Who is holding the police bill ?
17 July 1997 22:07 IST After adjourning the House and suspending the Question Hour in an unprecedented manner, expressing anguish over the delay allegedly caused by the governor in assenting the Goa Police bill, Speaker Tomazinho Cardoz now feels that the governor is not cent per cent at fault.
Dr Kashinath Jalmi, the opposition leader, has also climbed down from his demand of recalling the governor and now feels confident that he would give his assent to the bill. But he still holds governor, Dr P C Alexander, responsible for the delay.
It appears that the half an hour pandemonium by the opposition in the House demanding adjournment and the treasury benches also agreeing to it was an unwarranted exercise. The chronology of events presented by the speaker in the House today amply proves that the government was holding the bill for longer time than the governor, in last four months.
After passing the bill on 31 March, it was sent to the governor on 12 May by the law department. Similarly, when Dr Alexander sent it back to the chief secretary with certain queries on 10 June, the former received it back only on 9 July. The file is presently pending before him.
Though Jalmi is now silent over his charge that the union home ministry is sitting on the file, he still holds Dr Alexander responsible for wrongfully sending the bill back to the chief secretary and not the speaker. But Cardoz finds nothing wrong in it.
Though Jalmi does not wish to commit himself that the governor has deliberately delayed his assent, he says : "any bill can be stalled by asking for minute details of every clause of the bill." The speaker also does not blame the government for delay in replying, stating that the details asked by the governor were too minute.
While Cardoz seems to have realised his mistake of falling prey to the pressure mounted by the opposition to adjourn the House, Jalmi still maintains his charge that the governor has lowered the dignity of the House by delaying the assent to the bill.
He is still firm also on filing breach of privilege against union home minister Indrajit Gupta for challenging competence of the Goan legislators in passing the police bill. However, Cardoz is still not decided whether to admit the motion, though he has accepted Jalmi's oral notice of privilege motion.
