'Anxiety reigns in India’s smallest state as its unprepared administration struggles with implementing the nationwide lockdown, compounded by the heavy-handed insertion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The situation threatens to blow up into an explosive social crisis. On Saturday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant declared the CRPF “will be given a free hand to take action against people violating the lockdown orders". Less than 24 hours later, there were already videos circulating of passers-by being assaulted and humiliated in the capital city of Panjim.
'Anger is simmering in Goa, India’s smallest state, whose chief minister is keen to ensure a 100% lockdown including cracking down on the supply of daily essentials like milk and bread as the lockdown has begun to affect not just stranded tourists and homeless but even middle class households. With Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s grand plan for home delivery proving to be a non-starter, the opposition has approached the Governor’s office seeking his intervention. A group of residents has approached the High Court while still others are baying for the Chief Minister to resign...'
'A tribal leader was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly referred to mythological sage Parashuram as a “terrorist from Greece” who tried to destroy local indigenous communities. Ramkrishna Jalmi was arrested by Crime Branch officials after multiple complaints were filed accusing him of offending religious sentiments of Hindus in his speech at an anti-CAA rally held on Saturday in South Goa district. “He has been arrested and booked under Sections 295 (insulting religion) and 153A (promoting communal disharmony).
'A Goa court on Thursday framed charges against BJP MLA from Panaji, Atanasio Monserrate for allegedly raping a minor girl. Monserrate was booked in 2016 for allegedly drugging and raping a 16-year-old girl, under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 506 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The trial in the case is scheduled to begin from October 15 at the Additional District and Session Court in Panaji...'
'A Goa court on Thursday framed charges against BJP MLA Atanasio Monserratte for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl. The police last year filed a 250-page chargesheet in the North Goa district court after the investigation in the case was completed. North Goa district and sessions court judge Sherin Paul on Thursday framed charges against Monserratte. The trial in the case will begin on October 17.
'Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday inaugurated a detention centre set up near here to lodge foreign nationals who violate visa norms. The government spent Rs 50 lakh to convert the old sub-jail in Mapusa town, located around 9 km from here, into the detention centre for foreigners who were overstaying in Goa after expiry of their documents, Sawant said...'
"According to a 2010 report compiled by the Goa police, the Sanatan Sanstha is using a mix of murder, arson, hypnotism and sexual exploitation to build a future Hindu nation... The murder of communist politician Govind Pansare only tops off the list of crimes that the ultra-right organisation Sanatan Sanstha has been accused of. Over the years, that roster has come to include transgressions such as the issue of threats and more dangerously, terror activities such as bomb blasts.
'Under pressure from Hindu right wing groups and with tacit support from Christian MLAs who were censured during live onstage performances in the past, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Goa is contemplating setting up a censor board for a popular more-than-a-century old theatre form called tiatr.
"The policy lists LGBT community among the stigmatised groups which need focused attention. Goa’s Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Ramesh Tawadkar today said the government was planning to set up centres to administer treatment to the LGBT youths to make them “normal”. He was speaking to reporters after launching the state government’s youth policy. “We will make them (LGBT youth) normal. We will have a centre for them. Like Alcoholic Anonymous centres, we will have centres. We will train them and give them medicines too,” he said..."
"The Goa government has banned the Hindu right wing Shri Ram Sena from entering the state, chief minister Manohar Parrikar told the state legislative assembly late Wednesday evening. "I had asked police to prepare a report and it was sent to the collector to ban the entry of Shri Ram Sena in the state. We have banned Shri Ram Sena," Parrikar said. In June Shri Ram Sena chief Pramod Mutalik had announced his plan to set up a branch of the sena in the state in September..."
