Counselling for school kids gets Govt nod

PANJIM, MARCH 9
The State Cabinet today approved a scheme to provide counselling to students in Government and Government-aided schools.
Addressing a post Cabinet press conference Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said of late there were many cases of students committing suicides due to academic pressures.
He said the Cabinet approved the counselling scheme for students which will be implemented with the help of NGOs.
“For this the Government is expecting an expenditure of Rs 1.14 cr per annum”, he said adding “all selected NGOs will be paid Rs 15,000 per month for the work”.
ACCOUNTIBILITY: The Government today also gave its consent to the Goa Public Service Guarantee Bill 2011.
“A Government officer or employee would be accountable for delay caused in any public work”, Kamat said.  The bill has been drafted on the lines of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
LAND RATES: The Cabinet also decided to increase the compensation for tenanted land, acquired by the Government.
Kamat said that the price has been increased to Rs 25 per sq meter from the existing Rs 5 per sq meter.
“It will, however, be upto the officer to decide whether to increase the rate on a case to case basis. We have said that the minimum rate should not be less than Rs 25”, he said.