Goa speaker trims Monsoon Session due to panchayat polls; Opposition cries foul

Giving in to a request made by the state government, Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly Ramesh Tawadkar, on Thursday, shortened the duration of the state assembly’s Monsoon Session.

The Speaker's decision comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Wednesday order; it upheld the Bombay High Court’s recent order given to the state to conclude the elections pending in 185 village panchayats within 45 days. The high court had set aside the Goa government’s proposal that sought time to sort out the process of reservation of Other Backward Classes for the wards in poll-bound panchayats.

"The Business Advisory Committee of the state assembly has decided to hold the assembly for ten (working) days as the government had raised a concern that its staff will be engaged in panchayat elections,” Tawadkar told the media following the committee meeting.

The Monsoon Session of the state assembly is scheduled to begin on August 10.

“There is the panchayat election, too, and technical issues arise, like giving assurances (during the assembly). So, we accepted the proposal of (the) government to hold (the) assembly session for 10 days,” Tawadkar said.

However, the Opposition lashed out at the state government for compromising on the assembly session’s duration. According to the Opposition, the Speaker's argument that an assembly session cannot be held in the wake of panchayat elections did not add up.

“A session of Parliament is not curtailed when assembly elections are held in other states. So, the logic does not work. We need a long session to take up the host of issues which are confronting the state," Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo said.

Responding to Lobo’s allegation, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the Opposition was within its rights to demand an extended session. However, Sawant also said that the Opposition did not understand the differences in the ground realities of holding any election when the assembly is in session.

“The government had raised a concern that as there are panchayat elections, government staff are involved in the process of election. Hence, it will not be possible for them to work for panchayat elections...They will not be able to manage both the assembly session and panchayat election at the same time. So, we had requested the Speaker to take a two-week session,” Sawant said.