EX-CS ARRESTED
A SPECIAL CBI court in New Delhi has sentenced former Chief Secretary of Goa RK Shrivastava to two years rigorous imprisonment and Rs35,000 fine in a case pertaining to the revival of a defunct housing society in Delhi, using forged documents.
VACCINE APPROVED
THE British government has granted final approval to Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. India is the largest purchaser having ordered 1.6billion doses of the vaccine. The vaccine claims to offer up to 95% protection against Covid-19. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that only 30 crore people will be vaccinated, preference will be given to Covid-19 warriors. Reportedly, the vaccine is given in two dozes 21 days apart with immunity taking affect after seven days after the second dose. The price for government purchases will be at Rs400 for the two vaccines and double that for private purchases.
SUNDAY REGISTRATION
THE 24-member committee which was asked to decide who should get the vaccine on priority has decided that front line workers, disaster management volunteers and Municipal staff will be given priority. However, they would have to register for vaccination by Sunday, December 6. The committee is in the process of setting up cold storages and is recruiting staff for the vaccination program.
ENGINEERING COLLEGES
AFTER the main admission rounds for engineering degree seats by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) ends on Monday (Dec7) nearly 500 or 50% of the 1,150 seats in the four private engineering colleges in Goa will be vacant. Nobody wants to do engineering! Officials claims that the high fees charged may have discouraged parents and students from applying as none of the 400 seats in the government engineering college are vacant.
COP PUNISHED
IN a strange twist PI Sagar Ekoscar, in-charge of the Valpoi police station, was send on leave for allegedly assaulting a former sarpanch and current panch. This provoked an angry protest from locals which led to disciplinary action against the police inspector.
SELECTION CANCELLED
THE appointment of 32 assistant data entry operators by the Electricity department has been cancelled on the orders of the Goa Bench of the Mumbai High Court. The court cancelled the appointments on the grounds that the department changed the selection criteria after the declaration of the written test to give excess weightage to the oral interview. It is at the oral interview stage that jobs are auctioned to candidates. So much so even the candidates who had qualified in the written exam were rejected, as those who paid got very high marks in the interview.
GOENCHE SAIB
FOR the first time since the sacred relics of St Francis Xavier were brought to Goa over 300 years ago the public were not allowed to even attend the high mass to be held on Dec 3 at 10.30am. However, devotees were permitted to pay homage to the body of St Francis Xavier and for this special arrangements were made to maintain social distancing and sanitation. All those permitted to seek the blessing of the relics were required to wear a mask. The Archbishop Philip Neri lashed out against the three projects being promote by the Center and asked Christians to stop them.
CANVASSING WITH DRONES
Due to Covid-19 fears aspiring MLAs in the forthcoming assembly election in Kerala have decided to avoid home-to-home canvassing or public meetings. Instead they have gone high tech and have started using drones with a banner displaying the name of the candidate and his appeal for their vote. This is the shape of canvassing for votes in the new normal regime.
BOUNCING CHEQUES
IF someone gives you a cheque there is no guarantee that you will able to cash it or it will be credited to your account. The RBI has found that over 41% of the cheques issued by nationalised banks have bounced since Covid-19 on the grounds that there is not enough balance in the bank to pay the cheque amount. Meanwhile all digital transactions have been disrupted as the servers of all banks are not functioning. You cannot use your credit, debit or any other card.