The 'budget session' of the Goa legislative assembly is set to commence on Monday. Although it is yet unclear on which of the four working days (April 27, 28, 29 or 31) Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will present the budget for 2023-24, it will indeed be the session's highlight. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime has left little legroom for the State to calibrate its revenue inflows leaving Sawant to accomplish the unenviable task of balancing between the State's financial needs and hand-hold a post-Covid recovering economic engine with sops. More than the budget, however, this session will be closely watched for the usual 'Govt-v/s-Oppn' acrimony over currently playing out hot topics. The Goan attempts to take you through what to expect from the upcoming assembly session.
The Budget session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, which will begin on Monday, comes after a gap of exactly 66 days from the winter session which ended on January 19. The tone and tenor of that session, marred by the government v/s Opposition acrimony accentuated by the Mhadei water diversion controversy, is seemingly poised to repeat this time.
The government, perhaps emboldened by its brute 32 v/s 7 majority in the House, seems to be in no mood to concede any space to the Opposition. Already, it has reneged on its last session's promise of holding a longer session by restricting it to four working days. Yet, the Opposition, although limited by its mere seven numbers, is itching for a showdown on a plethora of topics. Much of the fireworks are likely to show up during the Question Hour where ministers are expected to be grilled on subjects the legislators from the Opposition benches do their homework on.
Budget now,
discussion later
Over the last few days, Chief minister Pramod Sawant, who is also the finance minister, has made multiple statements giving broad hints as to the nature of the budget he will present. Yet apart from vague statements like 'budget will be all-inclusive' and that it will reflect his 'Swayampurna Goa' (self-sufficient Goa) theme, there is little that he has revealed in real terms.
He has held interactions with various sections of Goans, be it business or social groups, all of whom have presented a wish list mostly comprising monetary sops like no new taxes. And, even as he has given most of them a hint that their demands will be sympathetically included in the budget proposals, Sawant has also said there will be measures to raise the State's revenues. Just how he hopes to negotiate this tight-rope walk in the face of limited legroom for the State in the country-wide GST regime, is a mystery which he may or may not unravel in his budget presentation, tentatively expected to be on March 29.
On a more serious note, those worried about the health of the State's finances, whether among the legislators, bureaucrats or the general public, will be focussed on the measures Sawant spells out in his budget to deal with the ever-rising net debt and the dwindling amount of funds available for spending on actual developmental projects.
Sawant claims his government has managed to implement 90% of his budget expenditure proposals for the current fiscal. The truth, however, will be known in the numbers crunched in budget documents he presents to the legislative assembly.
Forest Fires
They may be down on numbers but they certainly aren't out. Goa's seven-member Opposition is itching to have a go at the treasury benches and could single out Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane for much of their bashing in the context of the recent forest fires in the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary and other protected government forests which have caused as yet unquantified damage.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao has been livid over the forest fires even alleging that the fires which ravaged for several days at multiple locations in the forests were the handiwork of a "mafia".
"The issue will be raised on a priority in the House," Alemao said, adding that he has already written to the Chief Minister to investigate the role of the 'fire mafia.'
Aldona MLA Carlos Alvares Ferreira also seconded Alemao's fears and revealed that he too has written to the authorities to ensure that areas, where the green cover was lost due to the fires, are not preyed on by the real estate lobby.
Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas AAP amplified the fear that the fires could be a conspiracy and promised that the Opposition will take up the issue in the upcoming session to get to the bottom of the forest fires.
"I suspect the hand of the lobby opposed to the proposal of a tiger reserve in the Mhadei sanctuary," Viegas said, adding that the government's role throughout the days that the fires were raging is suspect.
Mhadei issue
The Leader of the Opposition said the issue of protecting Goa's interests vis-a-vis the Mhadei water diversion proposal of the Karnataka government will be another major question they will raise.
The BJP government has failed to get a detailed project report (DPR) relating to Mhadei withdrawn or even place on record a report on the exact nature of the so-called Mhadei monitoring committee that the Centre is said to have constituted.
"We will raise this issue and extract from the government a concrete statement on the Mhadei issue," Alemao said.
Other Opposition members including Goa Forward Party's Vijai Sardesai and the Aam Aadmi Party's Cruz Silva and Viegas, besides RGP's Viresh Borkar are also rearing to have a go at the government on the Mhadei imbroglio, particularly the politics of the issue at a time when Karnataka is headed for an election.
Sardesai's GFP and the AAP have been closely associated and actively participating in the State-wide Mhadei awareness campaign launched by the Save Mhadei front, ever since the issue erupted following the Centre's approval to Karnataka's DPRs for the diversion at Kalasa-Bhandura.
Extortion: Govt v/s Govt?
The issue that was raging over the last fortnight -- alleged extortion -- in the Calangute belt was first echoed by the ruling party's own MLA Michael Lobo, where a few individuals purportedly held clandestine meetings with club owners to 'fix rates' to permit operations beyond the sound ban, is also set to sharpen the Opposition's attack.
Sardesai for one said multiple scams of the BJP government are making it fear facing the Opposition, despite it having a brutal majority in the House. It explains, he said, the ruling party's penchant to keep the assembly sittings to a minimal level.
Citing the allegations levelled by the Calangute MLA regarding the alleged extortion racket, Sardesai said: "The CM can’t point fingers at the Opposition. The allegation was made by a ruling MLA.”
Sardesai, who has time and again demonstrated his trait at leaving ministers red-faced on the floor of the House, also said that Lobo claiming that the extortion issue was "closed" will not deter the Opposition from raising it in the House.
Atal Setu, smart city chaos
The chaos in traffic movement caused by the closure for repairs of the brand-new Atal Setu is another issue the Opposition is expected to latch on to. Most legislators will have to negotiate this bottleneck which has been the scene of serpentine vehicle jams and bumper-to-bumper traffic movement for a couple of days.
The inconvenience they face, especially the legislators from the Opposition, could find them confronting the government with innumerable questions on the perennial repair works being carried out on the bridge. Ditto is the case with the haphazard and non-transparent execution of the 'Smart City' projects in the capital city.
