log on to thegoan.net @thegoaneveryday TUESDAY JUNE 6, 2023 GOA 14 pages New police station to be set up at Mardol PANAJI: The government has established a new police station -- Mardol -- in Ponda. A total of 17 villages, namely Adcolna, Betki, Boma, Candola, Cuncoliem, Orgao, Kerim, Verem, Tiurem, Velinga, Volvoi, Vagurbem, Marcela, Priol, Mardol, Marcaim (including Marcaim IDC), and Kundaim (including Kundaim IDC), will fall within the jurisdiction of the newly created Mardol Police Station.   >> See pg 3 Enough water to last till July 15, says CM PANAJI: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday scoffed at rumours of water shortage in the State saying Goa has enough water to meet the requirements till July 15. He also said PRAWAH Authority constituted for distribution of water as per Mahadayi Tribunal Award will be given an office in Panaji as early as possible. Dome in port town to curb coal pollution VASCO: The Jindal South West at the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) will invest Rs 180 crore to construct a dome structure in the port to curb coal pollution. The announcement was made Union Minister of State for Ports and Shipping Shripad Naik on the occasion of World Environment Day celebration at the MPA.  >> See pg 3 Property worth lakhs destroyed in blaze MARGAO: A major fire engulfed a residential house at Curtorim in the wee hours of Monday, leaving the 70year old owner injured and destroying property worth over Rs 7 lakh. In another incident, two kiosks located at Benaulim were gutted in fire causing estimated loss of Rs 3 lakh.  >> See pg 2 200-yr banyan tree uproots at Calangute MAPUSA: On the eve of World Environment Day, a 200-year-old banyan tree came crashing down near a construction site at Cobravaddo in Calangute. Locals blame a real estate developer as he had been carrying out excavation at the site.   >> See pg 3 WEATHER >> Max: Min: Humidity: TIDES 36 C 28 C 72% Low: 05.48 18.42 High: 13.04 23.41 Instagram.com/thegoaneveryday RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 3 14 2 9 Traffic chaos in Margao as schools reopen GOA Goa jewellers claim harassment from outstation police, seek govt help INFO Dry elbows? Check these ingredients when buying the right moisturiser SPORTS Concerned about future of Test cricket: Smith ahead of WTC final  MAJOR GRIDLOCK IN COMMERCIAL CAPITAL, COMBA LEVEL-CROSSING, SUBWAY & PRESENTATION SCHOOL   TRAFFIC POLICE BEAR BRUNT  PARENTS LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE, HOLD KIDS WHILE CROSSING ROADS THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO Children were back to the Margao schools on Monday after a month-long vacation to start a new academic year, but almost all old issues concerning traffic and parking came back to haunt stakeholders, including students, parents and traffic enforcement agencies. Traffic bottlenecks were literally the order of the day, in the heart of the commercial town, near the Comba railway level-crossing and the Subway and the Presentation School near the South Goa District Hospital for want of any solutions to the traffic and parking issues plaguing the city. Traffic personnel attached to Margao Traffic Cell headed by PI Gautam Salunke had a harrowing time in regulating the flow of traffic around the Loyola High School-Fatima Convent School junction near Margao police station. Overcautious parents were seen holding their children while crossing the congested junction for their safe return. Traffic blues near Virginkar pump While the city went without any major traffic blues when the schools reopened Schools reopen, some shut early as heat causes discomfort School children hold hands to wade through the traffic congestion at police station junction on Monday. (Right) A student crosses the Comba level-crossing after it was closed for traffic. (More photos on pg 2) Santosh Mirajkar in the morning, with parents dropping their wards near the educational institutions, trouble began as usual when the schools were closed for the day, throwing all traffic at the police station junction haywire. Even as hundreds of students from Loyola High School and the adjoining Fatima Convent High School came out mid-morning, bumper-to-bumper traffic was witnessed all along the Virginkar petrol pump-Wood- Vishwajit hints at scrapping RPs SAYS ZONING PLANS NEW WAY FORWARD THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday indicated that the government may scrap altogether the land use planning exercise of formulating regional plans for the State and instead resort to creating ‘zoning plans’. “Zoning plans will be the new way forward,” Rane said even as he continued his tirade against the ‘State Level Task Force Committee’ which formulated the Regional Plan of Goa (RPG) 2021, calling it the biggest scam pulled on the people of Goa. Rane said, a report will be placed before the Goa Legislative Assembly in its next session regarding the scam in RP2021 and action will be taken against each member of the since mentorship received during the doctoral training can play a vital role in preparing the faculty for a teaching career in higher edu, it noted. Seven IITs -- Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Guwahati -- figured in the top 10 in the overall rankings. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which was ranked ninth last year, improved its ranking to sixth, while Jawaharlal Nehru University retained its tenth posi- Comba rail crossing & Subway junction A student crossing the tracks at the Comba railway crossing when the level-crossing was closed for train traffic EC for double track work: HC issues notices on GRE plea THE GOAN I NETWORK task force committee. He said, he has discussed the issue with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and also the Party (BJP) about it. Rane has come under severe criticism from greens and civil society for a series of recent amendments to land regulations and building laws, including the insertion of section 17(2) in the TCP Act to empower the Chief Town Planner to make changes in land use >Continued on P5 >Continued on P5 IISC RETAINS BEST VARSITY SPOT FOR 8TH YEAR PTI land Hotel-police station road. Issues discussed at the Margao municipal traffic and road