PANJIM: The Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai led the charge as the de facto leader of the opposition, dribbling into Parrikar territory, throwing pointed jabs and pin pricks in his opening speech, setting the tone for the most anticipated battle in the month long budget session.
Sardesai traversed the huge swathe of issues from mining to Muthalik, clothing his speech with topics ranging from bikinis and bars and moving to family issues such as special marriages and education, taking pit stops to make pot shots like “You are adopting the Tejpal model by lodging an FIR against Rane (PratapSingh Rane).
“The government received mining lease renewal and stamp duty fees, bringing ache din to the government. There was ache din for all including the drunkard who wanted to drink till 4 am since bars were allowed to be kept open, but very soon people reralised ‘purane din ache the’ (the old days were better).
On mining he said that the government played both sides. “In your budget you said that you did tightrope walking, but in effect you played both sides by not withdrawing the ban and yet sitting on the money you received for lease renewals
On law and order, he cited an example of a brutal incident in March when a woman in Camurlim was tortured by her immediate neighbours and an FIR in this case was registered only after sustained media campaign by one paper (read Herald) In yet another incident, the MLA alleged that government had not taken serious action on a complaint filed by BJP MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh about a mob attack on him last December.
He also accused the government of ‘double talk’ on various issues “There were many promises made and dreams shown to local citizens…but nothing is done,” Sardesai alleged.
He spoke about the quality of the mid-day meals as well as the poor power situation in the state to which to which the chief minister said: “He is raising demands and not issues for general discussion on the budget. We cannot put questions on demands.I don’t mind answering but today is not the day scheduled to table demands,” Parrikar told the House chaired by Deputy Speaker Anant Shet.
Parrikar then stood up in his chair insisting that he is not the minister of all portfolios and that he would indeed reply to related issues during demands for grants.
The legislator then switched over to general discussion on budget.
