log on to thegoan.net @thegoaneveryday MONDAY MAY 15, 2023 GOA 12 pages PRICE ` 8 Fire engulfing garbage dump near Margao bus stand raises concern IN SHORT >> 54th IFFI poster to be released at Cannes festival PANAJI: Preparations for the 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India to be held in Goa in November will get off to a start with the government planning to release a poster and a trailer of the festival at the Cannes International Film Festival in France. The Union Ministry of State for Information and Broadcasting said it also aims to showcase the success story of the ‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’ initiative at IFFI which is aimed at nurturing young film talents and seek more collaborations for it from world film fraternity. Goa will make a mark at Nat Games: CM PANAJI: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said the 37th National Games hosted by Goa will be remembered for years to come for the special manner in which they will be hosted. He also assured that the government will extend support to organisations willing to host national and international sporting events in the State. Calangute reels under frequent power cuts Facebook.com/thegoaneveryday 2 The Goan (Playstore) PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME VIII, NO. 327 GOA Former mayor Madkaikar alleges Panjim market sopo scam 3 PANAJI: Covid cases continued to decline in the State as 21 new positive cases were detected from 339 samples that were tested in the last 24 hours. With 14 recoveries, the active caseload is at 215. WEATHER >> Max: 35 C Min: 27 C Humidity: 80% TIDES Low: High: 01:32 07:49 13:17 19:31 10 INFO Busting myths about how food affects skin SPORTS IPL: Kolkata eases past Chennai, keeps playoffs hopes alive 12 Suspense continues, race for BJP desk in-charge of Goa C T Ravi K’taka leadership heats up among top losers CONG MLAs AUTHORISE PARTY PRESIDENT TO PICK CM PTI BENGALURU Newly elected Congress MLAs in Karnataka on Sunday authorised party president Mallikarjun Kharge to pick the next chief minister, with the leadership battle heating up between Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar -- the frontrunners for the coveted post. AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said the three central observers appointed by Kharge will take the opinion of the legislators which will be conveyed to the party president. “This process of taking the opinion of all MLAs would be completed today,” he said. Sources said the observers will be handing over their report to Kharge by Monday. The Congress Legislature Party, which met at a private hotel here on Sunday evening, passed a unanimous resolution authorising the party chief to pick its leader. Vokkaliga seers back Shivakumar BENGALURU: Prominent Vokkaliga pontiff of Adi Chunchanagiri Nirmalananda Natha Swamiji on Sunday appealed to the Congress leadership to appoint Karnataka party unit president D K Shivakumar as the next chief minister of the state. He also said Shivakumar is the most eligible candidate by all standards to head the state. The Vokkaliga Sangha, which is the main body of one of the dominant communities of Karnataka, organised a meeting of Vokkaliga pontiffs where a unanimous decision was taken to request the Congress top brass to appoint Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga who has been steering the state unit, as the next chief minister. Supporters perform ‘abhishek’ of a poster of senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar outside the venue of the CLP meeting in Bengaluru on Sunday. Randeep Surjewala, AICC in-charge for Karnataka, said the first resolution was moved by state Congress chief Shivakumar thanking all the leaders and the workers and people of Karnataka, while the second single-line resolution was moved by former chief minister Siddaramaiah. “The MLAs would meet the central observers after dinner tonight and their decision will be conveyed to party president for taking a decision to appoint a CLP leader,” Surjewala said after the meeting. Outside the meeting venue, supporters of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar chanted slo- gans and raised banners and flags in their support. While the two leaders earlier held meetings with the MLAs loyal to them, a poster war also erupted with both sides projecting their leader as the next chief minister. Kharge had deputed former Maharashtra CM Sushil Kumar Shinde, AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh and former AICC general secretary One killed, four others injured in three mishaps THE GOAN I NETWORK Comba subway gets fresh lease of life Covid cases decline, 21 test positive RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 KARNATAKA ELECTIONS MAPUSA: The scorching heat along with frequent power cuts has made living inside the houses in the popular beach village of Calangute unbearable. Annoyed with the deteriorating power situation, locals have been complaining to the power department but apart from assurances nothing much happens.  >> See pg 3 MARGAO: Ahead of monsoons, the Comba subway has finally got a fresh lease of life with the surface receiving a concrete layer, with gutters on either side. PWD is also expected to put the water pump in place at the road underpass to pump out water from the subway in times of high tide. >> See pg 2 Instagram.com/thegoaneveryday TOP OF THE WORLD: Students celebrate their success after the announcement of ICSE Board results at a school in Dehradun on Sunday. ISCE declared Class 10 and 12 results with 98.94% and 96.93% of students, respectively, clearing the examinations. Calangute cops bust gang of vehicle lifters, two arrested THE GOAN I NETWORK MAPUSA Calangute police on Sunday busted a gang of vehicle lifters and arrested its two members in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. A total of six vehicles worth around Rs 10 lakh have been recovered from them, police said. The accused have been identified as Sanjay Kalke and  Saddam Khudbuddin Jamadar, both residents of Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Police said that these vehicle thieves used to sell vehicles by changing their colour and registration number in Kolhapur. Almost a month back, Cal- angute police had received a complaint that the accused had taken a two-wheeler and a car on rent at Baga, Calangute and never returned them. The accused had apparently provided fake Identity cards at the time of taking the vehicles on rent. >Continued on P5 VASCO Road accidents continued to haunt Goans as three mishaps were reported in the last 24 hours killing one person and injuring four others. In the first mishap, a 35-yearold native of Jharkhand was killed and two others grievously injured when two bikes collided at Sancoale at around 10.30 pm.   Sources said the accident was a head on collision between two motorcycles.  The Activa rider Lalit Mohan was moving from Vasco to Cortalim while the other bike was moving from Cortalim to Vasco was driven by Mangal who had a pillion rider Shailendra Chowdary.  In the head on collision, Mangal died on the spot while the other two were grievously injured and shifted to GMC. Verna police has registered a case and is further investigating it.  In the second case, a two-wheeler rider was grievously in an accident between two-wheeler and truck at Mollem. The injured bike rider is being treated at GMC. In another self accident at Ganeshpuri, Mapusa a senior citizen was seriously injured. Deepak Babaria as observers for the election of CLP leader. The Congress central observers, along with Venugopal, were in a huddle with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar before the meeting. The Congress president, who returned to Delhi, had earlier said AICC observers will convey the opinion of MLAs to high command which will then take a decision. THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI C T Ravi, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary in-charge of Goa, was among a number of stalwarts of the saffron party who lost in the Karnataka assembly elections results of which were declared on May 13. Ravi lost by a margin of 5,926 votes from his Chikmagalur constituency to Congress candidate H D Thammaiah, who incidentally had quit the BJP on the eve of the polls to join the rival party and secure its ticket. Ravi’s nemesis is said to be a close aide of the BJP’s towering Karnataka leader B S Yeddurappa, whom the party sidelined in the run-up to the polls. The Congress in Goa, meanwhile, hailed the defeat of Ravi by the people of Karnataka and claimed it was a punishment for his role in “murdering democracy” by being a mastermind of the two mass defections which took place here -- July 2019 and September 2022. GPCC president, Amit Patkar claimed that Ravi was the one who engineered the defections and the people of Karnataka have shown him the door. In September last year, eight of the 11 Congress MLAs, including the then Opposition Leader, Michael Lobo and former chief minister Digambar Kamat, ‘split’ from the party and ‘merged’ with the BJP in September last year barely six months after the assembly election result. Earlier in 2019, 10 of the 15 Congress MLAs, including the then Opposition Leader Chandrakant Kavlekar, had similarly split and merged with the saffron party. Ravi was incharge of Goa desk then too. Nearly 11k BPL families surrender ration cards 2,000 cards upgraded to Above Poverty Line THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI Nearly 11,000 families in Goa holding the ‘below poverty line’ (BPL) category ration cards have surrendered them through mamlatdar offices in all talukas over the last two-and-half months since the  Civil Supplies Department  launched its drive to implement the Rs 50,000 per annum family income criteria. Of these, around 2,000 families have upgraded their ration cards from the BPL to the ‘above  poverty line’ category during the same period.  Only families whose annual income is under the Rs 50,000 limit will henceforth be eligible for the BPL ration card, according to the department. Also, for holding an APL card, the family’s annual income should not exceed Rs 5 lakh. In March this year, Civil Supplies Director Gopal Parsekar had issued a public notice threatening  “action” against those holding ration cards beyond their eligibility with respect to the annual in- THE INCOME CRITERION „„Only families whose annual income is under Rs 50,000 will henceforth be eligible for BPL ration card „„For holding an APL card, family’s annual income should not exceed Rs 5 lakh „„Families whose annual income is above Rs 50,000 are ineligible for AAY and PHH cards „„Families holding AAY & PHH cards but did not fit in below Rs 50,000 per annum income bracket should