Goa Villagers Up In Arms Against Housing Project
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008041455001200.htm
Prakash Kamat

Aldona Bachao Abhiyan fighting to prevent urbanisation of village

PANAJI: Residents of Aldona, a sleepy village of north Goa, are up in arms against a proposed mega housing project. The Aldona Bachao Abhiyan (ABA), a core group formed by the villagers, is gearing for a struggle armed with a fresh government notification on March 13 on the role of the ward development committees, village panchayats, gram sabhas and the zilla panchayats in the planning process. Renowned writer and ABA spokesperson Maria Aurora Couto said on Sunday that the Abhiyan had asked the Aldona panchayat to instruct promoters of the housing project to stop the work, pending grant of permission by the Chief Town Planner as required under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974.

The ABA is in the process of addressing a petition to the Chief Town Planner requesting him not to issue any licence under Section 17-A of the TCP Act. Ms. Couto said the petition would be signed by the locals who would like to see development that would be beneficial to all present residents and not solely to the prospective new entrants in the housing colonies.

Simultaneously, the ABA had taken recourse to the Right to Information Act to get to the root of the issue at the village panchayat level.
Help sought

Ms. Couto said the request for assistance was coming in from neighbouring villages, which were also besieged by the “development projects.” It had been decided that each village would deal with the issues locally but information would be shared among such groups. The ABA had also sought the support of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, which had successfully agitated against the controversial Goa State Regional Plan.
“Breach of law”

The ABA had pointed out to yet another serious issue wherein tenanted Communidade land (land belonging to the age-old village land communes) was being sold by the tenants in connivance with the members of the Communidades. In the light of the Agricultural Tenancy Act, no tenanted agricultural field could be converted for non-agricultural purpose such as housing. The ABA had called upon the authorities to prevent the breach of law while granting construction licences.

Rich in Goa will now have to pay!
PANJIM, APRIL 10 -– Education in government professional colleges –medicine, engineering, architecture — and even other institutions will not be free for children belonging to the ‘creamy layer’ of Goan society.

This was disclosed by the Finance Minister Dayanand Narvekar while participating in the discussion on Goa Budget organized by Goa Pradesh Youth Congress Committee, at Miramar on Thursday. If the annual income of your family is between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh then you may have to pay 50 % of the cost of the seat in government institutions. Narvekar stated that for those people whose family income is above Rs 25 lakh, it will be a fully paid seat for their children.

This will mean that education will be free only to those students whose family income is less than Rs 10 lakh per annum. A note has been put up on this proposal today, Narvekar said adding that the matter will be placed before the Cabinet later. He said the government spends around Rs 10 to 12 lakh per course of four years on every student admitted for medicine at Goa Medical College, Bambolim. For engineering it is around Rs 6 lakh and it is nearly Rs 1 lakh, he added.
Narvekar had spoken of ‘creamy layer’ in his budget speech last month in which he had said that economically better-off people should be excluded from government subsidy or benefits depending upon their family income.

“I think the rich are willing to pay”, he said indicating that the same procedure will apply for all government schemes including Cyberage. He pointed out that when government gave computers under Cyberage to students, the children of the rich already had better computers or laptops with them. Various issues pertaining to employment, revival of agriculture and horticulture, people’s protest to projects, out-migration for jobs, etc figured during the discussion, the panel for which consisted of President of Goa Chamber of Building Industry and social thinker Datta Damodar Naik, Correspondent of Economic Times in Goa Smitha Venkateshwaran, entrepreneur Sameer Salgaocar and horticulturist Dr R Joshi. Sunaprant editor Sandesh Prabhudesai moderated the discussion.

The Famous Goan Mando
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Apr202008/finearts2008041963599.asp  
Deepa J Dinakar

Goa is a cosmopolitan city. A land of highly talented and artistic people with a rich culture blending East and West, Goa celebrates carnival every year which binds people of all religion who actively participate in it. Amongst various traditional songs popular in Goa, Mando is the one that attracts people of all communities. It is a love song, sung by Goan Catholics, accompanied by Ghumat and the romantic strings of violin.

