CM avoided replying to main issues raised during winter session: Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde did not even touch upon the important issues raised in the legislature, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajit Pawar said on Friday on the last day of the winter session here.

The session of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, which had started on December 19, came to an end on Friday.

Pawar said at a press conference that opposition had demanded the resignation of four 'tainted' ministers. The government shielded ministers Abdul Sattar and Sanjay Rathod who have faced strictures from the High Court in separate cases, he said. "The government did not take action or provide satisfactory reply on the issue," the Nationalist Congress Party leader said. "Similarly, we had demanded the removal of Maharashtra Governor (Bhagat Singh Koshyari) over his comments insulting the icons of Maharashtra," he said, claiming that the government did not give a proper reply.

Chief minister Shinde's reply on the 'last week's resolution' on Friday was like a speech at a public rally where he targeted the opposition and raked up old, trivial issues, Pawar said. This was not expected from a chief minister, he said, adding that Shinde repeated old things, spoke out of context and did not speak on the issues raised by the opposition. The chief minister was absent on many occasions during the 10-day session, the Leader of Opposition said. The opposition flagged problems faced by the Marathi-speaking people in the border regions of Karnataka but the government failed to respond, Pawar alleged. It gave no concrete answers on the issues of crop insurance and remunerative prices for cotton, paddy, oranges and soybean, he claimed. He also said that tabling supplementary demands of Rs 78,000 crore was not financially prudent.

On the development backlog of Vidarbha and Marathwada, even the ruling alliance's legislators were not satisfied with the government's replies, Pawar said. He also raised concerns over 'unnecessary' Y-plus security cover provided to the ministers from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction. The state was bearing expenditure of Rs 20 lakh per month on a single minister's security, he claimed.

The government also did not reply to his demand for suspending the inter-faith marriage committee, he said.

He was "very disappointed" due to the lack of interest shown by the ministers in replying to calling-attention motions of legislators, Pawar said.

State Congress chief Nana Patole criticized Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, accusing him of not listening to the opposition's demands. He also slammed the government on the implementation of the crop insurance scheme, saying that farmers were getting compensation as meagre as Rs 5 or 50 when they suffer a crop loss. The Eknath Shinde government has announced a bonus of Rs 300 to Rs 400 per quintal for paddy farmers, but the previous MVA government had given a bonus of Rs 700 per quintal, Patole said. The Congress leader also criticized the government over industries 'going out' of Maharashtra.