PANAJI
Legislators from Opposition parties on Friday met at the Chamber of Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao in Porvorim to strategise for the upcoming winter session of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Alemao said that Venzy Viegas of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Vijai Sardesai of the Goa Forward Party (GFP), and his own Congress’ Carlos Alvares-Ferreira and Altone D’Costa attended the meeting, where they planned their strategy on how to tackle the government propaganda during the two-day session.
RGP’s Viresh Borkar did not attend, and AAP’s Cruz Silva is in Delhi, where he is participating in the campaign for the assembly polls there.
Alemao said that the fact the government is holding just a one-day session, as the first of the two days will be consumed by the Governor’s address, indicates that the government is afraid to face the Opposition.
He said that after six months, this upcoming session is being held, and he has written to the Speaker, stating that this practice of holding short sessions is defeating democracy.
“How is it possible for us (the Opposition) to raise questions over the government’s performance in the last six months and hold all the departments accountable in a single day?” Alemao asked.
The Opposition Leader also said he has pointed out to the Speaker in his letter that the government is using illegal tactics to avoid answering starred questions by transferring them from one department to another and eventually postponing them.
“A particular question posed to the Transport department was transferred first to the Home department, which in turn transferred it to the PWD. Finally, it was postponed to the next session,” Alemao said, adding that he has pointed this out to the Speaker.
Interestingly, the meeting of Opposition MLAs comes at a time when two prominent members “ Viegas and Sardesai “ were involved in a public spat over comments related to Goa’s first chief minister, Dayanand Bandodkar.
On Friday, however, both Viegas and Sardesai seemed to have made peace and were closeted together at the Opposition’s strategy meeting.