file ‘Departmental Form C’ and convert them to APL cards „„Govt considering proposal to issue ration-ineligible families a ‘green card’ just as an identity document without any entitlement to ration come criteria. In the notice, Parskar had said, families whose annual income exceeds Rs 5 lakh, have to surrender their ration cards failing which action will be initiated against them by the department. The notice by Parsekar had said that families on a large scale were holding Antyodaya Anna Yojna (AAY) Ration Cards (pink in colour), Priority Household (PHH) Ration Cards (Pink in Colour) and Above Poverty Line (APL) Ration Cards (Yellow in colour), despite being  “ineligible as per the guidelines”. Families whose annual income is above Rs 50,000 are ineligible for the AAY and PHH ration cards and if annual income is above Rs 5 lakh, they are ineligible for the APL ration card, the notice by >Continued on P5 Mobile phone stolen? New Cong has task cut out to face BJP in South Goa tracking system this week TESTING TIME FOR THE GRAND OLD PARTY AHEAD OF THE 2024 LOK SABHA POLLS… PTI NEW DELHI People will be able to block and track their lost or stolen mobile phones across India with the rollout of a tracking system by the government this week, a senior government official said. Technology development body Centre for Department of Telematics (CDoT) has been running the pilot of the CEIR system in some of the telecom circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and North East region, and the system is now ready for pan-India deployment, a DoT official, who did not wish to be identified, told PTI. “CEIR system is scheduled for pan-India launch on May 17,” the official said. When contacted, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Project Board at CDoT Rajkumar Upadhyay did not confirm the date but confirmed that the technology is ready for pan-India deployment. “The system is ready and now it will be deployed across India in this quarter. This will enable people to block and track their lost mobile phones,” Upadhyay said. CDoT has been able to add features to check the use of cloned mobile phones across all telecom networks. The government has made it mandatory to disclose IMEI -- a 15-digit unique numeric identifier -- of mobile devices before their sale in India. The mobile networks will have access to the list of approved IMEI numbers which will check the entry of any unauthorised mobile phones on their network. Telecom operators and CEIR system will have visibility into IMEI number of the device and mobile number linked to it, and the information is being used in some states to track your lost or stolen mobiles through CEIR. THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO n the run up to the 2004 Lok Sabha election, former BJP chief minister late Manohar Parrikar had descended in Salcete with a mission -- try and make inroads in the minority heartland with the hope of making a dent in the Congress vote bank. Reason: The astute former CM must have certainly hoped that even a small shift in the percentage of voters from the Congress would keep the BJP in good stead, assuming the saffron party would do well in the remaining talukas of South Goa. Two decades later, the Congress has a task cut out ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls – get down to Salcete, the I „„Congress faces a challenge of sorts to retain the South Goa seat with half the Pramod Sawant-led Cabinet hailing from South „„Party presently in disarray, has just two MLAs -- Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao and Quepem MLA Alton D’Costa -- in South party’s power house over the years, with a mission to bring the traditional vote back to the party fold; work out social engineering a la Karnataka style and put up a strong leadership before the people to win back their confidence. Indeed, Congress’ landslide victory in the Karnataka As- Goa „„Faces a challenge to sembly election had an echo back home in Goa, triggering jubilations in the Congress camp and outside, even raising hopes amongst the party rank and file that they too can achieve in South Goa in the 2024 Polls. To translate the hopes and aspirations of the party work- establish its credibility post-defections „„Leadership crisis stares with no tall leader around „„South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha says the party needs to learn a lesson from their Karnataka counterparts and unite in the interest of the people ers and people in general, observers say the Congress has indeed a task cut out to face the huge BJP challenge in South Goa. Union Home Minister Amit Shah might have sounded the bugle for the 2024 polls, launching the battle to wrest the South Goa seat, but Congress leaders and political observers, however, appear upbeat, admitting that Karnataka results have taught a lesson or two for the local party workers and leaders to put up an united face against the likes of Modi and Shah, whose rallies and road shows could not stop the Congress coming to power in Karnataka in style. Take note, the Congress faces a challenge of sorts to retain the South Goa seat with half the Pramod Sawant-led Cabinet hailing from South coupled with the fact the Opposition party is in disarray, having just two MLAs -- Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao and Quepem MLA Alton D’Costa post-defections -- in South >Continued on P5