Goa Speaker reprimands sports minister over indiscipline

Goa legislative assembly speaker Pratapsingh Rane on Saturday threatened the sports minister to throw him out of the house after the minister stubbornly ignored speakers’ warnings to keep quiet during the question hour.

The speaker warned the sports minister Manohar Ajgaonkar that he would summon the Marshall to throw him out of the house, if he did not sit down. Reprimanding the minister, the speaker said there was no freedom to talk anything and use unparliamentary language.

Ajgaonkar was reprimanded after he used certain unparliamentary words while responding to the question raised by the BJP legislator, Laxmikant Parsekar over the proposed sports city in Pernem taluka.

The minister was initially asked not to use unparliamentary words by the speaker, but Mr. Ajgaonkar went on with his reply despite the speaker having taken up another question. Annoyed over the minister's conduct, the speaker said that the minister was using `street-words'.

The speaker reminded the minister concerned that he was being watched by lakhs of people as the proceedings were shown live. Mr. Ajgaonkar earlier alleged that the Speaker was not allowing him enough time to express himself on the floor of the house while the leader of the opposition Manohar Parrikar was given enough time.

The minister was cornered by the opposition over the proposed sports city, which according to the opposition, had all the structures other than required for sports. Mr. Parrikar also alleged that the local legislators from the Pernem Taluka were not been taken into confidence vis-a-vis the sport city. The Speaker of the Goa legislative Assembly Pratapsingh Rane once again warned the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues for not replying properly to the queries in the house.

During the question hour on the final day of the assembly session, the opposition Leader pointed out to the house that the Minister for cooperation has not replied properly to the question raised by the Ponguinim MLA Ramesh Tawadkar over the production of Milk in the state.

He reminded the minister concerned that the Public was viewing what he was saying and warned that would not be tolerated. The speaker's remark came after the Minister for cooperation Ravi Naik failed to reply properly to the house.