Goa assembly: Cong stages walkout over demand for house panel

Members of the opposition Congress today staged a walkout from the Goa legislative assembly demanding formation of a house committee to inquire into the affairs of the state-run Investment Promotion Board.
Before the walkout, the legislators created noisy scenes in the House over the demand, but the state government refused to accept it.
During the Question Hour, the Congress MLAs led by leader of opposition, Chandrakant Kavlekar, tried to corner the BJP-led state government over various investment projects cleared by the board.
Congress MLA Ravi Naik, who tabled a question on the issue, alleged that permissions were being granted to the industries although they were flouting all the norms.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, however, dismissed the charges saying that all the 151 projects that were granted permission by the board had been recently reviewed.
"We took a review of all the 151 projects. Out of the total projects, 80 to 90 were moving towards completion or almost complete. Ten projects were closed by the promoters themselves," he told the House.

"As far as 10 to 15 other projects are concerned, they lack some information. We have decided that these projects would be carefully analysed by a satellite consultant, appointed by the state government," Parrikar said.
Parrikar said that even if projects are approved by the board, the project proponents have to approach the authorities concerned to seek permission before starting the work.

The chief minister also said that if any member has apprehensions about any particular project, then the state government could look into it.
However, the opposition benches were not satisfied with the chief minister's assurance. Jumping to their, the MLAs loudly created noisy scenes over their demand. However, as Parrikar refused to accept it, the Congress MLAs staged a walkout.