Team Herald
PANJIM: Alleging that the government has murdered democracy by rejecting a discussion on the COVID pandemic and passing the State Budget 2020-21 without a proper discussion in the Legislative Assembly, the United Opposition asked Governor Satya Pal Malik to deny assent to the Bills passed in the Assembly on Monday.
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“Today, the Government of Goa has murdered democracy by rejecting discussion on COVID pandemic and passing the State Budget for 2020-21 without proper discussion in the Goa Legislative Assembly. The government displayed its insensitive approach towards the health & wellbeing of the people by rejecting the adjournment motion moved by the opposition MLAs demanding discussion on the COVID pandemic in the State of Goa,” said the joint letter by the opposition.
The opposition said that the government has passed record business in the shortest time including 86 demands, 11 Bills and passing of the Goa Appropriation Bill (No. 2) Bill 2020 and Supplementary Demands for Grants for the year 2020 -21 (First Batch) without any discussion.
“The spread of coronavirus and rising cases of Covid-19 patients and deaths in the State of Goa is a matter of serious concern. There is fear and anxiety in the minds of the people due to the failure in handling and management of the COVID pandemic by Government of Goa. The State of Goa has suffered due to closure of business activities during the lockdowns,” they said.
Further, they said, the lockdowns resulted in disrupting business activities, which affected every household budget. “The government has not given any financial assistance to the marginalised sector and is yet to announce the Economic Revival Plan for the State of Goa. The government has failed to release a white paper on the COVID
pandemic and financial status of the State. There is a need to pay urgent attention to these crises. There are issues which will cause severe destruction to the environment and needs to be addressed on topmost priority,” they said.
The letter further said that the Chief Minister has gone on record in the past clearly admitting that the financial condition of the State is not good.
“The government is yet to make payments to the beneficiaries of various welfare schemes such as Griha Aadhar, Dayanand Samajik Suraksha Yojana, pension to widows, pension to persons with disabilities etc. The Bills of the contractors providing various services for COVID management and handling are not cleared by the government. This has resulted in the said contractors giving poor services to the patients and health care workers,” the letter states.
Despite this, they alleged that the government remains in celebrations mode when the people of Goa are suffering. “The government has announced to take up the renovation of the Goa Legislative Assembly Complex and some other projects which will incur huge expenditure,” they said.
They demanded the immediate intervention of the Governor on the above issues and urged him not to give his assent to the business transacted in the Goa Legislative Assembly on Monday.
“We also demand that a fullfledged Assembly Session may be convened to discuss on all the issues of prime importance such as Covid pandemic, financial status of the State, economic revival plan, environmental issues etc,” they said.
