Senior Citizens of Goa to benefit from state policy soon

Come the next couple of days and the state of Goa could have its policy for the senior citizens in place, something  which was formed under the Maintenance and Welfare of parents and senior citizens act 2007, after it is duly notified and published in the official gazette. The policy is likely to come into force from October 1 2009, to coincide with the International day for Senior citizens.

It may be recalled that the state government of Goa has announce this policy for senior citizens welfare last year on 1st of October and it is exactly after one year the government has decided to implement the same. the file pertaining to the policy has reportedly been cleared by the finance and the law departments and has been reverted to the social welfare department.

Under the policy, parents are eligible to claim maintenance allowance from their children and the policy also envisages the setting up of maintenance tribunals and appellate tribunals. Pressure has been mounting on the government over the delay in implementing the policy with various NGOs urging for its early enforcement. It is reported that senior citizens in the state face a lot of hardships from their children especially in matters related to property in Goa . Under the policy, the elderly shall be empowered to claim the property back from their children if the same is given on the basis of looking after their needs and amenities.

There is also a demand to set up and maintain homes for senior citizens in Goa to take care of them in their old age and provide the necessary medical care and recreation facilities. There are suggestions also made to the government of Goa to apprise and inform the police and the judiciary on protection of life and property of the elderly under the provisions of the act.

Goa will thus join states such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Tripura in enforcing such a policy aimed at the protection of the interests of the senior citizens of the state.

Illegal mining in Goa : Panel blames select trio

The committee on mines in Goa has put the onus of illegal mining in Goa on three departments of the state which the committee said are passing the buck when it came to illegal mining in the state of Goa. The three departments are the Directorate of mines, Forest department and the Goa state Pollution control board. The first report of the committee says that if these three departments had to initiate action against the offenders, then the state of Goa would not have faced this problem of illegal mines and pollution.

The committee observed that while the Directorate of mines followed central government rules in the enforcement, it did not take the responsibility to ensure that mining activity is not done without environmental clearance and other required permissions. The committee observed that it was the duty of the departments to close down or cancel the licences of the mines whose mining rejects and mining wastes pose a threat and damage to paddy fields, fruit bearing crops and drinking water resources and other water bodies within the vicinity of the mines

While the deemed clause was being misused by numerous mining companies, and which was being known to the concerned departments, none of them stopped this practice. The committee has now suggested to the government of Goa to pass strictures amending the state and central legislation affecting mining in the state. The committee has urged the government to stop all mining operations in the state which are carried out with or without valid lease concessions.

Swine flu gets Goa worried : Leave rules relaxed in schools

Swine flu deaths in the neighborhood of Goa at Pune, has left the establishment in Goa worried and anxious about the dangerous dimensions of the fast spreading H1N1 virus in the country. So far, the city of Pune in Maharashtra was the worst hit by the disease with four deaths confirmed while another six more persons were reported to be currently battling for their lives after being afflicted with the deadly virus. So far the country has seen over seven people claimed by the dreaded disease of swine flu mainly from Pune, Mumbai and one death from Chennai.

Goa, in the meanwhile is grappling with patients regularly showing up with the virus which so far has not proved fatal in the state. In the latest round of people suspected to be infected with swine flu, four people have been currently identified and their throat swabs have been sent to the national Institute of communicable diseases New Delhi on the 9th August 2009 (Monday). While two of these persons had arrived from Pune and Mumbai, the third is a woman from Brazil while the fourth is a man who had come in contact with a swine flu patient.

With the virus threatening to spread and new cases being detected everyday, the Goa government has however ruled out the closure of schools and colleges unlike some swine flu affected areas of the country. The administration has however stated that teachers, staff members and students showing symptoms of swine flu will be allowed to stay home for a period of upto ten days and waived the need to produce a medical certificate for the specified period.

The state authorities are also finding it to be a herculean task to screen every person entering Goa for Swine flu and the health authorities  are instead encouraging people who suspect that they may have contracted the virus , to get themselves screened voluntarily.

It is found that out of the 40 suspected cases of swine flu in Goa, around thirteen were detected through screening by the swine flu squad at Dabolim airport but the remaining 27 persons had approached the government hospitals or a private doctor on their own volition thereby being referred to the swine flu squad. The state figures have reported that over 14 persons had directly approached the government hospitals once they suspected to have contracted the influenza while around 13 individuals were known to be referred by private practitioners.

