Porvorim: Novice BJP MLA representing Cuncolim Assembly constituency, Clafacio Dias, failed to raise the issue of denotification of State Highway at Chandor on the floor of the House, but instead allegedly heckled Vijai Sardesai when he raised it.
Angry exchanges between BJP MLA Isidore Fernandes and Sardesai were witnessed on the floor of the House when Sardesai getting angry over the hecklings by Dias uttered word ‘monkeys.’
Sardesai said that he was heckled on the floor of the House by a BJP MLA when he was speaking on the demands for grants on Public Works Department department during the ongoing Session of the House.
“We are not monkeys. No one has a right to call us monkeys,” Fernandes responded even as Sardesai said that the frequent jumping from one party to another amounts to being ‘monkey.
The word ‘monkey’ was expunged from the proceedings of the House by Speaker Rajesh Patnekar.
Talking to reporters outside the assembly complex, Sardesai said that he had responded with the word monkey when he was heckled by Dias, when he had raised the issue about denotification of the State Highway at Chandor village in South Goa, which is declared as a protected place by the Archeological Survey of India.
Chandor village is a part of Cuncolim Assembly constituency represented by Dias.
“When I had raised the issue, Dias started disturbing me. It was a professional hackling. That is why I got angry,” the former Deputy chief minister said pointing out that the crucial issue that he was raising belongs to the constituency represented by Dias.
“.. if he (Dias) was really bothered about his constituency, why didn’t he raise the issue? This issue, we have been raising, We have been taking it up and we will take it to logical conclusion,” he said.
Sardesai said that during his tenure as town and country planning minister, the road was denotified but the decision is yet to be vetted by the chief minister. “We took the decision to denotify Chandor State highway in August 2018, and now we are in 2019. The file is with chief minister,” he said.
