Goa passes budget in hurried session; opposition walks out, meets Governor
The monsoon session, which was curtailed to a single day in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, took a stormy turn no sooner the adjournment motion moved by the Opposition legislators was rejected by Speaker Rajesh Patnekar.
The Goa legislative assembly on Monday hurriedly passed the budget for the current financial year amid sloganeering and a subsequent walkout by the members of the opposition, who accused the Pramod Sawant-led government of trying to cover up for its mishandling of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
The monsoon session, which was curtailed to a single day in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, took a stormy turn no sooner the adjournment motion moved by the Opposition legislators was rejected by Speaker Rajesh Patnekar as “not being in order”, prompting the lawmakers to storm the well of the House amid sloganeering.
They stopped after they were escorted out of the House by marshals.
Later, the opposition legislators met Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik to impress upon him the “murder of democracy” under the Sawant government’s watch.
“Today, the Goa government has murdered democracy by rejecting a discussion on the Covid-19 pandemic and passing the state budget for 2020-21 without proper discussion in the legislative assembly. The government displayed its insensitive approach towards the health and well-being of the people of Goa by rejecting the adjournment motion moved by the opposition MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) demanding a discussion on the pandemic. The government has passed a record business in the shortest time, including 86 demands, 11 bills and passing of the Goa Appropriation Bill and supplementary demands for grants in 2020-21, without any discussion,” stated a letter by Digambar Kamat, leader of opposition in Goa assembly, to Governor Malik and signed by other opposition lawmakers.
However, the government has defended its stance on the one-day assembly session and also the handling of the pandemic.
“The opposition should come with constructive suggestions. It is easy to criticise. But the Covid-19 outbreak didn’t occur in a planned manner. It has taken everybody by surprise. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) put out by the state government is in the interest of the public. The state’s record is one of the best in the country as far as conducting tests per million population is concerned. The situation was different, when lockdown restrictions were in place because we had got time to put a mechanism in place,” stated state health minister Vishwajit Rane in the assembly.
“We regret the state has reported 35 deaths to date. Our positivity, recovery, and the mortality rate is 8.11%, 65%, and 0.7%, respectively, all of which are much better than the national average,” he added.
Earlier, opposition lawmakers had called the one-day assembly session “a farce”.
“In a democracy, a discussion has to take place. Today, he (Rane) makes a statement that everything is fine. There is no transparency when it comes to Covid-19 and it is the only issue that should be discussed in the House. If we can’t do this then why have the House? Why do we need the House? Dissolve it,” said Vijai Sardesai, the leader of Goa Forward Party, a regional outfit.
