PANAJI
The government has had its way much to the chagrin of the Opposition.
The Goa legislative assembly's monsoon session which was scheduled to begin on Monday, July 11 and go on until August 12 and transact business for 23 working days, has been curtailed to just 10 working days.
The official excuse: panchayat elections slated to be held on August 10, for which staff will have to be deployed and the government will not be able to manage both -- Assembly session and the panchayat elections.
The cutting short of the monsoon session was announced by Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Thursday, who said it will be curtailed to ten working days at the request of the government.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Tawadkar-chaired Business Advisory Committee (BAC) at which Chief Minister Pramod Sawant raised the issue of government staff being deployed for the conduct of the Panchayat elections and it would hence be not manageable simultaneously with the Assembly session.
"I accepted the proposal of the government. Besides, technical things like giving assurances (in assembly sessions) are also there," Tawadkar said, suggesting that it would violate the code of conduct which will be in force for the panchayat elections.
The move to curtail the session was met with angry reaction from all the Opposition parties who have accused the government of running away from accountability.
Speaking to the media after the BAC meeting, Sawant said the government raised concern that as the panchayat elections are being held, staff will get deployed for the process and hence it will not be possible for them to simultaneously work for the Assembly session as well.
"We had requested the Speaker to take a session of two weeks and pass the budget," Sawant said even as he attempted to counter the Opposition's charge of running away from accountability saying the government's intention was clear from the original plan of having a 23 working day session.
He also argued that since Goa was a small State and accessibility is high everyone wants to cross question on every matter.
"You compare with other states, even for you (Media) what has happened is that as Goa is a small state, CM is accessible for all your questions and hence you ask me all questions. One needs to check how many days an assembly session takes place in big States like Uttar Paradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and others," Sawant shot back to persistent questioning.
Opposition Leader Michael Lobo, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Venzy Viegas, Goa Forward Party's (GFP) Vijai Sardesai and Revolutionary Goans Party's (RGP) Viresh Borkar, who are all part of the BAC were strongly critical of the move to curtail the session.
The government side was not even willing to accept the suggestion to hold the complete session in a staggered manner by passing the budget in the first 10 days, taking a break for the panchayat elections and then resuming the session post Ganesh Chathurti, Viegas said.
"We thought the BAC meeting was for taking collective decision but it seems that they had decided in advance to curtail the session. Our voice was not heard," Viegas added.
Sardesai accused the government of "running away" from being answerable to the Opposition's queries.
