the goan I network
MARGAO
Will the controversial Regional Plan 2021 bring the ruling coalition and the opposition Congress face to face in the ensuing session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, beginning from July 19?
Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai says he is ready for any battle with the Congress on the contentious RP21, but has posed a question to the Congress “ whether the main Opposition party is ready to discuss the plan in the ensuing session?
Leader of the Opposition Babu Kavlekar, who has convened a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Tuesday to draw up a strategy in the Assembly said the Congress is ready to accept the TCP Minister’s gauntlet so that public sentiments vis-Ã -vis the Regional Plan finally prevails.
“Let the Congress raise the issue of RP21 on the floor of the House. Two former Chief Ministers had in the past demanded on the floor of the House operationalising of the RP21. Besides, some of the opposition MLAs, including Legislators, who had taken a vow at the Lohia Maidan, Margao at the Goencho Avaaz meeting to get the RP21 scrapped, had moved a cut motion in the House to demand operationalising of the plan. Hence, let the opposition Congress raise the issue in the House during the session,” the TCP Minister said, while pushing the RP21 ball in the court of the Opposition.
When asked why the government does not want to take the contentious issue suo moto in the coming Assembly session, Sardesai said the Cabinet will be meeting before the Assembly session and the issue will come up for discussion.
When The Goan called up Leader of the Opposition, Babu Kavlekar to shed light on the Congress party’s stand on the RP21 in the light of the fact that the MLAs as well as the GPCC has demanded scrapping of the RP21, Kavlekar said the issue will be discussed at the CLP meeting called by him on Tuesday evening. “The CLP meeting scheduled on Tuesday has been specifically called to discuss a whole lot of issues ahead of the Assembly session. The RP21 may also come up for discussion which would facilitate the CLP to take a stand on the contentious issue,” Kavlekar said.
The CLP leader, however, demanded to know what moral right the BJP has to talk on the RP21 when the government in 2012 had kept the plan on hold before constituting a committee to go into the issues during the last five years. “The BJP had gone to the town that the RP21 prepared by the Congress government during the period when Digambar Kamat was the Chief Minister was not proper and needs to be reviewed. And, now the same government has notified the same plan,” he said.
Kavlekar pointed out that the Opposition has drawn up a list of contentious issues which will be raised in the ensuing session. “The RP is one issue, but there’s a whole lot of issues, which will be raised in the ensuing Assembly session, including drugs,” he added.
After Goencho Avaaz had held a massive public meeting at the historic Lohia Maidan two months ago, the TCP Minister had stopped offering any comments on the issue, other than saying that he is in favour of resolving the RP imbroglio on the floor of the House. While many had viewed Sardesai’s stand as a delaying tactic in addressing the issue, others had suspected that his stand was only aimed at exposing the Congress leaders, especially those who had attended the Lohia Maidan meeting, as they had demanded operationalising the RP21 on the floor of the House in the past.
