The announcement of the by-election to the Ponda Assembly constituency, which is now scheduled for April 9, has brought the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) into immediate effect, casting uncertainty over the fate of several legislative proposals pending before the Goa Legislative Assembly. Among the most affected are the 21 Private Members’ Bills which now appear unlikely to see the light of day in the current session. Traditionally, Private Members’ Bills are taken up for discussion on Fridays. However, on the first Friday of the present session, the Bills did not appear on the agenda which sparked sharp reactions in the House. Now with the Code of Conduct in force, the possibility of the bills being taken up during the remaining days of the session appears increasingly remote. As a result, these 21 Bills are likely to lapse at the end of the session. If legislators wish to pursue them further, they will have to reintroduce the proposals in a future Assembly session. For now, however, the combination of procedural delays and the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct has placed these proposals in limbo.
