log on to thegoan.net @thegoanonline TUESDAY JULY 8, 2025 GOA Wheels of freedom: A journey from polio to empowerment IN SHORT >> Anjuna, Vagator clubs flout noise norms MAPUSA: As night descends over the otherwise serene beach village of Anjuna, the beats get louder, the parties wilder and the rules – simply ignored. Despite stringent directives from the Goa State Pollution Control Board, several clubs in Anjuna and Vagator continue to blare loud music well beyond the mandated 10 pm deadline.   >> See pg 3 FDA destroys 400 tiffin meals at Parra MAPUSA: FDA officials raided an establishment preparing and supply tiffin service in Britto waddo in Parra and destroyed 400 meals which were prepared in unhygienic conditions. The premises were also sealed.  >> See pg 5 Missing minor girls traced in Nasik MARGAO: The two minor girls, who were kidnapped from Cuncolim last week, have been traced and rescued by the Cuncolim police at the Nasik railway station in Maharashtra. Police have arrested two persons, a minor boy and a major, who were accompanying the two girls.  >> See pg 2 The Goan E-Paper (Playstore/IOS) 14 pages PRICE ` 10 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME XI, NO. 21 ST leaders demand lifting of restraining order on UTAA, GGMS >> See pg 3 Facebook.com/thegoan 2 GOA WRD moves to strengthen Amthane dam with dual-gate system 3 SHWETA KAMAT MAHATME THE GOAN I PANAJI For the second year in a row, the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) is set to relax the JEE criteria for admissions to the engineering degree programme seats in Goa. The decision comes as over 26 per cent seats are still vacant across four engineering colleges after the first round of admissions ended on July 5. As usual, almost all seats in the State-run Goa Engineering College at Farmagudi were filled, while vacant seats are spread across private colleges --  Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna; Don Bosco College of Engineering, Fatorda; Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering and Information Technology (RIEIT), Shiroda and Agnel Institute of Technology and Design, Assagao. For the first time in 2024 after around two decades, the government had altered the criteria for admissions to the engineering seats, replacing JEE with Goa Common En- ADMISSION ROUND II NOW CALLING „„Second round of admissions are expected by the end of July or first week of August „„Students who did not answer JEE for whatever purpose but have cleared Class XII science, and want to apply for engineering, can opt in second round „„Students can seek admissions provided they meet all other criteria set by AICTE, like minimum score of 45% in PCM at Class XII for general students and 40% for those in reserved categories trance Test (GCET). However, with no takers for around 500 seats last year, the DTE allowed students, who had not answered JEE, to fill the vacant seats. Total 50 seats were filled. A senior DTE official said that after the first round of admission,  of the over 1,500 seats in the five colleges, around 400 were left vacant. The official said that the number may go up once the admission on NEET based courses commence -- the schedule for which is yet to be announced by the Central government. “There are many students who have opted for engineering as a second option. If they get into medical school, they will withdraw from engineering, resulting in more vacant seats,” the official said, adding “we cannot allow so many engineering seats to fall va- 29.5 C 25 C 92% Hypotension : Effective home remedies for low blood pressure FLASHBACK >> For the first time in 2024 after around two decades, the govt had altered the criteria for admissions to the engineering seats, replacing JEE with GCET. However, with no takers for around 500 seats, last year, DTE had allowed students who had not answered JEE to fill the vacant seats cant and hence have decided that this year too, we will grant JEE relaxation”. The official also said that the proposal will be moved to the State government soon for approval. “So any students, who did not answer JEE for whatever purpose, but has cleared Class XII science, and wants to apply for engineering, can opt in the second round,” the officer said. The second round RUSSIAN MINISTER SHOOTS HIMSELF DEAD HOURS AFTER PUTIN FIRES HIM 1 Russian's transport minister Roman Starovoy was found dead Monday, hours after being dismissed by President Vladimir Putin, in what officials said was an apparent suicide. Starovoy shot himself in a Moscow suburb after the dismissal was announced, Russian news agencies were quoted as saying. The Russian authorities said his body was found in his car. The dismissal came after a weekend of travel chaos when airports grounded hundreds of flights due to the threat of drone attacks from Kyiv. Starovoy served as Russia's transport minister since May 2024 and was fired in a presidential decree earlier in the day that gave no reason for his dismissal. >> See pg 9 2 Meat worth `6.75L seized on way to Goa Max: Min: Humidity: INFO 11 OVER 26% SEATS STILL UP FOR GRABS ACROSS 4 COLLEGES PANAJI: The Cyber Crime Cell of Goa Police on Monday arrested a Maharashtra resident for allegedly duping a Goa resident of Rs 2.45 crore after promising high returns on stock market investments. According to the statement issued by the police, the accused Sanjay M Chavan has been placed under arrest.   >> See pg 3 WEATHER >> RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 DTE to relax JEE criteria as Engg seats remain vacant Goa resident duped of `2.45 crore BELAGAVI: In a major crackdown on illegal cattle meat transportation, the Ramnagar Police have seized 1,930 kilos of beef worth about Rs 6.75 lakh which was being transported from Belagavi towards Goa early Monday morning. A police team led by Police Sub-Inspector Mahantesh Naik intercepted a pickup near Ramnagar Church Circle, while the vehicle was en route from Shivaji Circle, Ramnagar towards Goa.  >> See pg 3 Instagram.com/thegoanonline MONSOON DELICACY: A woman sells olmi (wild edible mushrooms) in Panaji on Monday. Available only during the monsoon, these highly prized mushrooms were being sold at Rs 600 per portion.  Narayan Pissurlenkar 25 cr workers plan strike on Wed PTI NEW DELHI More than 25 crore workers engaged in sectors ranging from banking, insurance, postal to coal mining, highway and construction are expected to go on a nationwide general strike on Wednesday, potentially disrupting services across the country. A forum of 10 central trade unions and their associates has called for a general strike or ''Bharat Bandh'' to “oppose the anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national pro-corporate policies of the government”. In a statement, the forum has called for making “the nationwide general strike a grand success”, and said preparations have been taken up in earnest by unions in all sectors of formal and informal/unorganised economy. “More than 25 crore workers are expected to take part in the strike. Farmers and rural workers will also join the protest across the country,” said Amarjeet Kaur from All India Trade Union Congress. 3 of admissions are expected by the end of July or first week of August. The official said that the student can seek admissions provided they meet all other criteria for admissions set by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), like minimum score of 45 per cent in physics-chemistrymathematics (PCM) at their Class XII board exams for general students and 40 per cent for those in reserved categories. “JEE score is only to draw the merit list. Eligibility criteria set by the AICTE is different like PCM score. So, if students meet the eligibility criteria, there is no harm in allowing them to apply for the vacant seats,” official said, adding a total of 1800 students were eligible for engineering based on merit list. Keeping with the trend, this year too, students have shown a preference for information technology and computer engineering, with very few opting for mechanical and electrical engineering. SPORTS Mulder passes up shot at Lara’s 400 to begin bowling out Zimbabwe twice 14 SAG gets SC notice as candidate alleges bias in coach pick Apex court stays HC order THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) in response to a plea by a woman candidate contesting for the post of weightlifting coach, who alleged bias in the selection process by her former coach, against whom she had previously filed a harassment complaint. A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and KV Viswanathan also stayed the operation of the impugned order of the High Court of Bombay in Goa, which allowed the selection process to continue as per original schedule, without setting aside Goa government's order for re-conducting the tests in which discrimination was alleged. Advocate Salvador Santosh Rebello appeared for the petitioner and submitted that in one of the selection tests, petitioner's former coach, who harassed her and against whom she made complaints, was an examiner. As such, a representation was made to the Goa government, which found in favour of the petitioner and decid- Advocate Salvador Santosh Rebello who appeared for the petitioner submitted that in one of the selection tests, the petitioner's former coach, who harassed her and against whom she made complaints, was an examiner ed to re-conduct the test. The High Court however nullified the government's decision and ordered that the authorities proceed with the written test (the final test). SAG had issued the advertisement for the post in February, 2024. The recruitment process involved three stages: physical fitness test, skill test/ practical exam, and written test. On discovering that one of the examiners in the test was not certified in Weightlifting but had experience in Tug of War sports and was a bodybuilding coach, the petitioner made a representation to the Government of Goa. As per claims, the said examiner >Continued on P5 Holiday scam foiled, police help couple get back `6L COUPLE TRICKED WITH ‘GIFT VOUCHER’ WIN THE GOAN I NETWORK MAPUSA A Delhi-based holiday tour company's attempt to dupe an elderly couple from Calangute of Rs 6 lakh under the pretext of gift vouchers and holiday packages failed, when Anjuna police froze the company’s bank account and enabled the couple get back their money. According to information, the incident took place when the couple had purchased a car in October 2024. In April this year, they received a call from a woman claiming that they had won a gift voucher as a lucky customer. The couple was asked to visit a hotel in Anjuna to collect the voucher. Following repeated calls from the woman, the couple went to the hotel in the last week of April. The suspects had hired a hall in the hotel and there were many people. The woman was not there, but two men welcomed them. Without saying