Farmers Movement Archive

Maharashtra: Two-day winter session starts today; likely to be stormy amid contentious issues

The two-day winter session of the Maharashtra legislature starting from Monday is expected to be stormy as the Opposition has vowed to corner the state government on various issues, including reservation to Marathas, relief to farmers, development projects, and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The state government, on the other hand, has scheduled to table a few key bills, including one proposed for stricter punishment for crimes against women and will also pass budgetary allocation for the newly incurred expenditure on Covid-19 pandemic.The winter session has been curtailed to two days from its tradition two-week duration in view of the pandemic. It is also being held in Mumbai this time instead of Nagpur, where it is held every year. The main Opposition party in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accused the government of running away from the debate on the contentious issues by keeping the winter session short. It also boycotted the customary tea party organised by the government on the eve of the session on Sunday.Alleging that the government does not want to face them, Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Farmers are in trouble in the absence of compensation for the crop losses due to the unseasonal rains; Marathas are deprived of reservation as the state government failed to protect their quota; women and children are subjected to rising crimes; government retracted on its promise of waiver to the inflated bills… the issues are aplenty but the government does not want to face them on the floor of the House. Instead, they have been suppressing freedom of speech by taking action against those talking against them. This is nothing but undeclared emergency. We will continue the fight on the street in the public interest even if we did not get a chance to raise them in the Houses,” he said.Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who asked if the use of power against the protesting farmers on the borders of the Delhi was also a “declared emergency”, does not seem to be defensive. The three ruling parties – Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress – of the MVA alliance made their intent clear by attacking the BJP-led Centre on various issues.The MVA has been supporting the farmers’ protest and have announced that the farm laws passed by Parliament in September will not be implemented.The state government is expected to table Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 2020, and the Special Court and Machinery for Implementation of Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law, 2020, the two bills for special law for stricter action in crimes against women and children. The state government is also expected to table supplementary demands for the budgetary allocation of expenditure on Covid-19-related services for the next three months.

Hindustan Times

14-12-2020

India