Any person who may have traveled from a swine flu-affected country or state in the last 10 days and showed symptoms of influenza A (H1N1) that include fever, cough, sore throat and difficulty in breathing should immediately contact the Goa Medical college and hospital Bambolim or the cottage hospital at Chicalim.

Government agencies in Goa are expected to follow up on their meetings with private doctors in Goa by launching a massive campaign to inform and educate the Goan public about swine flu and its dos, dont's and necessary precautions.

Meanwhile Goans in Pune studying in various colleges were suddenly left stranded without a college to attend or a hostel to reside when both such places were mostly closed down asking students to leave in view of the swine flu outbreak ion the area. As a result the large Goan population in Pune is forced to make their way back to Goa with no place to go.

Margao Municipal Council scouting land for garbage

It is now the turn of the Margao Municipal council to follow in the footsteps of its bigger sibling  the corporation of the city of Panjim(CCP), to hunt for a site to treat garbage in view of its long term requirements. Daily garbage collection in the commercial capital of Goa at Margao is in excess of 50 tonnes which is bound to increase with the passage of time. As such the Sonsoddo garbage dump is likely to be overburdened with any additional load of garbage, which has therefore necessitated the need to look for alternative sites.

The Sonsoddo garbage dump which has been spread over an area of 16,000 sq metres of land is already burdened with piles of garbage which has collected over the years. Moreover the landfill site which is to be set up by one of the two bidders is expected to gobble up around 6000 sq m of land. Add another area which the council plans to separate as an area for treatment of medical waste, and the treatment plant itself which is expected to take some more portion of the land besides the composting units  to be built in the dumpyard, the Sonsoddo garbage dump seems to be in a complete overburdened territory.

However the landfill site which would take around a chunk of 6000 sq metres of land is apparently available for garbage operations after being topped after meeting certain norms. However more land would be required in view of additional waste generation. But although the council had acquired over 30 thousand sq metres of land in the adjoining areas in the nineties, for the purpose of garbage treatment, no work on the landmass was ever taken up due to protests from villagers around the area.

The council is currently engaged in finalising one of the two bidders - IL&FS and Fomento who are jointly bidding on one side and Ramky Enviro Eng Pvt Ltd who are the other bidders for the Sonsoddo garbage project and the winning bid will sign an agreement spanning the next 25 years. The winner of the bid will therefore be entrusted with the responsibility of segregating the garbage, composting it and also filling out landfill operations.

Goa to add 64 rural health centres

The growing demands of an increasing population in the state of Goa has prompted the state cabinet to approve the setting up of over 64 additional sub-health centres in the rural areas of Goa under the National rural health mission. The centres are expected to function under the directorate of health services and cater to people from all over Goa.

The sub-health centres will have one nurse and one patient-attendant to provide basic relief to the patients .Doctors  will follow a predetermined schedule to visit the sub-health centres on a periodic basis.

Goa, presently has around 172 sub health centres under various primary health centres and community health centres. However as per the norms set by the government, one unit of multipurpose health worker (MPHW) comprising one male and one female worker must cater to a population of around 5000 people. Besides a host of other tasks, a MPHW must maintain the health profile of the community. However in many areas of Goa, there is a huge population in excess of 10,000 to 15,000 under one health centre. The additional 64 health centres are therefore being set up to meet this shortfall and to meet the national health norms.

The sub-health centres are expected to be spread all over the state from Pernem taluka in the north to Canacona taluka in the south of Goa

Goa records drop in vector-borne diseases

The first signs of the cases of vector-borne diseases seem to be pretty encouraging for the state of Goa as the month of June 2009 has shown a drop of over 50 percent in cases of malaria as compared to June 2008 with only 493 cases recorded this year compared to over 941 cases  in the same period last year. Also the cases of the dreaded strain of plasmodium falciparum variant of malaria has also shown a drop from 252 cases last year to only 108 this year for the above period.

Also the cases of other vector borne diseases has shown a likewise decline in this year with June 2009 recording 15 cases of dengue, 6 instances of Chikungunya and nil cases of Japanese encephalitis in the state of Goa. The Corlim health centre in North Goa has alone recorded over 6 cases of Dengue and 3 cases of Chikungunya.

