log on to thegoan.net @thegoanonline MONDAY MARCH 18, 2024 GOA Facebook.com/thegoan The Goan E-Paper (Playstore/IOS) 12 pages PRICE ` 10 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME IX, NO.270 Sonsodo imbroglio not over yet, task at hand to address 30-ton wet waste 2 GOA Mapusa civic body has no answer as mounting garbage woes choke town 3 Instagram.com/thegoanonline RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 INFO The Magic of foundation-free makeup 9 SPORTS Man United scores two late goals to stun Liverpool in thrilling FA Cup quarter-final 12 Salcete, Mormugao key Poll heat gets to Congress; to South Goa outcome Patkar, Yuri rush to Delhi ALL EYES ON SOUTH GOA CANDIDATE PARTY LIKELY TO WAIT FOR BJP TO DECLARE ITS CANDIDATE FIRST THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO Anticipating the BJP to name the party candidate for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat on Monday, Goa Congress President Amit Patkar and Opposition leader Yuri Alemao have rushed to the national capital on Sunday. Indications from the Opposition camp, however, show that the Congress would declare party candidate only after the ruling BJP names its candidate for South Goa. Sources in the Congress informed that the Party leadership has taken a decision not to rush with the party candidate for South Goa, but to declare the candidate only after the ruling party does so. The Congress leadership on Sunday was apparently keeping track of the developments in the BJP, more so after reports did the rounds whether Want to get a perspective on the financial markets and understand what the bourses hold for the week ahead? The Goan introduces FINANCE every Monday, breaking into the complexities of the markets and helping our readers make informed decisions. >> Turn to Page 6 IN SHORT >> Mapusa downtown project draft gets NGPDA approval MAPUSA: In a significant development, the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) has greenlit the draft town planning scheme for Downtown Mapusa (Phase I), while opting to halt the scheme for areas of Camarkhazan and Gaunswada (Phase II). The State government has granted its consent to the scheme, prompting the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department to publish the draft scheme for public scrutiny. The public has been invited to submit objections in writing within a two-month period. >> See pg 3 Sancoale locals oppose mega housing project  >> See pg 5 GROUND Sardinha or Viriato? Cong finds itself in a Catch 22 situation ZERO „„Sources claim Congress leadership in no haste to rush with party candidate for South Goa „„Leaders keeping track of developments in BJP after reports surface that party would zero in on candidature of industrialist Pallavi Dempo for South Goa „„Congress has kept its plans, on naming its South Goa candidate, close to its chest after BJP began scouting for a probable woman candidate the party would zero in on the candidature of industrialist Pallavi Dempo for South Goa. Yuri Alemao Amit Patkar Since the BJP began scouting for a probable woman candidate for South Goa, the Congress leadership seemed keeping its plans over the candidate close to its chest. The battle for the Congress ticket for the South Goa seat has now almost narrowed between four-time sitting MP, Francisco Sardinha and social activist and ex-serviceman, Captain Viriato Fernandes. In fact, the Congress leadership has been weighing the options at its disposal in the event the BJP finally decides to field a woman candidate, even though a woman candidate may turn out a remote possibility at this late stage. MARGAO: The Congress leadership finds itself in a predicament how to go about the candidate selection – whether to snatch the ticket from the winning horse, sitting MP Francisco Sardinha, who has held the fort for the party on four previous occasions or give the ticket to Captain Viriato Fernandes to lead the battle for South Goa on behalf of the party. In fact, the party leadership is presently on the job to find out the pros and cons of nominating the sitting MP or his challenger for South Goa in the coming polls. A senior party leader conceded that Sardinha has not lost a single Lok Sabha election since he first made his entry into Parliament from South Goa in the mid-90s. Since then, the veteran Congress leader has won the seat whenever the party had nominated him in South Goa. “The party had literally snatched the ticket from Sardinha in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and lost the seat badly. And, when Sardinha was again nominated for the seat in 2019, the party won the seat”, the leader pointed out. He, however, hastened to add that age is not on the side of the veteran MP, but the INDIA alliance partners as well. >Continued on P5 Soon, Goa to grow exotic produce to meet demand INDO-ISRAEL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE ON HIGH-VALUE FRUITS, VEGGIES TO BE SET UP AT CODAR-PONDA THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI A move that could significantly benefit the farming community, particularly those engaged in horticulture and also help in fulfilling the “exotic” vegetable needs of Goans, a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Vegetables and Flowers, that will focus on producing high-value products, under Indo-Israel project is being set up in Goa. The project will be implemented