Monsoon Assembly session to be curtailed to just one day

The Goa State Legislative Assembly is contemplating to curtail the two-week long Monsoon session to a one-day event as a precautionary measure in view of rising COVID-19 cases in the State.
The winter-session of the State Assembly is likely to take place in December and its going to be a longer lawmaking proceeding.

Speaker Rajesh Patnekar had on Friday called for all-party meeting to work out standard operating procedure (SOP) for the upcoming session, to be held on July 27.
During the meeting, all-party leaders including Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, Leader of
Opposition Digambar Kamat, Goa Forward Party President Vijai Sardesai, Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao, MGP MLA Ramkrishna Dhavalikar, were unanimous that the session be curtailed to one-day.
Speaking to media persons post meeting, Patnekar said that all party has decided that the assembly session be curtailed from two-weeks to one-day. “The business of the session would be finalized by Business Advisory Committee (BAC) that will meet in next eight-ten days,” he said.
Patnekar said that the decision is been taken in view of rising COVID-19 cases in the State. “Nearly 1000-1500 people come under one roof during assembly session. Under such situation, maintaining social distancing or any other measure is not an easy task,” he explained.
Speaker said that all leaders were of the view that a longer session be held in December.
Earlier, Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik had convened a two-week-long monsoon session of the assembly, starting July 27. The session, as per law, has to pass the State Budget 2020-21.
Goa has so far reported nearly 1500 confirmed COVID cases, with four deaths. The average daily spike is around 60 cases.
Later speaking, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant informed that the Speaker had called a meeting seeking all the parties’ suggestions. “It was decided that the monsoon session will be reduced to a one-day affair because of the Covid-19 outbreak,” he said.
Sawant said that BAC will decide whether entire Budget would be passed or only Vote on Account will be taken during the session.
The opposition parties were of the view that in the current COVID pandemic the State Budget 2020-21, which was passed in February, has no meaning now and needs to be reworked on Expenditureand Income front.
“The meeting was an informal one called by the Speaker. There were discussions on various aspect taking into consideration the Covid-19 situation. One suggestion is that the assembly session should be limited to one day for passing of vote on accounts,” Leader of Opposition Diagmbar Kamat said.
Kamat also said that in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state budget has no meaning and there was no point in discussing the financial paper now.
“The budget has no meaning. It will have to be reset with actual figures of revenue and expenditure. All these aspects will be discussed in upcoming BAC meeting,” he said reiterating the demand that
Chief Minister must immediately release white paper on State finance and COVID 19.
The Speaker has assured the members to get in touch with its counterpart in Maharashtra and Delhi on how they are conducting session during pandemic.
On the other hand, Goa Forward party President and MLA Vijai Sardesai conceded government’s plea for one-day session to complete the constitutional obligation. “Have demanded for virtual
assembly,” he said.
“But we don’t even have an infrastructure to hold an e-assembly,” he added.