Opposition MLAs meet Goa governor over their demand for Private Members’ Day during Jan session of Assembly

All the seven Opposition MLAs in Goa on Tuesday met Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai and sought his intervention amid their demand for the extension of the upcoming four-day session of the Assembly to include the ‘Private Members’ Day’.

The members were led by Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao.

Talking to reporters after meeting the governor at Raj Bhavan, Alemao said they explained to him their demand to have a Private Members' Day during the session which will be held between January 16-19.

The opposition MLAs want the session to be extended to January 20, which is a Friday. Friday is always ‘Private Members’ Day’ during an Assembly session, which allows them to move bills and resolutions, they said.

Alemao alleged the state government is “rattled with the unity of the Opposition” and curtailed the session to exclude the Private Members' Day at the behest of the chief minister (Pramod Sawant).

“The government is worried that we will expose corruption if the session is allowed to be run for a longer duration,” he said.

Goa Forward Party (GFP) MLA Vijai Sardesai alleged Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar was violating the rule book by excluding Private Members' Day from the session.

''The governor has assured us that he will speak with the Speaker on this issue,'' he claimed.