By IANS,
Mumbai: The Maharashtra legislative assembly was Thursday adjourned thrice over the issue of free houses for mill workers and finally adjourned for the day without transacting any business as the opposition created a ruckus during the proceedings.
Belligerent Shiv Sena members, sporting tee-shirts demanding free houses and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena members waving banners gathered in the well of the house in the morning and shouted slogans.
When the Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil called for the question hour, Leader of Opposition (BJP) Eknath Khadse urged him to take up the discussion on an adjournment motion to set aside the question hour and instead debate on the issue of free houses for mill workers.
However, the demand was rejected, leading to pandemonium that forced the speaker to adjourn the house, first for ten minutes. Later, the presiding officer Nawab Malik adjourned it till 12 noon, followed by another adjournment till 1 p.m.
After it re-assembled, ruling Nationalist Congress Party members Shashikant Shinde and Jitendra Awhad criticized the opposition for showing “fake concern” over the plight of mill workers in the city.
“They are shedding crocodile tears for the mill workers. Their leaders bought over the Kohinoor Mill lands for Rs.421 crore. Let them first declare when they will return the land back to the mill workers,” they urged, without naming Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi and MNS chief Raj Thackeray.
Even as chaos continued inside the assembly, the house was adjourned for the day without transacting any business.
Meanwhile, outside the legislature, the MNS, Shiv Sena, BJP and RPI took out a joint ‘maha-morcha’ in support of free homes for mill workers in the city.
The Shiva Sena-Bharatiya Janta Party and Republican Party of India have called for a shut down Aug 1 to support the cause. “We have called for a bandh to demand free housing for these mill workers. “It is high time now that their demands are met,” said BJP legislator Vinod Tawade.