log on to thegoan.net @thegoanonline WEDNESDAY JULY 3, 2024 GOA Facebook.com/thegoan The Goan E-Paper (Playstore/IOS) 13 pages PRICE ` 10 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME X, NO. 16 Nonagenarian leads Loutolim farmers against new Borim bridge 2 GOA MLA to challenge Axis Bank mandate to schools in Court 3 Instagram.com/thegoanonline RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 INFO Did you know the health benefits of rock sugar? 10 Tragedy strikes gathering in UP, stampede kills 116  MOST AMONG DEAD ARE WOMEN  SUFFOCATION PRIMARY REASON PTI IN SHORT >> Builder duped of `40L in cyber fraud PANAJI: In a sophisticated cyber fraud, an unknown person impersonated the son of a construction company owner and tricked its employee into transferring Rs 40.90 lakh to a fraudulent bank account. The Cyber Crime Cell has registered a case.   >> See pg 5 International fake job racket busted PANAJI: The Crime Branch arrested two persons who, in connivance with international fake job racketeers, duped several job seekers from Goa. Some victims managed to return to India from Thailand and Cambodia, where they were allegedly pushed into illicit activities.  >> See pg 3 Duo held for house break-in, thefts PANAJI: Two persons have been nabbed by Colva police in connection with house breaking and thefts in Panaji. The accused are identified as Pawan Gaud from Bhiwandi, Maharashtra and Arman Khan from Delhi. Both have been handed over to Panaji police. NEET-PG likely to be held in mid-Aug NEW DELHI: The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Post Graduate (NEETPG) 2024 is likely to be held mid-August, sources said on Tuesday. The revised date for the medical entrance exam is expected to be announced this week. Australia doubles visa fees for students NEW DELHI: Australia has more than doubled the cost of student visa fees for international students from $710 to $1,600, a move which will impact lakhs of Indians planning to study in this country. WEATHER >> Max: 31.6 C Min: 25.9 C Humidity: 86% TIDES Low: High: 02.18 14.58 09.47 19.58 HATHRAS A stampede at a religious congregation here killed 116 people on Tuesday as devotees suffocated to death and bodies piled atop each other in the worst such tragedy in recent years. The stampede took place as the devotees most of them women -- headed home after a ‘satsang’ in the Hathras district’s Phulrai village, conducted by Baba Narayan Hari who is also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba. Some accounts said some people slipped in the slush, triggering the stampede. Twenty-seven bodies were brought to a hospital in neighbouring Etah district. Senior Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh said 23 of them were women. And 89 lay Relatives mourn outside a hospital where victims of the Hathras stampede were admitted in Etah on Tuesday. dead in Hathras itself. UP chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh put the death toll at 116. Baring seven children and a man, the dead are all women. Singh said 72 have been identified so far. Victims, dead or unconscious, were brought to the Sikandara Rau Trauma Centre in trucks and tempos’’. The bodies lay scattered outside this Hathras health centre as people milled around them. A video clip showed a woman crying as she sat in a truck, amid five or six bodies. Another showed a man and a wom- an lifeless in another vehicle. Clips before the stampede showed people in a large ‘shamiana’, listening to Bhole Baba. The ‘baba’ sat before them on a throne-like chair. District Magistrate Ashish Kumar said the ‘’satsang’’ was a private event for which the sub-divisional magistrate had granted permission. The local administration provided security outside the venue while the arrangements inside were made by organisers, he added. According to Additional Director General of Police (Agra Zone) Anupam Kulshrestha, 40 personnel were deployed at the venue. Eyewitness Shakuntala Devi told PTI Videos that the stampede took place while people were leaving the >Continued on P5 Devotees rushed to touch Baba’s feet, collect soil around his feet HATHRAS: The deadly stampede in Hathras that claimed over 100 lives occurred at a congregation of Baba Narayan Hari alias Saakar Vishwa Hari ‘’Bhole Baba’’, a former policeman who turned into a religious preacher and gained a following. According to Sikandra Rao sub divisional magistrate Ravendra Kumar, the tragedy occurred when devotees tried to get a glimpse of Bhole Baba as the event ended. They also wanted to collect some soil from around the Baba’s feet. SAYS CANACONA WOULD BE IDEAL FOR FOOD PROCESSING & OTHER INDUSTRIES PANAJI Speaker of the Goa legislative Assembly, Ramesh Tawadkar on Tuesday said that he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and pitched to him a ‘food park’ in Canacona. Tawadkar also said that he has officially invited the Prime Minister to inaugurate the ‘Lokotsav’ slated to be held later this year. Citing the backwardness of Canacona, the constituency which he represents as MLA, Tawadkar said the agrarian taluka would be ideal for food processing and related industries within a dedicated food park. A tribal himself, the