TEAM HERALDteamherald@herald-goa.comPANJIM: The State Information Commissioner has passed an order directing the Office of Chief Electrical Engineer, Electricity Department, Vidyut Bhavan, Panaji to pay a sum of Rs.5000 to Vernon Fonseca for furnishing misleading information under the Right to Information Act, and as a compensation for causing mental and physical harassment for making him repeatedly visit the office in search of the information. “The Appellant…  suffered detriment on account of failure to provide correct information. The Appellant through his Power of Attorney holder had to come many a times to the Commission with the hope that correct information would be furnished. This naturally caused mental and physical harassment to the Appellant. Harassment of an information seeker by public authorities is not permissible under RTI. Besides, it is socially abhorring. In this factual scenario instead of going for penal provision, this Commission is considering compensating the Appellant for the loss and detriment suffered by him in having to pursue the matter. Secondly this approach will have a telling effect as it may drastically improve work culture and also change the outlook,” the Information Commissioner M S Keny said in his order. The appellant had sought certified copies of memoranda received by Office of Chief Electrical Engineer from the Office of Chief Minister of Goa, and the office of President of India, and certified copies of reports sent to these offices as per  letter dated 20.04.2010.”By his reply dated 22.11.2010, Vincent Fernandes, Executive Engineer (TNG) & S.P.I.O., CEE’s Office, informed the Appellant that report is not received from the Executive Engineer, Elec. Div. VI Mapusa till date as such no report is sent to higher authority. The applicant then opted for an appeal and the First appellate authority (FAA) observed that PIO should collect the information from other concerned PIOs of same Department and furnish to the applicant. However at this stage the PIO furnished wrong information. “I have perused the information furnished. The information sought is the certified copies of the reports sent to ‘these offices” i.e. Office of Hon. Chief Minister and Hon. President. What is given in 8 pages is altogether different,” the CIC noted in his order. “In any case what information furnished is not what was sought by the  Appellant and, therefore, it is misleading. The explanation given by PIO is unconvincing. I am of the opinion that the actions of PIOs amount to furnishing misleading information,” the CIC said further while passing the order.  The compensation is to be paid to the Appellant directly within 30 days from the receipt of the SIC’s Order.

Originally posted here: Power dept fined for providing wrong info

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TEAM HERALDteamherald@herald-goa.comPANJIM: Nine students of a fashion design institute have lodged a complaint against the institution in Goa and its headquarters in Chandigarh for cheating them of a substantial amount in the name of education.Porvorim police have registered a criminal offence against the International National Institute of Fashion Design (INIFD) and its Goa Director Anupama Kathuyani.The diploma students, each of whom have paid around Rs 71,000 for admission to the two-year course, complained of cheating, mismanagement and malfunctioning.“They (the institution) promised us that our professional study will be on par with the international standard… The INIFD Goa failed to teach subject materials as per the curriculum. There is also no faculty qualified to teach the professional course,” Nida Ali, one of the complainants, narrated.The students said they were promised that they would be part of the ‘professional institute’ associated with companies such as Lakme. The institute had allegedly told students at the time of admission that it is affiliated with Institute Di Moda Burgo, Italy and Annamalai University.The students have further alleged ‘mental’ harassment by the management. Several complaints in the Chandigarh headquarters proved futile following which the students approached the police.Porvorim police said they will write to the Goa Education Department for details about the institute. Police Inspector C L Patil said they will also verify the statements before taking further action or making arrests.

Read the original: institute accused of cheating

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TEAM HERALDteamherald@herald-goa.comPANJIM: The Supreme Court has issued notice to Goa government over tendering of high security registration plates (HSRP), after M/s Shimnit Utsch Private Limited, which had bagged the contract earlier in 2008, filed a petition before the apex court.Sources in the transport department revealed that the state government has already replied to the notice giving details of the tendering process and also explaining why Goa is in a hurry to tender the work.The government, in its reply has also citied SC judgement, which made it mandatory for all the states to implement installation of HSRP by June 15, 2012. The failure to do so would amount to contempt of court.Shimnit Utsch, had approached the apex court requesting to stop fresh tendering of HSRP. The company had earlier approached High Court after their contract was terminated in 2010. The petition was later disposed off pointing to the report submitted by state appointed committee, which citied several irregularities in the tendering process. Accordingly, the transport department issued a fresh tender for the HSRP contract in April. Currently two companies–SGS technology and Utsav technology are declared qualified during the pre-qualification bid meeting, held on Thursday. The technical bids for the same would be opened on May 21 after which the final bid would be decided. 

