PANAJI
Goa government's e-bazaar, the platform for local artisans, women of self-help groups making home-made food items and others to market their products is working on tying up with Amazon.in make Goa's produce available globally, according to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Sawant, who was responding to a caller's query on his monthly "Hello Goenkar" phone-in programme on Doordarshan's Panaji television station, said the e-bazaar platform will expand to a year-round facility and not just restricted to the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.
"Even Goan MSMEs making branded products like the branded coconut oil, etc. will be netted in. The idea is to make Goa made products available to a wider clientele, globally," Sawant said while speaking live on the programme.
The government's e-bazaar platform was launched last year for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival as an initiative to tap the e-commerce mode for rural artisans and women working with self-help groups. The platform is managed jointly by two government departments -- Planning and Statistics and Rural Development.
PINK FORCE ON
KEY BUS ROUTES
Responding to another query on the programme, Sawant said his government will explore deploying the "pink force" on buses for select routes to tackle the menace of "Road Romeos" harassing girls and women.
"We will think of putting the Pink Force on some routes in sync with the timings of schools and colleges along these routes," Sawant said in response to a query by Dabolim caller Sudesh Khawtankar who raised the issue of harassment faced by women on buses.
Khawthankar also raised the issue of 'sexual harassment committees' which are mandatory, going defunct in many government offices and sought regular review of their functioning. Sawant, however, disagreed that these committees are defunct in 'many offices' but assured that he would take up the matter in right earnest at his next meeting with the Secretaries.
EXTERNAL AUDIT
OF ROAD WORKS
Sawant said, road works executed through the Public Works Department (PWD) are being externally audited by an agency which does quality audits for airports and other such facilities. Once this audit report is available, accountability will be fixed and action will be taken against engineers, contractors and others.
"For sure accountability will be fixed for the washing away of some roads. We are coming up with some system of ensuring warranty of black-topping of roads. The contractors will be held responsible and made to do the same work at their cost. We are working out this system which will be done very soon," Sawant said in response to a query on why accountability is not fixed for the bad condition of freshly relaid roads.
