LAST MONTH

REVIEW OF ADVOCATES ACT: Legal luminaries from all over the country will assemble in Goa for a two-day conference form September 30 to October 1, to review the 40 years of the Advocates Act, 1961, and other important matters. Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley will inaugurate the meet.

GAS PIPELINE FOR GOA: According to sources in the Secretariat, Reliance Industries have proposed to lay a 75-km pipeline connecting Goa and Kakinada via Hyderabad, to provide transmission system for the utilisation of gas to be produced from 'blocks' awarded or likely to be awarded to Reliance Industries.

KONKANI RECOGNITION DAY: The Goa Konkani Akademi was celebrated the National Recognition Day of Konkani at a public function at the Kala Academy Complex in Panjim. Wellknown music director Prof Bennet Pinto, Director of the Department of Konkani Studies of St Aloysious College of Mangalore, who presided over the function, stressed the need to have more exchanges between Goa and other centres of Konkani speaking community. President of the GKA, Uday Bhembre said that recognition of Konkani opened the doors to Konkani at the national level.

MALARIA CLAIMS ONE COP, 24 RECRUITS IN HOSPITAL: After the death of police recruit Tukaram Chari at Mumbai's JJ Hospital of malaria, 24 other recruits were admitted to the Nagpada Police Hospital, Mumbai, with complaints of pain and high fever. However, all of them recovered. Following a scare among the parents and relatives of the recruits, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar visited the Police Training School, Marol-Mumbai, where the Goan recruits are undergoing police training.

APPEAL TO REVIEW PREDIAL HIKE: Saligao MLA Dr Wilfred de Souza has urged the Parrikar government to review the hike in predial (agricultural tax) as it would cause further damage to the already dying agricultural sector. Speaking to presspersons, Dr de Souza said that the 200 to 300 per cent hike in tax exposes the bankruptcy of the government coffers. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on August 14 that the tax levied on agricultural land is assessed wrongly and that it will be corrected.

GOA'S FIRST SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND: On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Lok Vishwas Pratishtan, Ponda, a charitable institution supporting the education of physically and mentally handicapped children, the first school for the blind in Goa, was inaugurated on August 16. GOA TO SELL SURPLUS POWER: The Goa government signed a Memorandum of Understanding on August 16 with the Power Trading Corporation of India Ltd, for selling surplus power to the extent of 80 to 100 MW, from the 306 MW allocated to Goa, through the Western Grid. The sale will net an additional revenue of Rs.60 to Rs.70 crore per year to the State coffers.

CANACONA'S KIDNEY PROBLEMS: More than 75 per cent of the kidney failure patients at the Goa Medical College Hospital belong to the Canacona Taluka. Chief Minister Parrikar has assured to call a joint meeting of the Health Minister and doctors to discuss the course of action for the inspection of the cases of kidney failures.

"FREEDOM FROM HUNGER" is a new scheme, announced by Chief Minister Parrikar after unfurling the tri-colour at the Secretariat on the occasion of the 55th Independence Day celebrations. Being implemented, for the first time in India, in association with the Life Insurance Corporation, the Rs.100 cr-scheme envisages the provision of subsistence level price index linked pension to needy persons above the age of 60 years. The beneficiaries will be provided with a pension of Rs.500 per month for life from January 1, 2002, and the registration will start from October 2. The pension will grow at the rate of 5 per cent per annum to take care of inflation, and will cover 20,000 beneficiaries initially.

CAUGHT IN CRICKET BETTING RACKET: The Panjim police nabbed eight bookies, for accepting bets on the ongoing England-Australia Test series at Headingly, on August 17. The bookies, mostly Sindhis who came to Goa from Kolhapur and were staying at city hotels, have been arrested under the Goa Gambling Act. They took bets worth Rs.25 lakh. The items seized by the cops include 19 mobile phones, 4 recharge vouchers and cash amount of Rs.50,270. Three cars have been attached. The bookies represented four major parties in Mumbai, and they accept bets from clients world-wide. Their charts show 86 international cricket matches from July 1 to October 26. However, they managed to secure bail. Lack of stringent laws in Goa seems to have induced members of an comanised betting syndicate to come to Goa for operating their lucrative racket

9TH KONKANI RECOGNITION DAY: The Konkani Bhasha Mandal Mumbai (Regd) will celebrate the 9th Konkani Recognition Day on August 25 at Karnataka Sangha, Mogul Lane, Matunga, at 6.30 p.m. R. H. Mendonca IPS, Director General of Police: ACB, Maharashtra will be the Chief Guest and N.S. Rao, Chairman: World Union International, Pondicherry, will preside over the function.

