3-day Budget Session of Goa Assembly starts from 29 Jan; amendment to Tourist Trade Act to be tabled

Panaji: The three-day budget session of the Goa Assembly will begin from Tuesday during which ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will present the financial statement for fiscal 2019-20. Parrikar, 63, who has been suffering from a pancreatic ailment, is likely to present the budget on 30 January and then table the vote-on-account for five months. Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant said Parrikar would attend the entire three-day session. [caption id=“attachment_3192484” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Goa Assembly.[/caption] The chief minister, who was admitted to hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New Delhi and the US in 2018, had chaired the Business Advisory Committee meeting last week. Ever since his discharge from the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in New Delhi in October 2018, he has been recuperating at his private residence in Goa and has also made a few public appearances. Governor Mridula Sinha will address the House on the first day of the session. A Bill amending the Tourist Trade Act, to curb liquor consumption and nuisance in public spaces including beaches, will be tabled in the House. The speaker’s office has received total 419 questions for the three-day session, including 137 starred and 282 unstarred questions. It has also received three government Bills for tabling- The Goa Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Amendment) Bill-2019, The Goa Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill-2019 and The Goa Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill-2019. The opposition Congress had earlier demanded that the session should be of at least 10 days, as three days are not enough to discuss many important issues. Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar had last week said their demand was not approved by the BJP-led state government.