Panaji (PTI): Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has expressed hope that when Pope Francis visits India as invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his visit itinerary includes the coastal state.

PM Modi met Pope Francis on Friday on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy.

"Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji met HH Pope Francis @Pontifex on the sidelines of G7 Summit in Italy. Hon'ble PM admired his commitment to serve the people and extended an invitation to Pope to visit Bharat, and we hope the visit includes Goa," Sawant said on X.

A few months back, Sawant had said that the state government would be inviting Pope Francis for the decennial exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier at Old Goa, scheduled to be held during later part of the year.

Christians constitute around 27 per cent of Goa's total population.

 

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Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Tuesday issued an order implementing internal reservation within the 15 per cent quota earmarked for Scheduled Castes in appointments and admissions.

As per the order, 5.25 per cent reservation has been allocated to Left-hand communities under Category-A, 5.25 per cent to Right-hand communities under Category-B, and 4.50 per cent to other touchable Scheduled Caste communities under Category-C.

The government said the decision follows the recent Cabinet meeting held in view of the interim order of the High Court. It was decided to temporarily adopt the 50 per cent overall reservation ceiling and continue recruitments subject to the final verdict of the court.

Accordingly, the 15 per cent SC reservation in recruitment and admissions will now be distributed among the three categories in the prescribed ratio.

The order further stated that 20 per cent of posts or seats available under Category-C must be reserved for 59 most backward castes within the Scheduled Castes. If eligible candidates from these 59 castes are not available, the vacancies or seats should be filled by candidates from other communities within Category-C.

For implementing the revised quota in recruitment, authorities have been directed to follow a 400-point roster system. Where fewer than three Scheduled Caste roster points are available in any cadre, the reserved posts should be treated as general SC category posts for appointment purposes.

The government has also directed departments to revise ongoing recruitment processes by incorporating internal reservation. Notifications already issued without such quota distribution are to be withdrawn and fresh revised notifications issued immediately.

The order added that if the court upholds the enhanced 24 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the additional 6 per cent posts should be treated as backlog vacancies and filled accordingly.

The government has instructed all recruiting authorities to take urgent steps to fill 56,432 posts already cleared by the Finance Department through direct recruitment.