anything about their gift voucher, the two persons started giving in- THE RS 6 LAKH SWINDLE „„Elderly couple gets call claiming they had won a gift voucher „„Invited to a hotel in Anjuna, instead enticed into buying a holiday package by paying Rs 25,000 „„Suspects take complainant's credit card during the meeting, later formation about the company's holiday package to travel all over India and stay in luxurious hotels. The suspects claimed there would be a membership fee of Rs 26,000 and a monthly fee of Rs 25,000 for the package. Thinking that this holiday package would be good for their relatives who are abroad and come down to Goa, the couple decided to become members and paid Rs 25,000 as membership fee to the suspects. At that time, the suspects asked the complainant for his misuse it to withdraw Rs 5.75 lakh „„Couple discovers fraud, lodge online complaint with their bank; also alert Anjuna police „„Police act swiftly, freeze company’s bank account „„Company contacts police, returns full amount credit card and later returned it. However, they did not receive the gift voucher at the hotel. Then in May, the couple planned to visit to Dubai to see their children and called the suspects for flight tickets. However, as they did not receive any response from them, they bought their own tickets and went to Dubai. While they were in Dubai, they found out that Rs 5.75 lakh had been withdrawn from their bank account. They >Continued on P5 Historic first: Citizens to Loliem Comunidade to lease 27.3 lakh sqmts to 7 projects self-enumerate in census PTI NEW DELHI In the country's first digital census, enumerators will collect the data of citizens using mobile applications on their Android and Apple phones, they said. It will also be the first time in the country that citizens will get a chance to self-enumerate through a dedicated web portal which will be available for both the phases of Census -- Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO) and Population Enumeration. "Digital Census initiative is a transformational step towards modernising the Cen- sus process. For the first time, technology will be used to collect data and send it electronically to the central server. This will result in early availability of Census data," an official said. Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage. HLO will commence from April 1, 2026 followed by phase 2 starting on February 1, 2027 in which Population Enumeration (PE) will be conducted. Castes of household members will be enumerated in the ensuing Census. BERNARD FERNANDES THE GOAN I CANACONA W ith the Loliem-Polem Comunidade resolving to allot land to five different projects on Sunday, one project in April and another project in 2023, the Comunidade will effectively be parting with 33% of its entire land of 81 lakh sq mtrs. What’s more, the Comunidade is open to evaluating new proposals that align with its goals and priorities. THE PROJECTS Earlier in October 2023, the Loliem-Polem Communidade decided to lease out 10 lakh sq mtrs to the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) to set up a Film City on its land at Bhagwati Plateau. Then in April this year, the Comunidade had approved 1 lakh sq mtrs of land to an agro-based company, Mallikarjun Multifruits Processing Producer Company Limited, which has Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar as one of its directors, to set up 8 different fruits processing units and plantations in Madditolop area of Loliem-Polem village. On Sunday, the Comunidade resolved to approve the application of Concord Innovations Pvt Ltd seeking 15 lakh sq mtrs of land to set up DATE Oct 15, 2023 Apr 6, 2025 July 6, 2025 July 6, 2025 July 6, 2025 PROJECT Film City 8 Processing Units 100 MW Solar Power Plant Sainik School GTDC Facilities, Cricket Stadium, and Comunidade Complex TOTAL a 100 MW solar power plant for the State. The Comunidade has also approved to allot 50,000 sq. mtrs of land to set up a Sainik School for the State, following the request of Vadenagar Shikshan Seva Mandal, Vasco. LAND ALLOTTED 10 lakh sq. mtrs 1 lakh sq. mtrs 15 lakh sq. mtrs 50,000 sq. mtrs 80,000 sq. mtrs 27.3 lakh sq. mtrs On the same day, the Communidade then decided to lease out about 80,000 sq mtrs for three projects, a cricket stadium sought by the Goa Cricket Association, Wayside Amenities for tourists following a request from the Goa Tourism Development Corpo- ration and an office complex (shops and multipurpose hall) for the Comunidade of Loliem. With these seven projects, the Loliem-Polem Comunidade is effectively handing out a total of 27.3 lakh sq mtrs of its total land of 81 lakh sq mtrs. THE JUSTIFICATION When contacted, Loliem-Polem Comunidade President Vishwajeet Warik justified the allotment of the Loliem-Polem Comunidade's “land leasing initiative”. “The Comunidade will carefully consider each request for land on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the potential benefits and impact on our community,” said Warik. When asked if the Comunidade would put a stop to further allotment of land or if it would consider further requests for land, Warik replied: “While we've already allocated 33% of our total land for developmental purposes, we are open to evaluating new proposals that align with our goals and priorities.’ To another query on whether the Comunidade would make land available for future generations, Warik said the Comunidade is committed to >Continued on P5