Youth form 40% of HIV patients
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Panaji: HIV/ AIDS has been found to have a profound impact on teens and young adults and nearly 40% of new HIV infections and almost one-third of the global total of people living with the disease are aged between 15 and 24.
In Goa, about 23% of the detected HIV cases in 2007 belonged to the age group 15-29, said Goa State AIDS Contol Society (GSACS) project director Dr Pradeep Padwal.
Dr Padwal said that while more than one-third of the females infected belong to the age group 15-29 in the state, about one-fifth of the infected males belonged to this age group.
“Males and females were almost equally infected in the age group 15-29, whereas in the higher age groups the proportion of males around 70%,” he said.He was speaking at a media consultation programme ‘A coordinated response to HIV/AIDS in Goa- Building partnerships with the media’ on Tuesday, which was organised by Zindagi, a state network of people living with HIV in collaboration with Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) under the aegis of Indian network of people living with HIV.
Dr Padwal said, “The government has taken good measures to effectively control the epidemic in the last ten years and the HIV spread has plateaued in the last three years.”
Observing that HIV /AIDS which was considered as a
male disease two decade ago, is now distributed almost equally among male and female, he said that more than one-third of the females infected during 2007 in Goa were in the age group 15-29 as compared to less than one-fifth of the infected males.
He said that women are more vulnerable than men to HIV infection because of biological, economic, social and cultural factors. “Male-to-female transmission is 2 to 17 times higher than vice versa. While the proportion of females to total HIV cases detected was about 35.7% in 2007, it ranged between 10 to 12 % during 1995-98,” Dr Padwal observed.
Goa along with Gujarat and Pondicherry are moderate prevalent states and trends indicate that HIV spreads from urban to rural areas and from high-risk groups (HRG) to low risk group (LRG).
“The time lag for the infection to spread from HRG to LRG is 3 to 5 years, as the infection will spread from CSWs to their clients that act as the bridge population and then to wives/ other sexual partners of these clients during the period,” he said.
According to him, the future course of the epidemic will largely depend on efforts in preventing HIV infection among young people.
“For this we have to form strategies to help young people to protect themselves, access to sound information, help to build skills for living, provide a safe and supportive environment as well as quality health services including counseling and also there is a need for special skills and ways of communicating with children,” said Dr Padwal.
To catch people young, the director of GSACS believes that schools are important channels.
“Teachers are the key people who influence children’s behaviour and easy accessibility of young children in different age group to impart age appropriate knowledge,” he added.
June 25, The Times of India, Goa edition
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
TIMES IMPACT
TIMES IMPACT
Vishwajit’s balm for patients
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Panaji: Doctors at the Goa Medical College and hospital will now have to ensure that the medicines they prescribe to patients admitted at the hospital are available at the hospital pharmacy.
“All GMC department heads have to check with the GMC pharmacist about the availability of medicines and then prescribe them to patients,” said health minister Vishwajit Rane. If a particular medicine is not available in the GMC pharmacy, the hospital will have to procure it, and not the patients, as was the practice so far. This is to
ensure that patients admitted at GMC don’t have to spend money on purchasing drugs.
“It is necessary for us to evaluate the free medicine scheme. There are reports in the newspapers and I have also come across complaints from patients admitted to GMC and also from their relatives that they have been forced to purchase medicines from outside, though the government gives medicines free to all patients admitted in the hospital. This is happening despite the government sanctioning about Rs 5 crore annually for free medicines,” said Rane.
TOI had reported on Saturday that despite the an increase in the budget allocation for medicines from Rs 200 lakh in 2003-04 to Rs 500 lakh in 2006-07, medicines were scarce at the GMC pharmacy. TOI had also spoken to doctors who admitted that there is not just a lack of drugs and basic amenities like gloves and cotton, but that patients are asked to purchase these.
GMC medical superintendent Rajan Kuncolienkar has been appointed as the nodal officer to ensure that the inpatients get medicines free. AT YOUR SERVICE
Govt for 24-hr
pharmacy
at GMC
Panaji: The health minister Vishwajit Rane said on Tuesday that the doctors at the Goa
Medical College and Hospital will have to ensure that the medicine they prescribe to patients admitted at the hospital is available at the hospital pharmacy.
“evaluation of the availability of medicines would be done on a weekly basis,” said Rane.
“If necessary, the medical superintendent shall procure the medicines in order to ensure that the patients do not have to go out and purchase
medicines. This is to ensure that the common man seeking treatment at the GMC is not put to any hardship,” said Rane.
Rane said they are considering making a provision for a 24-hour pharmacy at GMC and also suggested that the two district hospital — Asilo at Mapusa and Hospicio at Margao — may tie-up with private chemists to provide medicines round the clock to patients.
The director of health services has been asked to ensure the availability of medicines in the two district hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Yatri Niwas at the GMC complex would be inaugurated on Thursday and the new nursing college would be commissioned on July 4.
