NT Reporter
Panaji
Staging a dramatic walkout from the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meet on Tuesday, Opposition MLAs alleged that the Speaker of Goa legislative assembly, who chaired the meeting, did not listen to their demands.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, however, denied that a walkout was staged by the opposition legislators.
The BAC meeting was convened at the assembly complex to decide on the business to be taken up in the upcoming 15-day monsoon session of the assembly.
Alleging that their voices were not heard, the opposition legislators said equal opportunity was not given to the opposition members to ask questions during the question hour and to raise issues through calling attention motions.
Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao and Goa Forward party MLA Vijai Sardesai claimed that an “undeclared emergency” has been imposed in the assembly by the Speaker in connivance with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. “It is an undeclared emergency and murder of democracy by the BJP government,” Alemao and Sardesai said while addressing the media.
Stating that the opposition members were not allowed to ask questions, not even unstarred ones, Alemao termed it as a dark day for democracy. “The government is curtailing the legislative procedures to avoid scrutiny over rising corruption, law and order situation and administrative failures,” Yuri Alemao said.
Sardesai said the BJP government is afraid of being exposed on the floor of the House over issues faced by the people of Goa. “The government does not want the issues raised by people during my statewide outreach programme to come up in the assembly. They don’t want the people’s issues to be heard. Even unstarred questions are being blocked,” he said.
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Venzy Viegas and Revolutionary Goans party MLA Viresh Borkar also expressed dissatisfaction over the meeting. They said the government wants only the ruling MLAs to ask questions. “They have given 20 minutes for a debate on the budget and 20 minutes on demands,” they said.
Refuting the charges, the Speaker claimed that the opposition MLAs left the meeting only after the discussion concluded.