The National Vector-borne diseases control programme (NVPDCP) has recorded that in the first half of the year from January 2009 to June 2009, the state registered 26 cases of dengue, 35 cases of chikungunya and no cases of Japanese encephalitis.

For June 2009 out of the total 493 positive cases of malaria, 433 cases were located to be those of construction labourers while only 60 cases were attributed to the local Goan population. The maximum cases were detected in health centres from Panjim(180), Candolim(92), Aldona (72), Corlime (48) and Margao(34).

Tourists arriving in Goa are often precarious about the prevailing situation with cases of malaria haunting them and often take anti-malarials such as MALARONE to ward off the instance of being afflicted with malaria.Malarone is a combination drug (Atovaquone and Proguanil), which was licensed in the UK back in 1997 for use as a treatment for Malaria. However for people affected with kidney and liver problems, MALARONE is not advised. In fact it is always best to take the advice of your doctor before taking MALARONE. To purchase MALARONE online CLICK HERE

Helmet rule to be uniform all over Goa

The Helmet which is a safety gear for the head while travelling on a two wheeler is likely to be made as a compulsory wear for all Goans across the state irrespective of the type of area they drive the two wheelers in. Currently the Goa government has relaxed the rule of wearing helmets which has been made compulsory for two wheeler drivers only on highways and excludes places such as village roads, city limits , towns and other such areas.

However all that could undergo a change and people in Goa may have to wear the helmet if they intend to drive the two-wheelers on the roads, in any area all over Goa. This has been necessitated due to the inability of the transport department to evince the desired results due to the partial implementation of the rule in Goa.

A proposal to implement the rule in wholesome has therefore been forwarded to the transport department and is supposedly under active consideration of the government. The transport department is currently of the view that making the helmet compulsory throughout the state would help avoid the number of people dying due to head injuries on the roads by meeting with accidents which involve two wheelers. It is believed that wearing the  helmet would have saved such lives.

As per the statistics of the transport department, the traffic police in Goa had registered over 37,446 cases in the year 2007 against two wheelers for not wearing the helmet on highways whereas in 2008 the number rose by over 45 percent to 54,392.

It is estimated that more than half the number of accidents occurring in Goa involve two wheelers and the people succumbing to such accidents are either the two wheeler riders or the pillion riders. Studies have proved that wearing a helmet by such people could have saved the lives which were lost.

July turns out to be wet saviour for Goa

The month of July 2009 has brought plenty of cheer to many stakeholders with their fortunes dictated fully or partly by the rains in Goa. In over the last 11 days Goa has witnessed heavy to very heavy rainfall which was received with a welcome lap by most Goans although the heavy downpour did contribute to flooding in some city areas and damaged houses and establishments in certain areas of Goa. However much of that blame has to go to the irresponsible sense of development that has been heaped on Goans by various vested lobbies than the contribution of the blessed rains.

Astonishingly, the rains in the last 11 days have helped to wipe out the deficit of around 15% experienced in last months tally while also producing a surplus of around 25%. In June this year, the seasonal rainfall had been measured at 74 cm as compared to the average of 89 cm for that month.

However the bountiful pouring in the last two weeks have helped the seasonal total to reach 156 cm or 61 inches of rainfall in Goa. So while over 30 days of June provided only 74 cm of rainfall, the last 11 days of July have helped produce over 82 cm of rainfall thereby adding to the obvious cheer.

The total seasonal rainfall that Goa receives is at an average of 262 cm (around 104 inches) which is considered as normal for Goa. With over two months of the monsoon season still to come, there is a widespread positive feeling among meteorologists in Goa that this year would therefore be a normal year of rainfall in Goa.

The month of June 2009 was a shade drier than that in last year which witnessed 78 cm of rainfall compared to 74 cm this year and over 107 cm in 2007. However it was the year 1991 when Goa witnessed the lowest rain turnout in the month of June which was a measly 45 cm while the highest recorded rainfall for Goa in June was observed in June 1999 at a staggering 158 cm of rainfall.

