NEW COVID-19 NORMS

IN the wake of the new deadly variant of Covid-19 which has acquired pandemic proportion in the UK, new SOP has been issued. All those who have arrived in India including Goa after November 25, 2020 will have to reveal their travel history. Those who have arrived between December 21 and 23 will have to undergo RT/PCR test. If found positive they will undergo a further spike gene test to find out if they have been infected by the new strain. Those who test positive for the new strain will be isolated in a separate unit. This includes co-passengers on flights seated in the same row, three rows in front and three rows behind and cabin crew is being consulted for Covid-19 tracing. 

BOARD EXAMS POSTPONED

THE government of Thursday has postponed Class 10 and 12 board exams at least till February. This is in view of the fear that a second wave of virus of the new variant may already have come to Goa and may infect children. A lot of Goans from Hounslow and Swindon arrived in Goa just before the ban on flights. The board exams were originally scheduled for October. Usually, exams begin in March and end in April.

CRICKETER FILMSTARS BOOKED

FORMER Indian cricket superstar Suresh Raina and Suzzane Khan, former wife of Hrithik Roshan, were among the 34 celebrities including 13 women booked for violation of Covid-19 guidelines at a Mumbai club on Tuesday.  The Dragonfly Club at which a birthday party was being celebrated has also been booked for the party going on beyond 3 am which was the time limit earlier. However, Goa does not propose any change and all the nightclubs, hotels and casinos will be free to dance all night this Christmas and New Year eve.

SISTER ABHAYA MURDER

SISTER Abhaya, found dead in a well of St Pias X Convent in Kottayam in Kerala in 1992, finally got justice. The CBI special court on Tuesday held that Sister Abhaya was murdered and convicted the priest Father Thomas Kottor and nun Sister Sephy guilty of the crime and destruction of the evidence. This is the first case of conviction of the priest in the murder of a nun in the country.

ADULTS CAN MARRY, CONVERT       

THE Kolkata High Court has made it clear that there cannot be any interference if adult men and women above the age of 21 marry the person of their choice. The court also set aside the UP government ruling against “love jihad” and stated that adults were free to convert if they choose to for marrying the person of their choice. The judgement came in a case of a Hindu whose daughter converted to Islam to marry the man she loved.

PARENTS PROTEST

A GROUP of parents got together at the Panaji church to condemn the arrest of youth and students on Liberation day December 19. The parents protest and insist that “Our children were detained in an inhuman manner and taken from Panaji to Ponda for over five hours. There were 19 girls and a few minors in the three buses in which the 50 odd youth were transported in police buses to Ponda.  Among those detained was a teacher who had come with her students. The parents are also planning to approach the Human Rights Commission. Meanwhile the Railway Police are looking into the matter of those who protested at Arrosim over the South Western Railway double tracking on the night of December 18-19, 2020.

OUTSIDE FOOD FEARED

THE Goa State Catering Association claims that they have suffered huge losses since Covid-19. The president of the association Pradosh Amonkar claimed that people were afraid of eating food prepared outside their home kitchens. They also insisted that catering for small weddings with only 100 guests — which is the maximum limit permitted — are not financially viable. However, large and lavish weddings have led to an increase in Covid-19 cases. At a high society wedding of the founder of Soul Travelling in Margao last week 100 of the 400 guests proved positive for Covid-19.

ENGINEERS DO BETTER

THE Goa Public Service Commission has discovered that engineering graduates perform much better than graduates in arts and science in exams conducted by the GPSC. In the recent pre-screening in computer based recruitment test (CBRT) exams to fill 22 vacancies of junior scale officers, 60% of those who passed were engineering graduates or post-graduates, while arts, commerce and science candidates comprised only 30%. The results saw 101 of a total of 2,700 entering the CBRT round. But only those who cleared the 75 marks test were called for the interview.