PANJIM: Finally, the State Forest Policy is expected to see day of light, with state forest department referring the policy for legal vetting.

Forest minister Alina Saldanha said that department has already finalized the policy and has sent to law department for legal vetting. She said that policy is likely to receive green signal shortly, after which it would be implemented.

PANJIM: The much-awaited report on buffer zone for wildlife sanctuaries and national park, the recommendations of which is likely to result in the closure of 44 mines, would be submitted to the state government by September 15.

The government appointed committees, are likely to propose three to five kilometres as buffer zone for the sanctuaries. A senior forest department official and the member of the committee said that the committee is in final stage of drafting the report, which would be submitted by September 15, the deadline set by government.

MARGAO: Velim roared on Wednesday as villagers came out strongly against the government’s decision to go ahead with the land acquisition process to acquire 30,000 square metres of land for the Cutbona jetty expansion.

Bowing to the demands and sentiments of the villagers, members of the Velim Panchayat have agreed to resign after a certain time-frame, while Velim MLA Benjamin D’Silva has assured to support the villagers cause and move the government to get the land acquisition process scrapped.

PANJIM: The villagers of Santo Estevam have written to Environment Minister Alina Saldanha complaining that there has been illegal cutting of mangroves in the village and that no action has been taken by the ‘statutory authorities’.

In their letter to the environment minister they have sought that the issue not be neglected by her department. “I had made a complaint to authorities the concerned regarding illegal felling of mangrove trees of Zuia, Santo Estevam on July 22... Despite the said complaint, no action has been taken in that regard by the authorities concerned...

MARGAO: Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar on Monday said the government would soon constitute a six-member Committee of Chartered Accountants to go into the illegal extraction of ore.

Speaking at the conference of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India at a starred hotel in Benaulim on Monday evening, Parrikar said that the government would soon lay the guidelines how to go about the work. “The six member committee of CAs will comprise of three CAs from outside the state and three nominated by the government”, he said.

PANJIM: The Directorate of Mines and Geology will begin issuing notices, from next week, to all the 40 mining leases, whose delay in converting from concessions to leases was condoned by former Congress-led government.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has already announced cancellation of all these 40 mining leases, granted illegally by the previous government. Director of Mines Prasanna Acharya said that the notices would be issued on case-to-case basis to all the 40 mines. “They will be issued by next week,” he said.

MARGAO: Cavelossim gram sabha on Sunday witnessed a debate on the question of waste management system with agitated members demanding to know whether the starred hotels have put such a system in place for disposal of their waste.

The gram sabha adopted a resolution asking the panchayat to immediately write to the Goa State Pollution Control Board to find out whether the starred hotels dotting the village have any waste management place in place and the list of contractors handling the waste, besides their mode of disposal.

PANJIM: Twenty-five percent of children under the age of five in Goa are underweight and 38.2% are anaemic a study by the National Family Health Survey of the Ministry of Health Government of India has revealed.

According to a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, by Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, Goa has fairly good indicators compared to national averages.

PANJIM: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on mining, which was not accepted by former Speaker Pratapsing Rane of the previous Goa Assembly, has been quoted in the new draft State Mining Policy 2012, which states that the delay in the policy has resulted in haphazard mining, resulting in a scam of Rs 3,500 crore.

The draft policy, tabled before the State legislative Assembly on Wednesday, has provision for proposed handling of dumps upto 25 mmt annually.

PANJIM: A committee of the Goa Medical College consisting of officials formed a month ago, to coordinate the waste disposal in GMC met for the first time on Thursday to decide the effective disposal of bio-medical waste.

Speaking to Herald, Medical Superintendent of Goa Medical College Hospital, Dr Rajan Kunkolienkar said that the committee assessed the situation and requirements for effective bio-medical waste disposal.