PANAJI: The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party created ruckus for the second day in succession in the state assembly on Thursday when the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat rose to reply to the issues raised by the members of the House during discussion on demands for police, home, general administration, vigilance and other departments,

even as ruling side legislators joined hands with the opposition in criticising the performance of the police department.
Member after member from both the sides chose to chastise the police force over the issue of drug dealer-police nexus and their failure to investigate the cases in professional manner and charged the police of being engaged in corrupt practices and harassment of local people as well as tourists. They also criticised the police for poor rate of conviction, particularly relating to NDPS cases.
While most MLAs were critical of police, some other especially from the ruling side told the House that there were many good officers who have done exemplary work and that whole of police force should not be criticised because of some black sheep in the department. In their speeches, some MLAs from ruling side came to the aid of the beleaguered former tourism minister, Mr Francisco Xavier Pacheco.
The demands were, however, passed by voice vote by the assembly when the Speaker, Mr Pratapsing Rane put them to vote amidst shouting of slogans by the BJP MLAs, who stormed into the well of the House after the Chief Minister did not concede to their demand of handing over the case relating to police-drug dealer nexus to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The leader of the opposition, Mr Manohar Parrikar told the House that the proposal for handing over the police-drug dealer nexus case should have come from the Home Minister, Mr Ravi Naik himself even as he asked why the government was shying away from handing over the probe to the CBI. He cautioned the Chief Minister against protecting anyone involved in the case.
He said that if the government was ready to hand over the case to CBI the opposition would withdraw the cut motion and support the demands, even as he said that the BJP would not listen to Mr Kamat if he was not ready to hand over the case to the central investigating agency. Even as the Chief Minister rose to reply, the opposition members marched into the well of the House shouting slogans. The Chief Minister was heard saying that he was entitled to reply to the issues raised by the members. Mr Parrikar also told the House that the vigilance department has been rendered defunct.
Earlier opening the debate, Mr Damodar Naik said that the police should be disciplined, even as he said that corruption has percolated all over in the department. Accusing traffic police of harassing tourists and extorting money from them, he also said that because of this and police inefficiency, the name of the state has got a beating.
Mr Agnelo Fernandes said that earlier it was the opposition MLAs who were targeted but now the ruling side MLAs were being victimised. He further said that drug trade and prostitution were openly being carried out in the state and despite him informing the police about the prostitution being carried out in his constituency no action was taken by the police.
Mr Dayanand Mandrekar accused the police of planting the drugs on people and arresting them while Mr Mahadev Naik said that the police should be friends of the people. Mr Vijay Pai Khot demanded that salaries of the police should be raised for impartial probes but strict action should be taken against those indulging in malpractices.
Saying that reputation of the state was at stake, Mr Francisco D’Souza called for handing over the cases to the CBI for impartial probe. Mr Dayanand Narvekar raised the issue of brutal attack on Goa state president of National Students Union of India, Mr Sunil Khawtankar, and failure of the police to nab the culprits involved in the attack despite a week having passed.
Stating that his conscience did not permit him to support the demands, Mr Pacheco told the House that the son of Home Minister, Mr Ravi Naik allegedly involved in drug cases, should be arrested and thoroughly probed. Others who participated in discussion included Messrs Victoria Fernandes, Shyam Satardekar, Pandurang Madkaikar, Reginaldo Aleixo Lourenco, Chandrakant Kavlekar, Pandurang Dhavalikar, Rajesh Patnekar and Anant Shet.