on 8.8ha of agriculture farm land at Codar-Ponda at a cost of Rs 11 crore, with 40 per cent State share. Earlier last week, Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon and Head of MASHAV, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel Eynat Shelin, laid the foundation stone for CoE, a two-year long project, which includes post-harvest management apart from capacity building initiative for farmers. Speaking to The Goan, Director Agriculture Nevil Alphonso said that the project is a part of an Indo-Israel agreement, wherein the two countries have decided to REVOLUTIONISING AGRICULTURE „„Exotic vegetables like spinach, broccoli, lettuce and other salad crops to be cultivated using Nutrient film technique „„13 fully automated green houses to be set up to produce capsicum, chillies, brinjal, cucumber etc „„Orchids & Anthuriums to be grown with improved technology „„Project to have fully automated irrigation & fertigation systems „„To be implemented on 8.8ha of farm land at Codar-Ponda at a cost of Rs 11 cr with 40% State share „„Primary focus is to produce veggies to fulfill State’s requirement „„In second phase, markets outside Goa to be explored help each other in the field of agriculture. “Goa is one amongst those several States, where Israel government, with their technical support, has and is establishing such centres. After almost two years wait, the Union Government, finally approved the project for Goa,” he said. Alphonso said that under this project 13 fully automated green houses will be set up to produce high yielding and high breed seedlings of capsicum, chillies, brinjal, cucumber etc. “Also, exotic vegetables like spinach, broccolis, lettuce and other salad crops which are in great demand in hotel industry will be cultivated using Nutrient film technique. These high-value and exotic veggies are in high demand amongst Goans and >Continued on P5 Foreign students at Gujarat varsity attacked for offering namaz 2 TALUKAS ACCOUNT FOR OVER 58% ELECTORATE THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI Two of South Goa's parliamentary seat's seven talukas -- Mormugao and Salcete -- account for over 58 per cent of the constituency's electorate thus making them crucial in the eventual outcome at the ensuing Lok Sabha elections slated for May 7. Interestingly, neither of the two major contending political parties -- the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Opposition Congress which currently holds the seat -- are as yet decided on who their candidates will be. The third political party of note in the fray -- Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) -- has named Rupert Pereira who was their candidate from Curtorim in the 2022 Assembly elections. The BJP has indicated that their South Goa candidate will in all likelihood be revealed on Monday (March 18) and the Congress is said to have adopted the strategy that it will announce its nominee only after its rival does. Both, Mormugao and Sal- GOVT DESIGNATES BABUS TO MAN ELECTION DUTIES PANAJI: The State government's home department on Sunday designated bureaucrats, engineers and officials from various departments to shoulder Lok Sabha election related duties on the law-and-order front and also made public their contact details including cell phone numbers. These government servants, some drawn from Central government offices operating in the State, will officiate either as 'sector officers' or members of 3-member 'flying squads' and 'Static Surveillance teams' one for each assembly segment. cete account for 12 of the 20 assembly segments that make up the South Goa seat and aggregately have 3.48 lakh voters according to the rolls published by the Election Commission of India. Salcete on its own has eight assembly segments -- Nuvem, Curtorim, Fatorda, Margao, Benaulim, Navelim, Velim and Cuncolim -- and an electorate that is 2.37 lakh strong. Once considered a Congress bastion, the taluka in recent years has opened up to other political parties and in the 2022 assembly elections, elected three MLAs of the Congress, two of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), one of the BJP, one of the Goa Forward Party and one Independent. However, following defections months after the polls, the BJP now has three MLAs in Salcete and Congress is left with just one -- Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao from Curtorim. Legislative strength, however, may not be of much consequence for the Lok Sabha elections as often in the past voters have tended to adopt voting patterns in the national election which are vastly different from how they voted in the State elections. As for Mormugao, which has four assembly segments -- Mormugao, Vasco, Dabolim and Cortalim -- and a voter strength of 1.11 lakh, it >Continued on P5 RCB ARE WPL CHAMPIONS 1 Students hailing from different foreign countries were assaulted allegedly by a group of persons in the Gujarat University hostel in Ahmedabad for offering namaz in the facility's building, police said on Sunday. 2 Two students one from Sri Lanka and another from Tajikistan were hospitalised after the incident which took place at the A-block hostel on Saturday night. One of the alleged attackers has been identified so far, they said. 3 An FIR was registered against 20-25 individuals, and nine teams have been formed to conduct a probe into the incident, Police Commissioner GS Malik said. Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi held a meeting with police officers and directed them to take strict and judicial action in the matter, Malik said.  >> See pg 7 ON CLOUD NINE: A clinical Royal Challengers Bangalore won the Women’s Premier League 2024 title with an eight-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals in the final at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Sunday. Batting first, DC were bowled out for 113 in 18.3 overs. RCB chased the target of 114 with three balls to spare. (Report on pg 12) Balli mishap: Family of 12 paid driver `5K to travel to Kolhapur DEATH TOLL RISES TO 2, DRIVER BOOKED FOR DRUNKEN DRIVING THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO Even as the death toll in the Hordem-Balli NH-66 road accident rose to two with the death of a male person, police investigations have revealed that members of the 12-member family had taken a lift on the ill-fated mini-truck from Mangaluru to proceed to Kolhapur in Maharashtra. The 29-year old vehicle driver Rakesh Gore, a native of Ratnagiri, has been arrested by the Cuncolim police for carrying the passengers in an unauthorised way and endangering their lives. He has also been book for driving in a rash and negligent manner under the influence of liquor after he is alleged to have consumed alcohol after the vehicle entered Goa. A total of seven persons, including five children are still >Continued on P5 Political parties turn to WhatsApp, AAP received highest donations from Bajaj Group: Data POLITICAL PARTIES & HOW MUCH THEY GOT Influencers as campaign begins AGENCIES PTI NEW DELHI As the country gears up for the world's biggest electoral exercise, messaging platforms like WhatsApp and social media influencers have emerged as the go to mediums for political parties to influence voter psychology, ad gurus and political analysts say. In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, political parties are extensively using social media to propagate their achievements and seek support from voters. BJP is trying to engage with the voters by sending them a BJP is trying to engage with the voters by sending them a personalised ''Letter from the Prime Minister'' while Rahul Gandhi interacts with people and respond to their queries on his WhatsApp group personalised ''Letter from the Prime Minister'' on WhatsApp which has over 500 million active users monthly in India highlighting the achievements of the Narendra Modi government and seeking feedback from voters. The party launched the website ''My First Vote For Modi,'' which allows visitors to pledge to vote for Modi and submit a video stating the reason behind their choice. The website also hosts several short videos highlighting the development work done under the NDA government. On the other hand, the Congress runs a Rahul Gandhi WhatsApp group in which the leader is said to interact with people and respond to their queries. The circulation of WhatsApp info is monitored at the district level to ensure it reaches the masses and corrects the party's voter base. NEW DELHI he Bajaj group is the largest donor of electoral bonds to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) according to the party’s submission to the Election Commission of India (ECI) which subsequently went to the Supreme Court and was published by the poll body on its website on Sunday. The list includes the names of the donors of electoral bonds worth Rs 5.75 crores received by the party between April 23, 2018 to May 25, 2019. According to Supreme Court mandated data published by the EC earlier this week, the AAP has received a total of Rs T „„BJP encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,986.5 crore „„Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore „„Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore „„BRS was the fourth largest recipient with Rs 1,322 crore 65.45 crores between April 18, 2019 to July 26, 2023. Among political parties, AAP is the 11th highest recipient of electoral bonds. According to the data made available on Sunday, Bajaj „„DMK received Rs 656.5 crore, including Rs 509 Group has donated Rs 3 crores to AAP in three instalments of Rs 1 crore each – all on April 10, 2019. The Bajaj group has donated a total of Rs 48 crores as electoral bonds to all political crore from lottery king „„BJD encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 944.5 crore „„YSR Congress Rs 442.8 crore, TDP Rs 181.35 crore „„SP got Rs 14.05 crore, Akali Dal Rs 7.26 crore, AIADMK Rs 6.05 crore, National Conference Rs 50 lakh parties. EC data also showed that the top purchaser of electoral bonds Future Gaming and Hotel Services donated Rs 509 crore to Tamil Nadu's ruling party DMK. The donations given by Future Gaming, whose owner, “lottery king” Santiago Martin, has been under the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) scanner, accounted for more than 77% of the total receipts from electoral bonds of Rs 656.5 crore disclosed by the DMK. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre received the maximum funds through these bonds at Rs 6,986.5 crore since they were introduced in 2018, followed by West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress (Rs 1,397 crore), Congress (Rs 1,334 crore) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (Rs 1,322 crore), according to the latest data shared by the EC.