Special Correspondent
Panaji: Governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju has summoned a three-day monsoon session of the state legislative Assembly from August 31 to September 2.
The short duration of the session has raised the hackles of the Opposition.
The Secretariat has issued the schedule for tabling starred and un-starred questions, with MLAs requiring to submit notices by August 6, 7 and 8 through the e-Assembly system or in paper form.
This 14th session of the eight legislative Assembly could be the final session of the current tenure of the House, if elections are held before the scheduled completion of the term.
The state Budget for the year 2026-27 has already been passed during the Budget session, earlier this year. However, the government is planning to table and pass all pending bills during the three-day monsoon session.
Slamming the government for the limited period of the session, Opposition leader Yuri Alemao said the three-day ritual has reduced democracy to a mere formality to clear government business.
“Curtailing duration is the curtailment of democracy; we condemn this utter disregard for the burning issues of the people of Goa,” he added.
Alemao also said Opposition MLAs will have to question as many as 23 government departments on the first day of the session, 22 on the second day and 14 on the third day.
He also condemned the government for leaving out Friday from the session, which is the day for private members bills.
“The BJP is suppressing the voice of the Opposition and more importantly, the voice of the people of Goa, whose pressing issues were meant to be addressed in this session,” Alemao said.
Goa Forward Party chief and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai also slammed the government over the short duration of the session.
“Three days to answer for mining, unemployment, electricity privatisation, water shortage, farmers’ distress, and the rampant piecemeal conversion of our land being sold off, plot by plot, to outsiders, while this government looks away,” he said.
The Sawant government is afraid of accountability. The government is afraid to face the Niz Goemkars whose lives depend on the answers, the GFP chief remarked.
“Goa deserves answers, not an escape hatch. Goemkars deserve a government willing to listen and one who cares, not one which hides and escapes under the garb of a three-day Assembly session,” Sardesai said.
It is pertinent to note that the budget session held in March 2026 had ended after just seven sittings following the enforcement of the model code of conduct for the Ponda Assembly constituency by-election, which was later cancelled by the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
