Opposition boycotts Chief Minister's tea party

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Nagpur, Dec 3: Alleging that the Democratic Front (DF) government in the state had failed on all fronts, the opposition in the Maharashtra Legislature today boycotted the customary session-eve tea party hosted by the Chief Minister a day before the winter session, slated to begin here tomorrow.

The opposition intends to bring an adjournment motion on the first day of the session on the recent killing of four members of a dalit family in Khairlanji in Bhandara district of Vidarbha region of the state.

Addressing a joint press conference here, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Ramdas Kadam and his counterpart in the Legislative Council Pandurang Phundkar said they did not want to have tea with a Chief Minister who headed an anti-dalit, anti-farmer and anti-poor government.

The Khairlanji incident showed that the government had failed to prevent injustice against dalits in the state, Mr Kadam said. The government had also failed to maintain law and order in Maharashtra, and could not control the violence during protests against the Khairlanji kilings and the desecration of the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in Kanpur, he said.

The DF had not fulfilled any promise that it made in its manifesto for the 2004 assembly elections, he alleged.

Leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) group in the Assembly Gopinath Munde said the opposition would give notice for an adjournment motion in the House on the Khairlanji issue on the first day of the winter session. The opposition would also raise the issue of farmers' suicides in Vidarbha in the House, he said.

Mr Munde demanded that the government pay a price of Rs. 2,700 per quintal for cotton and Rs. 1,000 per quintal for paddy, the two main crops in Vidarbha, to alleviate the sufferings of farmers in the region and prevent suicides. No farmer in the state had received loans at an interest rate of 6 per cent, Mr Munde alleged, adding that Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram were blaming each other for this.

The government must apologise to the dalits for its failure to protect them, Mr Munde said. ''I had tendered an apology for the firing at Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, which took place when I was Deputy Chief Minister,'' he said.

Replying to questions, Mr Kadam and Mr Munde said Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil had added insult to injury by claming that naxalites were involved in the violence during the protests against the Khairlanji killings, and must apologise to the dalits for the remarks.

UNI

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