Govt pushes through 11 important bills without discussion; Opposition members cry foul
Panaji: The state legislative assembly on Friday passed 11 bills, including the all-important Goa mineral development corporation bill, 2021, without discussion and debate, which forced Opposition members to walk out of the Housein protest.
The Opposition protested against the passing of these important bills, which also included the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini bill, 2021, and the Goa Panchayati Raj (amendment) bill, 2021, post-haste and without giving enough time to the MLAs to study it before discussion.
The passage of the Goa mineral development corporation bill has paved the way for setting up the Goa mineral development corporation to carry out mining operations in the state.
The House on Friday also passed demands of 27 departments and the Goa appropriation bill, 2021 of Rs 25,055,64,51,000 amidst chaos, as the Opposition rushed to the well of the House demanding that the bills listed for the day be referred to the select committee.
Maintaining that important bills were being pushed through by the treasury benches, Opposition members demanded that the bills listed for the day be referred to the select committee.
As Speaker Rajesh Patnekar did not give ruling on the demand, the Opposition members rushed to the well of the House.
Initially, adjourning the House for 15 minutes, the Speaker called upon the treasury benches to take up business as the Opposition MLAs were shouting slogans in the well of the House.
Amidst slogan shouting by the Opposition, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Port Minister Michael Lobo, Minister for Health Vishwajit Rane, Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho and Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude put the demands for voting of the House, which were adopted without discussion.
Later, the Chief Minister introduced the Goa appropriation bill, 2021, and the supplementary demands for grants, which were also passed without discussion.
The Opposition accused the BJP government of flouting traditions of legislative process of introducing and discussing the bills.
The Opposition members complained against the way the Chief Minister conducted the business in the House and introduced as many as 20 bills without giving time for discussion and debate.
The Opposition MLAs belonging to the Congress, the Goa Forward Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party as well as the Independent legislators were not given enough time to study the draft legislations and move amendments.
Briefing media persons after walking out of the House, Opposition leader Digambar Kamat and other Opposition MLAs said they had earlier demanded a ten-day session. But the government did not heed to the demand, deciding to hold the three-day session.
At least 25 demands were passed on the first sitting. On the second day, nine bills were passed. On the last sitting, 11 important bills were passed without even giving us time to read the drafts, the Opposition said.
“The Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini bill, 2021, was given to us on Friday at 4 am to read. How we would be able to read in such a short duration, go back home and return for the third sitting,” asked Kamat.
The Opposition leader said that they had asked the Speaker to refer the ten bills to the select committee and then call for a special session of the assembly in 15 days to exclusively discuss and debate the bills.
“But the Speaker refused to heed to our demand, compelling us to rush to the well of the House,” he said.
Senior Congress leader Pratapsingh Rane took exception to the ‘decline’ in discussions and the denial of time to study the draft legislations.
“We should have consultations and discussions and give suggestions. That’s why we are elected here. It’s not fair to steamroll the Opposition because the party is in majority,” he reckoned.
Goa Forward Party leader Vijai Sardesai termed as “crime” the adoption of bills without proper discussion and debate, accusing the Chief Minister of trying to achieve fast-track sale of Goa.
Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte said the Opposition is not to oppose bills but to have discussion, which was not allowed.
‘We were not allowed to justify our position. We were not able to learn anything during the three-day session,” Khaunte said.