Opposition cited discrepencies under the Railway Act, 1989
PANAJI/VASCO: The land acquisition process being undertaken by the state government for the South Western Railway’s double tracking project under the Railway Act “is improper and illegal”, said a united opposition on Thursday. The opposition met officials at the South Goa collectorate and submitted a memorandum demanding that all hearings regarding the land acquisition should be stopped as the Railway Act, 1989, can be used only for special railway projects and not for the current double tracking of railways.
Opposition MLAs, including Benaulim MLA Churchil Alemao and Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar, submitted a memorandum to the South Goa collector Ruchika Katyal and said that they would take legal recourse if the state government did not stop the land acquisition process and the double tracking project.
Panaji: A complaint filed before the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has found that fabricated land plans were used to carry out a construction in the No Development Zone of CRZ at Reis Magos. After an inspection by officials based on a complaint, even the builder against whom the complaint was made has expressed shock over the development.
The builder has stated that the constructions were carried out after verifying the documents. GCZMA sought a report in the matter from the directorate of panchayats, Reis Magos panchayat, the town and country planning department’s Mapusa division and the inspector of settlement and land records in Mapusa.
The excise staff of the Majali checkpost, Karnataka, seen with the illegal consignment and the driver of the vehicle. The truck had cleared the Polem checkpost
Poinguinim: Illegal liquor worth Rs 9 lakh was seized from an insulated fish truck headed from Goa to Andhra Pradesh early Tuesday morning at the Majali checkpost.
Interestingly, the truck went scot free at the Polem checkpost in Canacona which is barely 100m away from the Majali checkpost.
Sensing something amiss, staff at Majali, led by sub Inspector R N Naik, stopped the truck. Their search revealed liquor hidden among the fish crates. They seized about 45 crates of beer and whiskey of different brands, as well as some Indian made foreign liquor.
Representative image
PANAJI: Goa International Airport has crossed the century mark for relief flights, while notching up a half-century for Vande Bharat flights since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The airport, which has emerged as one of busiest terminals in the west zone, has come full circle from flights being grounded to becoming a hub for the Covid-19vaccine, director Gagan Malik said.
While the terminal catered to 5.8 lakh arriving passengers in January, the airport has handled 103 relief flights, 72 repatriation flights and 54 VandeBharat flights. Relief flights are those that help foreigners and non-resident Indians return to foreign nations in the absence of scheduled international flights. Vande Bharat and repatriation flights are those that have been organised to bring back Goans and Indians stranded abroad because of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.