Congress slams Goa government for one-day assembly session after polls

Leader of Opposition Pratapsing Rane said the summoning of the Goa assembly for one-day session on Tuesday (February 28) to avoid it from lapsing was an afterthought and topped a string of poor decisions by the BJP-led government in its tenure.

"It is for the first time in the history of the state, if not the country, that an assembly session had to be convened for a day after the assembly elections. This has happened because the government is in shambles. There has been no proper decision-making for the last five years," the Congress leader said at a press conference on Monday in the assembly complex.

Late on Saturday, Governor Mridula Sinha formally convened a day-long session, reportedly in a bid to avoid a constitutional crisis arising out of the house not being in session for six months.

As per Article 174 of the Indian Constitution, relating to sessions of the state legislature, and its prorogation and dissolution, "six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session".

The Opposition had earlier been demanding that the Governor should either dissolve the house or convene a session before March 3, in order to avoid a constitutional crisis.

March 3 marks the end of six month period, during which the present assembly has not held a sitting.

Rane also told the media that there was no business advisory committee meeting to fix the agenda for the day-long session, during which Sinha would be addressing the house.

"As MLAs, we do not even know what the business for the day-long session is going to be. So many MLAs are also travelling. The government has brought shame to Goa with such shoddy face-saving decisions," he said.

--IANS

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