I took oath as Speaker, says Sardinha NT Staff Reporter Panaji March 1: The pro-tem Speaker, Mr Francisco Sardinha today observed that he had full powers of Speaker and said that he had been administered oath as Speaker.
Mr Sardinha, who took charge of the office today morning, started functioning from his office as chairman of the budget committee. He then went to chamber of the Speaker along with the legislature secretary, Mr Sudhir Narvekar and occupied it. Mr Sardinha told the reporters that he had full powers of the Speaker. He even cited provision to the effect as laid down in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of the Goa Legislative Assembly. Rule 13 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of the Goa Legislative Assembly describes the powers of deputy speaker and presiding member as: “Deputy Speaker or any member of the Assembly, when presiding over the assembly shall have the same powers as the Speaker when so presiding and all reference to the Speaker in these rules shall be deemed to be references to the Deputy Speaker or to the member so presiding, as the case may be. The Speaker ordered the assembly secretariat staff to take inventory of the documents, files and other items in the chamber. He told the reporters that this was being done to ensure that every thing were recorded to avoid any controversy in view of the allegations by the Bharatiya Janata Party that attempt was made to ransack the office of the Speaker yesterday. Replying to a question whether any disqualification petition was filed against the Cortalim legislator, Mr Mathany Saldanha, he said that he had not received any such petition. Mr Sardinha further said that he would see that the House functioned as per the norms. “I will ensure that discipline and decorum of the House is maintained,” he added.
