PANAJI
The Goa Legislative Assembly witnessed a heated five-hour long "short duration" discussion on the "nationalisation of rivers issue in the State of Goa" which witnessed charges and counter charges between the ruling and Opposition even as chief minister admitted that he had opposed the nationalisation of rivers back in 2012.
Towards the end, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar formally informed the House that the government of Goa would be formally going forward in signing the tripartite memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Captain of Ports, the Inland Waterways Authority of India and Mormugao Port Trust.
"(The) Government has decided to sign the MoU we will go on improving on it. We will take into consideration your stance whether to remove the six rivers or not," Parrikar said caveating it sarcastically with "once the work is done and the money is secured."
"In fact they, (IWAI) was asking me to sign the MoU even earlier, however I refused saying that I first have to present this before the public," Parrikar said.
"I opposed it that time (2012). Because that government was unreliable. Because that government (then Congress ruled central government) was trying to checkmate the Goa government with the support of some people from here," Parrikar said trying to explain his decision to have opposed nationalisation earlier.
The legislative assembly also witnessed late drama when Opposition MLA Reginaldo Lourenço demanded that the chief minister stops lecturing on the constitution but only answer whether the government had the intention of withdrawing Goa's six rivers from the schedule of the National Waterways Act, 2016 or not.
"We are not here to listen to your justification. You please tell us what is your clear stand on this issue. Otherwise we will go," Reginaldo said.
As Reginaldo pressed on for a concise answer, Parrikar accused him of stalling his reply because the Congress was "getting exposed". "I will reply in full. Just because you are getting exposed you don't want to listen," Parrikar said.
As the din escalated and ruling legislators began shouting "shame" directed towards Reginaldo, the Speaker too echoed the sentiment of the ruling benches and bizarrely began telling Reginaldo that he was free to leave the House if he wanted and if he wasn't interested in CM's reply.
Reginaldo then walked towards the Speaker's chair placed his demand for a concise answer and walked out.
Earlier in the day, several legislators most notably Lourenço, Francisco Silveira and leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar questioned the government's intentions on rights of fishermen, and demanded that the government move an unanimous resolution that the six rivers be removed from the schedule of the Act.
Silveira worried that the consequences of the Act would directly affect the future of the people of his constituency with a large number of them being dependent on the tidal backwaters for their source of livelihood as they use traditional methods of fishing.
"If you have the will, there are many things you can do. You can move a resolution with the support of the government to remove the six rivers," Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar said in response to CM's assertion that the Act of Parliament was a fait accompli and that there was little the State government could do about it.
Apprehensions were raised from the ruling benches too most notably by Alina Saldanha who contended that the Government had the responsibility to allay the fears of the fishermen who were fearful of their livelihoods.
However, others fully backed the government.
Minister for Sports Manohar "Babu" Ajgaonkar said that irrespective of what the government wants to do, the people of Goa would not allow any detrimental projects to come up in their rivers.
In his reply to the discussion, Parrikar enlisted, as he had done on many occasions earlier, the rights and responsibilities in each of the parties involved in the MoU. "Once the Act was passed, we did the next best thing to safeguard our rights and that is sign the MoU," Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said.