Speaker has also been spearheading the ‘Lokotsav’ an annual festival of tribal culture and living. He said, this year he wished that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the event and has officially invited him to do the honours. D I S Q UA L I F I C AT I O N PLEAS: Responding to queries from the media, Tawadkar has Tawadkar has officially invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the ‘Lokotsav’ -an annual festival of tribal culture and living -- and hopes he will accept it denied any delay on his part in adjudicating the disqualification pleas against legislators who switched camps from the Congress to the ruling BJP. “The lawyers representing the parties involved are taking time. The hearing of the petitions are progressing normally,” he said. Multiple petitions seeking disqualification of the eight Congress MLAs who defected to the BJP in September 2022, are pending before the Speaker since then. Former Congress State president, Girish Chodankar, who is one of the petitioners, has accused the Speaker of delaying proceedings and even approached SC which has urged Tawadkar to decide the matters expeditiously. Euro 2024: Netherlands cruises past Romania into quarters Soon, govt to roll out biometric attendance for panchayat staff GEL, NIC roped in to assist THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI Empty desks and counters at village panchayats with staff playing truant could soon be a thing of the past with the Directorate of Panchayats set to instill a degree of punctuality and discipline by introducing biometrics to track attendance of employees in all the 191 village bodies across Goa. Some of these village panchayats have already  installed the gadgets of their own volition but there was no centralised monitoring of the attendance, which the department now hopes to put in place with this decision which involves linking the system to a central server. The proposal was discussed and finalised at a meeting earlier this week chaired by Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho where officials were  instructed to gather information as to how many panchayats have the bi- ‘Common cadre’ proposal stuck PANAJI: The State government’s proposal to set up a ‘common cadre’ for State’s village panchayats has been stuck with the Law Department, where it has been sent for vetting and approval. The ‘common cadre’ was mooted by Godinho in the previous Manohar Parrikar government back in February 2018 but the file is still under scrutiny of the law department, more than six years later. ometric machines in working condition and estimate the total requirement. New machines will be procured and the State government’s Goa Electronics Limited (GEL) and the central >Continued on P5 THE GOAN I NETWORK STRUCTURAL CONCERNS: A significant crack emerges on the National Highway flyover at St Cruz on Tuesday. Apparently, the flyover was thrown open for traffic just three years ago.  Narayan Pissurlenkar Mother, 2 minor sons consume floor cleaner in bid to end lives THE GOAN I NETWORK PORVORIM In a shocking incident, a woman forced her minor children to consume a floor cleaner and later consumed it herself in an attempt to end their lives. According to reports, the woman who hails from Gadag-Karnataka but resides in Socorro decided to take the drastic step on Monday night, when she forced her 3-year-old and 5-year-old sons to consume the floor cleaner. She later consumed the floor cleaner herself. All three took ill and the woman later realised the gravity of the situation and informed her husband and relatives. Family members later shifted all three to a hospital in Porvorim, from where the two sons were shifted to Goa Medical College Hospital at Bambolim for further treatment. Porvorim Police registered an offence against the mother under Section 109 of BNS 2023 and Section 8(2) of Goa Children’s Act 2003 for having made attempts to murder her two minor sons. Preliminary investigation reveals that the mother acted impulsively due to illness. All are out of danger. Further investigation is in progress by PSI Lorraine Sequeira under the guidance of Police Inspector Rahul Parab. PANAJI Ahead of Pooja Sharma’s anticipatory bail hearing, five accused in the Assagao house demolition case including alleged conspirator Ahmed Khwaja were granted bail by the Sessions Court on Tuesday. Female bouncers Shaheen Saudagar (38) and Shalan Kallappa Morekar (42), both residents of Candolim, and Bismilla Gorgundagi (44) from Nerul besides Vasco resident Ashfak Sheikh are the remaining accused to be grant- ed conditional bail. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch made six arrests in the case while the main accused Sharma remains at large. Her anticipatory bail plea, filed before the Principal Sessions Court on Monday, will be heard on Wednesday which is when the SIT is also directed to submit a case diary on the investigation. Among the two arrested by Anjuna police, before the transfer of the investigation, the JCB operator Pradeep Rana was granted bail earlier.    