MAPUSA
Slamming the BJP government for destroying records of historic importance, the Congress on Wednesday demanded that a sitting High Court judge should be asked to inquire into the lapse for the loss of important Assembly records.
The party also urged the Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar to file an FIR to investigate the lost records as claimed by the Chief Minister.
“The BJP government is all out to manipulate history and destroy records of historic importance to create an impression that everything happened in the country only after 2014,” said Amarnath Panjikar, Chairman of Congress Media Cell.
“The Chief Minister must immediately conduct an inquiry in the matter by a sitting Judge of the High Court and investigate the serious lapse over loss of important documents. Government cannot turn a blind eye on this blunder and must fix responsibility,” he added.
The Chairman of Congress Media Cell was addressing the media in Panaji along with Congress General Secretary Pradip Naik, Spokesperson Shrinivas Khalap and others.
Speaking further, Panjikar said that it was shocking that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant revealed about the loss of records almost after five years since he became the Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly.
He said the BJP government came to power in 2012 and Rajendra Arlekar was the Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2015. He was then succeeded by Anant Shet from 2016 to 2017 and Pramod Sawant himself became the Speaker from 2017 to 2019 succeeded by Rajesh Patnekar from 2019 to 2022.
“None of these BJP leaders uttered a word on these lost documents. This indicates that they were either completely ignorant or had malicious intentions behind maintaining the silence. The Chief Minister must explain to the people of Goa why he maintained a conspicuous silence for so many years,” he asked.
Spokesperson Shrinivas Khalap urged the Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar to file an FIR to investigate the lost records.
He also emphasised that under the Constitution, special care and protection needs to be given to the records of the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies.
It may be noted that various landmark issues were discussed in the Goa Legislative Assembly from 1963 to 2000. Opinion Poll, Statehood, Official Language Act, Kul-Mundkar Act and various other proceedings were held in those years.
“BJP can stoop to any level to impose their undemocratic and dictatorial agenda. These records can be destroyed by the BJP government themselves as part of their strategy to destroy everything which does not give them credit,” Panjikar claimed.
