log on to thegoan.net @thegoanonline MONDAY APRIL 22, 2024 GOA Facebook.com/thegoan 12 pages PRICE ` 10 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME IX, NO.305 Lok Sabha polls: Withdrawal of candidates today PANAJI: The roster on the EVMs for both the North and South Goa Lok Sabha seats for which Goans will vote on May 7 will get finalised on Monday evening when another crucial stage of the election process will be complete -- withdrawal of nominations. Earlier on last Saturday the Returning Officers of both the constituencies had conducted scrutiny and found the nomination papers of eight candidates each valid. >> See pg 3 Assagao locals say ‘no’ to nightclub MAPUSA: In a fervent display of community solidarity, residents of Assagao met once again on Sunday to vehemently oppose the establishment of a nightclub within their vicinity. This collective action follows a recent decision by the villagers to stand against the encroachment of nightlife culture in their tranquil locale.   >> See pg 3 New guidelines to pursue PhD issued NEW DELHI: Students with four-year undergraduate degrees can now directly appear for NET and pursue PhD, according to University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Jagadesh Kumar. To pursue a PhD with or without a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), the candidates will require a minimum of 75 per cent marks or equivalent grades in their four-year undergraduate course. GOA Modi’s promise to implement women’s quota will take 10 years: Khalap THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI In a major reprieve for Goans with Portuguese nationality, many of who had their Indian passports ‘revoked’ following a 2022 MEA circular, the Centre has acceded to the Goa government’s request and made them eligible to acquire Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status. The revised circular was issued by the MEA on April 4, in which it states, “MHA has now decided to accept “Revocation Certificate” as an alternative document in lieu of Surrender Certificate in case of Indian Nationals hailing from erstwhile Portuguese territories in India (Goa, Daman & Diu) who have acquired Portuguese nationality as per Portuguese Nationality Law, Passport tangle: Sawant thanks Centre for quick decision PANAJI: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has thanked the Centre for accepting the request of his government and taking a quick decision. Sawant said, it would provide huge relief to thousands of Goans and their families. The Ministry of External Affairs had issued a memorandum to Passports Authorities in India and abroad stating that the MHA has now decided to accept “Revocation Certificate’ as an alternative document in lieu of Surrender Certificate in case of Indian nationals hailing from erstwhile Portuguese territories in India (Goa, Daman & Diu), who have acquired Portuguese nationality, he said. and who have been issued “Revocation Order” by the RPOs instead of Surrender Certificate.” The development clears the decks for several hundred Goans with Portuguese citizenship to regain their OCI status. They had earlier lost the right after Regional Pass- Max: 34 C Min: 27 C Humidity: 78% TIDES Low: High: 04.04 10.31 16.14 21.59 Benefits of oatmeal and tea tree oil for your skin port Officers (RPOs) had invoked the 2022 MEA circular and ‘revoked’ their passports. With the 2022 circular, MEA had issued instructions to passport authorities to mandatorily issue a “revocation order” for passports of such individuals who held two passports, instead of the earlier ‘surrender certificate’. The RPO in Goa, Nijo Varghese, has confirmed the latest MEA circular. The Goan in November last year had broken the story of the 2022 MEA circular, on the basis of which RPOs had issued “revocation orders” instead of ‘surrender certificates’ to hundreds of Goans who had acquired Portuguese Nationality, rendering them ineligible for the OCI status. The explanation of MEA for drastic action was that the AGENCIES A stretch of the pavement on the 18th June road that has sunk after the heavy downpour on Saturday. Amit Soyru WEATHER >> INFO BJP ruling Goa with support of Christians: Modi A DAY AFTER… MALE: Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has secured a “supermajority” in Parliament by winning over 60 seats in Sunday’s crucial parliamentary election, seen as a litmus test for the pro-Beijing politician whose policies are being closely watched by both India and China amidst regional power dynamics.  >> See pg 7 NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday said Tihar authorities were “lying” about specialist doctors examining Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, while his wife Sunita Kejriwal alleged that he was being denied insulin for diabetes as “they want to kill” him. RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 SPORTS One-run loss to KKR heaps further misery on RCB MHA TO ACCEPT ‘REVOCATION CERTIFICATE’ AS ALTERNATIVE DOCUMENT IN LIEU OF ‘SURRENDER CERTIFICATE’ Maldives Prez wins ‘super majority’ Tihar officials ‘lying’: AAP Instagram.com/thegoanonline 3 12 2 10 woman Govt allows OCI eligibility to 70-yr-oldpool of found in those with revoked passports blood at Vasco S Goa campaign to intensify as BJP, Cong make final bid to woo voters IN SHORT >> The Goan E-Paper (Playstore/IOS) Smart City pavements cave in, raise queries on work quality THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI Raising serious questions over the work quality and public safety, the redesigned pavements freshly lined with interlocking tiles under the ‘Smart City Mission’ have caved in at several places in Panaji city. The damage to the pavements is visibly an aftermath and impact of Saturday morning’s burst of rain which had almost the entire network of city roads flooded with shindeep water. At one spot near the old Education Department building on 18th June Road, a nearly 10 metre long patch of the pavement was washed off.  