Goa Assembly Speaker reduces suspension period of 7 Oppn MLAs to 24 hours

Panaji: The suspension period of all seven opposition MLAs in Goa was on Monday reduced to 24 hours from the earlier two days by Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar.

They were suspended from the House during the day after they protested and created a ruckus on the floor of the House over Manipur violence.

Tawadkar said the suspension period had been reduced from two days to 24 hours, which meant the seven opposition MLAs can attend the House from 12:30pm on Tuesday.

He said the opposition members along with some senior colleagues of their parties had approached him with a request to curtail the session.

“Any member can come to the Well of the House and protest but some of their actions wasn’t right. They reached up to the chair of the chief minister and health minister,” Tawadkar said.

The suspended members are Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Congress MLAs Altone D’Costa and Carlos Ferreira, AAP’s Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva, Goa Forward Party’s Vijai Sardesai, and Viresh Borkar of Revolutionary Goans Party.

After Question Hour, Alemao demanded a discussion on Manipur violence on the floor of the House, claiming that the private members’ resolution moved last Friday by Cruz Silva on the issue was disallowed by Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar.

All opposition members, dressed in black, started creating a ruckus on the House floor.

The Speaker said that the entire country is sensitive about the issue. “The Union home ministry is dealing with the issue. The issue is discussed in Parliament. We cannot allow discussion on the issue on the floor of the House,” the Speaker ruled.

Unhappy with the reply, the opposition members rushed to the well of the House shouting “Manipur, Manipur”.

As MGP legislator Jit Arolkar, who supports the BJP-ruled government, continued to speak, the opposition members rushed towards him with posters and tried to prevent him from speaking. The opposition members were pushed out of the House by marshals.

After the incident, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and environment minister Nilesh Cabral demanded action against the opposition members. Sawant said such behaviour cannot be tolerated.

Speaker Tawadkar then suspended the seven opposition MLAs from the assembly for two days – from Monday, which was later reduced to 24 hours.

The Speaker said the opposition members disturbed MLA Arolkar. He said they even rushed towards CM Sawant and health minister Vishwajit Rane.

Arolkar said the opposition MLAs snatched his mike.

The Speaker claimed the opposition members have sent him a request to reconsider their suspension saying their behaviour was a mistake.
Speaking to reporters later, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar called the behaviour of the opposition bench condemnable.

The Monsoon session of the Assembly which started on July 18 is scheduled to conclude on August 10.

Scores of people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3 when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.