Policeman arrested for molesting woman in Mapusa in North Goa

A policeman was arrested for allegedly molesting a woman on the pretext of conducting an investigation at her residence in Mapusa town near here, police said today.

Constable Prashant Dawaskar, 30, was arrested yesterday after a woman lodged a complaint with Mapusa police that he, along with four other civilians, ransacked her flat and molested her, while trying to conduct a probe on a complaint against her husband, police said.

The woman and her six-year-old daughter were at home when the alleged offence took place, while her husband was out on his duty.

The woman mentioned in her complaint that Dawaskar entered her house on Sunday at around midnight without a woman police constable and body searched her, amounting to molestation.

Superintendent of Police (North) Vishram Borkar said the constable had been arrested and placed under suspension.

There was no formal complaint against the woman and the constable acted on his own, Borkar said.

The woman alleged that all the persons entered the house forcibly claiming that her husband owed them money.

SOURCE: DECCAN HERALD

Mayem lake to get Rs 3cr facelift by Goa tourism development corporation

PANAJI: The Goa tourism development corporation (GTDC) will shortly undertake upgradation of its only lake-view property at Mayem by spending about 3 crore.

GTDC chairman Nilesh Cabral said that earlier the Mayem lake property was supposed to be upgraded by a mining company at a cost of 4 crore, but with the stoppage of mining, the mining company has backed out of the project.

Cabral said that the GTDC will float a tender in February to appoint a consultant for the upgradation project. The consultant will advise the government on how to go about beautifying and upgrading the property. But Cabral has a few ideas of his own; for example, he intends to buy 20 pedal boats for tourists at the Mayem lake. He wants to introduce paid fishing in the lake.

Cabral also wants to build a ‘Kids zone’ with fun items like an array of laughing mirrors and other toys installed therein. He also wants to build picnic zones where families or groups may have their own picnics by paying a nominal fee to the GTDC.

While the Mayem lake property is 1.47 lakh sq m, the GTDC will only develop 15,000 sq m in the first phase.

The GTDC chairman also said he has plans to create a hub of adventure tourism in the mining belt in the hinterland of Goa.

He said the beaches are already crowded and even parking has become a problem. There is plenty of space in the hinterland and adventure sports like hot-air ballooning can easily be taken up there, he said.

Cabral said that he has already had two rounds of talks with representatives of a paragliding company from Pune who are interested in starting the activity in the hinterland. He also spoke of his idea to start a caravan facility for tourists who can hire a caravan and drive it to certain ‘Caravan Points’ in the hinterland where they can camp there for the nights.

Goa to host first beach tourney

India will hold its first professional beach soccer championship in Goa next month, organizers Beach Soccer Worldwide said on Monday. The Goa Football Association and the Goa Football Development Council are backing the event, which will become a bi-annual feature in India and will see the participation of players from Goa’s popular football clubs and other prominent teams from around the country.

The first edition of the tournament will be held February 7 to 10 in accordance with rules laid out by BSWW.

Teams will comprise of 10 players each — five on field and five as substitutes.
The duration of play will include three periods of 12 minutes each, with a break of three minutes. In case of a tie at the end of regular time, there will be a three-minute extra time, before the penalty shootout. The tournament will see teams battle it out for a prize of `2 lakhs and a trophy as a first step towards building a strong and scalable talent pool for the sport. In all, close to 50 teams from across the country are expected to participate, organizers said.

SOURCE: THE ASIAN AGE