Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa State Legislative Assembly has taken an initiative to digitise the records of all the Assembly proceedings, with an aim to conserve and maintain the proceedings and legislative records of over five decades. The first Goa Legislative Assembly was convened on January 9, 1964, two years after the State was liberated from Portuguese rule.
Addressing press advisory committee (PAC) members on Monday, Speaker Dr Pramod Sawant said the Assembly intends to establish a Record Research Branch, which will ensure conservation of proceedings since the State Assembly came into inception.
“I have taken the initiative to digitise the Assembly records, which include reports of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, speeches of Chief Minister, Leader of Opposition, resolutions, documents, CDs, which would help in accessing the records for the legislative members and general public,” Sawant said.
“This will also include the speech of State’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar,” he added.
The Speaker, however, expressed concern towards the fact that several documents relating to the immediate post Liberation Assembly sessions have been destroyed. “While shifting the Assembly from the Old Secretariat at Panjim to the new Assembly complex in Porvorim, many documents got destroyed and misplaced too,” he stated.
The new Assembly complex was inaugurated in 2000 and the Assembly went paperless from 2014, setting an example across the country.
The Speaking further voiced his unhappiness over the functioning of various Assembly committees with its member showing a lack of interest. “We have 14 committees of the State Assembly but unfortunately, none are functioning as required. Members are not even interested to attend or chair it. I will have to look into it seriously now,” he stated.
Sawant admitted that during his tenure as MLA, he too, paid less importance to the committees he was on.
