PANAJI
The Governor’s speech, which was the only ‘business’ to be conducted for the day, wound up in less than three minutes while the entire ‘session’ including the escorting of the Governor in and out of the house lasted fifteen minutes.
In her speech, Governor Mridula Sinha made no bones of the fact that the assembly session was “summoned only to comply with the constitutional mandate under Article 174(1) which provides that six months shall not intervene between two consecutive sessions of the Assembly of a State.”
“The sitting of the last session of this august assembly was held on August 31, 2016 and therefore by meeting today the constitutional limit of six months has been complied with,” the Governor said
in her speech.
She said that she would refrain from making any mention of the policies and achievements of her government in this particular address to the Assembly “in the spirit of the democratic tradition and the model code of conduct.”
“I take this opportunity to congratulate all of you for your cooperation in ensuring a smooth, free and fair election in the State. I also congratulate the people of Goa for enthusiastically participating in the election leading to a record turnout of about 83%,” the Governor said also congratulating members of the house for “keenly participating in the discussions of this assembly over the last five years and producing landmark public policies and legislations in the larger interest of the people of Goa.”
Interestingly, the assembly was adjourned immediately after the Governor was escorted out of the house even though leader of opposition Pratapsingh Rane had risen to speak. The speaker went ahead with the national anthem even as Rane was making his point.
Speaking later to media persons, Pratapsingh Rane alleged a violation of the rules of the house in convening the session.
“I only wanted to point out that the rule book of the house has not been followed. The rules mandate that members have to be given a 30 day notice, or if that is not possible a general notice through the government gazette as well as through telegraph,” Rane said. When pointed out that telegram service was no longer in use, he said: “They could have sent an SMS or something to that effect,” Rane said.
Speaker Anant Shet however justified the act of winding up the session quickly saying that it was well known that the session was only a formality.
“It was clearly stated that the session was merely to complete the constitutional provision,” Shet said.
