Monsoon session of Goa Assembly curtailed to two weeks due to panchayat polls

Originally scheduled to kickstart on July 11, the Monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly will be cut short to a two-week span from the original plan of five weeks. Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar announced the provision, noting that it was due to the impending Panchayat elections slated to start in the Union Territory from August 10.

Panaji: The monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, which begins on July 11, will be curtailed to two weeks in light of the upcoming panchayat elections. During a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) on Thursday, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar announced that the session will be curtailed to two weeks from the original plan of five weeks, due to the panchayat elections, scheduled to be held on August 10.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the state machinery will be busy preparing for the panchayat elections and hence, it will be difficult to hold a full-fledged session of 25 days (five weeks). The opposition leaders, however, have condemned the government's decision to restrict the session to two weeks. The state government had requested the Speaker to curtail the session to two weeks due to the workload on the government servants considering the upcoming panchayat election, he said.

It is easy for the opposition to demand a full session, but considering the workload it is not possible to hold it, the chief minister said, adding that it is mandatory for the government to pass a full Budget, which will be done during the session. Sawant further said that it is wrong to criticise the state government for not holding a long session, as even in big states, there are shorter sessions.

Opposition leaders from the Congress, Goa Forward Party (GFP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Revolutionary Goans Party have slammed the state government's decision. GFP chief Vijai Sardesai said that the Speaker and the government were killing democracy and setting wrong example for the newly elected MLAs by curtailing the session. The opposition members had appealed to the Speaker that the session be held for two days and adjourned to be summoned again in September after the panchayat elections, Sardesai said.

"But the Speaker maintained silence and refused to heed to the demand of the opposition benches," he said. The Fatorda MLA claimed that BJP-led government was shying away from holding lengthier sessions. In 2020, the session was held only for 15 days cumulatively, while in 2019, it was for 23 days, followed by 12 days in 2018 and 24 days in 2017.

AAP MLA Venzy Viegas said that the BAC meeting was an one-sided affair. We thought that there would be a collective decision by the Speaker. But it looked like, the Speaker was prepared to curtail the session, he said. MLA Viresh Borkar of the Revolutionary Goans Party claimed that there was no scope for opposition members to voice their opinion during the meeting. (PTI)