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Chaos in Goa assembly

Both the speaker and deputy speaker presided over the Goa assembly on Tuesday as the Pratapsingh Rane government faced the ignominy of being reduced to a minority following withdrawal of support by 10 Congress legislators, including five ministers.

Governor retired Lt General J F R Jacob ordered that the financial business of the House slated for Tuesday be rescheduled. He directed Speaker Tomazinho Cardoso to instruct Chief Minister Rane to seek a vote of confidence today as the first thing on the agenda.

Before that, the speaker had already issued an interim order on a petition restraining 10 Congress legislators who withdrew support to the Rane government from participating in the proceedings.

When the House met at 1430 hours, the speaker took up the normal Question Hour agenda. But the entire Opposition, including the splinter Congress group of 10 MLAs, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Independent members, shouted down the speaker, demanding that the House take up the rescheduled agenda as ordered by the governor.

With shouting and thumping of desks the assembly descended into complete confusion, forcing the speaker to adjourn the House briefly. But the trouble began again at resumption, with several Opposition members running towards the well of the House and crying down the speaker.

The second item on the rescheduled agenda was the removal of the speaker, for which the Opposition members had given notice earlier. The speaker said he would not allow the 10 Congress legislators to participate in a petition filed by Revenue Minister Wilfred Mesquita.

At a time the situation became so tense, that, fearing that the 10 members would be removed from the House, Dayanand Narvekar, who had resigned as irrigation minister yesterday, shut the assembly doors.

Rane was shouted down when he got up to speak and the speaker adjourned the House again and left his chair. Soon after, Deputy Speaker Deu Mandrekar, a member of the House who is now with the splinter group, took charge of the House since none of the Treasury members were present.

The official state assembly reporters and staff was ordered by Opposition members to remain in their seats to take down the proceedings. Even the secretary of the legislature department was directed to be present. The member contended that Rane and the speaker had lost the majority.

Prompted by Opposition leader Dr Kashinath Jhalmi, Mandrekar took up the motion for removal of the speaker. He declared the motion as carried. He also ordered the House was adjourned to meet tomorrow.

A little later, the speaker entered the House again and ordered that the House meet tomorrow. He found it difficult to reach his seat in the melee.

Former deputy chief minister Dr Wilfred D'Souza, who leads the rebel group, said later that Rane had lost the confidence of the majority and that he had staked a claim to form a government.

He also said he would meet the governor to give him an exact report of the proceedings in the assembly and demand the Rane government's dismissal.

Former chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar, now an MGP legislator, and Jhalmi said Rane should have resigned since he had lost the majority. Jhalmi said the MGP would wait no longer and would demand the dismissal of the Rane government that had defied the governor.

UNI

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