GOA

The facility, consisting of two halls of 10 rooms each, was built under the golden jubilee funds allotted to every by the State Government. Each municipality had received Rs 2 crore under the scheme of which the CMC spent Rs 1 crore for the emergency centre.

Goa is facing the issue of 38% non-revenue water or loss of water from the supply chain due to old pipelines. The state has been vying for central government assistance in replacing the entire water supply pipeline Network in Goa with a new one. Over Rs 300 crore will be needed to complete the task.

Goa was the first state in the country to be declared to have achieved 100% water supply connections to households under the Har Ghar Jal mission. Yet, Goa is facing a shortage of around 85MLD of treated water as against its demand.

The Goa State Environment Impact AssessmentAuthority(Goa-SEIAA) has received an application for environment clearance for setting up of the Deltin Town project atDhargalimin Pernem.

The Goa-SEIAA deliberated on the proposal earlier this month and has set terms of reference, based on which the environment clearance can be sought.

The project proponent has been asked to carry out ECOLOGY and studies of the area. The project, the Authority has said, should have an energy plan as per environment clearance standards. This means that at least part of the project should make use of RENEWABLE ENERGY sources like solar power.

The project is proposed to include three hotels, a convention centre, a multiplex cinema, a retail area, a water park, banquet facilities and a childrens entertainment area.

Goatourismdevelopment corporation (GTDC) plans to set up a mega entertainmentvillagespread over 1.5 lakh sqm inMandrem. The foundation stone for the proposedprojectis likely to be laid in the next six months, prior to the assembly .

While the required land is currently in possession of the revenue department, formalities to transfer it to GTDC will be done shortly. It will be built on public-private PARTNERSHIP (PPP) mode, but all required permission will be facilitated through GTDC.

Annually, 1,000- 1,500 TB cases are reported in Goa with 12% to 17% of them being multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Though the numbers dont look alarming, MDR-TB cases are still a cause of concern as the recovery rate is 50% or sometimes lesser.

MDR-TB is seen among patients who fail to adhere fully to the treatment regime and consequently, develop resistance to anti-microbial drugs. Close contacts of a patient who develops MDRTB are exposed to the same infection.

The majority may develop MDR-TB for not following the drug regime in toto, but there will be few who may get the disease through a close family contact or in another set-up, where he/she may have been sharing a space with a carrier in a closed Environment. The incidence of MDR-TB in patients who have been detected having TB for the first time, is about 3%.

In many casesbiodiversityconservation efforts tend to be viewed as being in conflict with economic interests. Turning this belief on its head, theGoa State Board(GSBB) has taken the first step to becoming the only government body in the country to begin production, along withlocalcommunities, of products derived from local bio-Resources.

Theboardis planning to set up five other centres mainly in the mining belt in Goa.

While a part of the income derived from the sales will be paid back to locals involved in the processing unit, the rest of the amount will go back into conservation of the local biodiversity and into funding other sustainability efforts.

Only sustainably harvested bio-resources are being utilized to make the products which are set to be marketed under GSBB brand name GoVan.

Amid unbridled demand for land by out-of-state buyers, the cabinet initiated crucial steps to protect Goa’s agricultural land by approving a bill that will effectively ban the sale of such land to non-farmers from outside the state. The bill is also expected to restrict the conversion of paddy fields to settlement land.

Goa has a little over 40,000 hectares of agricultural land, of which 28,000 hectares are cultivable and around 15,000 hectares are fallow.

Lossesfrompost-harvesthandling of foodgrains should be minimised through value-addition and processing. This issue was discussed during an event on processing and storage of foodgrains and pulses, organised by the ICAR central coastal agricultural research institute (CCARI) and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), North Goa.

In the technical session attended by 35 farmers and Women working on farms, senior scientist and head of the institute HR Chidananda Prabhu delivered a lecture on processing and storage of foodgrains and pulses.

A national-level training programme on cashew, recent advances in cashew production, processing and post-harvest management was also organised at the institute. Director at the directorate of cashew nut and cocoa development, Cochin, Kerala Dr Venkatesh N Hubballi spoke about the status of cashew production in the country and its scope for improvement.