Goa drops plans for a private medical college

Instead of allowing a private medical college to be set up in the state, the Goa government has now decided that it will instead increase the current intake capacity of the sole medical college in the state, the Goa Medical college by planning to increase the number of seats by another 100 students. The government will therefore approach the medical council of India seeking its approval to increase the number of seats in the undergraduate course in Medicine.

Additionally, the health minister indicated plans of the Goa government to link various government-run hospitals to the Goa Medical College in order to build up the required capacity for starting the diplomat of national board courses in the state.

Liquor Bars in Goa to be stripped of religious names

So your favourite bar in Goa with a holy name, may not be the same again. Atleast in name. Although Feni by any other name is bound to taste as heady as ever, the bars in Goa which bear a religious name may have to change it as per the amended excise rules banning liquor bars with religious names. The rule which comes into force immediately was effected by a notification to that effect which was issued on June 26 2009. While the new rules immediately effect those who have applied for new licenses and renewals, the existing bars with hallowed names will have to await a policy decision by the government on their name-fate.

Goa abounds in liquor bars all over the state and is home to around 6,500 licensed liquor bars which are often tagged with names of gods, goddesses and saints. So it is very common to see a "St Anthony's bar" or a "Durga bar" or Vailankanni's  bar to a bar named after Goddess Laxmi.

The government of Goa has added sub-rule 11 to rule 90 of the Goa excise duty rules, through which the finance department says " No license having a license for retail sale of India made foreign liquor and country liquor and/or foreign liquor for consumption on premises shall carry out the business in the name and style which denotes a religious name"

The above rule is in compliance to a private member's resolution passed in the assembly by opposition leader Manohar Parrikar in 2008. the government is planning to enforce the rule in totality for new licenses as well as renewal of licenses. however it may face a lot of opposition to existing bars which may have developed a lot of goodwill and brand image under a particular name associated with it and the government may have to consider their sentiments.

Commenting on the move, the opposition leader Mr Manohar Parrikar remarked that "God's  name is to be used for good things and giving God's name to a bar can hurt the sentiments of the people "which he said is not allowed anywhere in the country and added that chance of unholy things happening in bars with holy names is a high probability.

Goa to be first state to screen newborns

Goa is slated to be the first state in the country to launch a mandatory programme for screening of new born babies for deformities and also to conduct a nucleic acid test on all blood donations to avoid any blood transfusion related infections in both government and private hospitals in the state. Accordingly, the public health act is  awaiting an amendment which will make to mandatory for all hospitals whether private or government aided, to carry out screening of new born babies in the state of Goa which is being done in the best interest of children in Goa.

While the screening is mandatory for the hospital authorities to carry out, the parents are expected to be taken into confidence before the screening is done. The Goa health Minister Mr Vishwajeet Rane said that the procedure will be a step ahead to secure a child's future and that all treatable disorders will be identified immediately after birth and corrective measures will be taken.

As per estimates, over 45 % children are born in government hospitals in Goa while nearly 55% are born in the private nursing homes. The procedure to mandatorily screen new born babies after birth is already being followed in government hospitals in Goa since the last one year and the facility is available at the Goa medical college(GMC) and hospital.

As per available data, out of an estimated 8,200 new born babies screened in the last year, 53 had some metabolic problems. Of these , 31 babies survived with timely treatment. Majority of the children suffered from fatty acid oxidation disorder.

Goa renews fight against malaria and chikungunya

Come the monsoons and Goa gears up to renew its fight against malaria and other monsoon related ailments such as Chikungunya, Dengue, Gastroenteritis, Jaundice, Conjunctivitis and Leptospirosis which are all known to flare up with the onset of monsoons in Goa. The state's capital Panjim, witnessed over 55 victims of malaria last week with 44 of them infected with the Vivax strain while 10 had the falciparum strain. In June alone, Goa has already had over 491 cases of malaria out of which 109 victims had the deadly falciparum infection.

Areas infested with construction activity in the monsoons are known to be the hotbeds of the disease spread and in the monsoons its spread is faster owing to its breeding in collected water which is mostly prone in construction areas which is full of labour employees who themselves hail from poorly sanitised residences. With the completion of the construction activity cases of malaria are known to decline and in many cases completely disappear.

Health authorities in Goa therefore blame the construction sites to be the areas responsible for the spread of malaria due to the migrant labour spreading the disease among the locals.The detected cases of malaria have nearly doubled from 5000 in 2006 to 9822 in 2008.

