbai-Goa highway completion by Dec 2023: Gadkari FRESH POLITICAL SLUGFEST AS… PTI SPORTS Singh also tagged a tweet by Walker in which the senior journalist had posted a video of a German foreign ministry spokesperson reacting to Gandhi’s disqualification. At a press briefing, Germany’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said, ”We have taken note of the verdict of first instance against Indian opposition politician Rahul Gandhi as well as the suspension of his parliamentary mandate.” “To our knowledge, Mr Gandhi is in a position to appeal the verdict. It will then become clear >Continued on P5 PANAJI nion Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday informed that the much-awaited construction work of Mumbai-Goa National Highway No 66 will be completed by December, 2023 and the road will be open for traffic in January 2024. The Minister conducted an aerial inspection of the construction work of Mumbai-Goa highway and addressed the media afterward at Ratnagiri in the presence Industries Minister of Maharashtra Uday Samant. The Minister further informed that the Mumbai-Goa highway has been divided into 10 packages. Out of these, two packages (P-9, P-10) in Sindhudurg district are almost 99 per cent complete. There are Bamboo Crash Barrier T o avoid accidents, a proposal to install Bamboo Crash Barrier on the sides of Mumbai-Goa highway has been given to the National Highway Authority. Besides, the state government has been asked to carry out wide plantations along the highway International standard signages An aerial view of the construction work in progress of Mumbai-Goa highway. total 5 packages in Ratnagiri district and 92 per cent and 98 per cent work of two of these packages (P-4, P-8) has been completed respectively. Rest of the work is in progress. The delayed works for two packages (P-6, P-7) has been resumed by appointing a new contractor, informed the Minister. Out of the three packages in Raigad district, two packages (P-2, P-3) have been completed up to 93 per cent and 82 per cent respectively. More than half of the work on package (P-1) has been completed and the remaining work will be completed soon, he added. The Minister further said that land acquisition and environmental clearances for S ignages as per international standards will be installed on the Mumbai-Goa National Highway which will help reduce the number of accidents and also make travel easier the Panvel-Indapur phase had delayed the work on the Mumbai-Goa National Highway. He said that now all these hurdles have been cleared and the environmental issue is being taken care of by removing the flyover in the Karnala sanctuary area. The Minister informed that the construction work in Goa of the Mumbai-Goa National Highway has been completed. The Mumbai-Goa National Highway is a highway connecting major tourist destinations in Konkan, which will boost tourism development. Also, as there is a road connecting major industrial areas, industrial >Continued on P5