Panaji, Jan 15 (TOI): Blaming BJP for holding a brief session of the Goa legislative assembly, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday said the MLAs and ministers should be paid only for those days that they attend the session of the house.

“For the last two years, the BJP-led government has been reducing the duration of sessions in House,” NCP state general secretary Sanjay Barde said. “Elected representatives are paid Rs 1.7 lakh per month, but if they have a session for just three days, then they should be paid for those three days only.”

Governor Mridula Sinha has convened the state assembly on January 29 to January 31. Sinha is expected to deliver her customary address on the first day of the session, leaving just two days for government business.

“Now it is a three-day session. Later it could be just a one-day session. Should MLAs and ministers earn Rs 1.7 lakh for one day?” Barde questioned. The shortening of the sessions has been attributed to CM Manohar Parrikar’s illness.

“These MLAs are elected for five years but see how many days they attend the assembly and solve Goa’s problems,” Barde said.

NCP demanded that the January assembly session should be extended for a period of 30 days to give MLAs and the government sufficient time to tackle problems affecting the state, especially mining and unemployment.

“Ministers are not solving people’s problems. MLAs need more time to highlight citizens’ issues in the House,” Barde said.

The party, which has a single MLA, alleged speaker Pramod Sawant was working with BJP to curtail the assembly session only due to CM Parrikar’s illness.