MARGAO
Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat has said that the schedule of the 13 days Goa Legislative Assembly Session commencing on March 24 is fixed with the ulterior motive to avoid questions on the core issues like Mhadei, coal transportation, railway double-tracking, three linear projects
and coastal zone management plan.
“As per the revised schedule declared by the Legislature Secretariat on February 26, only two days are allotted for Question Hour of the key departments like Environment and Climate Change, Ports, Water Resource, Power, Public Health, River Navigation, Tourism, Waste Management, Industries, Social Welfare and others,” he said.
Kamat claimed that the government is afraid to face questions from the opposition on contentious issues like Mhadei, Railway double-tracking, Coastal Zone Management Plan, effect of Major Ports Bill passed by the BJP government at the Centre, Marina Project at Nauxi, failure of the government on garbage management, etc.
“The tabling of the Legislative Assembly Questions (LAQ’s) is fixed between March 1 to 17 March 2021. This is the time when the MLAs will remain busy with the canvassing of Municipal Elections and Zilla Panchayat by-elections which are scheduled on March 20.. This is an attempt by the BJP government to keep the Opposition MLAs engaged in election campaigning and divert their attention from tabling questions which will ultimately cause embarrassment to the government and expose their failures and lies,” Kamat stated.
He added: “Instead of extending the session by just one day, the government should have extended it by seven days. We are of the firm opinion that a full-fledged 21 working days Assembly session needs to be convened and I will strongly raise the matter in the Business Advisory Committee Meeting.”
The Opposition leader said it is only after his strong objection to the schedule of the Assembly session coinciding with the Holy Week that the government altered the time table of the session and declared April 1, which falses on Maundy Thursday as non-working day.
