The Opposition Congress and NCP will go all out to corner the BJP-led saffron alliance Government on the contentious issues like the hardships faced by farmers due to demonetisation, continued spate of farmers’ suicides, Maratha reservations and child malnutrition deaths, during the Winter Session of Maharashtra legislature beginning in Nagpur from Monday.
Giving a foretaste of its belligerent mood, the leaders of various Opposition parties-led by Congress and NCP-boycotted the session-eve customary tea get-together hosted by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday evening, after alleging that the State Government lacked political will to address the problems faced by the people and making a strong case for waiver of loans taken by farmers.
likening the means used by the State Government to divert the attention of people to the gadgets used by Doraemon to create a camouflage to facilitate the escape of Nobita in the popular cartoon series, leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil charged that the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation had often tried to wriggle out of tricky situations by coming out with new administrative devices to be-fool the people.
“We rooted for the waiver of farmers’ loans. The State Government came out Jalyukta Shivara (water conservation scheme) device. We stressed on the unemployment issue. The State Government unveiled Make in Maharashtra device. We asked the State Government to rein in the growing of essential commodities. The Government spoke about starting weekly markets. We exposed the corruption involving the Ministers in the State Government. The State Government deployed the device of giving clean chits to its Ministers,” Vikhe-Patil said.
Charging that the Fadnavis dispensation had failed to show any maturity in its governance during the first two years of office, Vikhe-Patil said that the state government was merely following the footsteps of the Centre by concentrating more on publicity than on actual governance. Reiterating his party’s stand on the Centre’s decision to demonetise Rs1000 and Rs500 notes, Vikhe-Patil said, “While we are with the Government on all the initiatives taken by it to eliminate corruption. But we are opposed to the manner in which the Government has subjected people to hardships through its demonetisation decision taken without proper planning. If the Government has–through its demontetisation succeeded in bringing out black money, it should go ahead and waive the loans of farmers”.
leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative Council, Dhananjay Munde of the NCP, who addressed the session-eve news conference along with Vikhe-Patil, demanded Rs1,500 crore compensation package for the families killed in the demonetisation-related incidents in the State and also those who suffered monetary losses due to scrapping of the Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes.