GOA

The directorate of social welfare has decided to discontinue issuingdisability identity cardsby the state as the central government has begun implementation of the issuance of disability certificates and unique disability identity cards (UDID) to people with disability, which allow them to avail of a slew of benefits for their Empowerment.

The applications for UDIDs may get rejected if an uploaded certificate or Aadhaar card is of poor quality or is not readable.
They could also be rejected if the certificates validity is expired. This is in case of a temporary certificate.

Tourism ministerRohan Khaunte said that post-Covid the tourism scenario has changed and Goas tourism masterplan accordingly needs a course correction. He said that Goa can no more be under the misconception that it is the sole preferred tourist destination. The minister said that Goa will now look at attracting tourists from new markets like Poland,South Korea, Japan and US.

The declared as nuisance various tourism-related activities: begging and drinking in tourist spaces, operation of water Sports outside designated zones, selling cruise boat tickets other than from authorised kiosks, littering and cooking in open spaces, and hawking at beaches and other tourist places.

Under the provision of Goa Tourist Places Protection and Maintenance Act, the violators can now be fined Rs 5,000 up to Rs 50,000, in addition to action under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Goa Maritime Conclave (GMC-21), now in its third year, began on November 7, 2021 in Goa.

Highlights:

The Navy Chiefs of 12 Indian Ocean Region states will attend the summit, which will be held in India.
GMC-21 would include a three-day conference on constructing working-level deliberations, which will take place in May 2021 at the Goa Maritime Symposium-21.
“Maritime Security and Emerging Non-Traditional Threats: A Case for a Proactive Role for the Indian Ocean Region,” is the theme of GMC 2021.
The Symposium was GMC-21’s Sherpa event.
The Indian Ocean region has become a focal point in the strategic landscape of the twenty-first century. GMC’s goal in this region is to bring together regional stakeholders and discuss collaborative implementation .

Work of South Western Railways (SWR) double tracking project on the Goa stretch, which was affected on account of the reverse Migration of labourers on account of the pandemic, has now gathered pace.RailVikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) hascompletedlaying the second track betweenKulemto Majorda.

RVNL has now setMarch2022 as its target for completing the double tracking of the Vasco-Kulemroute.

Work on certain stretches between Majorda andVascohas been grounded owing to stiff opposition from locals. The report of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) recommending to The Supreme Court cancellation of the double tracking project has added ammunition to the opposition.

Speaking at a function organised by Goan Seafarers Association of India (GSAI) to distribute Covid kits to the seafarers of Canacona taluka, Naik said that the scheme which is formulated by the NRI commission should be made permanent and not restricted to only six months as stated in the policy document. He further said the seafarers contribute to the Goan economy in a big way and hence it is government’s duty to compensate them in their old age.

The government will sign a one year contract with the youths and in case he or she gets a good opportunity the person can leave the apprenticeship midway. Sawant said that more than 5,000 permanent vacancies are available in the private sector as on date.

: In a bid to reduce the states carbon footprint, the government has decided to provide subsidies to 11,000 electric vehicles every year for a period of five years. The subsidy will be capped at Rs 25 crore annually.

As per the draft scheme for promotion of electric vehicles in the state, every year for the next five years, subsidy will be given to 10,000 two wheelers not exceeding Rs 10 crore per year, 500 three wheelers not exceeding Rs 1crore and around 500 four wheelers not exceeding Rs 14 crore.

The subsidy will be given on a first come first serve basis, a senior official said.

The subsidy will be disbursed in a single instalment that is 100% on purchase of the vehicle and production of documents of purchase RC book and https://exam.pscnotes.com/Insurance“>Insurance.

The scheme is also aimed at achieving the targets set by the Center, under the National Electric Mobility Plan (NEMPP), to have six to seven million electric and hybrid vehicles on Indian roads by 2020, the official said.

With prices of electric vehicles about 50% higher than that of the conventional internal combustion vehicles, targets have not been achieved.

The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles scheme was launched by the Centre to save 120 million barrels of oil and four million tonnes of carbon dioxide as well as lowering vehicular emissions by 1.3% in 2020.

Air and land pollution caused by open burning of crop residue is currently a major pain point in parts of Goa and the has decided to curb this practice by collecting and converting tree andbio-wasteintogreen fuelknown asbiomass briquettes.

The briquettes are compressed and are a proven way of generating energy from waste. They contain various organic materials such as rice husk, solid waste, agricultural waste, etc. all commonly referred to as Biomass.

The proposed biomass-based RENEWABLE ENERGY project is first-of-its-kind in Goa which will help reduce open dumping and burning of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture waste and will help bring down the carbon footprint by replacing fossil fuels with biomass briquettes.

Verna Industrial Estate itself requires about 100 tons per day for the boilers operating on biomass briquettes after the ban on furnace oil. Biomass in Goa currently remains unutilized and briquettes are sourced from other states.

With extreme rainfall events showing a disturbing rising streak, the number of rainy days with very heavy and exceptionally heavy rainfall has increased worrisomely by more than 100%, theGoa State Action Planfor https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change 2023-33 (GSAPCC) states.

After crunching rainfall figures from 1901 until 2018, scientists and experts observed a slight drop in the frequency of Light and moderate rainfall events.

But the rise in the frequency of extreme rainfall events in the state for over a century has been phenomenal. The days of heavy rain have increased by about 60%, and those of very heavy and exceptionally heavy rain have shot up to a disturbing 100%, as per the GSAPCC document.
The action plan was released last week and was prepared by Nabcons, a subsidiary of NABARD, under the guidance of the Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB), with a host of adaptation strategies in various sectors.

Health minister Vishwajit Rane said that in a bid to provide better healthcare Services in the state, the government has taken the initiative to startdialysiscentres in different parts. As such, the tenth dialysis centre was made operational at the community health centre, in Bicholim. Chief minister Pramod Sawant has fully supported the initiative, the health minister said.

The state has over 1,000 patients on dialysis who take the treatment at various centres. The government then reimburses them the cost of dialysis.