According tot he health ministry in Goa over 20,000 WHO approved readymade mosquito nets are expected to be purchased and distributed to migrant labourers at various construction sites in areas such as Candolim and Caranzalem .

Tourists arriving in Goa are normally wary of the malaria infection and therefore take preventive measures toward off the disease by taking medication such as MALARONE which is an anti-malaria preventive treatment. To buy MALARONE online click here.

Beach cleaning in Goa to go hi-tech

The beach capital of India, Goa is expected to introduce mechanized beach cleaning which is expected to be introduced within the month of August 2009 to help clean the beaches more efficiently.The endeavour being capital intensive, the project is expected to be implemented in a phased manner over a period of three years after which the entire Goan coastline will be equipped to clean the beaches mechanically.

For the start, two beach stretches in Goa, one in the north and the other in the south will be taken up for introducing the beach cleaning machines. The stretch to be covered will be a distance of eight to ten kilometers at the most crowded beaches in the north and south of Goa where high quantities of waste are being generated.

Besides cleaning of the beaches, scientific disposal of collected garbage is also expected to be taken up with the exercise and the garbage will be segregated at source and disposed in a planned manner. Certain norms are set to be introduced in the beach shack policy from the next coming season to tackle the menace of disposing collected garbage as much of the garbage on the populated beaches of Goa are generated by the beach shacks

According to the tourism ministers office, the beach cleaning machine is designed to clean an area of 20,0000 sq metres in a time of an hour and can pick up smallest objects from the sand such as cigarette butts etc. It does not affect the sand pattern or cause any hazardous environmental effects but leaves the beach clean.

CCP to plead with Church, Chief Minister, to use Bainguinim

Political heavyweights,  clergymen, a childrens school, a temple committee and other strong vociferous voices opposing the waste management plant slated to come up at Bainguinim has propelled the Corporation of the city of Panaji (CCP) to approach the Archbishop Phillip Neri Ferrao, and the Chief Minister besides approaching MLAs and others to intervene in the matter to find a solution to the vexed problem facing the corporation.

The CCP held a special meeting on Monday where it was resolved to request the Archbishop and the Chief Minister to solve the dispute with the Panchayat, residents of Old Goa and the parish Church.

In the meantime, in order to get rid of the garbage  right now, the CCP had decided to acquire land near the KTC bus stand on lease for segregating the city garbage before sending it to the treatment plant. the CCP also plans to build composting pits at the site and has assured that no garbage will be dumped there.

Malaria reduces in Candolim and Calangute at Goa

A hotbed of malarial infections due to migrant labour at construction sites and hotels around the area, the Candolim-Calangute coastal belt has begun to show a steady reduction in malaria cases in recent years due to the pro-active measures taken by the health authorities in the area. The health authorities are known to have acted with a double strategy to deal with the menace and the results are known to be quite good.

In a two-pronged approach they tackled the parasite which is the actual malaria germ and also the vector which is the mosquito which breeds in fresh water. In both these areas, the health authorities of Goa demonstrated a tight surveillance of the construction sites and the migrant labourers along the coastal belt.

The result of the approach has been positive with the figures for the last three years at the Candolim Health centre showing a marked improvement in the situation.

In the year 2007, the health centre which looks after eight villages around the Candolim and Calangute area , had recorded 5,198 cases of malaria out of which 1,348 were of the plasmodium falciparum type. Falciparum is a dangerous malarial infection which can cause cerebral malaria and even death. The above figures had served to recognise the whole belt as a high risk area and therefore an aggressive counter strategy was evolved where the health authorities began demanding 100% health cards from the migrant labourers.

Builders were also sought to be brought in line with the Candolim PHC demanding on them to carry out anti-larval measures under the supervision of the health staff and those refusing to do so were penalised ad around Rs 70,000 was recovered from them. The PHC is known to have made over 4000 health cards and renewed nearly 700 health cards in the year 2007

Such a sustained campaign gradually saw the malarial cases in Candolim PHC declining to 2,921 in 2008 out of which only 778 were of the falciparum type. The fines had surged to Rs 1,14,000. The PHC also made over 5550 new health cards and renewed over 1300 cards.

