Maharashtra legislature winter session wasted as ministers sans portfolios kept mum: Opposition

Ambadas Danve. File Pic

The Opposition parties in Maharashtra has alleged that the winter session of the Maharashtra legislature was held only for formality as ministers couldn't resolve issues of farmers and others in the absence of portfolios, according to the PTI.

Addressing a press conference on the sixth and concluding day of the session in Nagpur on Saturday, the leader of the opposition in the legislative council, Ambadas Danve, said that the state government only highlighted old schemes and promises in the legislature.

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"Though the Mahayuti government was formed 15 days back and the cabinet was also expanded, portfolios are yet to be allocated. This session saw ministers sitting in the legislature without ministries. This session was just a formality," Ambadas Danve added, as per the PTI.

He said the government failed to reassure farmers, workers, and industries.

Referring to violence in Parbhani city over the desecration of a replica of the Constitution, the suspicious death of an accused in judicial custody, the murder of a sarpanch in Beed, and the attack on a Marathi family in Kalyan, Ambadas Danve said the Maharashtra government has failed to maintain law and order.

"The main accused in the Beed incident is absconding even as people of Maharashtra know who is shielding him," Danve said in an apparent reference to a minister from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

He alleged the government didn't announce measures to alleviate the plight of cotton, soybean and paddy growers.

"The supplementary demands tabled in the session were meant for regular expenditure. No money was allocated for carrying out development works. The government announced irrigation projects for Vidarbha region but didn't release any funds," Danve alleged, the news agency reported.

He said the opposition parties raised issues like corruption in state-run MSRTC and the bogus medicines scam.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said the opposition raised issues concerning farmers, inflation, and deteriorating law and order during the session.
He claimed that 65 per cent of newly-annointed ministers are tainted.

He wondered whether the Parbhani incident was state "sponsored"?

"The chief minister's reply in the legislatures gave the impression that he was shielding the accused in the Beed and Parbhani incidents. He sounded like their counsel," the Congress leader alleged, the PTI reported.

The government had said it would announce a loan waiver for farmers but didn't keep its word, Nana Patole said.

"This government doesn't work for farmers, youths, and poor but it works for selected businessmen," he alleged.

Earlier in the day, opposition parties protested on the premises of Vidhan Bhavan over the alleged fake medicines supply scam.

Opposition members held placards and raised slogans against the Mahayuti government on the steps of the state legislature on the last day of the winter session.

The six-day session witnessed uproar over Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks on B R Ambedkar, and Parbhani and Beed incidents.

(with PTI inputs)