Panaji: Union ministry of information & broadcasting has appointed filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker as the festival director for the 57th edition of the International Film Festival of India (Iffi), to be held in Goa in Nov.“I feel privileged to have witnessed the evolution of this festival. From attending it in 1984 to continuing my association over the years, right up to 2024, when I served as the jury president for international cinema,” Gowariker said.He further added that he was looking forward to work with Goa govt for the annually held festival.“To carry forward the legacy that has been created, nurtured and expanded over the decades since 1952 by innumerable festival teams is a great honour, accompanied by a renewed sense of responsibility. I look forward to working closely with the ministry of information & broadcasting and Govt of Goa,” he said.Gowariker is known for films such as Lagaan (2001), Swades (2004) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008).Panaji: Union ministry of information & broadcasting has appointed filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker as the festival director for the 57th edition of the International Film Festival of India (Iffi), to be held in Goa in Nov.“I feel privileged to have witnessed the evolution of this festival. From attending it in 1984 to continuing my association over the years, right up to 2024, when I served as the jury president for international cinema,” Gowariker said.He further added that he was looking forward to work with Goa govt for the annually held festival.“To carry forward the legacy that has been created, nurtured and expanded over the decades since 1952 by innumerable festival teams is a great honour, accompanied by a renewed sense of responsibility. I look forward to working closely with the ministry of information & broadcasting and Govt of Goa,” he said.Gowariker is known for films such as Lagaan (2001), Swades (2004) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008).Margao: The public works department (PWD) launched a vacuum sewerage system at Khareband, Margao, which PWD minister Digambar Kamat claimed would help stop raw sewage from flowing into the Sal river.Kamat laid the foundation stone for the work, being executed by the Sewerage and Infrastructure Development Corporation Goa Limited (SIDCGL), which involves the design, construction, erection and commissioning of a vacuum sewerage system with SCADA wireless monitoring, along with five years of operation and maintenance.The minister said that while the sewerage project in Margao was largely complete, certain low-lying pockets of the city remained outside the network — a gap the new technology was specifically designed to address. “There are some places because they are low-lying, couldn’t be connected to sewerage chambers. We identified several such places across Margao,” Kamat said.The first work order, covering the rising main connecting identified low-lying areas to the pumping station, has been awarded for Rs 21.5 crore. Tenders for the remaining areas will be floated shortly. “Once that’s done, all the low-lying areas of Margao will be connected to the sewerage network,” Kamat said, adding that the project would also help resolve the long-standing issue of Sal river contamination.The development comes amid heightened public concern over the Sal’s rapidly deteriorating water quality. Earlier this month, a joint inspection of the river — involving teams from the Goa State Pollution Control Board, PWD, water resources department, directorate of health services and Margao Municipal Council — got under way to identify pollution sources and recommend remedial measures. The inspection, which covered several nallahs and discharge points, including at the SGPDA markets and South Goa district hospital, was driven by mounting concern backed by official data tabled in the recent assembly session. The data showed dissolved oxygen levels at a downstream monitoring point crashing to near zero for five consecutive months — a sign, experts warn, of near-total collapse of aquatic life in the stretch.