NETWORKING OF KONKANI: "There are an estimated five million Konkani speakers in India and one million abroad. Compared to a language close to it-Marathi-Konkani is numerically small but has all the potential to dominate the internet-worked global village." (NANDKUMAR KAMAT in Glimpses-NT)

MULTIPLICITY OF SCRIPTS HINDER KONKANI'S GROWTH: The usage of Konkani in many scripts has hindered the progress of the language, said Ronald H Mendonca, Director General, ACB Maharashtra, while speaking as the chief guest at the Ninth Konkani Recognition Day celebrations, comanised by the Konkani Bhasha Mandal in Mumbai recently. "Mendonca said, "Konkani is written in five different scripts namely Devanagri, Kannada, Roman, Malayalam and Urdu, thus they are like five fingers of a hand working separately, hence we should bring all the five fingers (scripts) together and form a fist to work unitedly for the promotion of Konkani in one script-Devanagri." Getta Nadkarni, Dr Prakash and GRAF (Goan Review Art Foundation) enthralled the audience with their cultural programme.

BRAZILIAN CALL CENTRE FOR GOA LIKELY: A high level Information Technology delegation from Brazil is keen to collaborate with India in a range of fields including setting up call centres in Goa. Led by R P Martins, the delegation is exploring the possibilities of setting up call centres to cater to the needs of Brazilian. The presence of a large number of Portuguese speaking people in Goa and the competitive advantage, which India enjoys in terms of cost and quality of delivery of the services, make it an ideal destination for outsourcing.

RISE OF BREAST CANCER IN GOA: Breast cancer is on the increase in Goa, says Dr (Ms) Nisha Nadkarni, Professor and Head of the Department of Pathology of the Goa Medical College. Dr Nadkarni estimates that an average of about 200 to 300 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year. Dr Shekar Salkar, a noted cancer specialist, says that the age group between 35 to 55 is most susceptible to getting breast cancer.

GOA'S SUGAR FACTORY IN DIRE STRAITS: There was a surplus stock of 2 crore tonnes of sugar in India and that the next two years will be difficult for the sugar factories all over India. This was disclosed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar at a meeting of the board of directors of the Sanjivani Sugar Factory. The 25-year-old factory has been permitted by the Centre to export sugar, to cope up with the losses being incurred by it.

RESORT SUED: In a petition filed before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Panjim, Avelino Pereira, father of Kheshvino Pereira, a youth drowned in the swimming pool at the Hi-Tide Grind party comanised at Verem on May 27, has sued River Rays Resort and the comanisers of the show for deficiency in service and negligence, which resulted in the tragedy. Adv Aires Rodrigues represents the petitioner, who has sought a compensation of Rs.15 lakhs for his son's death.

KID KILLED BY CROC: Four-year-old Sandesh Janu Kamat, the only child of a labour class couple, was killed a by a crocodile in a stone quarry at Korda-Bethoda in Ponda on August 27. The mangled body, with the abdomen eaten by the crocodile, was recovered from the abandoned quarry, which gets filled during the monsoons and becomes a sanctuary to around 25 crocodiles. Though the locals have complained to the Forest Department about danger to their lives and property, no action has been taken by the authorities so far.

LADIES SPECIAL COMMISSIONED: The "Special bus service for Ladies" was launched by Mapusa MLA Francis D'Souza at the Mapusa KTC stand on August 30. The 28-seater mini bus will operate on an experimental basis between Mapusa and Panjim simultaneously at 9 am and 5.45 pm, for the benefit of the working class. The service is limited to two trips every day and may be increased in due course and introduced in other towns in Goa.

MADAME ROSA'S BOOK ON FENNY: To promote the Goan spirit globally as well as among domestic and foreign tourists, Madame Rosa Distillery, the bottlers and exporters of Fenny brands, are planning to publish a booklet giving detailed information of Goan Fenny.

NO PHONES FOR 12,000 SUBSCRIBERS: About 12,000 subscribers all over Goa have not been provided with telephone connections inspite of orders having been issued for the release of connections by the Goa Telecom, according to Delfino Fernandes, the President of the United Payphone Owners Association.

PROTEST OVER PROTESTANT'S BURIAL: VK Varghese expired at the GMC on July 27. But since Varghese was a Protestant, the parish priest of St Anne's Church in Ponda would not allow the burial of the deceased in the parish cemetery. The family therefore requested the Hindu crematorium incharge to allow the body to be buried there. During the month's mind, the family placed a crucifix near the burial site, and this prompted some Hindu activists to raise cain over the burial.

HOME FOR SENIOR CITIZENS: Save the Children, Goa Chapter, a leading charity institute, has started a comfy house at Bogmalo beach for senior citizens. Called "Our Home", the institution has 10 rooms facing the sea, a large living room, a common entertainment area and an open space for a vegetable garden. Contact Aditya Kelekar, Tel 222717, 555329 between 10.30 am to 12.30 pm, or email kele@goatelecom.com.