On the eve of the budgetary session in state legislature, the opposition parties have threatened to disrupt Maharashtra Governor's inaugural speech if he fails to bring up four issues including the Adarsh report, toll policy in the state, stand on Local Body Tax and action against 16 tainted ministers, during his speech.
But Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has slammed the opposition parties for "endangering the democratic practices" by stalling debates and discussions on the floor of the House.
"They (the opposition parties) do not want to resolve the issues. They only want to gain media coverage. That is why, despite the government's willingness to discuss all the issues they have raised, they have boycotted the tea party, and have threatened to stall the Governor's speech, which is a reflections of the government's policies for the state. No one should try to break the parliamentary practices. Such things are damaging for a democracy," he said while talking to reporters here on Sunday.
But the opposition maintained that the government had failed on many counts, and that it would boycott the tea party customarily hosted by the Chief Minister on the eve of every legislative session.
"When the Action Taken Report (of the judicial panel appointed by the state government to investigate Adarsh society scam) has also named Ashok Chavan as guilty, why has the state government not taken any measures against him? How can the Governor refuse permission of prosecution to a person who has been found guilty by the Central Bureau of Investigation?" Eknath Khadse, leader of opposition and senior Bharaitya Janata Party leader said at another press event here on Sunday.
He accused the government of protecting corrupt ministers. "Serious offences like rape, cheating have been registered against 16 sitting and former ministers of the state government. The government has been sitting petty on permissions sought by the police to prosecute them. Why is no action taken against them?" he asked.
He said the opposition parties like the Bharaitya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena will sit in the well of the House and hout slogans during the speech of the Governor if he does not talk about these issues.
The opposition has also demanded the tabling and discussion of the report submitted by the Chitale committee which was appointed by the government to look into the multi-crore irrigation scam in the state.
BJP leader Vinod Tawde attacked the government for granting continuous parole to actor Sanjay Dutt, an accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case. "Is he the son-in-law of the government? What is the message the government wants to send across to the terrorists? That come and kill 250 people, and we will send you home for Diwali," he said.
Mr. Khadse accused the government of demoralising the administration by unduly interfering in the transfer of senior IAS and IPS officers. "Good officers are being sidelined. We have heard that there is lot of corruption in the transfer issue. Additional Director General A.K. Jain has resigned, so did former Mumbai Commissioner Satyapal Singh. Now, we have information that another Additional Director General is to resign soon," he said.
Pro-Vidarbha
Raising the issue of developmental backlog, Mr. Khadse backed the demand for separate Vidarbha, and said that the Sena-BJP alliance, if voted to power, will prefer a smaller state.
The opposition parties will raise issues like the slack financial condition of the state treasury, unemployment, inflation, electricity woes faced by the people in the state, slum regularisation, during the four-day session.
Leaders like Subhash Desai, Bala Nandgaonkar, Girish Bapat, Devendra Phadnavis, were present during the conference.
