GOA

The directorate of mines and geology has finalised the draftrulesfor the functioning of Goaminingcorporation. Thedraftrules will be sent to the chief minister Pramod Sawant for administrative approval before referring it to the law department for vetting.

The Act that paved the way for the corporations formation was passed during the last assembly session. Earlier in September, the governor granted his assent to the bill, making it an Act and setting the stage for thecorporation.

Mining in Goa came to a halt in March 2018, after The Supreme Court quashed the second renewal of 88 mining leases. On September 7, the apex court dismissed an appeal filed by mining companies to allow them to operate mining leases till 2037.

The has tentatively finalised eight mining leases to be auctioned in Bicholim and Sattari talukas. Out of the eight leases shortlisted by the government, five are at Bordem in Bicholim and three in Sattari, including two in Pissurlem and one in Poriem.

The mining concessions in the state were granted under the decree of 1906. On December 19, 1961, Goa, Daman and Diu were liberated from Portuguese rule and Goa became a part of India. However, the concessions were deemed to have expired on December 12, 1961, which was the appointed date as per the Abolition Act, 1987, from which date the concessions were treated as deemed leases under MMDR Act.

Goas first cage culture farm was inaugurated recently at Candolim with the support of the central government.

Fernandes was granted a licence by the department to undertake open sea cage culture at Candolim based on a request submitted to the department. He is also a beneficiary under a centrally-sponsored scheme of the department of fisheries, government of India and the state fisheries department.

Two cages under the All India Network Project on Mariculture of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Karwar, have been integrated in the project. Technical advisory for cage culture is also provided by ICAR-CMFRI, Karwar.

It has taken Goa almost three decades to reach the elimination stage formalaria. However, the battle is far from over even as the incidences of indigenous cases have hugely reduced from 25,000 cases in 1998 to 68 reported this year till September-end.

The state recorded 400 imported cases from January till September, which were detected largely among migrant labourers.

To achieve elimination status, Goa has to see zero indigenous cases and nil deaths and is set to achieve the target by 2022 along with 15 states. The directorate of Health Services (DHS) has doubled its efforts towards this end. Goas high load of malaria is owing to migrant labourers. Whenever the influx of migrants goes up, so does the malaria caseload. It is difficult to reach a base level post-November, after the end of the malaria period from June to October.

Long-lasting insecticide (LLI) treated nets that are provided by the government of India are given to construction and other workers. LLI netss are not to be given to Goa, but for states such as Odisha and those in the north east. However, during a review meeting we informed the authorities that since Goa has a high presence of migrant labourers from other states we should be provided with LLI nets, too.

The on Thursday notified 46.1 sqkm area in the state as private forest, in compliance with an order by theNational Green Tribunal(NGT). This is the first parcel of land in Goa to be notified as a private forest. However, in the meantime, work is in progress to confirm almost double of the area notified, which has been identified provisionally as private forest for now.

Enumeration of 9,183 ha or 91.8 sqkm area is being carried out at present by 16 sub-committees comprising range forest officers, inspectors of survey and land records, and village talathis, under the supervision of the deputy conservator of forests.

The government panels, while identifying private forests, applied the criteria that the area should be either contiguous to government forest lands or, if in isolation, the minimum area identified should be 5 ha. And, canopy density should not be less than 0.4.

s many as 1,244 accidents took place on national highways. According to MoRTHs records, these national highways are being looked after by the state public works department (PWD) and are not under the jurisdiction of the National Highways Authority of India.

A third or 107 of the 297 road accident deaths reported in 2019 in Goa occurred on national highways, even though the has begun work of expansion and apparent improvement of highways across the length and breadth of Goa in 2016.

According to the MoRTH report, during 2019, 3,440 road accidents were reported in Goa 283 of them were fatal accidents, where 297 persons lost their lives.

Though in 2019, the total number of accidents in Goa were down by over 250 since 2018, the number of persons who lost their lives in fatal accidents were up in 2019 by 13.4%.
Besides, the 283 fatal accidents, grievous injuries were reported in 196 cases.

The MoRTH report shows that in very few of the accident cases in Goa, weather was responsible for the ill-event.

]This indicates that road conditions or road users not following safety measures were the top causes for road accidents in Goa.

Most of the accidents in Goa or 3,131 occurred in clear weather, causing 276 deaths. In comparison, 21 road accident deaths took place during rainy weather. Foggy vision was not reported as cause of any accident or fatality.

