GULF-GOANS e-NEWSLETTER (since 1994)® www.yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans/ www.goa-world.com http://www.goa-world.com/goa/credit%5Ccredit.htm Tumcam Maie-mogacho ieukar. Stay tuned to Gulf Goans e-Newsletter - everyday someone, somewhere learns a little..... Goa IT Habitat: Revamped IT Habitat all set to come alive at Dona Paula The Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat on the Dona Paula plateau is all set to come alive in a remodeled form, with the government proposing to come out with a comprehensive policy about the same in six-month time, thus ensuring that the work for the project re-starts at the beginning of the next financial year. The government is also planning to invite leading Information Technology (IT) companies like Wipro and the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) for setting up their shops at the revamped Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat, with an aim to generate employment for the Goan youth. Stating that the priority of the government for IT sector as a pollution-free and environment-friendly, employment-generating industry has not changed a bit, the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar on Friday told ‘The Navhind Times’ that although the IT sector had become ‘a bed of corruption’ during the regime of the previous government, he is all set to change it into a clean area, which will provide jobs to the locals. The Chief Minister, in July, earlier this year had addressed the industry leaders from around the country at the investment summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry, in Mumbai and offered sops to the companies for investment in Goa. It may be recalled that a couple of months ago, the government took a major decision to cancel the allotment of all plots at the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat and approved a decision to bring a Bill for abolition of the plots. The cabinet had also decided to empower the InfoTech Corporation of Goa for obtaining loans to refund the amount to the 18 plot allot-tees within the next ten years. The ITG, as per the cabinet decision will now invite fresh bids for re-allotment of plots. Speaking further, the Chief Minister said that the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat had become a pretext for land deals as the Habitat area was only used for real estate business by some politicians and not for setting up of the IT units. As per the information provided to the legislative assembly in 2011, altogether 2,85,296 square metres of land on the Dona Paula plateau was earmarked for the IT Habitat and an amount of Rs 22.74 crore was spent out of the total money collected. Now, the cancellation of the allotted plots will require the government to shell out around Rs 140 crore as refund to the companies allotted the plots in 2006-07. The Dona-Paula based ambitious project was formally inaugurated by the Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi in 2006. However, the work undertaken for the same was stopped in December 2007 due to violent protests, which damaged the project infrastructure. Similarly, an amount of Rs 36.87 crore, including Rs 11.70 crore towards building roads, erecting electricity poles and other facilities was spent for IT Park on the Succor-Salvador do Mundo plateau as per the information provided to the state assembly. The IT Park was aimed towards attracting medium scale and large-scale IT companies with a targeted employment potential of around 8,000 persons. The present government, however, has dropped the IT Park project. Incidentally, an amount of Rs 11 crore linked to the IT budget head was diverted to the Goa Cricket Association during the tenure of the past government. It may be noted that an NGO has approached the court alleging that part of the land acquired for setting up of the IT Park was forest land and that the IT department had not obtained required permissions before proceeding with its plan. In an interim order, the court granted relief to the NGO. Since then, the on-going work at the IT Park was suspended and the petition is pending for hearing. The Chief Minister further maintained that the IT Park project was pushed illegally by the erstwhile government, and was awaiting the court decision. “The government therefore, thought it wise to scrap the project as that would automatically free the government from the pending litigation,” he pointed out. Incidentally, the captains of the Goan industry had observed that Goa needed to create more growth centres at different locations, especially in the form of IT parks located between Panaji and Pernem, Panaji and Ponda or Shiroda, near Canacona, Margao and Quepem, with 75 per cent of the manpower coming from the non-urban areas. They had also maintained that there aren’t many takers for IT parks in Goa, and the government should rather focus on world class infrastructure and promote electronics and IT hardware manufacturing. Courtesy: NT Goa Illegal Mining: Reject miners’ arguments, Goa Foundation tells Goa state pollution control board The Goa Foundation has demanded the rejection of the mining companies’ argument that the Goa state pollution control board (GSPCB) has no jurisdiction to conduct the hearing on excess mining and validity of environment clearances (EC). The GSPCB has concluded the hearing of 48 mining companies, and the order will be issued next week. ”We submit that the mining companies’ objections on ground of jurisdiction ought to be rejected, and that the board must proceed to conclude its examination of the show cause notices on merits,” Claude Alvares, secretary of the Goa Foundation, said in a written reply to the GSPCB. The GPSCB was asked by the Bombay high court at Goa to conduct the hearing on the issues of excess mining and validity of ECs, after the Goa Foundation had gone to the court with the issue last year. During the hearings, most mining companies argued before the GSPCB that the board doesn’t have the jurisdiction to conduct the hearing as EC’s are issued by the ministry of environment and forest. The Goa Foundation said that the mining companies’ objections to the board’s show cause appear to rest on the assumption that the likely action by the board is revocation of consent to operate. “This assumption is incorrect as the board has not disclosed in the show cause notice the action that it proposes to take if sufficient cause is not shown,” the Goa Foundation said in the written reply. The Foundation in its complaint seeks suitable action as it avers that exceeding stipulated limits is a criminal offence. In reply to preliminary objections raised by mining companies on the jurisdiction of the GSPCB, the Goa Foundation said that the show cause notice proceeds on the basis that there is violation of the production limits imposed in the consent to operate order. At the first hearing on excess production in October 2011, 48 lessees said they exported ore from dumps in their mines. In September 2011, the Goa Foundation filed a public interest petition in the high court of Bombay at Goa on excess production of ore, violating the ECs. Courtesy: TOI The First Online Konkani Music Station - Started on March 14, 2000 http://www.live365.com/stations/61664 Konkani Video on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/uly334 www.targetgoa.com http://goablog100.blogspot.com
