Panaji: The opposition party MLAs on Tuesday walked out of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting called by Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar ahead of the upcoming monsoon session of the House.
The House has been summoned from July 21 till August 08 during which the members will pass the Budget which was placed by chief minister Pramod Sawant.
The opposition members including Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Goa Forward party MLA Vijai Sardesai, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Venzy Viegas walked out of the Business Advisory committee meeting at Legislative Assembly complex, Porvorim near here on Tuesday.
The meeting was also attended by CM Sawant.
“They want to push government’s agenda through BAC. The Speaker who is the custodian of the House has proved that is working on behalf of the chief minister and his government,” Alemao said.
The LoP said that during the meeting, the opposition members put up their views during the session. He said that the most of the questions which are selected during the Question Hour are from the ruling benches.
“This is a murder of democracy. The opposition can play a crucial role, they can do it by providing the equal opportunities,” he said.
Alemao said that the ruling is scared that the opposition will expose corruption of the government.
Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai said that the opposition walked out from the meeting because “the Speaker did not want to listen to their demands.”
“The earlier convention of giving equal opportunity to opposition during Question hour has been discontinued by this Speaker,” he said.
Sardesai said that the opposition had asked the Speaker to allow three Calling Attention motions every day of which two should be from the opposition benches, which was also disallowed by the Speaker.
AAP MLA Venzy Viegas said that the opposition parties are fed up of the politics unleashed by the BJP. “We will give up. Let them only raise questions from their own constituencies,” he said.
After the meeting, chief minister Pramod Sawant said that the Speaker was going by a rule book.
Speaker Tawadkar said that there is no injustice meted out to the opposition benches. “The Questions to be raised during Question Hour are decided depending on the lots (lotteries),” he said.
