Team Herald
PANJIM: Of every three questions asked on the Floor of the House in the last 13 Assembly sessions of this term, one was by an Independent MLA, election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO, claimed on Monday. Shockingly, on an average the Goa Assembly met for just 27 days a year, as against the promise of then chief minister Manohar Parrikar to have more sittings.
Of the 74 percent of questions raised by the opposition MLAs, 32 percent came from three Independent legislators – Rohan Khaunte, Vijai Sardesai and Naresh Sawal. Besides, 22 percent of the questions were tabled by the ruling BJP-MGP MLAs.
Based on information obtained under RTI, ADR claimed that of the total 3324 questions tabled during the sessions, 1423 were asked by the nine Congress MLAs, while 1091 questions were raised by the three Independent legislators.
“We were shocked to see the performance of these elected representatives. They are least bothered about their constituents and their grievances,” ADR state coordinator Bhaskar Assoldekar told media persons.
Porvorim MLA Khaunte asked the most number of questions – 434 – followed by Fatorda MLA Sardesai whose tally stands at 403. This is followed by Congress MLAs Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco with 396 questions and Digambar Kamat with 302. Bicholim MLA Sawal ranks fifth with 254 questions raised in the last five years.
Similarly, Goa Vikas Party MLA Caetano Silva is the least performing MLA with only 17 questions tabled by him in the last 16 sessions. His colleague, Francisco (Mickky) Pacheco has asked only 30 questions, taking the GVP tally to just 47 questions.
BJP MLA Carlos Almeida ranks second from the bottom having asked 19 questions. He is followed by party colleagues Nilesh Cabral and Kiran Kandolkar, who together shared third position in the least performing category, by asking only 27 questions.
From the BJP ranks, Deputy Speaker and St Andre MLA Vishnu Wagh has raised the most number of questions – 227 – compared to his other colleagues, who apart from MLA Pramod Sawant (107) have registered questions in double digits.
While all 40 MLAs have been very punctual for all 136 days of sittings, the total number of sittings on an average for the year stands at 27 days as against Lok Sabha sittings of 77 days a year.