This year in 2009, upto the month of May, the figures have continued to be encouraging and the malaria figures for the candolim calangute belt have been only around 380 with merely  100 falciparum cases. Fines totaling over Rs 15,000 have also been collected.

For parasite control, the PHC has organised many migrant screening camps to zero in on the daily wage labourers. Private practitioners in the area were also given copies of the national drug policy 2008 on malaria treatment to enhance rationality in treatment.

To tackle vector control, the PHC conducted house-to-house campaigns in malaria sensitive areas such as Khobra vaddo in Calangute, Ximvaddo in Arpora, Araddi in Candolim, Sonarbhatt in Verem and the 20 point programme areas of Nerul and Sangolda.

The PHC also had a propaganda to popularise the  insecticide-treated bed nets at construction sites for migrant workers and also alerted and activated the village health and sanitation committees and introduced ultra low volume fogging machines in all sensitive areas.

More staff on construction sites, improved mobility in the field for checks and improved laboratory services by putting one additional laboratory technician were the other measures adopted by the PHC.All these measures have proven to give good results and the incidence of malarial infection has reduced considerably.

Tourists all over the world are wary about malaria when they travel to Goa and are known to be taking preventive measures such as intake of "malarone" tablets to ward off the infection should they be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Malarone is used to prevent or treat the type of malaria infection known as Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Plasmodium falciparum belongs to one particular family of malaria parasites. It affects the blood and liver. Malarone works by killing this parasite.

Malarone is a combination drug (Atovaquone and Proguanil), which was licensed in the UK back in 1997 for use as a treatment for Malaria. Malarone is considered to be non addictive. However it is better to consult your doctor before taking Malarone.To buy Malarone online, Click here.

CCP urges plastics out of ice-creams in Panjim

The CCP commissioner of Panjim Mr Sanjith Rodrigues who was re-appointed for another stint in the capital city has taken over the reins of the city once again and is at his best known task faster than the offenders could blink their eyelids. While the city restaurants and hotels are facing the ire of the corporation for strewing garbage outside thereby inviting hefty penalties, the others who fail to segregate garbage in separate bags have been learning the hard way to either fall in line or manage their own garbage affairs themselves.

The latest area which the CCP ( corporation of the city of Panjim) has addressed is the problem of plastic cups in which ice creams are served in the city which adds to the garbage in the form of plastic. The CCP has now asked all ice cream parlours in the city to stop using plastic containers, which is surely a way forward to tackle the garbage menace.

With this measure, the CCP rightly hopes that the daily garbage in Goa's capital city will be reduced considerably. Pananji is known to generate tonnes of plastic garbage including plastic bags every month and the proprietors of ice cream companies such as Baskin Robbins, Naturals Ice cream and Kwality Walls with parlours in the city have been asked to co-operate and the response is encouraging.

The CCP has also asked cafes and eateries in the city to serve customers in steel cups instead of plastic ones. The next people who hopefully should be reined in are the soft drink and water bottle companies  who generate maximum garbage besides the plastic bag manufacturers who probably top the list.

The state of Goa should emulate the example set by the CCP and address the core areas from where such garbage is generated and make the stakeholders accountable for the proliferation of garbage. This would be a wholesome approach to deal with the menace rather than burden Goans with the stench and foul litter which has become a gargantuan issue all over Goa.

Goacom

Goa Medical College PG course to be conditional

The dilemma facing the Goa Medical College (GMC) which is currently facing a crunch in specialist doctors could soon be a thing of the past if a proposal by the health Ministry in Goa sees the light of day and is actually implemented meticulously. As per the proposal, doctors who wish to specialize with a post graduate degree at the Goa Medical College will have to sign a bond which includes a clause stating that they would either have to work for a period of two years in a rural government hospital in Goa or in lieu, pay the state a fee of Rs 10 lakh.

The above was necessitated by the dire situation faced by GMC which finds itself drained of doctors after the post graduation course is over and therefore burdens the states medical resources undesirably. Students who finish their post graduation course leave the institution having no obligation to stay behind for any period of time thereby straining the whole chain of healthcare resulting in  a shortage of teaching staff at the entry level of the teaching faculty, assistant lecturer and upwards. The main departments affected by this attitude in the GMC include the surgery, medicine and orthopaedic departments.

