Panaji: The Goa Legislative Assembly’s records from
1963, when the House had its first session, till the
year 2000 were destroyed during relocation of the
secretariat, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said.
| wanted to preserve them. But they were destroyed.
lam sorry, this should not happen. Now since 2000,
we are preserving the records and their digitisation
is being done,’ Sawant said addressing a gathering
on Monday. The Goa Assembly had its first session in 1963, he
said.
The old records of the Assembly proceedings,
including speeches of Goa’s first chief minister
Dayanand Bandodkar, were destroyed when the
secretariat was shifted from the Adil Shah Palace
building to the new complex in the year 2000, he
said.
“| had plans to digitise them (records) through CDs
and other formats, so that in future new MLAs could
use them. But, very sorry to say that while shifting of
the secretariat, the records were destroyed,” the CM
said.
Sawant said when he became the Goa Assembly’s
speaker, he came to know that these records were
destroyed.
The Goa Assembly has a long history since 1963. Be
it defections, governments of 15 or 13 days, these
references are used by other assemblies, he noted.
All records of the Assembly proceedings should be
digitised, he said.
Goa was liberated from the Portuguese rule in 1961
and the first Assembly session was held under the leadership of Bandodkar in 1963.
Courtesy: PTI
