PANAJI
The Goa Legislative Assembly had to be repeatedly adjourned after members of the Opposition stormed into the Well of the House demanding answers from the government accusing the chief minister of giving vague answers on the beach cleaning issue.
The matter was first taken up by Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte who questioned the government on how it was continuing with the contract of the two beach cleaning agencies without even rating the work carried out as was mandated by the government’s own procedures.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who was answering questions on the subject of tourism in the absence of Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar, who reported unwell, in turn accused the Opposition of asking questions but failing to wait for the reply.
Khaunte, as part of his supplementary questions, had asked a pointed question: What was the rating given by the monitoring committee to the beach cleaning agencies?
In his response, however, Parsekar sought to elaborate the work done by the tourism department in the areas of beach cleaning, checks and balances in place as well as the money deducted from the agencies after inspections that the work was not conducted properly.
However, the reply didn’t satisfy Khaunte who demanded that the Chief Minister reply to his specific question on the rating given by tourism department to the work done by both the agencies.
“The government’s own reports say that the department has to given a rating either A, B, C or D depending on the quality of work done. If the rating is C or D, how did the government renew the contract of the agencies,” Khaunte asked.
Through the written reply, the government has informed that the contract has not yet been renewed and that it would be renewed based on the recommendation of the Monitoring Committee.
“The Monitoring Committee, however, is still to decide on the matter of recommendation for renewal. Since the tourist season is ongoing and it would be difficult to maintain the cleanliness of the beaches, the Monitoring Committee therefore further instructed the beach cleaning contractors to continue the work till the renewal of the contract is decided,” the government said in its written reply.
Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat too rose up to question the government why they included the option of mechanised beach cleaning when it is well known that mechanised cleaning of Goan beaches is unadvisable due to environmental concerns.
Even as the government attempted to respond to the question independent legislators Vijai Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte charged into the Well of the House and demanded a judicial inquiry into the beach cleaning ‘scam’.
They were soon joined by Reginaldo Lourenço and Naresh Sawal forcing the Speaker Anant Shet to adjourn the House for 10 minutes. When the House resumed, the entire Opposition entered the Well of the House demanding a judicial inquiry into the beach cleaning contracts forcing the House to be adjourned again for ten minutes, by which time question hour had ended allowing for resumption of business.
