The Goa Assembly on Monday witnessed uproar on the first day of the monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly after Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao after raised point of order regarding changing his starred question on recovering ‘Green Cess’ from companies importing coke and coal in the Mormugao port as unstarred question.
As soon as Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar took Question Hour, Alemao raised a point of order over the downgrading of his starred question on coke and coal transportation and ‘Green Cess’ recovery to unstarred question to deliberately avoid a debate on the alleged Rs 4,000 crore scam involving major companies. He called such moves by the government as “murder of democracy” and accused the government of shielding big companies.
“Transferring starred questions that expose the government’s scams, corruption, and illegal practices is a clear sign of fear. This action constitutes a blatant assault on democracy,” he said.
The Opposition leader pointed out that in February this year the starred question over ‘Green Cess’ recovery was replied to by Minister for New and Renewable Energy Sudin Dhavalikar, however this time it is transferred to the Finance Department by making it an unstarred question.
“The government had assured the House that pending dues would be recovered. To seek an update on the recovery and its impact on government revenue, my colleagues Aldona MLA Carlos Alvares Ferreira, Quepem MLA Altone D’Costa, and I submitted another starred LAQ titled ‘Green Cess’ to the New and Renewable Energy. However, the government has transferred this starred question to the Finance Department, maybe out of fear of being exposed,” Yuri said.
“This action not only constitutes a grave injustice to the opposition benches but also undermines legislative values and democracy. It may be a systematic attempt by the government to stifle the Opposition’s voice and avoid accountability for multi-crore scams,” Yuri said.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on his part hit back, saying, real murder of democracy happened during the Emergency imposed by the then Congress government in June 1975.