PANAJI
The Pramod Sawant-led government has blinked in the tussle with the Opposition over shortening of Assembly sessions.
The monsoon session, slated to begin on July 18 will have 18 sittings (working days) including two Fridays, normally dedicated to private member's business, a major bone of contention in the government versus Opposition tussle over shortened sessions of the House.
On Friday, meanwhile, the Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai summoned the Goa Legislative Assembly to meet on July 18, 2023 for what will be the longest session in five years. August 10 will be the concluding day of this monsoon session.
As per the order, there will be 18 sittings from July 18-21, July 24-28, July 31-4 and August 7-10.
The treasury benches have a brute majority in the House with the Sawant-led government enjoying support of 32 members (27 of the BJP, two of the MGP and the three Independents) while the Opposition has seven -- Congress which has three, two of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and one each of the Goa Forward Party and Revolutionary Goans Party.
The government has often used this majority to ride roughshod over the Opposition and yielded little if anything by way of permitting longer legislative discourse sought by the latter.
With the upcoming monsoon session having 18 sittings, how much the government will accommodate the demands of the Opposition will be an issue that will be discussed at the Business Advisory Committee meeting that will finalise the detailed agenda and business that will be transacted through the session.
The usual agenda of 'demands for grants' of government departments and the customary daily Question Hour will form part of the business as will some government sponsored legislation.
Meanwhile, Goa Forward Party (GFP) leader Vijai Sardesai said, the government has again gone back on its commitment to hold longer sessions.
"This is only 18 days long. It was supposed to be of 28 days," Sardesai said, recalling that just on Wednesday, the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in his address to Goa legislators had advised that legislation should be passed after full discussion.
"The State has a lot of questions. The session should be 28 days long if any in-depth and meaningful discussion is to take place. The budget was not discussed at all in March and important bills too had been passed in haste without deliberation," Sardesai said.
