Team Herald
PORVORIM: The State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a major ruckus over suspension of Rules of the Procedure of Conduct of the Business of the House with regard to passing of the State Budget 2021-22 without a general discussion. The united opposition rushed to the Well of the House forcing Speaker Rajesh Patnekar to adjourn the session for lunch.
Legislative Affairs Minister Mauvin Godinho, who tabled the motion to suspend Rule 63, 255, 257, 258 and 259, accused the Opposition of indulging in theatrics. The Opposition demanded an apology from the minister for this.
The Opposition and ruling benches entered into a heated argument in the House after the former sought a ruling from the Speaker on a motion to suspend the rules in regard to general discussion on the Budget.
Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat pointed out that such suspension of rules means passing the State Budget without a general discussion that had commenced during the last session in March, which had to be suspended mid-way in wake of a surge in COVID-19 cases. “The Session was supposed to be continued. But Governor prorogued it. Now with suspension of Rules, general discussion on Budget is suspended,” he said.
“House is passing Budget without discussion,” he added.
MLAs Luizinho Faleiro, Ramakrishna Dhavalikar, Rohan Khaunte and Vijai Sardesai pointed out to the Rules of the House and stated that this is a “murder of democracy” and will be setting a “wrong precedent”.
Replying to it, Godinho said there is no point in discussion when the session had been prorogued. “The decision to suspend the rules was taken in the BAC. We have restricted the sitting of the House to three days and hence, it was important for us to suspend some rules,” he said.
As the Opposition demanded the Speaker’s ruling, he said that the suspension of the Business Rules was approved “unanimously” during the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting. Kamat denied this and said that he had submitted his dissent to the decision before the BAC.