The health minister said that he has asked the director of health services Rajnanda Dessai to consider starting a course in home nursing at the nursing college.
The GMC is also set to get its own housekeeping staff, besides female security for women admitted in the female wards. “We have already tendered for the same,” Rane said.
25 June,2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Vishwajit’s balm for patients
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Panaji: Doctors at the Goa Medical College and hospital will now have to ensure that the medicines they prescribe to patients admitted at the hospital are available at the hospital pharmacy.
“All GMC department heads have to check with the GMC pharmacist about the availability of medicines and then prescribe them to patients,” said health minister Vishwajit Rane. If a particular medicine is not available in the GMC pharmacy, the hospital will have to procure it, and not the patients, as was the practice so far. This is to
ensure that patients admitted at GMC don’t have to spend money on purchasing drugs.
“It is necessary for us to evaluate the free medicine scheme. There are reports in the newspapers and I have also come across complaints from patients admitted to GMC and also from their relatives that they have been forced to purchase medicines from outside, though the government gives medicines free to all patients admitted in the hospital. This is happening despite the government sanctioning about Rs 5 crore annually for free medicines,” said Rane.
TOI had reported on Saturday that despite the an increase in the budget allocation for medicines from Rs 200 lakh in 2003-04 to Rs 500 lakh in 2006-07, medicines were scarce at the GMC pharmacy. TOI had also spoken to doctors who admitted that there is not just a lack of drugs and basic amenities like gloves and cotton, but that patients are asked to purchase these.
GMC medical superintendent Rajan Kuncolienkar has been appointed as the nodal officer to ensure that the inpatients get medicines free. AT YOUR SERVICE
Govt for 24-hr
pharmacy
at GMC
Panaji: The health minister Vishwajit Rane said on Tuesday that the doctors at the Goa
Medical College and Hospital will have to ensure that the medicine they prescribe to patients admitted at the hospital is available at the hospital pharmacy.
“evaluation of the availability of medicines would be done on a weekly basis,” said Rane.
“If necessary, the medical superintendent shall procure the medicines in order to ensure that the patients do not have to go out and purchase
medicines. This is to ensure that the common man seeking treatment at the GMC is not put to any hardship,” said Rane.
Rane said they are considering making a provision for a 24-hour pharmacy at GMC and also suggested that the two district hospital — Asilo at Mapusa and Hospicio at Margao — may tie-up with private chemists to provide medicines round the clock to patients.
The director of health services has been asked to ensure the availability of medicines in the two district hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Yatri Niwas at the GMC complex would be inaugurated on Thursday and the new nursing college would be commissioned on July 4.
The health minister said that he has asked the director of health services Rajnanda Dessai to consider starting a course in home nursing at the nursing college.
The GMC is also set to get its own housekeeping staff, besides female security for women admitted in the female wards. “We have already tendered for the same,” Rane said.
25 June,2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Landlords defend sale to non-Goans
Landlords defend sale to non-Goans
We Have The Right to Dispose Our Properties To The Highest Bidder
Preetu Nair | TNN
Panaji: As activists demand that the sale of land to outsiders at exorbitant prices be banned, thereby stopping the rape of Goa by builders, land owners or bhatkars in Goa believe they have the right to sell their land to the highest bidder.
“The price of land has gone up because there is a demand. Today we are a capitalist society and if anyone wants to keep the land for Goans then they should purchase it at market value from landlords and preserve it,” said Agostinho Proenca, a land owner from Calangute.
Proenca doesn’t see any reason over people cribbing about landlords selling land at hefty prices.
“Check out the cost of living in Goa. Who would sell land or for that matter anything at a lower price. As a seller I am not interested in what a buyer or a builder does with the land. There are government agencies in place in Goa to check on these issues,” added Proenca.
Victor Albuquerque, chairman and managing director of the Alcon Victor Group, said, “If the price of land is high, then the price of flats also naturally increases. Nowadays, the cost of the land is almost equal to the cost of the construction of a multi storeyed building.”
“There are prime properties like Dona Paula where the cost of constructing the bungalow is less than the cost of the land,” he added.
Landlords believe that it’s not the seller who should be blamed if a Goan buyer can’t afford the rate of land.
They also feel that holding on to the land is risky. Landlords complain that it is becoming extremely difficult to maintain the land; for one, there are encroachers, problems with tenants, and mundkars out to ‘grab land’ from landlords.
“There is no justice. If you retain your property, a mundkar could encroach and neither the panchayat nor government helps. The only option is either to sell off the property at the price the mundkars demands or approach the court. I don’t have time to follow up matters in the court, so I am developing buildings in the vacant plots,” says Dr A J Cardoso, a landlord from Santa Cruz.
While tenants are actual tillers of an agricultural land, mundkars are those who looked after the property for the bhatkar over generations.