The Mando is classical in nature and has attained a distinctive sophistication and class over the ages. The most impressive part of the song is that it moves in a slow, melodious rhythm with dignity and grace. The dance steps make an inescapable showground of magnetism, that enchants every tourist till the show ends. The lyric goes around interesting tales of yore, of kings and their men and of course, many romantic tales popular there.

Although Mando cannot strictly be classified as traditional folk song, it has been established in Goa for many a year. The Mando is very popular among the Christian community here. The Mando singers are most often invited on special occasions like wedding or some grand celebrations. There, the singer would compose special Mandos in honour of the couple.

This form of music is also been played in restaurants and music concerts organised at parties. The Mando song sets the mood and attracts thousands of tourists from all over the globe.

 Fire personnel displaying the fire extinguisher bike on Monday on Fire Day at St Inez.
Nandesh Kambli

Goan Manufacturer Promises Frugal Roadster For UK Distribution
www.dreammachines.org.uk
11th April 2008

A two-seater convertible called Storm built by San, a manufacturer based in the Indian state of Goa, is to be shown at this year’s British International Motor Show, before being offered for sale by the Sussex-based specialist sports car retailer Dream Machines. Priced from £9,995, it will be cheaper (and slower) than the Lotus, Marcos and TVR cars offered by Dream Machines. The company will according to Automotive News Europe seek to appoint 10 UK retailers for the San brand this year, and 40 by 2013.

Dream Machines says the San Storm is powered by a Renault 1,147 cc 60 bhp engine; its emissions qualify the car for a £35 VED rate, and it does 68 mpg on the urban cycle, with a GVW of 820kg.

Global warming threatens Goa’s coastline
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=04179
NT Staff Reporter

Panaji, April 16 : Goa’s coast is under major threat from rising waters due to global warming. With this Goa’s main USP, its pristine beaches, and subsequently its tourism industry, which attract millions of tourists will literally sink into oblivion and with it the livelihoods of millions of Goans.

Says a scientist from the NIO, Dr Ramesh Kumar, this is a very dangerous situation and the water levels will keep on rising. Goa is only 5 feet above sea level. However, Goa is in exalted company. Climate change could also destroy Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which is top tourist attraction of that country.

The Centre for Future Studies in September listed Goa and the Great Barrier Reef, as one of the top ten tourist attractions to be taken off the map by 2020. A Greenpeace study on Goa also say that Goa’s beaches along with parts of the capital, Fort Aguada and Mapusa are under threat.

Dr Kumar, whose area of expertise is the monsoon, also says that along with the rising waters, the increased convection over eastern Indian Ocean leads long breaks in monsoons in India due to global warning. Explaining, this phenomenon, Dr Kumar says that normally the 61 per cent of the monsoon is during the months of July and August, with the maximum rain in July. Earlier, the breaks between showers used to be more in August, but over a period of time the breaks have started getting longer and started shifting to the month of July.

Another phenomenon that was observed last year was the intense unseasonal rainfall for the first time in 130 years. Dr Kumar is not willing to say that this is due to global warming but just underlines the fact that this has not happened for 130 years. The metrological officer, Mr K V Singh, feels that the unseasonal rainfall that lashed the state some time back was due temperature drop, saying “Panaji received about 44.3 centimetres of rainfall last month,� he said.

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earthâ€(tm)s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation. The average global air temperature near the surface increased by 0.74 ± 0.18 °C during the hundred years ending in 2005.

The inter-governmental panel on climate change says, “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.â€� This has been endorsed by at least thirty scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialised countries. Some scientists have disagreed with some findings of the IPCC, but the overwhelming majority working on climate change agrees with the IPCCâ€(tm)s main conclusions.

Climate model projections summary of the IPCC says that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C during the 21st century. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming and sea level rise will continue for more than a thousand years even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized.

