Panaji, Jan 22 (IANS): The Congress on Tuesday said the ruling BJP was planning to dissolve the Goa Assembly and its senior leaders criticised the fact that the House met for just 16 days in 2018, and now even the upcoming Budget Session has been limited to three days.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party at the Assembly complex, Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, though expressed confidence that if the House was dissolved and elections were held, his party would win nearly 30 of the 40 seats.
"We are getting indications that the BJP is trying to dissolve the state Assembly and impose President's Rule. The government is going in that direction...
"They have done it in the past, when neither ruling MLAs or cabinet ministers were informed by Parrikar that the House was going to be dissolved," Kavlekar told a press conference on Tuesday.
The Congress leader was referring to political developments in 2002, when Parrikar recommended dissolution of the 32-month-old Assembly, reportedly without taking several members of the cabinet into confidence.
State Congress chief Girish Chodankar also told the media that by convening a Budget Session for three days, the government was merely fulfilling a constitutional obligation of convening the House every six months.
However, members from the Treasury benches were not living up to the spirit of the Constitution, he added.
"The three day Assembly session is a farce. It is only to fulfil a constitutional obligation. They are just trying to fulfil the minimum requirements. They are not fulfilling democratic values," Chodankar said.
He also said that despite several key issues like the ban on mining, unemployment and administrative paralysis which needed discussion in the state Assembly, the House met only for 16 days in 2018.
"The same Manohar Parrikar, when he was in the Opposition had insisted that Assembly should be held for 40-45 days every year to discuss public issues, but in his regime in 2018, the House met only for 16 days," Chodankar said.