by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Manohar Parrikar
Panaji : The Goa government has withdrawn the contempt petition filed before the Mhadei River Water Disputes Tribunal, following an assurance by Karnataka government, that it would not carry out any construction work to divert water till the dispute is resolved, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday.
“Based on the assurance, our lawyer informed the Tribunal, that we would not like to press the contempt petition,” he said.
Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently involved in a dispute in the tribunal over controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across Mhadei river, through which Karnataka aims to divert water from the Mhadeibasin to nearby basin on the Malaprabha river.
Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river, is considered as a lifeline in the northern parts of the coastal state. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra.
The river course is 28.8 km in Karnataka, and over 50 km in Goa.
Last month, Goa government had filed a contempt petition against Karnataka, after the latter latter allegedly carried out construction work to divert water from the Mhadei basin.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Manohar Parrikar
Panaji : Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday hinted at a conspiracy vis-a-vis sustained coverage of the strike by Goa’s beef traders by the national media, while also claiming he had an intelligence report suggesting so.
“Ten to 12 national media reporters have been camping in Goa for 15 days (reporting) on the beef issue. This is my intelligence report,” Parrikar told reporters here.
“I am not taking names. I am willing to take the name… Ten to 12 cameramen camping here for last 15 days. What does that indicate? There was anticipation of news,” he also said.
Beef was not available for sale in Goa for four days, with beef traders going on strike alleging harassment by police and cow vigilantes.
The strike was called off on Tuesday, after the state police were instructed to provide protection to beef consignments brought in from Karnataka.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Sadhvi Saraswati and Shantaram Naik
Panaji : If Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is serious about the sentiments of beef-eaters in Goa, he should get Sadhvi Saraswati arrested for her hate speech against beef consumers, state Congress President Shantaram Naik said on Thursday.
“He should first get issued an arrest warrant against Sadhvi Saraswati, who made a horrible statement in Goa in June last that a person eating beef should be brought to the crossroads and flogged, and his flesh exhibited in public place so that nobody dares to eat beef in Goa,” Naik told reporters here.
The Madhya Pradesh-based Sadhvi had come to Goa to deliver a speech at a Hindu conclave and said that beef-eaters should be hanged in public.
“Despite this statement, Parrikar could not get filed an FIR against her. All talk is useless till he gets issued an arrest warrant against the Sadhvi,” Naik said.
He was reacting to Parrikar’s assurance to Goa’s beef traders, who were on strike for four days to protest harassment by cow vigilantes and police.
On Wednesday, a day after these traders called off the strike, Parrikar said Goa Police will provide protection to consignments of beef coming from other states, provided their documents were in order, and take action against those who impede such transportation.
Goa’s Quraishi Meat Traders Association chief Manna Bepari told IANS on Thursday that beef supply to Goa from Karnataka after the strike ended was beginning to stabilise.
“There has been no untoward incident in the last two days,” Bepari said.
He said meat traders held a meeting with Animal Husbandry Minister Mauvin Godinho, as well as top officials of the Goa Meat Complex, the state’s only legal abattoir, who assured that the facility will be made operational within a week.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Panaji : Caravan park-like facilities will be created in the coastal tourism-friendly pockets in Goa, where low budget tourists travelling by buses and large vans can camp, cook and access toilet facilities for a small fee, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday.
He was responding to a zero hour mention, during the assembly’s ongoing monsoon session, raised by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, who demanded strict action against outstation tourists who travel to Goa on a shoe-string budgets in buses or large vans, cook on pavements or beaches and end up littering.
“We are identifying places where people, who want to cook, can go and camp there. There will be toilet facilities. There will be an arrangement to clean up the area. They will have to pay a small fee,” Parrikar said.
The Chief Minister also said, that the state government was in the process of setting up special enforcement squads which penalise those who found dumping garbage in public.
