Nagpur: Farmers'
suicides, better remuneration for agricultural products and the
much-delayed memorial for B.R. Ambedkar are some of the major
issues the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party Democratic
Front braces to face in the Maharashtra legislature's winter
session starting Monday.
The opposition plans to raise the issue of law and order,
inflation, the Lavasa hill-city imbroglio near Pune, the Jaitapur
Nuclear Power Project in Ratnagiri and the alarming power
scenario, indicating stormy days ahead for the ruling coalition.
On the law and order front, issues like the June 11 killing of
senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, the brutal killing of two
teenagers by eve-teasers, the August police firing on protesting
farmers in Maval and instances of attacks on government servants
will also be highlighted by the opposition.
For the last three months, the Prithviraj Chavan government has
been grappling with massive farmers' agitations -- earlier by
onion growers, followed by cotton farmers and later the sugarcane
cultivators -- demanding better remuneration.
Chavan rushed to New Delhi last week and met Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, urging him to initiate urgent measures on the
farmers issues and clearance to the Indu Mills, Dadar, land
allotment for constructing a memorial dedicated to Ambedkar.
On Dec 6, a group of Dalits from the Republican Sena barged into
the mill land and 'occupied' it in a bid to pressurise the
government.
With the civic elections in major municipalities, including
Mumbai, scheduled early 2012, the opposition parties are expected
to exploit the situation to the hilt and put the government on the
mat for its various acts of commission and omission.
The aggressive mood of the opposition has been evident in the past
few weeks with the Shiv Sena accusing Chavan of being the "most
indecisive" chief minister of the state, sitting over 12,000
files.
Coupled with this is the anger among the journalist fraternity
which has announced a boycott of the chief minister's customary
session-eve tea party and a proposed morcha Dec 15.
The mediapersons have been demanding strengthening of laws to make
attacks on the professionals as cognizable and non-bailable, but
claim the government has done nothing in the matter.
The winter session is every year held in Nagpur, the second
capital of Maharashtra. It normally lasts two weeks but there have
been instances when it has been wound up after a week and even
extended to three weeks.
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