Panaji: A delegation of opposition leaders met Goa governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju at Lok Bhavan on Thursday, where they urged him to convene a special assembly session to discuss and debate the scrapping of Section 39A, a provision they say enables the conversion of agricultural land.The delegation, which included opposition leader Yuri Alemao, AAP MLAs Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva, and AAP president Valmiki Naik, also pressed Raju to ask govt to withdraw Section 39A altogether and pass the Agricultural Land Protection Bill, which was drafted by retired Chief Justice of the Allahabad high court Justice Ferdino Rebello.Alemao pointed out that while the budget assembly session is scheduled from March 6, Borkar’s worsening health made the matter too urgent to wait. “The governor has the right to exercise the power to convene or summon a session. In view of the deteriorating health of our colleague Borkar, this needs to be discussed and debated urgently,” Alemao said.Viegas said Raju acknowledged the gravity of the situation, particularly with regard to the deteriorating health of Viresh Borkar, who is on an agitation over the issue. “He acknowledges that a man’s life is precious and that a person cannot die. It is now the Governor’s decision to tell the govt,” Viegas told reporters after the meeting.On the controversy surrounding allegedly missing files from the TCP department, Alemao was dismissive of govt’s claims. “If files went missing or they did not go missing, that has to come out the next day of the protest and not after several days of the agitation. There is a big question over this,” he said, accusing govt of resorting to what he called hollow statements. “Tomorrow they will say several other things; they will give threats. We are doing this for Goa and we will continue.”Naik expressed doubts about the protestors stealing govt files. “We have heard of files going missing very often, and it is often govt itself that makes files go missing. Have you ever heard of citizens robbing files from a govt department? Let them tell us which file is missing,” the AAP state president said.
