All-Goa Inter School Competition ,on Sunday 14th August 2011

Joseph Afonso Memorial Trust, formed in 1995 to perpetuate the memory and ideals of the late Joseph Afonso, dedicated Educationist and visionary Sarpanch of Betalbatim, will be holding the XVIth Annual Felicitation of SSCE & HSSCE Students of Betalbatim on the eve of Independence Day, Sunday 14^th August 2011 at Dr. Jose Cota Memorial Hall, Betalbatim at 10.00am. As usual, an All-Goa Inter School Competition will be held on the occasion. This year, the Elocution Contest themed We Students MUST make a difference in Goa has attracted ten leading schools.

The Trust will also confer the Best Administrator Award on the present Sarpanch, Minguel Pereira whose accessibility, sincere hard work and leadership has led the village to be judged The Best Panchayat in South Goa.

Fr. Avinash Rebello, President of Diocesan Society of Education will be the Chief Guest, Fr. Ubaldo D'Cunha, Betalbatim Vicar will be the Guest of Honour and Prof. Nelly Rodrigues will be the Special Invitee. Mr. Francisco Xavier (Mickky) Pacheco will preside

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report

WHAT IDEA SIRJI, VERY POOR SIGNAL SIRJI

Sirs,
I have no idea whom I am addressing as this was the only address
supplied to me at your Idea Office in Margao, Goa. I know that email is
quick but I'm old fashioned enough to also use hard copy.
We are a Voluntary Service Organisation registered with the Dept for
Consumer Affairs, Goa, and networked through GOACAN with about 30 other
Consumer Forums all over Goa. As our name suggests, we take up Civic
and Consumer issues.
At the monthly meeting of our Forum, there have been widespread
complaints about the poor connectivity from Idea. Idea is the most
popular mobile service provider here in Goa, mainly because of the good
signal available almost throughout the State, barring some villages
located in deep valleys or behind tall hills.
Of late however,the signal has become extremely poor, forcing customers
to make multiple calls. Some pre-paid customers complain that they have
got billed for incoming calls and that your meter seems to be ticking
much faster, thus registering 2 calls for under-one minute
conversations. But the most frustrating is the failure to connect when
you most require it. Many customers have given up other providers and
opted for Idea because of the good signal strength. If things do not
improve at your end, many customers will desert Idea.
We understand that these problems are occurring because of the
inordinate hurry with which you are rolling out 3G services without the
requisite infrastructure, and have therefore overloaded the existing
network. It will turn out to be a dud idea if, as a result, you lose
droves of loyal customers.
We await your response which we will convey to our members and the
public at large.
Thanking you for an early reply,
Yours faithfully
Xavier Cota
Convenor

Betalbatim Gram Sabha resolves to coordinate road digging

The Betalbatim Gram Sabha was held in a cordial atmosphere, though the attendance was less than usual probably due to the rains. The Sarpanch acceding to the request of a previous Gram Sabha, distributed xerox copies of the minutes of the last Gram Sabha as also of the Action Taken Report to the villagers.

Two important resolutions were unanimously passed. Members complained about the constant disruption in phone connectivity and water supply due to cutting whilst digging. It was therefore resolved that any person or agency private or public proposing to dig to lay cables or water lines etc in the village along the roads should obtain the written permission of the Panchayat authorities. Upon receipt of the application, the panchayat will depute the ward panch and inform other agencies like BSNL, PWD to send their personnel to supervise the digging. The agency involved will also restore the broken portion of the roads. The copies of this resolution shall be sent to the relevant authorities likes BSNL, PWD, private providers like Reliance, Tata etc and the Director of Panchayats.

Members congratulated the Panchayat for putting in place garbage management in the village. However, they were very unhappy at the poor beach cleanliness, whereupon the Sarpanch informed that the beach garbage contractor was not under their purview but under the Tourism Dept  who had appointed him. The Gram Sabha thereupon unanimously resolved that the local Panchayat should look after the maintenance both of the beach and the land immediately adjoining it and the Tourism Dept should transfer the proportionate amount being paid to the delinquent contractor to the Panchayat for this purpose and that henceforth the panchayat should be responsible for beach cleanliness since the good name of the village was at stake.The copy of the resolution was to be sent to the Tourism Dept. Attention was drawn to the poor state of Betalbatim Club in Mazagon, Mumbai, whereupon the Sarpanch informed that help could be considered only after receipt of a written request approved at the General Body Meeting of the Club.