And, at yet another spot a few meters away from the Don Bosco campus, a one-square meter patch had sunk in, raising questions on the safety of Pedestrians using them. Earlier on Saturday, after the flood waters receded, there were potholes on roads after the patchwork by contractors executing ‘Smart City’ works had got washed away. These have now been temporarily filled with a mix of rubble, mud and road metal. Also, in several cases, the cement edges of manholes for freshly built sewerage chambers have also given way after Saturday’s rains. NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the Christian community in Goa for their overwhelming contribution even as he said the Bharatiya Janata Party is a political movement that brings people from all walks of life together. In a special interview with Asianet News about Lok Sabha elections, Modi said BJP is with Christians. “The BJP has ruled Goa for long with the backing of various Christian groups”, he said. Modi also spoke about Christians in northeastern States where Christian leaders and ministers have key positions in the BJP regimes. “Christian sects are well-supported there. Efforts are being made to maintain their unity rather than placing the blame on Christian sect members who do not support them”, he added. Additionally, Narendra Modi said that Pope Francis might come to India next year. “I had a long discussion with the Pope when I went to the Vatican... He has a lot of information about the functioning of my government. We discussed many things... I asked him to come to India. Maybe he will come to India next year,” Modi said. Constitution of India does not allow holding Indian citizenship and citizenship of a foreign country simultaneously. However, Indian origin foreign nationals acquire OCI status which though not a full-fledged citizenship of India, it gives them rights except political and other restrictions such as acquisition of agri property. It also authorises them to live and work in India. Earlier this month, two Goans had filed petitions before the Bombay High Court at Goa challenging the revocation of their Indian passports by the the regional passport office in Panaji. Through these petitions, they had denied suppressing information and claim that they had renewed their Indian passports after transcribing their births in Portugal. Police team swings into action, incident points to murder THE GOAN I NETWORK VASCO In a tragic incident, a 70-yearold woman was found in a pool of blood in her room at Kharewado, Vasco on Sunday. The woman identified as Gayatri Marathe was living alone. The incident came to light when a girl who had gone to visit the woman found her lying in the pool of blood and informed the neighbours who later alerted the Vasco police. Harish Verenkar, a relative of the woman who spoke to The Goan said “she is my mother’s sister and was staying alone. She would come to our house once a month. I got a call that someone had stabbed her. We are not sure if there was a robbery attempt and as most of her belongings are there”. The incident came to light when a girl who had gone to visit the woman found her lying in the pool of blood and informed the neighbours who later alerted the Vasco police Another neighbour said he got to know of the incident only after a girl raised an alarm. “Our family had gone for a wedding and had just returned. I had switched on the TV when a girl came running informing about a lady lying dead in the house. We were neighbours and shared cordial relation and I am not sure when the incident may have occurred”, he said. Vasco police have begun a preliminary investigation into the incident. Big drop in HSSCE results, 10.47% less than last year  PASS PERCENTAGE RECORDED AT 84.99  GIRLS FARE BETTER THAN BOYS AGAIN  COMMERCE STREAM EXCELS THE GOAN I NETWORK PORVORIM The Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) declared the results for the Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination conducted in March marking a significant decline in the overall pass percentage compared to that of last year. According to the Board, this year’s overall pass percentage stands at 84.99%. Out of 17,511 candidates who answered the examination, 14,884 were successful. Last year, the Board recorded a pass percentage of 95.46%, thereby marking a significant decrease of 10.47% this year. HSSC examinations were conducted by the Board from February 28 to March 18 through 28 examination centres across the State. Speaking to the media after releasing the results, Board Chairman Bhagirath disclosed that girls outshone boys yet again this year. While 88.06 per cent girls cleared the exams, 81.59 per cent boys were successful. Disclosing the numbers he said 9235 girls appeared for the exams and 8132 