safety committee meeting and suggestions made by representatives of the schools for regulation of traffic had no bearing on the ground on Dayone of the school reopening. PANAJI The Bombay High Court at Goa has issued notice based on a petition filed by Goenchea Raponkarancho Ekvott that has approached the court seeking a halt on railway double tracking work, on grounds that the work is being carried out without any environmental clearance. The plea was filed before the High Court on Monday and the High Court has directed the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and the Central government to file their replies. This is the latest in the series of challenges that have been filed before the High Court seeking a stop on the rail double tracking work. Earlier the High Court had dismissed a petition filed by the village panchayat of Continuing his tirade against the ‘State Level Task Force Committee’ which formulated the Regional Plan of Goa (RPG) 2021, Rane called it the biggest scam pulled on the people of Goa IIT Madras makes it 5 in a row, named India’s best institute NEW DELHI Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras retained the top spot among institutes in the country for the fifth consecutive year, while Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science was adjudged the best university and research institution, according to the education ministry’s National Institutional Ranking Framework. The rankings were announced by Union Minister of State for Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh on Monday. The eighth edition of the NIRF observed that faculty with doctoral qualifications are mostly concentrated in the top 100 institutions. This is a serious handicap The Goan (Playstore) PRICE ` 8 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME VIII, NO.349 Sal pollution: Environmentalist’s study reveals 35 discharge points of raw sewage IN SHORT >> Facebook.com/thegoaneveryday tion in the overall category. In the universities category, IISc Bengaluru bagged the top spot, followed by JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia in second and third spots respectively. Banaras Hindu University, which was ranked sixth last year, improved its rank and bagged the fifth spot. Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Coimbatore, Calcutta University, Vellore Institute of Technology, Aligarh Muslim University and University of Hyderabad bagged the subsequent positions in the universities category. Eight IITs -- Madras, Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Roorkee, Kharagpur, Guwahati and Hyderabad -- were in the top 10 ranks in the engineering institutions category. showed the hardships being faced by the student community to make it to the schools during peak school hours. In fact, when the level-crossing was closed on Monday morning just before the new academic year could begin, one could find students crossing the tracks to make it to their respective schools. The situation reminded one of the tragic incident couple of years ago where in a girl student was hit by a running train as she was trying to cross the tracks when the level-crossing was closed. The adjoining Comba Subway, which has outlived its utility since its commissioning around a decade ago, came in handy for the parents to drop their wards at the educational hub. Traffic congestion was the order of the day near Damodar School when traffic coming out of the Subway trying to take a U-turn to take the ring road to head towards the Old market circle. Though a high-level meeting was held by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat with PWD officials to ease traffic congestion at the Subway junction by having a separate road for the traffic taking the ring road, the ground reality has remained unchanged. Double parking woes on Presentation School road The traffic situation along the Presentation School road adjoining the Hospicio South PANAJI: Schools and higher secondary schools opened on Monday to kick start the new 2023-24 academic year but many shut early on day-one as power failures amid hot and humid weather caused discomfort in the classrooms. School campuses sprung to life again after the long summer vacation brimming with students after almost two months. Parents also voiced concern over the well-being of their wards due to the harsh weather conditions. And with IMD forecasting hot and humid conditions with a large change in maximum temperature expected for next 4-5 days, the government is being urged to delay classes until the monsoon sets in.  >> See pg 2 Goa District Hospital was no different on Day-one of school reopening. >Continued on P5 Students refuse to enter run-down Morpirla school, boycott classes PARENTS SLAM GOVT FOR DELAY IN RENOVATION WORK THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO Boycott of classes marked Day-one of the new academic year for the government-run primary and high school, Morpirla in Quepem on Monday, with students staying away from classrooms to protest against the dilapidated condition of the school building. School children along with their parents braved early-morning pre-monsoon showers outside the school premises, but appeared determined to protest the inordinate delay in taking up the renovation and repair work. Quepem MLA Altone D’Costa and Morpirla deputy Sarpanch Prakash Velip, who joined the protest staged by students and parents won- FIRST DAY NO SHOW Students and parents protest outside the Morpirla school complex on Monday. Bleak future for govt primary schools in Sancorda, Collem, Kirlapal >> See pg 2 dered how only the Morpirla school and other rural schools in the constituency had been neglected by the government. Parents told media that they have decided to keep their wards out of the classrooms since the government has failed to honour the promise to renovate the Morpirla Primary and High School. >Continued on P5 „„Students stay away from classrooms to protest dilapidated condition of school building „„Children along with parents brave early-morning showers, stand outside school „„Claim school is in bad condition and leaking roof can collapse during ensuing rains „„Determined to protest inordinate delay in taking up renovation and repair work