PANJIM: The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the State Legislative Assembly has ruled out extending the monsoon session which will be held for 12 days from July 19.
Congress had demanded that the sitting of the House for the monsoon session be extended from 12 days to 18 days on grounds that the Budget session was curtailed from 22 days to four days on account of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s illness.
The Business Advisory Committee that met under chairmanship of Speaker Dr Pramod Sawant ruled out any extension stating that 12 days are sufficient to discuss demands for grants and other issues pertinent to the State.
The Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavalekar and leaders of parties represented in the House, are members of the Business Advisory Committee .
When contacted, Legislature secretary Nilkant Subhedar said, “Leader of Opposition had raised the issue for increasing the sitting of the House. However, the Speaker clearly pointed out that there is no question of extension as the timetable has been decided.”
“Speaker even said that during the Congress government, the monsoon sessions were held for just 10 days,” Subhedar said and added that the Speaker has assured to grant sufficient time to all the opposition members to place their issues before the House.
During the meeting, Kavalekar argued for the extension of the duration of the sitting of the House thereby giving adequate time to the members to raise the crucial issues like mining, drugs, etc.
He cited the rules of procedures and conducts of business of the House, which as per rule 259, voting on demands for grants requires not less than 15 days, besides under Rule 258 for general discussion three days are to be allotted.
