Opp. boycotts day’s proceedings
The Opposition on Wednesday continued its protest by boycotting the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly for the alleged discrimination in allocation of development funds. The BJP, Shiv Sena and MNS stood in solidarity against the alleged disparity practised by the government. As a result, the entire day’s proceeding was conducted in absence of the Opposition members.
Opposition leaders even met governor K Sankaranarayan in the evening at Raj Bhavan to register their complaint against the injustice done by the government. Before this, they also had two unsuccessful meetings with the CM Prithviraj Chavan to resolve the issue. Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse announced that the protest would continue till their demands were not met by the state government. He alleged that the ruling government had allocated maximum funds to the constituencies of their own legislators.
As soon as the House assembled at around 11 am, the Opposition members were not present. Deputy speaker Vasant Purke adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes. Later,
parliamentary affairs minister Harshwardhan Patil pointed out the absence of the Opposition members. He said, “It will not be good to go ahead with the proceedings without them.” Hence, the House was adjourned two more times.
Addressing a press conference in the premises, Mr Khadse said, “The government recently allocated `150 crore for 10 tehsils, `15 crore for each of them, across the state as pre-allocation to provide relief to the drought-affected areas. Surprisingly, nine tehsils are from western Maharashtra only. The reason given for the decision was that the groundwater level of those tehsils had decreased by more than two metres according to the Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA) report.
However, as per the GSDA there are a total 79 such tehsils, where the groundwater level has decreased by two metres. “Why have only these tehsils been selected by the state government?” he questioned. He informed that the chief minister had promised to resolve the issue and asked for two more days.
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