Garbage littering could cost dear in Goa's capital city

If the Corporation of the City of Panjim has its way, irresponsible citizens from Goa are destined to pay dearly for tossing their garbage at random in the city and will have to pay a fine as high as Rs 20,000 depending on the nature of the offence committed.

The CCP is currently setting up a new set of bye-laws termed the "corporation of Panaji cleanliness and sanitation byelaws" and have been circulated to all corporators with fines starting at Rs 200 for littering and going up to Rs 20,000 for delivering hazardous or bio-medical waste in an unsegregated manner to CCP workers or dumping the same.

The 14 page document which is currently a proposal is aimed at streamlining the punishments for littering the city of Panjim and will need the nod of all the corporators before being submitted to the government of Goa for its consideration.

The major objective of the proposal is to ensure tha tthere exist clean surroundings in teh city and prtevent litter and other forms of nuisance, segregation problems, storage and delivery of municipal solid waste and composting and burning of waaste and slaughterhouse waste, abuse at public gatherings and events, bio- medical waste etc.

It is believed that once the laws are appropriately notified , it will be easy to prosecute violators and the current dilemma of punishing someone found guilty will not be there as violators want to know as to which law applies to their offense whenever such violations of garbage are being noticed.

The bye-laws also aim to keep the CCP on its toes as it will be demanding of the CCP to place adequate bins at various points in the city to ensure that the waste collection schedule is maintained and sorting centres are set up. The laws will be enforced by the commissioner or deputy commissioner officer who shall be designated by them and are based on the Municipal Solid Waste management rules 2010.

Goa Pollution control board to issue notices to mines without forest clearances

The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has decided to issue notice to mining units, who have failed to produce NoC from Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) and permission under Forest Conservation Act, 1980 to suspend mining operations. GSPCB told this to the High Court in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Goa Foundation (GF) on Wednesday, when the petition came up for hearing before a Division Bench of Justices S A Bobde and F M Reis.

Adv Norma Alvares who appeared on behalf of the petitioner submitted a list containing names of 19 mines that are operating without air and water consent. This also include names of three mining companies including Dempo Mining Corporation Pvt Ltd, operating from Mulgao. Two days back Mulgao witnessed total destruction of agriculture when a mining dump collapsed.

In a view of submission made by GSPCB, High Court has given a two weeks time to initiate action against mines in operation without air and water consent, and also file an action taken report while posting the matter for next hearing on August 3.

Of the 91 working mines , 19 are operating without air and water consent. It is also the contention of the petitioner that the NOCs granted by CWW and Forest clearances are not in accordance with law. It has further contended that CWW is not the authority to grant NOCs and appropriate authority is standing committee of National Wild Life where the activities are within 10 kms from the boundary of wildlife sanctuary .

In this regard, Forest department has intimidated the Board that CWW has started issuing permissions after obtaining legal opinion from the government.

Language of delay: Forms now in Konkani & Marathi

PANJIM: The Education Department sought to create further confusion and chaos among parents by announcing that a fresh proforma will be issued to parents through schools for filling up forms to decide on the language of choice for their children, in Konkani and Marathi.

Meanwhile, around fifty thousand-odd forms filled by parents exercising their choice of language has reached the Education Department on Thursday — the deadline for the submission of forms.
Later, speaking to Herald Deputy Director Anil Powar said, “The Department will issue proforma in Marathi and Konkani so that parents can read the forms and fill them in the language of their choice”.

The Department actually admitted that this was due to the pressure mounted by the BBSM which threatened to protest vociferously if the proforma was not sent in Konkani and Marathi.
The Education Department will now have to deal with the existing filled forms and the huge delay the process of sending and receiving filled forms in other languages would take.

“We will begin classifying all the forms from tomorrow. It is a huge task and is expected to take time as we sift through the forms of each school”, sources in Education Department said.
However, sources, said that there are several issues that are expected to crop up during the course of implementation.

“What if a school has just one or two students whose parents choose regional language? Will they be thrown out of school? Will they have a separate division just for them?” sources asked.
The logic baffles. The Department is in no position to explain how this will further help the process and why this move was made after the process of seeking parents views were taken.
Meanwhile, the Education Department will begin dealing with the forms it has already received.
Besides, the Department will also have to separately conduct inspections to see if schools have the necessary infrastructure before granting them permission to open separate divisions for the different choices of parents.

Questions are also being raised about the availability of textbooks in English with sources saying that even if the order was given to print text books, it would take at least another two months to be available.

The directorate of education supplies free textbooks to children under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan scheme.
Commenting on the situation, sources in the Education Department said that all these issues will be raised before the Government and that the new medium of instruction will not be implemented until all hurdles are cleared.
Courtesy : Herald