State passes money bill without debate

The state legislative council finally passed a money bill amid chaos caused by Opposition members on Saturday.

This means that approximately 15 lakh state government employees will get their March salaries on time. Earlier, there were concerns that the Appropriation Bill would be delayed owing to repeated adjournments.

The state government had even warned that it would approach governor C Vidyasagar Rao, asking him to direct the legislative council to pass the bill.

When the house assembled at 1pm on Saturday, the Opposition benches taunted the government for allegedly beating up a 32-year-old farmer, Rameshwar Bhusare, by security guards at Mantralaya on Thursday. Amidst the chaos, council chairman Ramraje Nimbhalkar asked state finance minister Deepak Kesarkar to table the bill. It was then passed without any discussion.

The bill sought permission to spend Rs50,000 crore. Half of the amount will be used to disburse salaries of government employees.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-shiv Sena does not enjoy a majority in the legislative council as it is dominated by the Congress-nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine.

The bill was stuck in the upper house because of adjournments right from the beginning of the budget session. The sticking point was the demand of a farm loan waiver by the Opposition. On the issue, Opposition leaders had disrupted the lower houses when the budget was being presented. Later, 19 MLAS from Congress and NCP were suspended for their ‘unruly behaviour’. The Opposition has been demanding that the government withdraw the suspension order.

‘GOVT INSENSITIVE’

The opposition condemned the alleged bashing up of Bhusare. NCP leader Sunil Tatkare said, “This shows lack of sensitivity towards farmers.” Nimbhalkar asked the state government for a detailed report on the incident within next two days.