“The general feeling amongst bhatkars is that after the Mundkar and Tenancy Act, landlords have been suppressed and so they feel cheated. So when you get a higher price you should sell the property,” said Alba Sequeira, a land owner from Siolim.
However, she said that she would prefer selling her plot to a Goan, provided they are willing to pay what she called a ‘moderately high’ sum.
In the past year, opposition against sale of land to foreigners and even Indians, alleging that the price of land has skyrocketed to such an extent that it has become unaffordable for a middle class Goan to purchase a house or land in the state, has grown.
Interestingly, given a choice, not many would like to sell their plots to non Goans, but rue that more than often the locals are not willing to pay the price.
“I prefer selling my land to Goans, but I also sell it to non Goans settled in Goa, if they are willing to pay the price,” said Vishnudas Kare from Gogol, Margao.
Some landlords argue that if Goans can travel, work, purchase land, build houses and settle anywhere in the country or the world, others too have a right to settle in the state.
“I will definitely sell my property to a person who pays a higher price and completes the transaction legally. Can we stop another Indian from buying property in Goa? Haven’t Goans purchased property and built homes in Mumbai and rest of the country and abroad,” added Savio Mendonca, a landlord from Siolim.
June 23, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
We Have The Right to Dispose Our Properties To The Highest Bidder
Preetu Nair | TNN
Panaji: As activists demand that the sale of land to outsiders at exorbitant prices be banned, thereby stopping the rape of Goa by builders, land owners or bhatkars in Goa believe they have the right to sell their land to the highest bidder.
“The price of land has gone up because there is a demand. Today we are a capitalist society and if anyone wants to keep the land for Goans then they should purchase it at market value from landlords and preserve it,” said Agostinho Proenca, a land owner from Calangute.
Proenca doesn’t see any reason over people cribbing about landlords selling land at hefty prices.
“Check out the cost of living in Goa. Who would sell land or for that matter anything at a lower price. As a seller I am not interested in what a buyer or a builder does with the land. There are government agencies in place in Goa to check on these issues,” added Proenca.
Victor Albuquerque, chairman and managing director of the Alcon Victor Group, said, “If the price of land is high, then the price of flats also naturally increases. Nowadays, the cost of the land is almost equal to the cost of the construction of a multi storeyed building.”
“There are prime properties like Dona Paula where the cost of constructing the bungalow is less than the cost of the land,” he added.
Landlords believe that it’s not the seller who should be blamed if a Goan buyer can’t afford the rate of land.
They also feel that holding on to the land is risky. Landlords complain that it is becoming extremely difficult to maintain the land; for one, there are encroachers, problems with tenants, and mundkars out to ‘grab land’ from landlords.
“There is no justice. If you retain your property, a mundkar could encroach and neither the panchayat nor government helps. The only option is either to sell off the property at the price the mundkars demands or approach the court. I don’t have time to follow up matters in the court, so I am developing buildings in the vacant plots,” says Dr A J Cardoso, a landlord from Santa Cruz.
While tenants are actual tillers of an agricultural land, mundkars are those who looked after the property for the bhatkar over generations.
“The general feeling amongst bhatkars is that after the Mundkar and Tenancy Act, landlords have been suppressed and so they feel cheated. So when you get a higher price you should sell the property,” said Alba Sequeira, a land owner from Siolim.
However, she said that she would prefer selling her plot to a Goan, provided they are willing to pay what she called a ‘moderately high’ sum.
In the past year, opposition against sale of land to foreigners and even Indians, alleging that the price of land has skyrocketed to such an extent that it has become unaffordable for a middle class Goan to purchase a house or land in the state, has grown.
Interestingly, given a choice, not many would like to sell their plots to non Goans, but rue that more than often the locals are not willing to pay the price.
“I prefer selling my land to Goans, but I also sell it to non Goans settled in Goa, if they are willing to pay the price,” said Vishnudas Kare from Gogol, Margao.
Some landlords argue that if Goans can travel, work, purchase land, build houses and settle anywhere in the country or the world, others too have a right to settle in the state.
“I will definitely sell my property to a person who pays a higher price and completes the transaction legally. Can we stop another Indian from buying property in Goa? Haven’t Goans purchased property and built homes in Mumbai and rest of the country and abroad,” added Savio Mendonca, a landlord from Siolim.
June 23, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Scarlett Keeling Case;Julio fears arrest, files anticipatory bail plea
SCARLETT KEELING CASE
Julio fears arrest, files anticipatory bail plea
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Panaji: British teenager Scarlett Keeling’s friend in India, Julio Lobo, a resident of Siolim, has filed an anticipatory bail application before the children’s court on Monday fearing his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Julio in his application said that he fears that he would be falsely implicated in the case.
The CBI officials who are presently in Goa to investigate the rape and murder of the British teenager had interrogated Julio on June 20.
