the goan I network
PANAJI
Putting into question the concepts of “Goy” and “Konkani amchi maichi bhas”, the National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, to be held on February 23 and 24 in New Delhi will not see youth representatives from Goa participate in the event. This is because Goa has not been considered a separate state, but a district in Maharashtra.
As such three youth representatives from Goa were sent to Pune on February 7 to compete as a “district of Maharashtra” along with youth from the 36 other districts of Maharashtra.
The official government website for the youth parliament says that the festival is to be conducted at three levels : District Youth Parliament (DYP), State Youth Parliament (SYP) and National Youth Parliament (NYP). Goa did not have the SYP within the state of Goa, and had just one DYP, instead of two for the two districts of Goa.
The DYP was held at St Xavier’s College, Mapusa, which was appointed as the Nodal Institute, on January 28. A total of 20 candidates participated in the DYP, nine from South Goa and eleven from North Goa. The panel selecting the candidates consisted of five jury members : Prof Bernard Rodrigues (from Goa University), Milind Anvekar (ex-municiple councillor Mapusa), Dattaprasad Shirgurkar (from MES College Vasco), Vivek Gaonkar (Range Forest Officer Goa) and Paul Fernandes (from St Xavier’s College).
The candidates who qualified in this round wereKrishna Palyekar, Rochelle Braganca, Arvind, Prachi Patil and Poornima Pednekar from South Goa, and Virginia De Mello, Vaishnavi Joshi, Jerusha D’Souza, Pritesh Patil and Prajyoti Kandolkar from North Goa. Of these, the top three i.e. Virginia, Vaishnavi, and Jerusha represented Goa at Maharashtra’s SYP at Pune. None of them were selected for the NYP. However, North Goa highest scorer Virginia and South Goa highest scorer Krishna can attend as “delegates.”
Further, Konkani was sidelined by default at Pune, it not being the official state language of Maharashtra. According to the official website, “the youth can participate in Hindi, English or the official language of the State Government concerned from which the youth is participating at level of screening for DYP and SYP.” Since Maharathra was organising the SYP, students at the SYP spoke mainly in Marathi and Hindi, while very few students spoke in English informed a source. At the DYP, of the 20 candidates, some spoke in Konkani, but did not make the top three.
When contacted earlier, one of the organisers of the DYP at Goa had assured “The Goan” that Goa as a state would definitely get representation at the NYP in New Delhi. With the conclusion of the SYPs however, these hopes lay shattered.
NO PARTICIPATION AT YOUTH PARLIAMENT
Goa has not been considered a separate state, but a district in Maharashtra
The festival is to be conducted at three levels: DYP, SYP and NYP
Goa did not have SYP within the state of Goa, and had just one DYP
With the conclusion of the SYPs, hopes of participation in NYP lie shattered
(DYP: District Youth Parliament, SYP: Youth Parliament, NYP: National Youth Parliament)
