Oppn to corner Maha govt in budget session
MUMBAI: FARMER SUICIDES, DELAY IN LOAN WAIVER IMPLEMENTATION, LAND GRABBING ALLEGATIONS AND KAMALA MILLS FIRE ARE AMONG THE ISSUES THE OPPN WILL TAKE UP
The budget session of the Maharashtra legislature, beginning here from Monday, is likely to be a stormy affair with the opposition Congress-NCP vowing to corner the BJP-led government on issues such as farm crisis, jobs, loan waiver and the Bhima-Koregaon violence.
The budget will be presented on March 9.
In the last few days, opposition leaders have met more than once to deliberate and fine-tune the strategy to be adopted on the floor of the House. They have identified certain issues to be highlighted in the legislature.
It is learnt that farmer suicides, delay in farm loan waiver implementation, allegations of land grabbing and conflict of interest against tourism minister Jaykumar Raval, the Kamala Mills fire and alleged attempts to cover up corruption in the Shiv Sena-ruled Mumbai civic body are among the issues that will be taken up by opposition parties.
The Opposition has charged the Devendra Fadnavis government with “all-round failure” and alleged it was busy holding events like ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ (a business summit).
They have also demanded a White Paper on investments made in the state and sought answers from Fadnavis on what happened to investments promised during the Make in India event held two years ago.
Another issue to be highlighted is the death of farm labourers due to spraying of pesticides in Yavatmal district.
Leader of Opposition in the assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil of the Congress has said the special investigation team probe into the case favours pesticide companies and not farmers.
Meanwhile, the government has said 31.32 lakh farmers of the eligible 47.73 lakh have benefited till now from the loan waiver scheme, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana. An amount of ₹12,362 crore has been transferred to the accounts of these farmers. Also, ₹23,102 crore has been sanctioned for the eligible farmers.
A mysterious object with Chinese writing on it has been found in Kamle district of Arunchal Pradesh, about 100km inside Indian territory, police said on Saturday.
A few villagers stumbled upon a partly burnt white box, wrapped in a cloth-like material with Chinese writing on it last Wednesday.
It was found stuck in a tree, superintendent of police of Kamle, John Pada, said.
The SP, range forest officer Bunty Tao and a few officers trekked for five hours to Repari village, located at a height of 3,642 feet, to retrieve the object after woodcutters informed them about it.
The box opened up on hitting the tree and the black device inside was visible.
The lower compartment probably contained a battery to power the device during flight, he said. It had a powdered substance connected to wires, the SP said, adding it could be a meteorological equipment.
Director general of police Sandeep Goel said they were trying to ascertain what the object was.
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