Goa assembly records from 1963-2000 lost during relocation: CM

All Goa legislative assembly records from 1963 — when the state's first assembly session was promulgated — till 2000 have been destroyed during relocation, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said Monday while underlining the importance of digitisation of legislative data.

“When I became the Speaker of Goa assembly, I came to know that these records were destroyed. I wanted to preserve them. But they were destroyed. I am sorry, this should not happen. Now, since 2000, we are preserving and digitisation of the same is done,” the Chief Minister said on Monday. Sawant was voted as the Speaker of the House in 2017 but was elevated to the post of Chief Minister in 2019.

The documents, Sawant said, may have been destroyed when the state assembly shifted from the erstwhile location, the summer palace of the Adil Shah of Bijapur in Panaji (which also functioned as a Secretariat) to the modern assembly complex in the suburb of Porvorim.

“Goa assembly has a long history since 1963. Be it defections, governments of 15 days or 13 days, these references are used by other assemblies. This is on record at present. For this we need documentation and digitization,” the Chief Minister said.

“All records should be digitalised. Goa assembly started in 1963. I had plans to digitise it through CDs and other formats so that in the future, new MLAs can use them. But very sorry to say that while shifting of secretariat the records were destroyed,” Sawant said.

“There are no records from the Old Secretariat. I really felt very bad. Someone told them to destroy it as they were not needed," Sawant also said that the All India Radio station in Goa had been required by the Goa government to share some records of occurrences at the state assembly between 1963 to 2000.