With tourism in Goa increasing nearly triple-fold in the last decade or so, the state has been unable to handle the approximately 400 metric tons of garbage tons of garbage, which the tourist footfalls generate as it has only one garbage management plant.
It is not unusual to find piles of garbage strewn along the roads as well as near urban hubs in this beach tourism destination, visited by more than six million tourists annually.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
By Mayabhushan Nagvenkar,
Panaji : Until some months ago, as Raksha Mantri, Manohar Parrikar, with his trademark fidgety eloquence, could explain the flaws in the LCA Tejas or confidently hold fort on the now-fabled surgical strikes against Pakistan.
However, Parrikar appears to have re-adapted to his role as Chief Minister of India’s smallest state, Goa, and in the course of his relatively subdued campaign for the August 23 Panaji by-polls, rising tomato prices appear to have replaced his discourse on the Tejas indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA).
And in place of the gung-ho surgical strikes’ narrative, the four-time Chief Minister now readily offers tips from his own experience to women’s self-help groups on how to hammer papad dough into soft patties to further their business.
Contesting a by-poll necessitated by his hasty return to state politics in March and subsequent resignation of Panaji BJP MLA Sidhath Kuncolienkar, Parrikar, a five-term Panaji MLA, is anxiously reaching out to his constituents in the state capital, whom he was forced to leave mid-way, when he was elevated as Defence Minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet in November 2014.
Earlier this week, after completing more than 100 informal meetings with voters in the homes and parks of residential colonies, Parrikar was in his rustic element, as he addressed a group of women voters, several of whom run self-help groups.
And, as is Parrikar’s won’t, he offered a quick solution to the cash crunch faced by housewives, when faced with inflation, especially the rising prices of tomatoes.
Parrikar first explained why the prices of tomatoes shoot up in the monsoon, saying the fleshy essential vegetable rots easily and because the state does not produce the crop, importing tomatoes invariably means a bigger cost.
But he offered the fifty-odd visibly impressed audience a simple solution to beat tomato prices, which after scaling a high of Rs 100 per kg, have now stablised at Rs 45.
“In reality there is a simple way (to avoid tomatoes). On a day that you do not have tomatoes at home, use more onions,” Parrikar said.
The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay alumnus further explained that no matter how much inflation shoots, the eventual setback to a household’s budget is in the range of Rs 200 to Rs 250.
“When I say tomatoes, no one buys 10 kg of tomatoes for consumption. For household use, people normally buy one kg, half a kg or 400 gm, depending on the size of the family,” Parrikar said.
“People buy more onions. From two kg to five kg. Again that depends on the (size of the) family. Today’s families can utilise two kg onions for almost a month. Why am I saying this? When I calculated all details of inflation, I realised that, however much inflation rises, the difference (to the household’s budget) is Rs 200 to Rs 250,” he said, adding that his government had, in the past, offered schemes like the Griha Adhar Yojana to housewives and more such measures could be on the anvil in the future.
Parrikar, who did his bachelors in metallurgical engineering, also dipped into his childhood to explain to representatives of women’s self-help groups at the BJP state party office on Wednesday about the significance of kneading the perfect dough to manufacture quality papads, which he said are a good financial incentive for small collectives.
“I am telling you papad-making is in demand. You don’t have to roll a papad nowadays. All that matters is your skill at hammering (the dough) and adding the right amount of spices. That is all you need to know, the rest of the work can be done by the machine. When I was small, I also hammered dough,” Parrikar said.
Another business idea Parrikar offered the self-help groups was making of “dronns”.
No, he wasn’t referring to the hi-tech, armed, unmanned aerial vehicles he had lined up to procure during his August 2016 visit to the US as Defence Minister, but to cups made of compacted, dry leaves referred to as dronns in Konkani, Goa’s native tongue.
“Simple dronns are in demand. All you need to do is press them on a machine,” Parrikar said.
(Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be contacted at mayabhushan.n@ians.in)
—IANS