The health Minister MR Vishwajit Rane has therefore reiterated that he will ensure strict implementation of this policy so that the state does not face this unnecessary crunch even after students passing out from the institution year after year. There are currently about 26 Post Graduate diploma seats and 39 post graduate degree seats at the Goa Medical College.

Such policies are however existing on paper in many other states of the country. However when it comes to implementation there seems to be absolutely no will and few states are actually enforcing the rules strictly.

Goa too had a rule for medical students studying the Post graduate course wherein they were required to sign a bond with a clause to work in the public health centres for atleast a year or in lieu, pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh. However there was hardly any will to implement this clause and the current problem has slowly manifested itself to pose an alarming vacuum in the state's health sector.

Diabetics to get free insulin in Goa from August 15

For many diabetics in Goa, this years Independence day could mean much more than just a celebration of freedom from foreign rule. Come August 15 2009, the government of Goa proposes to provide free insulin to patients who cannot control the disease with tablets and are having complications and undergoing treatment at the various government hospitals and health centres in Goa.

The health Minister of Goa Mr Vishwajeet Rane disclosed that the initiative was a part of the diabetes care programme which was launched last year in association with Nova Nordisk India Private Limited Bangalore. Nova Nordisk is reported to have screened over 15,000 people across the state and found that over 17 percent were suffering from diabetes.

In the initial stage the talukas of Pernem, Bicholim, Sattari, Canacona and Sanguem and the Cansaulim village in Mormugao are expected to be covered under the free insulin project which is expected to be monitored by a core committee of GMC doctors. A fund of around Rs 3 crore is reportedly been formed to monitor usage of insulin to patients.

Cansaulim in South Goa has been in the meanwhile, found to be having the highest concentration of diabetics patients in Goa with the Nova Nordisk screening programme detecting a high 38 percent of patients who visited the primary health centre during medical camps found to be affected by the disease.

The government of Goa is also planning to set up a comprehensive diabetics registry to document the prevalence of the disease besides screening and treatment of patients and suitable amendments to the Goa public health act would make it liable upon private practitioners to submit details of diabetic patients in their care , to the registry.

Full fledged diabetic clinics are also mooted to be set up at the Goa Medical College and at both the district hospitals in the state. Stating that diabetes patients in Goa are increasing the Minister said that since costs of hospital treatment are very high much help would be given if insulin was available freely to patients and it would thereby assist in making Goa a model state in diabetics care.

Swine flu "oinks" into Goa

The state of Goa saw its first case of the dreaded swine flu when a man from south Goa was confirmed to be infected with the dreaded influenza A (H1N1) and has been subsequently quarantined at the Chicalim cottage hospital and is being treated as per the directive of the central health agencies.With this latest case diagnosed in Goa the total number of confirmed cases of Swine flu in India have gone up to 15 with Hyderabad accounting for 7 cases, Coimbatore 2, Delhi 5 and Goa 1.

The 41 year old Goan man is known to have travelled to the flu affected regions such as Brussels and London and his swab samples have been sent to the National institute of Virology(NIV) Pune and the National Institute of communicable diseases(NICD) , New Delhi for confirmation.

The director of the DHS Rajananda Dessai confirmed that the samples of the man sent to NIV Pune had in fact tested positive for swine flu and they have now sent the tests back to the NIV and NICD for confirmation. The man has been kept isolated at the Chicalim college hospital and only his wife is allowed to meet him on the condition that she wears a mask.

In the meanwhile another woman hailing from North Goa and who had arrived by flight from Sharjah was taken by the directorate of Health (DHS) officials to the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) Bambolim after she displayed some symptoms of swine flu upon being screened at the Dabolim airport by health officials

In a bid to prevent swine flu from hitting the state of Goa the govbernment had taken steps to ensure that international tourists are made to fill up a questionnaire before being screened at the airports prior to their movement into Goa Altogether a total number of 6,675 passengers have so far been screened at the Dabolim international wing of the airport.

Goa's Mega projects ,water shortages and 40 comedians

The alert of mega projects affecting water resources is now being trumpeted like as if it was a big secret . It was indeed illegal forest cutting in various parts of Goa which triggered a public hearing of the ad hoc committee on Agriculture and Forest this week where the rampant forest cutting and mega housing projects were pointed out as the major reasons for an impending water shortage awaiting to hit Goa hard.

