Panaji Apr 25 PTI Goa TMC chief Kiran Kandolkars wife Kavita who had unsuccessfully contested the recent polls on the party ticket decided to resign on Monday saying it was the wish of her supporters The move prompted the TMC to announce that it would restructure the entire Goa State Committee immediately Kavita Kandolkar had contested the recent Goa assembly election from the Thivim constituency on the Trinamool Congress TMC ticket Her husband Kiran Kandolkar had contested from the Aldona Assembly segment The couple lost from both the constituencies I was under pressure from my supporters that I should quit the TMC After resisting that pressure for several days I have decided to resign Kavita Kandolkar told reporters Kiran Kandolkar was not available for comment The Mamata Banerjee-led party had drawn a blank in the Goa polls it had contested in alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MGP The BJP which won 20 seats in the 40-member House returned to power with the support of two MLAs of MGP and three Independents Soon after Kavita Kandolkars announcement of resignation the Goa TMC tweeted that the party was restructuring the entire AITC Goa State Committee with immediate effect We have decided to restructure the entire AITC Goa State committee with immediate effect A newly-constituted ad hoc committee will be announced shortly We take this opportunity to reiterate our solemn commitment towards working for the people of Goa and their well-being the TMC tweeted PTI RPS NSK NSK

Panaji Apr 23 PTI The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Saturday admitted the state governments application challenging the acquittal of journalist Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 rape case The sessions court had last year acquitted Tejpal of all charges following which the state government filed a petition before the High Court challenging the order Tejpal had challenged the maintainability of the application In an order on Saturday the division bench of Justices R N Laddha and M S Sonak allowed the application filed by the state government The court is not expected to go into the minute details of the prosecutions evidence At this stage if the material on record discloses the necessity of deeper scrutiny and reappreciation review or reconsideration of evidence the appellate court must grant leave as sought for and decide the appeal on merits the bench observed The court said that it not only rejects the preliminary objections raised on behalf of the respondent regarding the maintainability of this application but further allows the application and grants leave under section 3783 of CrPC which refers to appeal in case of acquittal The decision of instituting an appeal against acquittal in the present case cannot be said to be a product of non-application of mind or the result of the state government acting under the dictation of some extraneous authority the court noted The high court also ordered Tejpal to seek bail from the trial court within 15 days The record bears out that the respondent had been enlarged on bail subject to certain terms and conditions There is nothing on record to suggest that the respondent had at any stage breached the terms and conditions subject to which he was enlarged on bail it said The high court also allowed the application filed by Tejpal to get his passport from the court as it is due for renewal The bench directed that once the respondent appears before the trial court within 15 days the court should order the release of his passport for enabling him to renew the sameOn May 21 2021 a sessions court acquitted Tejpal the former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine in the case where he was accused of sexually assaulting his then-colleague in a lift of a five-star hotel in Goa in November 2013 where they were present to attend an event PTI RPS ARU ARU

Panaji Feb 28 PTI Goa on Monday reported 18 COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 245019 while the death toll remained unchanged at 3801 an official said So far 240927 people have been discharged post recovery including 48 during the day leaving the state with 271 active cases he said With 1005 samples being examined in the last 24 hours the number of tests in Goa went up to 1882030 he added Goas COVID-19 figures Positive cases 245019 new cases 18 death toll 3801 discharged 240927 active cases 271 samples tested till date 1882030 PTI RPS BNM BNM BNM

Panaji Feb 27 PTI Goa on Sunday reported 20 COVID-19 cases and one death taking the tally to 245001 and death to 3801 an official said So far 240899 people have recovered from the infection including 40 during the day leaving the state with an active caseload of 301 he said With 1046 samples being examined in the last 24 hours the number of tests in Goa went up to 1881025 he added Goas COVID-19 figures Positive cases 245001 new cases 20 death toll 3801 discharged 240899 active cases 301 samples tested till date 1881025 PTI RPS BNM BNM BNM

Panaji Feb 26 PTI The Goa government is working with the Embassy of India to ensure safe evacuation of stranded Goans from Ukraine which has been invaded by Russia Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Saturday In a message posted on social media Sawant shared the emergency helpline numbers of the Indian Embassy there and asked Goans to stay in touch for relief and information The Government of Goa is in touch with the Embassy of India in Ukraine and understands the difficult situation which our Goans in Ukraine are currently facing The Goa government is working with the Embassy in India to ensure safe evacuation of our stranded Goans he said in his social media message Currently the established evacuation routes are from Romania and Hungary At present the Embassy teams are getting in place at the following check posts Chop-Zahony Hungarian border near Uzhorod Porubne-Siret Romanian Border near Chernivtsihe added PTI RPS BNM BNM BNM

Panaji Feb 25 PTI Goa on Friday reported 32 COVID-19 cases and two deaths taking the tally to 244938 and the toll to 3800 an official said So far 240791 people have been discharged post recovery including 90 during the day leaving the state with an active tally of 347 he said With 2587 samples being examined in the last 24 hours the number of tests in Goa went up to 1876865 he added Goas COVID-19 figures Positive cases 244938 new cases 32 death toll 3800 discharged 240791 active cases 347 samples tested till date 1876865 PTI RPS BNM BNM BNM

