PANAJI
Amid hectic political meetings and activities, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar met the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to finalise the opening of the Ashram Shala at Canacona from the coming academic year. The CM and Speaker also discussed the upcoming Assembly session in July and the training sessions for new MLAs.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Tawadkar stated that the government is initiating and implementing the concept of Ashram Shala in the remote Canacona taluka and the school shall begin from the coming academic year. “This is a novel concept in the State of Goa, and we have initiated it in the remote Canacona after reviewing and studying the Ashram Shalas across the country, with the sole aim to provide quality education,” said Tawadkar who has been working on the concept since 2014. The concept has reached the final stage in 2022, he added.
Stating that the meeting discussed the various processes that are required to be completed before starting the school with the start of the academic year. “We have finalized many issues and the school will be starting soon,” he announced.
Tawadkar also spoke on the upcoming Assembly session, hinting that the session beginning from July 11 will be of 10-15 days and not of short duration. “Before the Assembly session begins, we will be conducting training of all 40 MLAs, especially the new entrants, so that they learn the procedure. The training session will be of three days in the first or second week of June,” disclosed the Speaker.
There will be two phases. The training session is the first stage while the second phase will begin on July 12 with questions. The modalities of the 3-day training session will be finalised within the next two-three days. “We have finalized many things today. Taking help from the expert agencies, we will discuss which issues to be brought forth in the next three-four days. By May 30 we would come out with details,” stated Tawadkar.
Declaring that the Assembly sessions will be lengthy this time, Tawadkar said that the reason for this fortnightly session is to complete the expectations of the MLAs as well as the people of Goa. “I wish to do something constructive for Goa in this Assembly session and also try to give justice to all 40 MLAs. All MLAs, of the ruling party as well as the opposition, have some expectation, so does the public. The aim to keep sessions lengthy is to give time to bring out more and more questions and the government could resolve the issues,” said Tawadkar.
“Instead of keeping a long session, with lengthy discussions, we would extend the days of the session and take more issues on table. We would plan that the day’s session would end by 7 or 7.30 pm and not prolong till late. This does not help in fulfilling the MLAs expectations, and the public also remains unsatisfied. Discussing more issues and keeping the sessions constructive is more important and we will work towards that,” said Tawakdar. He also pointed out that if the situation in the State remains the same, there would not be any need to follow Covid related norms. “If the situation worsens, then we will see how to tackle that,” he said.