passed, while of 8276 boys 6752 were Students not focused: Shetye PORVORIM: Lamenting over the poor results, Chairman Bhagirath Shetye attributed this year’s decline to two primary factors. Firstly, he noted a lack of focus among students and secondly, there has been a noticeable decrease in reading habits, both among students and teachers. He said, despite the presence of libraries in high secondary schools, only a small number of students engage in reading, resulting in poor writing skills as well. He also said low results could be because of the change in exam pattern in the previous years. successful. Students from commerce stream performed exceptionally well this year also with an overall passing percentage of 90.78. Of the 5,194 students who appeared in the commerce stream, 4715 students passed while in the arts stream out of 4156 students 3538 students managed to clear the examination. Arts stream recorded a pass percentage of 86.33.16 while the science stream registered a pass percentage of 82.41. In the vocational stream 1854 were successful. Shetye also disclosed that 2980 students availed sports merit marks and 180 students passed the exam with the help of these marks. The tentative date for supplementary examination will be May 16. Shetye also disclosed that the SSC exam results would be declared by mid-May. The HSSC examinaiton results were supposed to be declared at 5 pm but due to a technical glitch the Board postponed them until 8 pm. Hundreds of students who were anxiously anticipating the online release of results at 5 pm were left disheartened. LS elections: Phase-1 records Congress unveils 21-point manifesto tailored for Goa less voters compared to 2019 Re-start of mining THE GOAN I NETWORK AGENCIES NEW DELHI Lok Sabha elections 2024 seem to be facing a ‘turnout downturn’ with a fewer voters showing up in Phase 1 this time than in 2019. The polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections concluded on Friday and the numbers issued on Saturday show that across almost all the 102 constituencies, the turnout was lower than in 2019. Only four seats reported a higher turnout than last time. According to data from the Election Commission the av- Lakshadweep highest, Nawada lowest NEW DELHI: In terms of voter turnout, the lone seat in Lakshadweep saw the highest turnout at 83.88% while Bihar’s Nawada saw the lowest turnout at 43.79%. However, in both these seats, the turnout this time was lower than last time. In 2019, among these 102 seats, Arunachal East had the highest turnout at 87.03%. Nawada was the lowest turnout seat even in 2019, but its performance was better at 49.73%. erage turnout on the 102 seats was around 66.38% this time while in 2019 it was 70.71%. Four seats where the turnout was higher than the last time are Shillong (11%), Bastar (1.3%), and Jorhat and Vel- lore (both 2%). In 2019, Shillong’s turnout was 61.6%, which increased to 72.26% this time. In Assam’s Jorhat, the voter attendance improved to 79.48% from 77.57% in 2019. PANAJI ith INDIA bloc adopting a strategy to focus on local issues, the Congress on Sunday released a 21-point manifesto mainly promising that their two MPs with steadfastly pursue the Mhadei issue, protect Goa’s environment, give jobs for youth and ensure political quota for STs. Both the Congress candidates -- Ramakant Khalap and Viriato Fernandes -- were present at the Congress headquarters when GPCC chief Amit Patkar, Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao and MLAs Elton DiCosta and Carlos Alvares-Ferreira jointly released the W PANAJI: Congress manifesto also laid stress on re-start of mining which the BJP is responsible for shutting down here in Goa. The manifesto said, the BJP governments both here and at the Centre have only made umpteen promises to restart mining in Goa but till date has failed to do so. manifesto. In scathing remarks against the State and Central BJP governments, Patkar said, corruption, the drug trade and prostitution are increasing in Goa and there is fear among people that Goa’s very identity will be lost.  “When they win, both our MPs will raise these issues consistently in the Lok Sabha and with the Centre to get them resolved quickly,” he said. Patkar said it is crucial to protect the environment, forest, wildlife and Mhadei river in which the BJP governments have failed. “They have also miserably failed in creating jobs. Highways built are being tom-tommed to divert public attention from these issues affecting the common man,” Patkar said, adding that facilitating coal transportation to help crony-capitalists was the real motto in executing the big-ticket highway projects and not in the interest of the State’s people. Patkar also said that canceling the three controversial linear projects in South Goa and curbing coal transport will be top priority for the Congress MPs. Revive tourism   As Goa’s economy depends much on the tourism sector, the Congress said it is necessary to revive the industry even as traditional Goan occupations like fishing needed to be protected. Dual citizenship It is very important to give the right of dual citizenship to Goans who opt for Portuguese nationality in pursuit of livelihoods abroad, the Congress said, adding that the MPs will raise these and the issue of political reservation for Scheduled Tribes (ST) to get them resolved. Meanwhile, Opposition >Continued on P5