Sunday, December 12, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

What’s in a word? Goa to host 3-day lit fest

Posted: 12 Dec 2010 06:00 AM PST

Its raining festivals in Goa this season. After the recently concluded, international film festival of India (IFFI), the state will now get a chance to indulge in literature.

The three-day Goa Arts and Literary Festival on December 12 at the International Centre Goa (ICG) is inspired by the famous Jaipur Literary Festival and Hay Literary Festival. “It will be deeply rooted to Goa with the involvement of musicians, painters, filmmakers, architects and designers apart from writers,” said Nandini Sahai, director of ICG who wants to make it an annual affair. Jnanpith Award-winner U R Ananthamurthy will be the guest of honour while Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly and president of ICG Pratapsingh Rane will be the special guest.

The festival is organised by ICG in partnership with the Sahitya Academy, Goa Writers Group, Goa Konkani Academy, Gomantak Marathi Academy Harper Collins and Goa Tourism. Prominant authors and writers will participate in the festival

The festival is open to all and will feature a variety of presentations and readings by various authors and other events such as plays, music performances, with the primary focus of promoting and interacting with authors, artists and readers. Four books will also be released during the festival.

Courtey:TOI

Nine of family, driver die in Maharashtra accident

Posted: 12 Dec 2010 04:28 AM PST

Nine members of a family and a driver were killed when their vehicle collided with a bus in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district Sunday morning, police said.

The accident took place near Khed when the speeding Tavera, driven by 22-year-old Suraj Shankar Jadhav, was taking a sharp curve at Kashedi Ghat on the Bombay-Goa highway to Mumbai.

The Tavera hit a Volvo luxury bus, coming from the opposite direction bound for Goa, around 4 a.m. when the occupants of the two vehicles were in deep sleep, a police official said.

The family members who died were — Pradeep Maruti Khelte, 28, Anant Ganpat Khetle, 55, Prema Anand Khetle, 48, Vishnu Ganpat Khetle, 46, Taramati Mahadev Khetle, 58, Mahadev Khhetle, 70, Vinaya Vishnu Khetle, 40, Anjana Ganpat Khetle, 80, and Sangeeta, whose age is not yet known.

Volvo bus driver M.K. Fernandes, 31, was seriously injured and was reported to be critical in a Khed government hospital, the official said.

The Khetle family hailed from Kutgiri village in Ratnagiri, around 200 km from Mumbai.

Courtesy:Sify

Goa’s lifeguards call off strike, get back to beaches

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 10:28 AM PST

Goa’s beaches are again safe for swimming as more than 300 lifeguards have called off their six-day old strike Saturday, a private beach management agency official said.

V. Kanwar, chief operating officer of the Drishti Special Response Service (DSRS), said that the lifeguards who had struck work protesting low pay and long work hours, resumed duties unconditionally Saturday. DSRS is in charge of the lifeguard operation on Goa’s 105-km long coastline.

‘The strike stands withdrawn and lifeguards have started arriving on beaches. We expect that by Saturday evening or Sunday morning, we will have full strength on the beaches,’ Kanwar told reporters here.

He also said that 54 lifeguards who had been leading the strike would not be hired back by the beach management company.

‘We have terminated the services of 54 lifeguards, so in all we have 440 lifeguards left. We have advertised vacancies and for selection of more lifeguards,’ Kanwar said.

The state’s tourism industry Friday urged the state government to intervene and get lifeguards back to Goa’s beaches, ahead of Christmas and New Year season, which sees a tourism peak.

For the last six days, a skeletal force of lifeguards was manning the state’s beaches.

Goa’s tourism season from October to March sees nearly 2.4 million tourists, of whom half a million are foreigners drawn by Goa’s sunny beaches.

Courtesy:Sify
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