Continue reading here: HSRP tender: State replies to SC?notice

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TEAM HERALDteamherald@herald-goa.comPANJIM:  The results for IIT-JEE, for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology were declared on Friday with Goa securing its position in the quality ranking after two decades.Goutam Bhat and Prateek Panchal have been ranked among the first 250 candidates at all India level.Goutam, GCET top ranker for the engineering seat in the State, has ranked 124th for IIT-JEE while Prateek has secured the 233rd rank.Vyankatesh Prabhudesai, Director of Aryan Coaching Classes, said this was the first time in 20 years that Goa is ranked among the first 250 candidates.Around 5.60 lakh students appeared for the entrance exam across the country, while 4.60 lakh students took the test last year. Several hundred Goan students appeared for the exam at two centres at Goa Engineering College and Salgaonkar College of Law. “IIT-JEE level is the highest and toughest. This year, the exam was relatively tougher than last year,” Prabhudessai said during a press briefing.Around 85 students from his institute appeared for the exam. Prabhudessai said that his students would have performed better if the students had not to undergo additional Class 12th exam pressure.“We went through a critical period as students had three exams and prelims to answer. The attendance for coaching classes dropped for this reason. This is not the practice in other states,” he said. Prabhudesai, who is coaching students for second year at his new institute in Panjim said the other centre at Margao will open in the next two years though it has government approval. He said his institute will impart academic and coaching activities under one-roof. Other students including Amruta Pai ranked 4621, Praharsh Pai Raikar ranked 9665, Akhil Balaji was at 10974 rank, Sharmad Aras at 11321, Pranav Mayenkar at 13538, Neha Darocha who topped the GCET for medical seat ranked 12083, Tanya Nadkarni was ranked at 14406 and Nandan Pai Kakode – SSC topper was ranked on 14940 at all India level. Two more students, who reattempted the exams – Ashray Adappa (4200 rank in India) and Dev Wiseman Pinto (6000 rank in India), are the third and fifth rankers in Goa. In an interview with Herald, they said they would opt for mechanical engineering.

See the original post: Two Goans in top IIT-JEE rankings

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TEAM HERALDteamherald@herald-goa.comPANJIM: Deputy Director of Education Anil Powar who was officiating as the director for a few months since the superannuation of the previous Director Celsa Pinto has been relieved of his post and has been replaced by an IAS officer D P Dwivedi as part of transfer orders that were issued late Friday evening. The appointment is in tune with a circular issued by the Union home ministry in the second half of 2011 requiring all states and union territories to appoint an IAS officer as heads of various departments, including education.There were moves last year to block the appointment of an IAS officer as secretary education in favour of a “local” person. MP Shantaram Naik had even gone public on his opposition to the move. The government has also appointed F O Hashmi another IAS officer as Director of Industries, Trade and Commerce with additional charge of Managing director of the Goa Industrial Development Corporation. Jayadev Sarangi IAS has been appointed as the commissioner of excise. In a major shuffle the secretaries of the various departments have also been reshuffled.  Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava holds the positions of Home Secretary, Personnel Secretary, ARD, Chief Vigilance Officer, Civil Aviation and that of the Principal Vigilance Commissioner. Principal Secretary B Vijayan is the secretary of Finance, Planning, PPP, Convention Centres, Agriculture, Power, Water Resources, Science, Technology and Environment. Principal Secretary R K Verma is the secretary of PWD, Forests, Mines and Geology, Transport, GAD, Revenue, Information and Publicity, and is also the special secretary of personnel and ARD. Principal Secretary Parimal Rai has been given Health, Urban Development, Housing, Town and Country Planning, Industries, Trade and Commerce, and Information Technology. S Kumaraswamy has been retained as the Chief Electoral officer in addition to be being Secretary (Elections).