Increasing global temperature will cause sea level to rise, and is expected to increase the intensity of extreme weather events and to change the amount and pattern of precipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

Dr Krishna said that the gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrogen oxide and CFCâ€(tm)s also equally contribute to global warming. “These gasses work like a blanket, which keeps heat in or does not allow heat to enter,â€� he argues. He also says that the Artic Sea has almost vanished from 1988 to 2005 and added that major climatic change takes place in the Arctic region. “Contaminated winds from industries and other sources provide a fast route to the Arctic region leading to melting of the ice caps,â€� he argues.

Based on estimates by NASAâ€(tm)s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2005 was the warmest year since reliable, widespread instrumental measurements became available in the late 1800s, exceeding the previous record set in 1998 by a few hundredths of a degree.

Washing Away Miseries
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/159805/1/?PrintableVersion=enabled
Namita Kohli

Excerpt…
At 7.30, on a bright March morning in Goa, the sussegad (Goan for laidback) city is still rubbing sleep out of its eyes. But Salma Rehman of the Katta Baina area is already up and about. “I am getting late,” she frets, as she steals one last look in the palm-sized mirror behind the door of her tiny room, where she stays with her husband and two kids. The room — with just enough room for five people to stand — costs her Rs. 750 per month. Running expenses are extra. But the 21-year-old doesn’t mind it. “I have earned all this with izzat (respect),” she smiles, as she walks through the crowded basti to catch the bus for Swift Wash — the laundry at the Sancoale industrial estate in Vasco. At the laundry, there are 50 of her ‘colleagues’ waiting to start the six-hour morning shift: collecting, washing, ironing and delivering clothes, uniforms and linen. “We now cater to 19 clients, mostly in North Goa — including the Taj hotels,” she adds with pride.

Cleaning up their act Swift Wash would have passed off as a regular laundry. But there’s a small difference: it’s manned by rehabilitated female sex workers from the Baina beach — Goa’s notorious red light area that was partially demolished in 2004 — who are trying laugh now, but back then, it was an experience that reduced them to tears. That day, Maria, who didn’t even know ‘how to talk’, offered to do the damage control. “They were really upset and gave me a good dressing down. But I took it calmly, apologised and convinced them that this wouldn’t happen again,” she recalls. Since then, the group banks on her ‘marketing skills.’ “Now, I can talk to clients, I can talk to you. But I have spent hours crying to come to this stage,” says Maria, who perks up immediately when you ask about her family. A husband and a family is, after all, a final stamp of social acceptance for a ‘girl like her’.

Hisss... help just round the corner!
PANJIM, Apr 17: If one sees a snake, there's no need to worry. You can now call from a list of 40 volunteers (snake handlers) who will immediately come to your help for a small fee that would cover their fuel expenses. The list, compiled by nature enthusiast Clinton Vaz of Benaulim, for WildGoa, was released today at an informal gathering of nature lovers in the precincts of Kala Academy. Apart from sharing his concern for the reptiles, Vaz touched upon the issue of availability of anti-venom at the Primary Health Centres around the State. Vaz also raised concern on declining number of frogs and dwindling turtle nesting activity. [H]

Goan campaigns against selling land to outsiders
PANJIM, Apr 12: Having single-handedly sounded South Goa against the ill-effects of selling Goa to outsiders for profit, the 2007 State Nominee for the National Award for Human Rights, Anthony D'Silva of Assolna, made this presence felt in faraway Bardez, and took his campaign against the Times of India Property Show today to Mapusa's famous Friday market. D'Silva stationed himself at the Mapusa Municipal market's main gate with his unique display of photographs to tell fellow Goans why they should not sell their land and their ancestral properties to outsiders. [H]

Global warming threatens Goa's coastline
PANAJI, Apr 16: Goa's coast is under major threat from rising waters due to global warming. With this Goa's main USP, its pristine beaches, and subsequently its tourism industry, which attracts millions of tourists, will literally sink into oblivion and with it the livelihoods of millions of Goans. Says a scientist from the NIO, Dr Ramesh Kumar, "This is a very dangerous situation and the water levels will keep on rising." Goa is only 5 feet above sea level. [NT]