Posts Tagged ‘Panaji’
Written by admin on 18 January 2010
Panaji, Jan 18 – All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Goa Tuesday and his proposed plans to address students at the Goa University (GU) campus have created controversy in the state.
The students’ wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned a protest at the vice-chancellor office and a ‘surprise protest strategy’ to condemn ‘attempts by the Congress to reduce Goa University (GU) to a political circus’.
Rahul Gandhi, son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is on a countrywide tour to ‘gauge and understand the young minds of India’, is scheduled to have a one-hour interaction with students at the Gpa University football ground Tuesday afternoon.
Calling an AICC general secretary to the university to address students of Goa violated the university’s apolitical standing, Atmaram Barve, convener of the BJP’s students cell, told IANS.
‘A university has no place for a mainstream political leader to address students. The GU is an apolitical entity. We will gherao (surround) the GU vice-chancellor’s office to condemn this obvious politicisation of Goa’s only state-run university,’ Barve said, adding that the BJP students’ wing was also planning a ‘surprise protest package’ for Gandhi.
According to state BJP spokesperson Govind Parvatkar, the party was fully endorsing the protest planned by its youth wing. University officials have declined to comment on the issue.
Goa Pradesh Youth Congress president Sankalp Amonkar said Rahul Gandhi’s meeting was open to students of all political hues. ‘It is an open forum for students of any affiliation. We will have one hour of interaction, during which Rahul Gandhi will pick 10 to 15 people, who can ask him any questions they want,’ Amonkar said.
Police sources said there was no question of changing the venue for the student interaction at such a short notice.
‘The Special Protection Group (SPG) has already cleared the plan for Rahul Gandhi’s visit. There’s no going back now. He has Z plus protection, last-minute alterations to the schedule are not possible. The organisers should have thought about such contingencies earlier,’ a police officer said.
After his interaction with students, Rahul Gandhi will also address members of the Pradesh Congress Committee and Youth Congress delegates.
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Written by admin on 17 January 2010
Panaji, Jan 17 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would not dislodge the Congress-led coalition government in Goa which has seen three coups against Chief Minister Digambar Kamat in the last two years, the BJP’s new state unit chief said Sunday.
‘Instead of moving in for power, the BJP will consciously opt for the democratic option of elections. We are in no hurry to come to power,’ Laxmikant Parsenkar said, adding that the party would work towards coming to power only in the 2012, when the state assembly polls are likely to be held.
Speaking to reporters after taking over the post, Parsenkar also announced the ‘pravas-nivas’ initiative, which would involve party leaders travelling to remote areas in the state and camping in the area for the night to get to grips with issues afflicting such far flung regions in Goa.
‘We are going to embark on a three-pronged mission which involves reaching out to the people, strengthening of the organisation and carrying out ground level struggles against the present regime,’ he said.
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Written by admin on 17 January 2010
Panaji, Jan 17 – Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who begins a two-day visit to Goa Tuesday, will be urged to back the case of the Youth Congress members who were brutally assaulted in December 2008 by a mob led by Atanasio Monserrate, who is now Goa’s education minister, state president of the youth wing Sankalp Amonkar said Sunday.
Asked about the issues the Youth Congress will take up with the Gandhi scion, he said the completion of the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat and the brutal assault on party members would top the priority list.
‘We were attacked by Atanasio Monserrate (then a legislator) but there is no action against him despite repeated requests to the chief minister and the Goa congress president for an impartial police probe,’ Amonkar said.
‘We were staging a protest demanding that work on the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat be carried on unhindered when we were attacked by a mob led by Monserrate. (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi had conceived the project, which would have given a lot of jobs to the Goan youth,’ Amonkar said.
According to a complaint filed at the Panaji police station, Monserrate, who was opposing the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat, had led a mob which attacked Youth Congress members in December 2008 while they were demanding that the IT project be completed.
Amonkar said Rahul Gandhi will also interact with the students of Goa university.
‘He will also address members of the Pradesh Congress committee and Youth Congress representatives during his visit,’ he said.
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Written by admin on 16 January 2010
Panaji, Jan 16 – Laxmikant Parsenkar will take over as the president of the Goa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday.
Parsenkar was the only candidate for the post, as the tenure of incumbent Shripad Naik ends Sunday.
BJP state general secretary and spokesperson Govind Parvatkar told IANS that Parsenkar was the only person to fill the form for the post.
This will be Parsenkar’s second stint as the state party chief.
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Written by admin on 16 January 2010
Panaji, Jan 16 – Displaced bar girls from Mumbai are making the Goa police ‘dance’, an annual crime review booklet issued by the state police said.
‘Goa being a tourist destination and due to the closure of dance bars in the neighboring state of Maharashtra, there is an influx of such elements in the state of Goa,’ the 48-page booklet, which was released by Director General of Police (DGP) Bhimsain Bhassi Friday, said in the human trafficking section.
‘In the year 2008, the crime branch has arrested 10 accused and rescued 12 victim girls from their custody. In the year 2009, crime branch has arrested five accused and six victim girls were rescued,’ it further adds.
Summing the crime scenario in Goa, the booklet attributes the increase in the crime rate by 9.59 percent in 2009 to the free crime registration policy adopted by the state police.
‘Owing to the concerted efforts made for free registration of crime during 2009, 3,005 cases were registered under various crime heads as against 2,742 cases reported during the previous year,’ Bassi has said in the booklet’s foreword.
‘A healthy increase in the registration of offences, particularly property crime, exhibits that policemen in Goa have started overcoming their inhibitions and are beginning to get out of the clutches of a deep rooted malaise of burking that afflicts police psyche,’ Bassi said.
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Written by admin on 15 January 2010
Panaji, Jan 15 – The Congress Friday ruled out any leadership changes in Goa and asked the dissidents to use appropriate means to resolve their grievances instead of venting these in the media.
Addressing a press conference here, state Congress unit chief Subhash Shirodkar said the Congress high command was seized of the recent indiscipline among party ranks, but continued to back Chief Minister Digambar Kamat as the head of the Congress-led coalition government in the state.
‘The state government is strong. Nothing is going to happen. There will be no change in leadership,’ said Shirodkar, who returned here Thursday after meeting Congress’ Goa in-charge B.K. Hariprasad in New Delhi.
Shirodkar’s statement comes amidst informal parleys by legislators of the ruling combine, including ministers, over the last few days.
The dissidents who call themselves ‘Group of Seven’, are led by Atanasio Monserrate and have sought ‘streamlining of administration and effective leadership’ from the Congress central high command.
Describing the behaviour of the dissidents as ‘a sort of indiscipline’, Shirodkar said that instead of venting their ire through the media, the legislators should have behaved like ‘grown ups’ and tried to resolve their difference at appropriate forums.
‘The high command has taken note of what has happened. They should have used other party forums to settle these matters,’ he said, adding the combined meetings of the legislative wing and the state Congress Committee will be held to try and resolve these issues.
Goa has been known for repeated regime changes over the last couple of decades. The state has seen 17 chief ministers between 1990 and 2007. Kamat himself has survived two coups attempts in his chief ministerial tenure.
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