Team Herald
PANJIM: Mr Manohar Parrikar who is two timing between being India’s Defence Minister and Goa’s Super CM, is now delaying a final decision on passing the long awaited Goa Education Amendment bill to formalize grants to English medium schools in the primary section. It’s another matter thought that Mr Parrikar’s now full-time assignment in Pathankot, as opposed to the half and half role he plays between Delhi and Goa has come as a handy excuse to betray parents and not pass the MoI bill in the coming winter session of the Goa assembly.
It is now confirmed that the CM will go on making the excuse that the issue is not yet decided by the select committee and will further delay it by saying that Mr Parrikar is needed to “guide” the select committee. Shockingly Mr Parsekar heads the committee and has proven that he is utterly incapable of taking a decision on such a sensitive issue.
“He (Parrikar) is well-versed with the subject mainly because he had chaired two meetings of the select committee as former CM in 2014. We want that he shares his ideas to help us draft the policy and table it in the Assembly for discussion,” one of the committee members told Herald. The committee member forgets that a policy has already been drafted and so has the amendment to the Goa Education Act which includes grants for English schools. What remains is the next simple logical act of placing the bill in the house and getting it passed.
Another member said, “The committee will meet before the Assembly session begins next week although in the absence of Parrikar, none of us are informed of the meeting date so far.”
As things stand, with just three working days before the winter session of the Legislative Assembly begins, it is absolutely certain the MoI bill will not be introduced in the coming Assembly session, as had been promised by ministers and MLAs in August last year.
On January 2 at a meeting of BJP MLAs, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar announced holding the select committee meet ahead of the week-long winter session of the Assembly. The January 2 meeting of BJP MLAs had been called by Parrikar to discuss the contentions issue but he did not attend the meeting as he rushed to Delhi due to the Pathankot terror strike, giving rise to criticism over his presence in Goa when he had intelligence reports of the impending Pathankot attack.
The Parsekar-led government finds itself in a tight spot with FORCE demanding converting the cabinet decision on giving grants to English medium schools into an Act, while on the other hand BBSM is campaigning for withdrawal of grants to English medium schools.
The select committee is headed by the chief minister and has BJP’s Dr Pramod Sawant, Nilesh Cabral, Rajan Naik, and Congress MLAs Digambar Kamat and Mauvin Godinho as members.
