Oppn MLAs walk out of Business Advisory Committee meeting ahead of Goa assembly session

Panaji, Jul 8 (PTI) Opposition MLAs on Tuesday walked out of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting ahead of the monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly, accusing the BJP government of trying to push its agenda.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, however, said no injustice was being meted out to the opposition.
The state budget, presented in the previous session, will be passed during the monsoon session which will be held from July 21 to August 8.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar had called the meeting which was attended by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, among others.
Opposition members including Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai and Aam Aadmi Party's Venzy Viegas walked out of the meeting held at the assembly complex in Porvorim.
"They want to push government's agenda through the BAC. The Speaker who is the custodian of the House has shown that he is working on behalf of the chief minister and his government," Alemao said, speaking to reporters.
Opposition members put forth their views, but most of the questions selected for the Question Hour were those submitted by the ruling benches, he claimed.
"This is a murder of democracy. The opposition can play a crucial role, they can do it by providing equal opportunities," the Leader of Opposition said, adding that the government was scared that its corruption will be exposed in the House.
Sardesai alleged that the Speaker did not want to listen to their demands.

"The past convention of giving equal opportunity to the opposition during Question hour has been discontinued by this Speaker," he said.

The opposition asked the Speaker to allow three calling attention motions every day, two of them from the opposition benches, but Tawadkar did not agree, the GFP leader said.
AAP MLA Venzy Viegas said opposition parties were fed up with the BJP government's policies. "We will give up. Let them raise only the questions from their own constituencies," he said.
Chief minister Sawant said the Speaker went by the rule book.
Tawadkar claimed that no injustice was being done to the opposition. "Questions to be raised during Question Hour are decided depending on the lots (draw)," he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)