The Sarpanch also announced that as per the assurance of the Power minister, three new transformers would shortly be set up to alleviate power woes and that sagging lines would be tightened and new conductors installed.

Door to Door collection of segregated dry waste

Betalbatim has taken one more step towards garbage management in the village, with the launch of Door to Door collection of segregated dry waste. The Panchayat has purchased a cycle rickshaw for this purpose.

In another initiative, to eliminate the menace of plastic carrybags, the Panchayat is distributing biodegradable cloth shopping bags to shops. These reusable bags are to be given to customers at a refundable deposit of Rs. 5/- per bag in lieu of the one-time use plastic carrybags. Earlier, the Panchayat had supplied sets of terracotta composters to households at subsidized rates and last year a recycling
station for dry waste had been set up.

The initiative by the Panchayat's Garbage Management Committee is actively supported by Betalbatim Civic & Consumer Forum and coordinated by the Panchayat's Waste Management Consultant Eng. Clinton Vaz. Mission Chaka Chak Goa chief and newly coopted PMC Councillor Patricia Pinto who was the Guest of Honour gave an inspiring talk and promised all help to the local body in its bold and proactive steps to tackle the garbage menace.

Goa Panchayat Mahila Shakti Abhiyan President Prof. Nelly Rodrigues congratulated the Betalbatim Panchayat for winning the Rs. 50,000/- State Award.Whilst complimenting the Sarpanch and members for their far-sighted initiative, she also lauded the efforts of the NGO in helping the Panchayat and assured all possible aid from the Zilla Parishad.

Chief Guest Mickky Pacheco expressed happiness with the Panchayat for tackling people's problems and announced that The Mickky Pacheco Charitable Trust which was distributing free exercise books to village school children, was prepared to subsidise the composters so that every village household could compost its wet garbage.

Earlier, the packed Social Club hall was given a power-point presentation on waste segregation and a demo on composting by Clinton Vaz.

Sarpanch Minguel Pereira proposed the vote of thanks.

BETALBATIM CIVIC AND CONSUMER FORUM MONTHLY MEETING - JUNE 2011

Betalbatim Civic and Consumer Forum (BCCF) will have its monthly
meeting at 5.00pm on Saturday 4th June 2011 at St.Jude's H. School,
Betalbatim. Besides the roundup of the utilities - Electricity, Water,
Telephones, LPG, Posts etc, the meeting will discuss ways to take
Garbage Management in the village forward as also the increasing number
of accidents and deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

Consumers of Betalbatim are invited to attend the meeting and
participate in the deliberations.

Xavier Cota (Mob: 9850101376)
Convenor
Betalbatim Civic & Consumer Forum

BETALBATIM LAUNCHES DOOR WASTE COLLECTION

The Panchayat of Betalbatim will launch its Door to Door Collection of Dry Waste tomorrow. Former Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco MLA, will be the Chief Guest at the function, to be held in front of the Panchayat Office at 10.45am on 2nd June. Goa Chaka Chak Coordinator Patricia Pinto will be the Guest of Honour, while Zilla Member and Goa Mahila chief, Prof. Nelly Rodrigues will preside over the function. Eng. Clinton Vaz who has helped the Panchayat to put in place its garbage management initiative in association with Betalbatim Civic & Consumer Forum, will be on hand to field queries. A Cycle-Rickshaw will collect Dry Waste bimonthly from households which are segregating and composting Biodegradable Waste in composters. The sets of 3 earthenware pots are supplied to households by the Panchayat at subsidized rates. A Say No to Plastic Carrybags campaign, is also being launched with Shopkeepers in Betalbatim phasing out single-use plastic carrybags in favour of reusable cloth carrybags subsidized by the Panchayat.