Goa assembly. File photo
PANAJI: The state assembly on Thursday passed the Goa Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, 2021, paving the way to increase wards and to declare reservation of seats at least seven days before the date of notification of the general elections.
In December, the government informed the high court of Bombay at Goa that the notifications for delimitation and reservation of seats will be issued by the appropriate authorities, at least three weeks prior to the date of the notification of the schedule for municipal elections.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that in five municipalities, there is an increase in voters, and that is the reason the bill was introduced.
Porvorim: Claiming that the state has lost the Mhadei battle as Karnataka has diverted the river, the opposition on Thursday demanded that a delegation of all 40 MLAs should call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to find a political solution to the issue.
The opposition said that if all MLAs are united on the issue, “we should go to the Mhadei site to show our strength and send those photos to the Supreme Court”.
They also demanded that state lawyers representing Goa in the apex court, who have let the state down by not objecting to the notifying the Mhadei Tribunal award, should be removed.
The opposition wore black armbands and held up placards, demanding that the government hold a full-fledged assembly session to discuss the state’s burning issues. CM Pramod Sawant called this ‘unpresidential’
PANAJI: The winter session of the state legislative assembly began on a stormy note on Monday, with the opposition strongly demanding that the coal-handling issue be discussed before taking up any business. It also sought to know why governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s speech did not have a single mention of the coal imbroglio.
Terming the MLAs’ behaviour “unpresidential”, chief minister Pramod Sawant said the governor had the right to read his speech in entirety and that such a speech would not dwell on details. “When we have senior members who know the rules, whatever happened is not acceptable,” he said and urged speaker Rajesh Patnekar to take a decision in the matter.
Keri/Valpoi: Four days after the state government issued a proclamation intending to settle land rights issues of villagers inside Mhadei wildlife sanctuary, it was withdrawn citing a “clerical error”.
The document, which concerned the ownership of horticultural and agricultural land in the sanctuary, had to be rolled back following the intervention of health minister and local MLA Vishwajit Rane. The proclamation, which concerned at least 16 villages in Sattari.
Issued by Sattari deputy collector Rajesh Ajgaonkar, the proclamation also brought in some restrictions on activities inside the sanctuary to protect it. Villagers took objection to a condition that “no fresh cleaning or breaking of land for cultivation or any other purpose shall be conducted”.
Panaji: Goa Forward Party (GFP) president Vijai Sardesai on Sunday said that a united opposition will corner the state government during the assembly session for selling out Goa. Suggesting that Congress and GFP have arrived at some strategy for floor management, Sardesai said that BJP’s role in Goa’s destruction will be exposed on the floor of the House.
GFP also plans to introduce two private member’s bills during the session and asked BJP MLAs to support the bills which are in Goa’s interests. GFP plans to move a bill to provide 80% employment to locals in the private sector and a bill to strengthen the Goa Lokayukta Act.