PANJIM: An Opposition delegation on Thursday met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and urged him to direct Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to curtail the upcoming budget session of the Goa Assembly to two days and to seek a vote on account in view of the model code of conduct in force for the civic elections.
The delegation was led by Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat and comprised Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLA Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar, Goa Forward Party (GFP) president and MLA Vijai Sardesai, Sanguem Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) State president Jose Philip D’Souza.
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After submitting a memorandum to the Governor, Kamat said that they have requested the Governor to ask the Chief Minister to curtail the budget session of Goa Assembly starting from March 24 to only two days and to seek a vote on account and to pass the budget after the entire municipal council election process is over.
“During BAC (Business Advisory Committee) meeting on Wednesday we raised this question and gave a letter to Speaker to curtail the Assembly session for two days and not to announce any populist schemes in the budget due to code of conduct for municipal. We had also requested Chief Minister. Today we personally handed over a memorandum to the Governor and told him that convening the full session when code of conduct is in force is unfair and there is no level playing field,” Kamat said.
According to the Leader of the Opposition, the Governor has assured them that he will talk to the Chief Minister in this regard.
GFP president and MLA Vijai Sardesai charged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot win any elections without cheating.
Later, in the evening the united opposition met Goa State Election Commissioner W V Ramanamurthy and requested him to hold counting of votes of six municipal councils and the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) along with other five municipal councils, the date of which is yet to be announced.
The polling for six municipal councils – Pernem, Valpoi, Bicholim, Cuncolim, Curchorem-Cacora and Canacona is scheduled on Saturday.
The budget session of the Goa Assembly has been convened from March 24 to April 16 and Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant will present his second Budget on the first day of the session and pass the Budget during the session so that it could be implemented from April 1.
