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The opposition in Maharashtra began its drive to grill the government during the two-week Budget session of the state legislature by boycotting the customary tea meeting hosted by Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday, on the eve of the session.
The opposition led by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance has planned to attack the government on issues including the irrigation scam, corruption cases in the co-operative sector and other departments, increasing atrocities against Dalits, and an increasing regional imbalance.
The opposition has declared that it would expose the state government’s apathy towards farmers affected due to recent hailstorms and untimely rainfall. It would press for the release of the report drafted by the special investigation team into the multi-crore irrigation scam.
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Besides, they are determined to grill the government on the imposition of local body tax (LBT) replacing octroi duty all over Maharashtra, except in Mumbai. In fact, the BJP, which enjoys strong support among traders, has threatened to gherao Prithviraj Chavan if the government fails to withdraw LBT in the next 10 days.
Leader of opposition in the state Assembly, Eknath Khadse alleged that the government was safeguarding corrupt ministers and officials. He said the opposition would grill the government on the Adarsh scam and re-instating two senior bureaucrats despite their alleged involvement in it.
However, minister of state for legislative affairs Sachin Ahir said the government was fully equipped to counter the opposition during the Budget session.
The government is expected to present a populist Budget on June 5 notwithstanding a revenue deficit of Rs 5,417 crore for 2014-15 estimated during the interim Budget tabled in March.
However, a large section of the ruling combine strongly favour doling out sops to a cross-section of society to tackle anti-incumbency and regain lost ground in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
The ruling and opposition parties are expected to engage in noisy debate over 20 per cent reservation to Marathas and 4 per cent to Muslims in education and jobs. The opposition has already indicated that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is on their radar.
The two-week session beginning Monday is the first after the general elections and the last of the present Maharashtra Legislative Assembly before elections slated for September-October.
