Maintenance and upkeep of the plush Goa Legislative Assembly Complex is a very pricey affair. To ensure that it is not a white elephant, it is imperative that all the legislative time must be very productive. As a step towards achieving this, we could stop the practice of the over hour-long ceremonial address by the Governor which they struggle to complete. We saw it once again on March 29 while it was difficult to understand what Governor Sreedharan Pillai was saying. Maybe the Governor with his brief remarks should place his address on the table of the House for the perusal and consideration of the MLAs. This would enable precious time to be spent on more fruitful legislative work. The same yardstick could also be for the Budget Speech which takes over an hour for the Chief Minister to read. On March 30 while Pramod Sawant was doing it, Minister Nilesh Cabral who was seated right behind him chose to take a nap and was merrily snoring, least interested in his Chief Minister’s budget address. A very sad and irresponsible legislative act for which he needed to be penalized. Perhaps dispensers serving hot coffee should be installed to help keep our MLAs awake.
