Panaji: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday urged state govt to prepare a 25-year roadmap to fulfil the aspirations of youths, women and the last person in society. He said the roadmap should include public participation in democratic institutions and strengthen those institutions.“Democracy can be strengthened by considering the opinions of all sections of society and to strengthen democracy, assembly is the place,” he said in his inaugural address of the four-day silver jubilee celebration of Goa assembly complex.Birla said Goa still faces challenges to continue development in the state by protecting the environment and heritage.He said that Goa has been able to provide jobs to lakhs of people even after being a small state.Chief minister Pramod Sawant said if Goa had been liberated in 1947, Goa would have completed 75 years of Liberation, and Goans regretted the 14-year delay in Liberation. He said that only a few assemblies have legislative forums that conducts a student parliament in the state.“As part of this commemoration, we have sought to preserve our institutional memory through the silver jubilee commemorative volume ‘The House of Goa: 25 Years Of Democracy, Debate And Legacy. I hope it will not serve merely as a record of this celebration but as an enduring institutional record for generations to come,” Goa assembly speaker Ganesh Gaonkar said.Leader of the opposition Yuri Alemao took the opportunity to take a dig at govt by pointing out that the 2026 budget session was curtailed following the announcement of Ponda bypoll, which he said was “thoroughly unwarranted”.“All the assemblies were functioning even after the election was announced and only in Goa were the shutters pulled down and it should not be a precedent in the near future,” he said.Former speakers, former chief minister, former MLAs and sitting MLAs were felicitated at the function.Governor P A Gajapathi Raju released a customised ‘My Stamp ‘with a special cover prepared by the postal department in commemoration of the silver jubilee celebration of Goa legislative complex.The governor said that a developed India must also be a deeply democratic India and a developed Goa must be a Goa where democratic institutions remain vibrant, trusted and responsive.