Julio in his bail application has alleged that the officials who searched his house on Saturday took away his aunt’s torch stating that he had used the torch when he was on the beach near
Lui’s shack - in front of which Scarlett’s body was found - inspite of him insisting that he never went in search of the deceased teenager.
He has also said in his bail application that at present the CBI officers have for the first time taken on a new attack against him by claiming that he was on the Anjuna beach on the early morning of February 18, 2008 - the day on which Scarlett was found dead - with a torch and as such had met the girl around the time at which she died.
A notice has subsequently been served to the CBI and the matter will be heard on June 27, 2008.
Besides, another of the accused in the case, Placido Carvalho alias Shana Boy, has also made an application before the children’s court stating that a passport size photo of his seized by the CBI should he returned to him or that the investigating agency should be directed not to make, maintain or distribute any copies of the said photograph.
The matter will be heard on July 4, 2008.
June 24, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Julio fears arrest, files anticipatory bail plea
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Panaji: British teenager Scarlett Keeling’s friend in India, Julio Lobo, a resident of Siolim, has filed an anticipatory bail application before the children’s court on Monday fearing his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Julio in his application said that he fears that he would be falsely implicated in the case.
The CBI officials who are presently in Goa to investigate the rape and murder of the British teenager had interrogated Julio on June 20.
Julio in his bail application has alleged that the officials who searched his house on Saturday took away his aunt’s torch stating that he had used the torch when he was on the beach near
Lui’s shack - in front of which Scarlett’s body was found - inspite of him insisting that he never went in search of the deceased teenager.
He has also said in his bail application that at present the CBI officers have for the first time taken on a new attack against him by claiming that he was on the Anjuna beach on the early morning of February 18, 2008 - the day on which Scarlett was found dead - with a torch and as such had met the girl around the time at which she died.
A notice has subsequently been served to the CBI and the matter will be heard on June 27, 2008.
Besides, another of the accused in the case, Placido Carvalho alias Shana Boy, has also made an application before the children’s court stating that a passport size photo of his seized by the CBI should he returned to him or that the investigating agency should be directed not to make, maintain or distribute any copies of the said photograph.
The matter will be heard on July 4, 2008.
June 24, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Search on for Scarlett’s Israeli friend
Search on for Scarlett’s Israeli friend
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Panaji: The CBI officials who are in Goa to investigate the alleged rape and murder of Brit teenager Scarlett Keeling have been searching for an Israeli boy who was friendly with Keeling before she met Julio Lobo.
Police officials reveal that Keeling had met the boy soon after she had come to Goa and he had also helped her mother, Fiona Mackeown around soon after Keeling’s body was found. However, highly placed sources reveal that the Isareli has already left the country.
It is learnt that the CBI raided Lobo’s house and took a torch and few papers, including a paper from Julio’s aunt’s diary in which she had written a name “Fiona” (which is also Scarlett’s mother’s name) and a phone number written in pencil. Top officials reveal that the CBI also questioned Lobo about his relationship with Keeling and asked him whether he went searching for Keeling on the early morning of February 18, 2008 when the British teenager was allegedly drugged, raped and murdered on the Anjuna beach.
During the initial stages of the investigation, police officials had informed that the main accused in the case, bartender Samson D’Souza had left Scarlett in the water to die, after he saw someone approaching towards them with a torch.
Besides, sources revealed that the CBI also raided Shanaboy’s house on Saturday and questioned him again on his role in the murder. “The accused has been asked to come to our office at Altinho on Monday,” sources in the CBI confirmed.
June 23, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Panaji: The CBI officials who are in Goa to investigate the alleged rape and murder of Brit teenager Scarlett Keeling have been searching for an Israeli boy who was friendly with Keeling before she met Julio Lobo.
Police officials reveal that Keeling had met the boy soon after she had come to Goa and he had also helped her mother, Fiona Mackeown around soon after Keeling’s body was found. However, highly placed sources reveal that the Isareli has already left the country.
It is learnt that the CBI raided Lobo’s house and took a torch and few papers, including a paper from Julio’s aunt’s diary in which she had written a name “Fiona” (which is also Scarlett’s mother’s name) and a phone number written in pencil. Top officials reveal that the CBI also questioned Lobo about his relationship with Keeling and asked him whether he went searching for Keeling on the early morning of February 18, 2008 when the British teenager was allegedly drugged, raped and murdered on the Anjuna beach.
During the initial stages of the investigation, police officials had informed that the main accused in the case, bartender Samson D’Souza had left Scarlett in the water to die, after he saw someone approaching towards them with a torch.
Besides, sources revealed that the CBI also raided Shanaboy’s house on Saturday and questioned him again on his role in the murder. “The accused has been asked to come to our office at Altinho on Monday,” sources in the CBI confirmed.
June 23, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
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