MARGAO: Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Saturday alleged that the just-concluded a 5-day budget session was nothing but an eyewash.
"Unlike the past when budget session which used to be of five weeks, but for the past three years 2018, 2019 and even 2020, budget session have been truncated to only a week", he stated.
He further said that the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has alleged that the Opposition did not allow the functioning of the House in the just-concluded session.
"But I would like to inform our dynamic Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant that his charge against the Opposition is not true and his government should not discard the Opposition role in running the legislative business of the House like in my own case of LAQs being disallowed or not receiving accurate reply, barring private members’ resolution on getting Dr Jack de Sequeira life-size statue installed in the Assembly complex, not allowing calling attention motion/zero hour mention is setting a bad precedent for the health of democracy in our Goa", he stated.
He also said that since last monsoon session, he has been trying to bring before the government for the acceptance of private members’ resolution on getting a life-size statue of Dr Jack de Sequeria to be installed in the Goa Legislative Assembly complex. But it seems the State government has the allergy in discussing Goa’s first opposition leader who is also respectfully called by Goemkars the 'Father of Opinion Poll'.
"Similarly, diverse burning issues connected with Goa and Goemkars which I had hoped to raise in the House through calling attention motions like the State government’s continuous failure in getting the Sonsoddo garbage issue in our Curtorim constituency resolved for good on account of children, women and senior citizens getting affected due to the poisonous smoke billowing from the said garbage dump now and then", he added.
Reginaldo further added saying the present dilapidated condition of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalya (JNV) which conducts classes for 350 students and employs 45 teaching and non-teaching staff. The aforesaid school lies in a dangerous and unsafe state with its roof slab and beam are in bad condition with horizontal cracks and reinforcement have got exposed and rusted as per NIT Surat Inspection Report. Frequent uneven supply of drinking water in the State including capital city Panjim and due to shortage of PWD tankers, Goemkars have to depend upon the private tankers who charge exorbitant rate of Rs 600 for residents who have their storage tank capacity of only 1000-2000 liters.
"Many teachers who for the past 9 years have been appointed as part-time instructors on a contract basis under Sarva (Samara) Shiksha Abhiyan and many of them have attained the age group of 42-45 and are about to reach the age bar of 45 for recruitment. These teachers are still waiting for the regularisation of their services", said Reginald.
He also said that the non-reopening of pharmacy store in Aquem-Margao under the scheme of Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadi Kendra. This store before its closure had provided immense benefits to senior citizens who could buy more than 600 quality medicines. Many Goemkar film producers have not yet been sanctioned yet the financial scheme for the films they produced in 2015 and released it in 2016. The pending issue needs to be resolved.