PANAJI
Pressure may be growing on the Goa government to reconvene the legislative assembly and take up unfinished business from the abruptly concluded budget session in March but the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led government is seeming indifferent to the demand.
On Tuesday, Sawant ignored persistent queries from journalists on the sidelines of a Fire Safety Week event related to holding a legislature session in the backdrop of the budget session having been cut short citing the now‑cancelled Ponda bye‑election.
Earlier on Monday, Governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju had formally forwarded the request from Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao, asking the government to “act as per law.”
Sawant also offereed no response to questions from journalists on the communication to his government from Raju.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho explained the constitutional position and that the prerogative is the government's without any legal compulsion.
“The Governor can summon the House on the aid and advice of the cabinet. He cannot act on his own will,” Coutinho said, underlining that the decision rests squarely with the government.
Meanwhile, Justice (Retd) Ferdino Rebello, who is spearheading the ‘Enough is Enough’ movement against laws enabling largescale land conversion and real estate development, has also demanded that the assembly be reconvened.
Rebello has written to Sawant, stressing that bills related to land protection, introduced by members during the budget session, remain pending.
“The unfinished business must be urgently addressed,” he said.
Opposition leaders argue that the government’s indifference undermines legislative accountability.
“The House was adjourned without completing its work. People’s issues cannot be brushed aside,” Alemao had said in his letter to the Governor.
Goa Forward Party's (GFP) Vijai Sardesai, had also written to the Governor voicing the demand for a session after the Ponda bye-poll was cancelled.
Legislature department sources, however, said that there was no urgency to convene a session as demanded as the same business which was to be taken up in the curtailed budget session can be dealt with in the monsoon session likely to be called in July-August.