Ahmedabad Feb 25 PTI Goa have ensured three points against Mumbai with a huge 164-run first innings lead as skipper Prithvi Shaw once again frittered away a good start on the second day of the group D Ranji Trophy match here on Friday After Mumbai were all out for 163 on the first day Goa batted well enough to score 327 in their first innings riding on 96-run eighth wicket stand between Eknath Kerkar 71 and seamer Lakshay Garg 59 For Mumbai left-arm spinner Shams Mulani got 6 for 107 Once they had taken the lead past 150-run mark Mumbai came back to score 57 for one in the second innings with Shaw smashing 44 off 47 balls with six fours and a six However left-arm spinner Darshan Mishal got one to go straight and had the Mumbai skipper leg before with Akarshit Gomel 13 and veteran Dhawal Kulkarni at the crease Mumbai who got three points against Saurashtra in the first game would now like to score big on the third day and try for an outright win by posting a chaseable target for Goa to get full points from this fixture With only one team from each group qualifying for the next stage even losing or dropping points in one game can prove to be costly Chirags 235 propels Saurashtra past 500 Odisha in trouble All-rounder Chirag Janis 235 off 373 balls with 33 fours and four sixes took Saurashtra to a mammoth 501 in their first innings and by stumps on the second day they reduced Odisha to 52 for 3 with their skipper and new CSK recruit Subhranshu Senapati at the crease Saurashtra need an outright win from this game as they got only one point from their first game and now require six to stay in contention and beat Mumbai to finish on top of group D Brief Scores Mumbai 163 and 571 Prithvi Shaw 44 vs Goa 327 Eknath Kerkar 71 Lakshay Garg 59 Shamas Mulani 6107 Saurashtra 501 Chirag Jani 235 Sheldon Jackson 75 Arpit Vasavada 61 Jayanta Behera 4148 vs Odisha 523 Debasish Samantray 20 PTI KHS KHS SSC SSC

Panaji Feb 24 PTI Goa on Thursday reported 45 new coronavirus positive cases taking the toll to 244906 a health department official said One patient died due to the infection during the day which raised the fatality count to 3798 The overall recovery figure in the coastal state rose to 240701 after 94 of them got discharge on Thursday There are now 407 active cases As 1607 tests were conducted on Thursday the cumulative test count in the state went up to 1874278 he added Goas COVID-19 figures are as follows Positive cases 244906 new cases 45 death toll 3798 recoveries 240701 active cases 407 samples tested so far 1874278 PTI RPS NP NP

Panaji Feb 24 PTI The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the Goa Assembly Speakers order dismissing two petitions seeking disqualification of 12 MLAs who left their respective parties and joined the ruling BJP in 2019 Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar had filed a disqualification petition against 10 party MLAs who switched over to the BJP in July 2019 Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar had also filed a similar petition before the court against its two MLAs who joined the BJP in the same year by splitting the regional party Goa Assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar had on April 20 last year dismissed the disqualification petitions filed by Chodankar and Dhavalikar On Thursday a division bench of Justices Manish Pitale and R N Laddha said the two petitions stand dismissed The petitioners have not been able to make out a case for interference in the impugned orders passed by the Speaker the HC said We hold the disqualification petitions filed by the petitioners were correctly dismissed by the Speaker the bench said The court also said that the order passed by the Speaker rejecting the disqualification petitions cannot be said to be militating against the object of introduction of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution on the touchstone of political and constitutional morality Chodankar had in his petition filed before the Speaker pleaded that all the 10 MLAs deserved to be declared as disqualified from holding membership of their original party the Indian National Congress thereby attracting disuqualification under the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution The MGP too had filed the petition on the same ground Senior lawyer Vivek Tankha appearing on behalf of Chodankar had pleaded before the HC that the Speaker erred in interpreting paragraph four of the Constitutions Tenth Schedule He had argued that the Schedule contemplates twin test for arriving at a conclusion regarding merger of the original political party According to Tanka such a merger would be complete and protect a House member from being disqualified when there was a merger of the original political party and two-third members of the legislature party agreed with such a merger He argued that the twin test is contemplated in the Tenth Schedule to ensure that objects and reasons for introducing the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution by the 52th Amendemnt to the Constitution in 1985 were achieved In the 2017 polls to the 40-member Goa Assembly the Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats while the BJP had bagged 13 seats The BJP then quickly forged an alliance with some regional outfits and independents to form government in the state Over the last five years a number of Congress MLAs quit the party reducing its strength in the House to two Polls to elect the new 40-member Goa Assembly were held on February 14 this year and the counting was votes will be done on March 10 PTI RPS GK GK

Panaji Feb 23 PTI Goa on Wednesday reported 44 fresh cases of COVID-19 taking the overall tally to 244861 while two more patients succumbed to the infection in the state the health department saidAs per a health department bulletin two more coronavirus-linked deaths reported in the last 24 hours pushed the toll to 3797The number of recovered cases in the state rose to 240607 after 118 patients were discharged during the day the bulletin saidGoa now has 457 active casesWith 2469 new coronavirus tests the number of tests conducted in the state so far has gone up to 1872671 a department official saidGoas COVID-19 figures are as follows Positive cases 244861 new cases 44 death toll 3797 discharged 240607 active cases 457 samples tested till date 1872671 PTI RPS RSY RSY