SAWANT LEAVES FOR DELHI PANAJI: Amid demands for the transfer of Director General of Police Jaspal Singh, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant left for Delhi on Tuesday. While official reports claim that the CM has an appointment scheduled with Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President J P Nadda, and other central leaders to discuss various issues concerning Goa, sources stated the DGP’s transfer is likely to be a key topic of discussion. “The State government’s report is already under examination by the Ministry of Home Affairs. They will probably want a clear explanation of how the issue originated and the current status of the situation. The transfer order will >Continued on P5 ‘Malcorado’ export to UK raises PM mocks Rahul with ‘balak buddhi’ jibe MODI’S STINGER hopes among mango farmers PTI THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI The success of the first exports of Goa’s famed ‘malcorado’ mango, also called ‘mankurad’ to the United Kingdom recently has opened a window of hope among farmers in the State. The ‘malcorado’ had earned a GI tag in August last year. “A consignment of three quintals (300 kgs) of the much sought after native Goan variety of mango was shipped from the Manohar International Airport and the entire project was coordinated by the Agriculture Products Export Development Agency for the exporters, Kay Bee Exports,” an official of the Agri- culture Department said. The official also said that the experiment to export the malcorado was kick started with the interest shown by the Maharashtra-based Kay Bee Exports whose officials got in touch with the Goa Agriculture Department and then, one thing led to another. APEDA officials then enquired with a number of cul- tivators and then zeroed in on the horticulture farms in the Sattari region. The mangoes for export were eventually sourced from the farm of Dr Francis Pinto located in the Naneli area of Valpoi and managed by Rakesh Singh. The founder and CEO of Kay Bee exports, Prakash Kakkar, himself visited Goa to ensure that the malcorado mango export experiment succeeds, said an official of the Agriculture Department. The success of the project, according to him, bodes well for Goa’s famed malcorado mango which is known to have a very short shelf-life, much lower than Ratnagiri’s ‘Alphonso’ made famous by exports to western countries. 13 Five granted bail in Assagao house demolition case Tawadkar presents innovative ‘food park’ idea to Modi THE GOAN I NETWORK SPORTS NEW DELHI rime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday mounted a stinging counterattack on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi as he mocked him as ‘’balak buddhi’’ (childish mind), accused him of linking Hindus with violence and making false claims in Lok Sabha, and sought stringent action against him to protect parliamentary democracy. Replying to a nearly 18-hourlong discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Lower House, Modi said the Congress and its “ecosystem” are working day and night to impress upon people that the BJP-led NDA has been defeated in the elections despite voters handing his government a historic „„Congress and its “ecosystem” are working to impress upon people that BJP-led NDA has been defeated „„Cong behaving as if it had won 99 out 100 seats and not out of 543 P third-term for stability and continuity. “I will tell Congress leaders to not suppress people’s mandate under the garb of fake victory celebrations,” he said and added the Opposition party was behaving as if it had won 99 out 100 seats and not out of 543, the actual strength of the House. The Congress turned into a “parasitic party” in these polls, feeding off its „„Cong turned into a “parasitic party”, feeding off its partners’ votes to boost its tally „„Instead of conceding defeat, Congress is behaving arrogantly partners’ votes to boost its tally, he said. Instead of conceding defeat, the Congress is behaving arrogantly, he said, adding its cheerful response to the mandate is like a parent encouraging a child who has fallen off a cycle. In his nearly 135-minute speech, which saw continuous slogan-shouting on the Manipur issue and heckling by opposition members, Modi turned his usual combative self after listing successes of his govt since 2014 as he took on the Congress and Gandhi without naming him. “The mandate for the Congress is to sit in the opposition and keep shouting once it runs out of logic,” he said. Asserting that the main opposition party delivered its third worst performance in the national elections and failed to reach 250-mark after the 1984 polls, he took a swipe at Gandhi saying, “Aaj desh inse kah raha hai - tumse na ho payega (Country is telling him that you are not up to it)”. He said the Congress became a “parasitic party” in these polls as its tally of 99 was largely curtsey its allies, while it performed poorly with a strike rate of merely 26 per cent where the party was pitted directly against the BJP or was the main opposition force. Its strike rate rose to 50 per cent where it was a junior partner, he added. The Congress won only two out of 66 seats in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, he said while contrasting the BJP’s performance in Lok Sabha as well as assembly polls in Odisha.