With an elected government in place to take care of our welfare, it is ironically the citizens of the state, much after standing in long queues to exercise their valuable franchise, still having to garner common support in a bid to save Goa from the senseless destruction heaped on us by the very people who were expected to enhance our living, least of it contribute towards its destruction.

Goa was indeed a land with natural verdant beauty and a high sense of civic sense which failed to find a rival in the rest of the country.  However it seems ' neighbours envy is our owners shame'. No wonder our 40 comedians are struggling their wanton best to ensure that they drag this beautiful 'once upon a time paradise' into a land infested with ugly concrete vultures and massive conversions of the Goan earthside , awaiting to be devoured into commercial capital enough to satiate only one objective - their unrelenting greed. They seem to be so enamoured of the civic sense prevailing in some unplanned cities of India with gutters, unattended garbage, flies, defecations and slums abounding in deafening co-existence that they wish to hoist this culture on Goans to satisfy their pot bellies.

All their vain harps about the development of Goa has been discovered to be a hollow drum beaten hard for its clamour to be desperately silenced. All their destructive development has been in the backdrop of zero concerns for the terrible fallout awaiting Goa and Goans. There is nil foresight of the depleting resources accommodating such gargantuan plans. Worse, no existing plan for the current impasse of garbage disposal and water depletion with a merciless  pile-up over the overburdened apparatus. There are no studies done to fathom the capacity of any area in Goa . In fact no will to do a study lest it exposed a more sinister plan. However projects and mega projects continue to be planned, executed and foisted on us with regular impunity despite the unanimous civil unrest against such self-serving destruction.

For the Goan it has been an alarming situation in more ways than one. We have lived in a land of the bountiful unlike much of our countrymen who have revelled in the width of a proverbial hole and have lost little time to migrate to Goa once the taste of this breeze intoxicated them. While they are pumping in more of their tribe to feast on our misery, our brethren are selling land to survive long after the money of the gulf dried up and our old vintage houses crying for repairs had no economic brains to supplement themselves. The goa governments vintage policy only punishes you if you demolish old houses in place of new ones( disclaimer: big purses go scot free)  but is bereft of any ideas to help you maintain the old house. Tourism is abounding in Goa but the government has no wits to utilise this flow towards a constructive plan to self-sustain colonial houses and other such old structures  wilting under the 'conservation sword of democles' to stand on their own. The inevitable result of such a short sighted dumb policy has been telling.

Also for some other category of Goans, it seems that our pride of being the highest per capita winners in the whole country seems to be haunting us to keep pace with that position at the cost of our land. Brazen selling of land probably to see fatter chickens , expensive chonak and fatted pork on the dinner table has taken obvious precedence.

However it is certainly more to the administration in power to be responsible to set the rules of the game. With scarce land availability and the inability of the current resources in Goa to bear new burdens, common sense implies that some studies with experts in the field be carried out immediately and a planned sense of development be implemented which serves the interest of the Goan community at the best. We need peaceful coexistence with constructive and planned development at no cost to our environment. Period. Rules for land sale and land conversions in Goa have been crying to come into existence for decades. Yet there is no will.

Every gram sabha in almost every village of a Goa has been vociferous in their opposition to the haphazard development which has been planned by vested forces which may be Goan but which have no Goan interest in mind. Last week the Benaulim gram sabha was a picture of complete disgust and resignation when almost half the count of the members of the public attending the gram sabha went down literally on their knees folding their palms in pleading with the sarpanch  and the panch members to resign en masse after failing to evince their co-operation in curbing down mega projects in their village. Simply goes to show that the venom of our 40 comedians has sunk deep into village administrations who seem to be entrenched with poisonous cues from their masters.

The blindness of the current dispensation to live upto the aspirations of the people will surely cost them dear in the near future untill some sense prevails in asserting the problem in right earnest.

In the meanwhile it is no wonder that Goans have begun to oppose each and every project of whatsoever name and size with no malice. Only the fear of the unknown. Our 40 comedians are solely responsible for this disease which has become chronic and will lead to far more complications in Goa than their wallets think.

Goacom