COVID-19: Goa to curtail monsoon Assembly session to one day

Panaji: In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the upcoming monsoon session of the Goa legislative Assembly will be curtailed to a day instead of two weeks as scheduled earlier, a senior official said on Friday.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Speaker Rajesh Patnekar with all party leaders at Porvorim, the official said.

Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, who participated in the meeting, told PTI that it was unanimously decided to curtail the session to just a day to avoid the possible spread of coronavirus.

Earlier, Governor Satya Pal Malik had summoned a two- week long session from July 27 onwards.

At least 1,500 people, including policemen and legislature staff, are on duty during these sessions, Kamat said.

The Leader of Opposition said that the Business Advisory Committee would meet soon to decide about the agenda for the session.

On Thursday, Patnekar had urged all MLAs to get themselves tested for coronavirus infection ahead of the session, while the state legislature department also advised the MLAs not to hold any meetings amid the pandemic.