It’s a job well done. The government has effectively managed to tie in the loose ends and sign seal and deliver all the controversial legislations meant to pave the way for massive construction- for hotels, villas, golf courses and industries.
Civic groups from all over Goa have been completely jolted at the brazenness of two legislations, the Goa Preservation of Trees (amendment) Bill 2016 that reduces the status of coconut tree to a ‘palm’ and Goa Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill 2016, allowing eco-tourism activities in eco-sensitive areas. The government not only introduced the Bills but also paved way for introducing amendments into the final Act.
As per the Bill, eco-tourism activities can be set up to an extent of five percent of the total eco-sensitive area and when minimum area required is not less than 20,000 sq mtrs. Please note that the stress is on word less and not more, which means that a minimum of 20.000 square meters will be cleared for ‘activities’ ( another term for construction) going upto 5% of the ‘eco sensitive’ area.
Meanwhile, the Goa Preservation of Trees (Amendment) Bill 2016, as reported by Herald, simply does this. By removing the coconut tree from the list of trees in Section 1A, it allows those wanting to cut coconut trees to do so without having to seek the permission of the forest department. This is the simplest and most effective way of cutting through the jargon and the legislation.
But more than the fact that these legislations have been passed, what is significant is the manner in which this has been done. While agitations commenced along with an outpouring of strong reactions, the government did not pause or seek to refer the issue for more consultations. The Select Committee, designed to study acts of legislations to ensure that it is fool proof and in public interest was not brought into the picture at all.
At the same time the government kept out, what it had to. The Goa School Education (Amendment) Act for instance. Loosely referred to as the MOI bill, the government went back on the loose assurances given to FORCE that the issue of introducing the The Goa School Education (Amendment) bill which would assure grants to English medium primary schools, would be discussed in the assembly. It has permanently been put into cold storage. The only thing that the CM said that grants to 135 schools will continue to be given. But these are grants not backed by legislation an it is clear that this is a temporary balancing act till the next elections.
Then again The Goa University (Amendment) Bill 2016 was passed wherein the present Vice-chancellor gets one year’s extension, when he has already served three years tenure so far.
The dominance was not restricted to passing of the Bills. In absence of strong backing from the Congress, the government tried to suppress the voice of the Independents like Vijay Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte who were more vocal on the issues. It was only on the issue of land in Betul getting cleared for Manohar Parrikar’s pet project, the DefExpo that Congress’ MLA Babu ‘Chandrakant’ Kavlekar raised one question.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, visibly upset on being repeatedly target on the subject, reiterated his stand that the 150 acres of Quitol land would be allotted to the Ministry of Defense for four days only to host the event in March. He even tried to that the structures being built in and around the venue is temporary. But he did not rule out the possibility of converting the expo into a permanent event in Goa.
The reply however, could not satisfy the opposition, who continue to slam the government accusing it of selling the land to Defence Ministry. Unable to handle the tense moment, Parsekar then preferred to remain silent.
It’s clear that the government has achieved its purpose. It has used its brute majority and a rudderless opposition barring three independent MLA’s, to take Goa down a path of return in a manner which is alarming.
BJP’s aggressive ‘strikers’ tear into ‘independent’ opposition
Sawant, Cabral, Phaldesai and Kuncolienkar given clear role to disturb and derail opposition in Assembly
Shweta Kamat
The young vocal legislators- both- from ruling and Independent benches- stole the five-day long show of the eleventh State Legislative Assembly session that concluded on Friday. Apart from allegations and counter allegations, House witnessed presence of few “well trained” BJP cadres (legislators) who were fielded, more importantly, to disturb the proceedings on the every allegations levied against their government by the opponents.
BJP’s new faces- Dr Pramod Sawant, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Phaldesai and Siddharat Kuncolienkar- are now “specialized” enough to ensure that they counter the three Independent MLAs- Vijay Sardesai, Rohan Khaunte and Naresh Sawal, who at present seems to be the only opposition to BJP-MGP coalition government. Be it during Question Hour, or discussion on controversial Defexpo event or passing of contentious the Tree Preservation (amendment) bill-the four ruling “Guards” were on their toes, living no stone unturned, to suppress the opponent voices. The BJP leadership- Manohar Parrikar and Laxmikant Parsekar, would surely be startled at their performance.
BJP had put forth a well-planned game plan having “strikers” and “defenders”, who made sure that opponent didn’t score a single goal during the entire Session. With absolutely no support from the prime opposition-Congress- the Independent legislators were left to play their side game in their own terms- grilling government on most of the issues. This actually became the vice of the opposition. The ruling MLAs were at their aggressive best , with Panjim MLA and successor of Manohar Parrikar- Siddharth Kuncolienkar even targeting the senior-most member of the House leader of opposition Pratapsingh Rane. He didn’t spare former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat either. In one of the occasion, countering Rane, Kuncolienkar even asked the former Speaker to keep quiet. He even tried to imitate Digambar Kamat, who, warned the legislator to be within his limits.
The winter session was first of its kind, which witnessed the chaotic situation on all five days- with ruling benches being super aggressive aggressive towards opposition. The BJP MLAs made sure that they disrupted or distracted Independent MLAs- loosely the ‘third Front’ -on every occasion, including the Question Hour.
