Panaji Apr 19 PTI A day after Goas industry bodies agreed to bear the cost of purchasing additional power to meet their demand Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday gave his approval for purchase of electricity from open market The chief minister has given the approval to purchase 120 MW power from open market which would be supplied to the industries a senior official said The industry bodies had on Monday written to the state government raising concerns about the acute power shortage in the coastal state which had resulted in load shedding and affected operations The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries GCCI Goa State Industries Association GSIA and Goa Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association GPMA wrote to Sawant and State Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar expressing their concerns The industry associations also met Dhavalikar to discuss their issues Since March industries have been facing acute power shortage due to constant load restrictions of up to 12 hours per day imposed by the government the letter jointly signed by chiefs of all the three associations stated Quoting their meeting with the power minister on Monday the associations had said that to address the power deficit additional electricity will have to be purchased by the state government However the rise in the traffic in the IEX market has increased the cost substantially and the government finds it difficult to bear this burden the letter states As far as the industries are concerned due to the current restrictions on load they have to run their units on generators at a much higher cost they said This also increases pollution and has a negative impact on the environment the association said suggesting that the cost of purchasing additional power may be billed to all EHT and HT consumers in the state till June 30 PTI RPS ARU ARU

Panaji Jan 21 PTI The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MGP on Friday announced its first list of ten candidates for the Goa Assembly elections Party chief Deepak Dhavalikar and his brother Sudin Dhavalikar figure in the listThe MGP has forged an alliance with the Trinamool Congress Party for the February 14 electionsAs per the list released on Friday Deepak Dhavalikar will contest from Priol constituency while his brother Sudin will contest from Marcaim seatSudin is currently the MLA from MarcaimPraveen Zantye a former BJP MLA who recently joined the MGP will contest from Mayem while labour leader Balaji Gauns who fought for the resumption of mining in Goa will contest from SanvordemOther candidates are Jit Arolkar Mandrem constituency Rajan Korgaonkar Pernem Naresh Sawal Bicholim Vishwesh Prabhu Valpoi Dr Ketan Bhatikar Ponda and Sanket Naik Mule ShirodaThe MGP had won Marcaim Pernem and Sanvordem seats in 2017 Assembly polls But two years later two of its three MLAs namely Deepak Pauskar Sanvordem and Manohar Ajgaonkar Pernem left to join the ruling BJP PTI RPS KRK KRK KRK

- Advertisement -Panaji While praising former IT minister Rohan Khaunte for bringing in discipline in the department MGP MLA Sudin Dhavalikar condemned all the other IT ministers for failing to help students in online educationAddressing a press conference Dhavalikar said that except during the tenure of Khaunte rest of the Information Technology ministers have failed to work on the connectivity issueDhavalikar pointed out that the development is the responsibility of the Chief ministerReferring to the connectivity issue Dhavalikar said that the CM had to face the parents during his Sanvordem constituency visit as students are not able to study online due to connectivity issueFor last one year the government has been lagging behind in providing connectivity due to which the students are facing problems he said