PANAJI
Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai on Monday entirely skipped the vexed Mhadei issue even as in his nearly hour-long address to the Goa legislative Assembly on day one of the 4-day winter session, he painted a rosy picture of governance on the legs of the State's "very impressive" numbers relating to socio-economic indicators.
The Opposition was absent as their attempt to seek that the Governor speak on the Mhadei imbroglio, shouting slogans, holding placards, symbolically adorned in black and even rushing to the House well, ended with the Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar ordering their ejection by marshals.
The six MLAs -- Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao and his two Congress colleagues Carlos Alvares-Ferreira and Altone D'Costa, AAP's Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva and GFP's Vijai Sardesai -- however walked out and boycotted the Governor's address even before the marshals could usher them out.
RGP's lone MLA, Viresh Borkar, was not in the House at the time of the commotion but claimed he was very much with the Opposition on the Mhadei issue. Also adorned in black, he was removed from the House when he entered and took his seat.
Pillai, meanwhile, went ahead with his address in which he said, Goa's socio-economic indicators are "very impressive" as against those of other States and claimed his government had implemented or initiated all assurances made in the 2021-22 budget speech.
Estimated per capita income, quick estimate of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of 2021-22 at Rs 82,603.70 crore and growth rates (economic) of 9.11% in 2021-22 and projected rates of 9.73 and 10.33% for the subsequent two years were some of the numbers Pillai listed in his speech to demonstrate the robust governance.
Pillai also said that fiscal performance of his government was satisfying as the recently successful mining e-auction bidders have made an upfront payment of Rs 43.19 crore (20%), the Electricity department had ranked second in the country for digital transactions, tourism had been witnessing steady growth and the State ranked seventh in the country in implement direct benefit transfer (DBT) in relation to 149 schemes.
Pillai also projected employment generation of 30,000 jobs through the State's investment promotion policy with an investment target of Rs 20,000 crore over five years.
On policing, the Governor said the State had achieved nearly 84% detection rate overall even as the men-in-uniform had effected Rs 3.61 crore worth of narcotic seizures in 111 cases in the current financial year alone up to November 30 last.
Also, in the eight-month period between April-November last year, as many as 4.58 lakh cases of traffic violations were registered, he said.
Pillai mentioned that the G20 events which will be hosted by the State will provide an opportunity to showcase Goan products on an international platform.
The performance of the fire and emergency services also featured in Pillai's address. Again in the 8-month period of April-November last year, 4040 calls were attended, while 80 human and 532 animal lives were saved, he said.
The Governor said, his government assisted the population to tide over inflation by selling over 16,000 tonnes of vegetables and 430-odd tonnes of groceries totally worth Rs 48.24 crore at subsidised rates to the public through the State-owned Horticulture Corporation.
On agriculture, he said around 1.44 lakh hectares is under cultivation and farmers were provided subsidy of up to Rs 18.58 crore in the April-November months of last year.
