Maharashtra: Monsoon session set to be stormy

Mumbai, Jul 10: Monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislature, beginning July 13, is expected to be a stormy one with allegations against some of the high profile ministers giving ample ammunition to the Congress-NCP opposition to corner the BJP-led government headed by Devendra Fadnavis.

Apart from controversies centring BJP ministers Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde, spurt in cases of farmers' suicide, flaws in loan waiver scheme and law and order situation are expected to rock both the Legislative Assembly and Council right from the day one.

While Congress has threatened to disrupt the proceedings in both the Houses until the ministers confronting corruption charges "resigned on moral grounds and faced enquiry," the NCP will be focusing on the Government's "failure" on loan waiver for debt-ridden farmers and flaws in the crop insurance scheme.

"The BJP government has been hit by scams even before it completed one year in power. It lacks accountability with the Chief Minister himself defending his cabinet colleagues, instead of asking them to resign and face enquiry," Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil told PTI.

"First it was Education Minister Vinod Tawde who allegedly forged educational certificates and then Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde, who has been accused of awarding contracts worth Rs 206 crore," he said.

It was Fadnavis himself who announced the Government decision to e-tender all contracts worth more than Rs 3 lakh on the floor of the House during the winter session. What was the hurry (on the part of Munde) to award contracts based on the rate contract system?" he asked.

"All this has created a cloud of suspicion. It will not clear till the ministers come clean after an enquiry," he said.

Leader of Opposition in state Council, Dhananjay Munde of the NCP, said there has already been a shortfall in rains this year and farmers cannot sow new crops till their loans were waived.

"The NCP leaders have toured the drought-affected regions and also apprised the CM with the worsening situation. We requested him that loans should be waived off for farmers of 24,000 villages that have been declared drought-hit. But, that is yet to happen," Munde rued.

"The law and order situation is also going from bad to worse. BJP's own ally Shiv Sena is blaming the government on this issue. The government needs to answer us on this," he said.

PTI