Majority of the accidents reported in Goa involved two-wheeler riders and those riding pillion leading to 1,757 accidents and death of 186 persons.

The roots of this problem go back more than a thousand years with the conquest of Britain by William the Conqueror in 1066. He parcelled Englands land among a handful of feudal Lords. These Lords enclosed the village commons, impoverishing the peasantry. All humans, barring rare exceptions, have indulged in hunting since our species originated as group hunters three lakh years ago. Nonetheless, the domineering British Lords reserved hunting for themselves branding peasants hunting to fill their bellies as poachers and summarily hanging them. The fallout of these authoritarian measures was that Britains forests and wildlife were wiped out by the 14th century.

When the British became Lords of India they were intent on looting its Resources. Their tool in this plunder was the forest department, an agency created to confiscate the tree wealth nurtured by our farmers and forest-dwellers by taking overcommunitylands.
The result mirrored what had happened in Britain and Indias forest wealth was rapidly depleted by the end of 19th century. Goa was spared this fate under rule.

The Portuguese also tried to dismantle community control, but since this led to serious loss of agricultural production and revenue, they permitted its continuance. So, Goa retained its green mantle till the end of Portuguese rule in 1961. On being integrated into the Indian Union the new regime has consistently attempted to take power away from people and dismantle comunidades triggering an erosion of Goas natural heritage.

The foresters with their colonial legacy stepped into Goa clear cutting natural forests to raise exotic tree plantations. With the promulgation of Wildlife Protection Act in 1972 the entire countryside came in the foresters grip with farmers and forest-dwellers becoming victims of conflict with wildlife. Goans too are suffering with wild pigs, monkeys and gaur the major problem species inflicting huge losses of crops and Livestock.

The transport of human waste tosewage treatment Plants(STPs) involves cost and time and often leads to dumping of the waste at undesignated sites, resulting in pollution. Now, a team at BITS-Pilanis Goa campus has developed a solution in which waste is treated at site.
At the popular Bogmalo beach in Mormugao, the institute has installed these toilets with the treatment system, at a cost of around Rs 22 lakh. The installations are funded by the Union governments department of Biotechnology and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This decentralised treatment system with vertical flow constructed wetland and electrochemical disinfection system.

The effluent coming out of this treatment system will be suitable for further processing or will be safer in case it does not go through anySTPtreatment.

To make up for the forest cover lost in Goa over the years to different development projects, the state has proposed to carry out compensatoryafforestationinMadhya Pradeshover an area of 300ha, citing that it faces a shortage of land.

Goa currently has a backlog of 1,600ha of compensatory afforestation to be carried out. Based on Goas request, Madhya Pradesh has made a provision to take up 300ha of afforestation during 2021-22. Goa has proposed to transfer the funds required for the afforestation to Madhya Pradesh.

Goa will, however, have to seek a special permission from the Environment ministry. In 2019, the ministry had altered the norms to allow states to take up compensatory afforestation in another state. But such a proposal is permitted for states that already have over 75% of its area under forest cover. Goa does not meet the criteria as only around 60% of its area is under forest cover, as per theIndia State of Forest Report2019.

Speaker of Goa legislative assembly RameshTawadkar said that through public participation under the Shram Dham concept, 150 houses will be constructed for poor people in Canacona.

The innovative concept of Shram Dham, conceived by the speaker, has garnered significant attention and admiration.

Recognising the immense potential and impact of this initiative, chief minister Pramod Sawant had directed the team of the Swayampurna Goa Programme to organise a live interaction, providing a wider platform for the promotion of the scheme.

Under this service-oriented concept, individuals are encouraged to contribute a minimum amount, starting from Rs 1, and dedicate a day of their lives to the construction of houses for these needy people.

The speaker said that this noble contribution will allow the team of Shram Dham to build around 150 houses for the poorest of poor people in Canacona, ensuring access to a fundamental necessity of a Home, and appealed to all individuals to contribute to this cause.

The Goa Chamber of Commerce and (GCCI) has written to chief minister Pramod Sawant asking the State Government to consider retailers and distributors as frontlineCovidwarriors and to prioritise the retail sector in the vaccination drive.

The GCCI has asked the government to prepare a vaccination plan as per priority for frontline workers and to keep dedicated stocks of the vaccine for retailers.

The GCCI has pointed out that retailers meet around 50 to 100 customers on a daily basis and have a high chance of getting infected as they cannot ensure stringent and consistent Covid protocols at all times.