By IANS
Nagpur : With no fresh ammunition in their bag, opposition parties in Maharashtra seem to be rehearsing their script over old unresolved issues on the eve of the state legislature’s winter session beginning here Monday.
As a result, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh appears to be sitting pretty despite farmers’ suicides, the power crisis, the deteriorating law and order situation and rising corruption.
The secretariat, which has shifted to the state’s second capital, is however finding it tough to complete the preparations for the session, which is being held a fortnight ahead of schedule in view of the Gujarat assembly elections next month.
Anticipating an early announcement of farmers’ loan waiver, the main opposition Shiv Sena took out a 150 km-march to Nagpur from Gurukunj Mozri in west Vidarbha to press for the demand.
Even as the five-day loan waiver march reached the city Sunday, the party’s legislature unit leader Ramdas Kadam told reporters that the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party legislators would begin and end the business in both houses every day raising slogans on the issue.
Though it is not clear whether the loan waiver announcement will come during the two-week session alongside an account of the work done to ease the agrarian crisis, the Shiv Sena is clearly working on a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ strategy and claim credit whenever the loan is waived and in whatever form.
The two alliance partners will also do their best to corner the Democratic Front (DF) government over the continuing power crunch, wheat import (and its inferior quality) and corruption, particularly in the departments of food and civil supplies, cooperation and urban development.
As for the power crisis, the government has already enumerated the steps taken for augmenting the generation capacity and bridging the gap between demand and supply.
As for wheat import, the Nationalist Congress Party (the DF constituent led by central Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar) has brought out a booklet “nailing the lie” in the campaign against it.
The land acquisition for the proposed special economic zones in the state and for the Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) is another old issue in the opposition hands.
With the legislature secretariat having received as many as 1,400 calling-attention motions and 7,500 starred questions for the session and several bills listed for tabling, the winter session has a daunting work schedule, provided the customary walkouts and adjournments leave any time for it.
As many as 33 processions will be taken out to the legislature during the session, 12 sit-ins will be held while an equal number of chain hunger strikes will be undertaken in support of various demands.
The most important among the bills is the one for the repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act — a pre-condition for the release of central funds for Mumbai makeover — which the government hopes to get passed despite opposition from Shiv Sena.