GOA

TheCentralGround Water Board (CGWB), South Western Region, Bengaluru is in the process ofmappingGoas aquifers to prepare taluka-wisemanagementplans. Once ready, these will give an accurate idea of thestates water availability and quality at the micro-level.

Regional director of CGWB, V Kunhambu told TOI that the data will help Goabetterplan utilisation of itsgroundwaterfor domestic, industrial and commercial use.

Aquifer planning and management reports for five talukas of North Goa are ready and the same work needs to be carried out for seven talukas in South Goa. The report will provide status of water availability, quality, impact of rain water recharge, etc. The information will be useful to farmers, industries and state departments in planning, he said.

Kunhambu said that the central government has brought in revised rules to be able to better manage groundwater Resources in the country. The data, he said, will help in gradually implementing these new groundwater extraction guidelines.

Once all the 12 taluka-wise reports are ready, an advisory will be issued based on the reports to help judiciously utilise Water Resources as per availability in a particular area.

The State Environment-impact-assessment”>Environment Impact Assessment Committee (SEIAC) has asked for a detailed assessment of the environmental impact of the All IndiaInstituteofAyurvedaproject coming up atDhargaliminPernemtaluka.

The project is coming up on an area of 2 lakh sqm, which is devoid of any tree cover. But as part of the project, 2,600 trees will be planted on the campus, the SEIAC has been told.
The SEIAC, however, has laid down a condition that indigenous species of trees should be planted. The project proponent has been asked to consult the Goa State Board on the choice of trees.

The institute is being setup under the Union Ayush ministry.

The SEIAC has also laid down a condition that solar panels have to be installed at the campus so that at least part of the power requirement can be met through RENEWABLE ENERGY sources. The SEIAC has also sought a contour plan of the project site.

The foundation stone for the All India Institute of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy was laid by then Ayush minister Shripad Naik in November 2018.

The first phase will be built at a cost of almost Rs 300 crore and at full capacity it will have 500 seats on offer covering different programmes.

Goa governor P S Sreedharan Pillai said he would push for development of tourism in the state and would coordinate with Kerala and Mizoram to give a boost to the .

Goa, Kerala and Mizoram, from where I am coming, all three states are topmost in the field of tourism and I can coordinate between them. I have already spoken to Kerala chief minister (Pinarayi Vijayan) about it and Mizoram has a good opinion about me. We will be able to do a lot of developments in Goa, Pillai, who was sworn in as the governor on Thursday, said.

Goa got a full-time governor after nearly a year since Satya Pal Malik was transferred to Meghalaya. Pillai was the Mizoram governor before his transfer to Goa.

Goa is among the finest states in India and a fast-growing one. There is communal harmony in the state and culturally, too, Goa is in the forefront in south India. I will sincerely work for the development of the state, he said.

Even as four permissions for sand mining in theChaporariver have been challenged before the (NGT), the directorate of mines and geology (DMG) has told the Goa State Expert Appraisal Committee (Goa-SEAC) that the state had taken up the process of getting Environment clearances for sand mining in Goa only to help poorGoanvillagers. The state earns no revenue from sand mining, the DMG said.

The government of Goa has not considered sand mining as a means to max-imise revenue (but) has treated it as a livelihood for the poor village people by allowing extraction by manual method only. Further, in order to help the poor village people, the government of Goa decided to take the responsibility of getting all the procedure done, including EC, upon itself, the DMG stated in its submission.

The government, therefore, decided that the respective district collectors will apply for ECs and allow villagers to apply for sand mining permissions not exceeding 1,000 cubic metres per year, by manual method only, said the department. It was for this reason that the Goa Minor Mineral Concession (Amendment) Rules 2022 were notified, the DMG stated.

Online TEACHING during thepandemichas created physical distance between the teacher and the student. In such circumstances, to help teachers better gauge Learning outcomes, a tracking app is being introduced on a pilot basis in 29 government and aided primary schools across three talukas in Goa.

Once the Learning Navigator app is appropriately vetted to adapt it to the needs of local schools through its use during the academic year 2021-22, the state council for educational research and training (SCERT) plans to introduce the Software to teachers in all the 1,000-odd government and aided schools from 2022.

The app is used at the teachers end to review the progress of each child in foundational Literacy and numeracy, and its use will not be affected if the student does not have access to a device.

Over 40% of those who died in road accidents last year were from the 18-35 age group, according to Goa Police statistics. The data also reveals that most accidents take place between noon and 9pm.

Road safety activists have flagged the worrisome consequences of so many road accident deaths in the productive age group. Goacan coordinator Roland Martins said people in this age group are usually bread-earners of their families, and therefore accidents bring a huge burden in terms of disruption in family life, new financial challenges, and mental Stress on dependents, who are caregivers.

He also said that there are many in this age group who have suffered grievous injuries resulting in them facing life-long disabilities.
Of the 271 persons who died in road accidents last year, 81 died due to not-wearing of helmets, Goa police data shows. The year saw 3,011 accidents, 2,560 of them on national highways. The data also reported 35 hit-and-run cases.

More than three years after Goa was declared an open defecation-free (ODF) state, panchayat minister Mauvin Godinho on Saturday set a new deadline.”Our efforts are on to declare Goa as an ODF state by 2024,” he said.

In September 2019, the government had declared Goa an ODF state without sufficient data, to meet a target set by the Union Government. To meet the Centre’s criteria, the state had to construct community and public toilets in urban and rural areas. In some areas, temporary toilets were erected in order to meet the deadline.

However, even after that declaration, many in Goa did not have access to toilets. Mere months earlier, Union government data showed that just 5.87% of Goa’s villages were declared ODF, the lowest coverage in the entire country.

Goa will ask Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to delist five of the states river stretches from the polluted list, after these stretches were found to be now complying with the Boards prescribed standard.

CPCB had earlier classified all of Goas 11 major rivers as polluted. Taking note of this, the(NGT) had asked the Goa government to formulate a river rejuvenation plan.

The Goa government had accordingly formed a river rejuvenation committee, who drew the required plan and its implementation is in progress.

The river rejuvenation committee, therefore, proposed that CPCB should be requested to delist the rivers of Chapora, Assonora, Valvonti, Khandepar and Talpona from the polluted river list.
The State Government had submitted a Rs 15 crore performance guarantee to the NGT over implementation of the action plan.

The rejuvenation plans objective is to restore the water in the polluted rivers to bathing standards.

Based on data collected by CPCB, the Goan rivers were declared to be polluted due to low biochemical Oxygen demand (BOD). BOD measures the amount of oxygen needed to decompose organic material in a unit volume of water.

Since BOD levels vary widely in river stretches, the BOD is prioritised across five categories based on BOD concentration.

The highest priority refers to all locations which exceed BOD concentration of 30 mg/l (30 milligrams per litre) and this level is now considered similar to discharge of sewerage.

Chief ministerPramod Sawanthas assured theNational Gamesorganising committee that there would be no shortage of funds for the conduct of the much-delayed event, as and when it happens.

The 36th edition of National Games in Goa has been delayed since 2016 with no word yet on when the Games can take place. While initially the Games were delayed because theinfrastructurewas not ready, the coronavirus pandemic has made it worse.

The organising committee has drawn up a budget of Rs 202 crore for theorganisationof the Games and remain hopeful that the shortfall would be covered at a later stage.

The organisational costs include accommodation, ceremonies, Marketing, technology support, venue operations, transport, administration and volunteer management.

The has constructed several Sports facilities across the state, first for theLusofonia Games 2014and later the National Games. Most of the Infrastructure is out of bounds for regular training with the Sport Authority of Goa (SAG) incurring heavy expenditure on maintenance.