PANAJI
The budget session of the Goa legislative assembly will be held from March 24 to 26, again a short 3-day affair less than two months after the 2-day winter session, raising the spectre of another confrontation between the government and the outnumbered Opposition with the Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar sandwiched in between.
On Saturday, Goa Governor Sreedharan Pillai issued the order convening the legislature to meet on March 24 at 11 am.
Sittings of the Assembly will be held on March 24, 25 and 26, a bulletin issued to MLAs by Legislature Secretary Namrata Ulman said.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is expected to present the State budget for 2025-26 on one of the three days of the session.
With this budget session restricted to a three-day affair less than two months after the short two-day winter session on January 26 and 27, the government is seemingly riding on its brute 32-7 majority to run rough-shod over the outnumbered Opposition which has been hankering for sessions of longer durations.
The Opposition comprising the Congress (three MLAs), Aam Aadmi Party (two MLAs) and one MLA each of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) and Goa Forward Party (GFP) had accused Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar of pandering to the Pramod Sawant government and restrict the winter session to just two days, one of which got consumed by the Governor's address.
They had also accused the BJP government of throttling 'democracy' and running away from legislative accountability by truncating sessions to which Tawadkar had said that the Chief Minister has assured to have a longer budget session.
Now that the budget session has been announced of just three days, the confrontation between the Opposition and the government over insufficient time for legislative business is expected to reignite and escalate in the coming days.