Originally posted here: Education Department gets IAS director

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TEAM HERALDteamherald@herald-goa.comPANJIM/Margao: Ramkant Borkar who contested March assembly election on UGDP ticket will have to contest Cortalim by-poll as an independent which has been scheduled on June  4.This follows Election Commission denying Borkar UGDP’s two leaves symbol  on Friday when during scrutiny it was found that his nomination papers did not have Form A. When contacted Joint Chief Electoral officer Narayan Navti who was present during scrutiny confirmed that Borkar will not able to use two leaves symbol.  He said Form A has to be attached with nomination papers of the candidate.  If it is not attached the candidate cannot  be allowed  to contest  the election  by using  that  particular party symbol.Form A vests authority in office bearer of the party to select a candidate.  When Borkar’s nomination papers were taken up scrutiny it was found that he had not submitted Form A.  The returning officer gave him an option of contesting as an independent, said Navti. The EC will now allow him to use a separate symbol.Meanwhile, all the polling booths in Cortalim constituency going to the by-polls on June 4 will be manned by armed Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel.One CISF company consisting of 82 personnel has already reported to the district police and the second unit is on the way and is likely to report to the local police by Saturday.Police Chief, Arvind Gawas said that the CISF personnel will be used to man all the 35 polling booths spread across Cortalim. The police has already identified six polling stations as sensitive and four hyper-sensitive.“Two CISF personnel will be deployed in each of the poling stations. Additional CISF personnel will be deployed in polling stations declared as sensitive and hypersensitive”, he added.

Link: Borkar to contest as independent

Though inspection reveals no mining activity carried out at site, ore was recorded with Mines dept as being extracted beyond permissible capacity

TEAM HERALDteamherald@herald-goa.comPANJIM: The Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) issued a suspension order against one of the State’s oldest mining company, Damodar Mangalji and Company (DMC) Ltd for extracting ore beyond its permissible capacity. Infact it was found that though no mining activity was going on at the site and no mining dumps were seen, yet ore was recorded as being excavated and transported.In an order dated April 18, the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) asked the company to suspend the mining operations of its Band Doncol iron ore mine in Pissurlem, for violations of provisions of Mineral Conservation and Development Rule (MCDR), 1988.The company, earlier in February, was issued show-cause notice answerable within 30 days. The notice had stated that the violation under the said rule leads to penalty in the form of imprisonment for a term of two years or a fine extending to Rs 50,000 or both.However, the company failed to respond to the notice, leading to the suspension. “Under Rule 13 (1) of MCDR 1988, the IBM hereby ordered suspension of the mining operations in the mine with immediate effect and no mining operations shall be carried out in the above mine, until the suspension is revoked,” the order, signed by S Tiu, Regional Controller of Mines, reads.The notice was issued based on an inspection carried out by Dr Sunil Jha, senior mining geologist, who pointed out that total 66,050 tonnes of ore was produced in the year 2005-06 against the approved quantity (33,500 tonnes). The excess production was almost 32,550 tonnes, which is above 50 per cent of its actual capacity.Similarly, 73,580 tonnes and 70,000 tonnes of ore was produced from dumps during the year 2009-10 and 2010-11, respectively for which there was no such approval or proposal, nor any dump seen on site, IBM notice reads.“In addition to this, on the day of inspection by IBM it was observed that the area of excavation/mining lease has no such mining pit/excavation or dump to correlate the above said handling in any manner,” the notice sent by IBM senior mining geologist Dr Sunil Jha added.The IBM team had also observed that the said area is completely barren and hence it’s not possible to have such production.Herald, had in 2011 exposed the illegalities carried out by DMC, a company owned by Gujarati businessman at a mine owned by R S Shetye, which is now closed down. In its record submitted to Mines department, DMC in the past has shown production of 3.93 lakh tonnes for the period of five years at ‘Band Doncol Mine’, which infact did not exist in the Department’s operational mines list.Based on the Herald report, a site inspection was carried out by State Mines department, which had refused to admit that any such illegalities existed.

The rest is here: IBM orders suspension of DMC mine operations

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DISTILLED IN GOAN WAY : With the ‘urrack’ season coming to a close, a resident of Varkhand near Mopa is seen distilling the country liquor the traditional way.

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ACCESS: Pre- monsoon works of cleaning the drains begins in Panjim on Friday.

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ACCESS: Pre- monsoon works of cleaning the drains begins in Panjim on Friday.

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