MAPUSA
Bowing down to the wishes of his party, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant late Thursday evening said the government has decided to drop the proposal of making pre-marriage counselling mandatory for couples wishing to tie the knot in the State.
“The minister concerned had put up his view on making pre-marriage counselling compulsory. The government has decided not to go ahead with the proposal. It will be dropped,” Sawant said, while speaking to the media along the sidelines of a function in Mapusa.
He said the law minister had put his view across on the pre-marriage counselling, but it will not happen.
Earlier, the State Bharatiya Janata Party poured cold water on the State government’s plan to make pre-marriage counselling mandatory in the State as it would tantamount to "harassing" couples who wish to tie the knot.
“The decision to make counselling compulsory before registration of marriage is a wrong decision. It could be the minister’s personal view but the party does not subscribe to it. The party’s view is that people should not be unnecessarily harassed. We have spoken to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on it,” said State BJP President Sadanand Tanavade.
Law Minister Nilesh Cabral had recently stated that divorce cases were on the rise in the State and as a policy decision, the government would make premarital counselling compulsory to create awareness among couples.
Tanavade stated that on an average 0.24 percent divorce cases are reported in the country and in Goa it is 0.18 percent.
“One cannot say counselling will bring down cases of divorces in the State. There can be various reasons leading to break up in marriages.
He said Goa is the only State in the country which has a uniform civil code, regardless of religion, gender or caste, which was a good thing.
“In Goa, registration of marriages is compulsory, which is good. But the government should not get involved in counselling,” he said.
He said the party has put its opinion across to the chief minister in the matter and asked him not to go ahead with the plan.
