Team Herald
PANJIM: The 20-day long Monsoon Session of the State Legislative Assembly will begin on Monday, with four new ministers taking charge. The session will be a litmus test for Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, who would be chairing his first full-fledged Assembly, with opposition deciding to corner him on the latest political development.
It is also going to be interesting, to see, how the former ministers – Vijai Sardesai, Rohan Khaunte, Jayesh Salgaonkar and Vinod Palyekar, who would be now sitting on the Opposition benches, act during the session. The MLAs have been given opportunity till July 17 to put up their questions, if any.
Also, with resignation of deputy Speaker Michael Lobo, the post has fallen vacant. On Monday, House is likely to witness election for the said post.
Speaking to Herald, Speaker Rajesh Patnekar said that session, which will begin on Monday, will conclude on August 9.
The House has received total 2328 questions that include 725 starred and 1603 unstarred questions.
“The MLAs, who were ministers earlier, have time till July 17 to put up their questions if any. Also, the new ministers will have to study and answer the questions from their respective departments,” the Speaker said.
Chandrakant Kavlekar, Michael Lobo, Filip Neri Rodrigues and Jennifer Monserrate are the new ministers in the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet. However, the portfolio allocation to them would be done on Monday morning.
Issues such as Coastal Zone Management Plan, app-based taxi service, mining, fish-formalin, unemployment, Sonsoddo garbage, are some of the major issues that will come up for discussion.
Opposition Congress is also planning to corner government on its recent move of splitting 10 Congress MLAs and merging with BJP. “I am going to raise the issue in the House on Monday. Government will have to answer me and the people. How ethical is the move,” Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco said.
In the House of 40-members, BJP has 27 MLAs, Congress five, Goa Forward Party three, Independents three, NCP and MGP one each.
