In a rare occurrence, members of the ruling BJP and the Shiv Sena staged a walkout in the Legislative Council today, as combative opposition continued to demand the sacking of Maharashtra Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, under the scanner in a slum rehabilitation project.
Complaining that the Opposition members were not allowing the ministers and legislators to speak, the ruling BJP-Sena members walked out in protest.
"Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has become a pasture of corruption where officials as well as ministers are no exception. In the SRA project at MP Mills compound in Tardeo, Mehta had planned to allow more FSI for constructing a third tower, which was originally granted to slum dwellers," Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said.
He said had Mehta had his way, this could have led to a windfall of nearly Rs 700 crore for the builder concerned.
Earlier, the issue of corruption in the SRA was raised by NCP's Kiran Pawaskar through a Calling Attention motion.
Backing Munde's contention, several members of the opposition became aggressive and demanded immediate resignation of the housing minister who belongs to the BJP.
Members of the ruling parties then decided to stage a walk out against the "high handedness" of the opposition and against "their act of flouting rules, creating ruckus and disrupting the proceedings of the Upper House".
Later, Leader of the House Chandrakant Patil told PTI that members of the ruling parties will not participate in the proceedings of the House until the chairman lays down strict rules to be followed by the opposition parties.
"This (Calling Attention) motion was admitted (by vice-chairman Manikrao Thakre) despite being rejected earlier. From the time this session has begun, rules are not being followed and the opposition is indulging in high-handed behaviour. This has to stop. We have decided to not take part in the proceedings until assurance is given that the order of the day's proceedings will be followed," Patil said.
Munde said the government had no answers to questions raised by the opposition. "They staged a walkout to avoid embarrassment as they were cornered by us," he added.
Fadnavis recently ordered a probe against Mehta for allegedly allowing unauthorised transfer of extra building rights in the slum rehabilitation authority (SRA) project in south Mumbai, originally granted to slum dwellers, to project affected people (PAPs), apparently to favour a developer.
While sanctioning the changes, Mehta had wrongly mentioned in the project file that he had kept the chief minister in the loop, which was denied by Fadnavis.
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