Mahanand's dad, mom ashamed he's their son

BY A GT CORRESPONDENT

bureaus@gomantaktimes.com

SHIRODA, MAY 6 2009: "We feel ashamed that we are his parents," said Ramnath Vithu Naik (84) and Indu (82), the parents of Ponda's serial killer, Mahanand Naik.

Ramnath and Indu said, Mahanand and his wife should be punished for his misdeeds. 

Mahanand's octogenarian parents spoke to GT when they had come to Tarvalem-Shiroda yesterday afternoon to see their house which was set ablaze recently by angry villagers. They were accompanied by three other sons Narayan, Dayanand, Krishna, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. 

Mahanand was arrested earlier last month by the Ponda police for allegedly raping his wife's friend, and during his interrogation in police custody revealed that he had murdered four women over the last decade-and-a-half.

"Whatever Mahanand has done is extremely bad. We are unable to face the villagers. We do not want such a criminal for a son," they said.

The aged Naiks used to live in the now gutted house, with three other sons of theirs -- Ramesh, Narayan and Krishna -- living in three other seperate rooms.

The oldest, Dayanand, lived in Ponda while Mahanand had built an independent house elsewhere in the vicinity.

"We would have no complaints if Mahanand's house was burnt. But since everything has been reduced to ashes from our house with neither roof nor walls existing, we are helpless as the monsoon is fast approaching," the aged couple said as, even as they broke down in the presence of their daughters-in-law, Nilima and Shevanti. 

They said they were unaware about Mahanand's activities, stressing that he lived in a separate house with his wife in the neighbourhood and hardly had any contact with them. 

They nevertheless vouched for his 'normal behaviour' when he lived with them before his marriage nearly 11 years ago.

The aged couple were also angry about the role of Mahanand's wife -- Pooja -- saying she should have brought him under control.

It is learnt that Mahanand's wife Pooja, who is working at Ela Farm, Old Goa took part in folkdances and even taught the art to other girls. She also owned three flats, it is learnt.

It has also come to light that Mahanand, who has studied up to std IX, robbed clothes from neighbours by fishing them out throw the windows with a stick.

Mahanad's aged parents Ramnath Vithu Naik and mother Indu along with one of their sons, daughters-in-law and grand children. GT 

5-member team saves Socorro plan

An architect and four engineers from Socorro embarked on the onerous task of correcting many errors in the village map provided by the RP 2021, and then to put on paper the many aspirations of co-villagers on what they want their village to look like in the future.

BY VIBHA VERMA

reporters@gomantaktimes.com

PANJIM: Socorro is a village where nullahs become roads. This was the case when the committee formed to work on the draft regional plan took a look at the village map provided by the Town and Country Planning Department. 

Talk to any of the committee members and they all point to serious errors in the map. This made their task all the more difficult.

Socorro has a population of about 18,000 villagers spread across 11 wards. About 30 percent of the land has been demarcated for settlement and the remaining is either fields, orchards or hills.

Soon after the draft of the Regional Plan 2021 was submitted to the Panchayat by the Town and Country Planning, a gram sabha meeting was called and six committees were formed. However, in reality the hard work was undertaken by a few.

Former panch and expert on Panchayati Raj Soter D'Sousa had this to say, "Initially many came forward to join the committees, but their enthusiasm evaporated and the burden had to be borne by a few."

The first task at hand was correcting errors in the draft. 

“Many aspects were not covered while others were wrongly demarcated," said architect Hyacinth Pinto, a former government officer. "It was a bigger mess than I expected.” 

Some of the roads were not shown in the plan. Crematoriums, water bodies, grounds, school buildings, village institutions, road junctions were not listed in the draft regional plan.

“We made at least five rounds of the village to correct the errors. The government has all this data but it was not provided to the people," she added. 

Since many of the committee members used to work during the day they would gather in the evening to debate issues concerning the village and wind-up by about 9 pm. “After the meeting, I would sit with the plan and other materials up to 1 am,” said Hyacinth. 

Haycinth was joined by four engineers who played a crucial role in giving shape to the plan in three months after adding microscopic details which were missing. 

Kishore Asnodkar, a civil engineer said the groundwork would not have been possible without the assistance and co-operation of other committee members. “We attended meetings everyday in the evening after office hours. We used Sundays to tour the village," he remarked. 

Taking villagers into confidence was not an easy task. At least four gram sabha meetings were called to note down points, suggestions and grievances. "It all worked well,” he stated. 

“I enjoyed every bit of the work as it was a unique opportunity to work for the development of the village,” Asnodkar said. This view was supported by Irrigation engineer R P Shetye, mechanical engineer Dinesh Bhobe, who incidentally headed all the six committees, and engineer Sham Kamat. 

“It was difficult in the beginning but we conquered it soon. For example some nullahs were shown as roads. Wells were not marked, forest areas were not shown, garbage points were not indicated...," Shetye explained. 

The key members organised corner meetings at different places, physically surveyed areas and analysed all the data before formulating the plan. Information provided by residents was also incorporated. “The extra inputs were also of great help to us,” said Bhobe.

The draft finalised by the committee was kept open in the panchayat for 20 days to enable villagers to file their objections. "No one came forward, except for a few selfish villagers who wanted to know the status of their land," said Soter.

Forest official plays down Bullfrog decline

BY ARTI DAS
PANJIM: Claims made by environmentalists that the number of bullfrogs in the wild is on the decline were bared when it was discovered that no survey was ever conducted in the state.
Put simply, there is no hard data to back the claim that the bullfrog is an endangered species, at least in Goa.
Debendra Dalai, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Wildlife and Eco-Tourism said the department does not conduct surveys.
“It is the job of the researchers. Thus, we don’t have any data now. Also, our job is of execution and that we are doing by giving 100 per cent protection to all the species in the protected areas,” he added.
He said, that if any researcher wants to conduct any survey then the department is ready to co-operate.
According to Dr Manoj Borkar, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Zoology, Carmel College, Nuvem there are only gross unscientific observations about frogs in Goa.
“We need to encourage young biologists to conduct such research and even rope in young students in this process,” opined Dr Borkar.
He also informed that a few years ago Gautam Salelkar in Bhagvan Mahavir Wild Life Sanctuary and Mollem National Park conducted a study and it revealed that Goa is home to around 25 species of amphibians.
Nirmal Kulkarni, wildlife ecologist believes the prominent reason for no data compilation is because frogs are a lesser known species.
“We don’t have Project Frog like Project Tiger because their importance is not felt yet. On the contrary, these amphibians are the biggest indicators of climate change and global warming and not many people, including some researchers, do not understand that,” added Kulkarni.
However, non-availability of data does not mean that these creatures are not under threat.
“Frogs are wild animals and that’s the reason they are listed in the Wildlife Protection Act. Some species like Bull frog of Rana family are protected as they play very important role in a food chain,” claimed Dalai.
He further confirmed that there are indicators that the numbers of bullfrogs are dwindling. “Increase in vector borne diseases, influx of snakes (who survive on frogs) in human habitats are signs of it.”
Dr Borkar claims that there’s lot of pressure building up by way of exploitation as hardly any habitat is left for them. Also their wetlands are taken away.
“Activities like over grazing, poaching also contribute to depletion of frogs,” concluded Nirmal.