Opposition disrupts Maharashtra governor's address

The opposition Monday disrupted Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan's address to the state legislature, accusing him of shielding corrupt ministers.

Led by Leader of Opposition in the legislative council Vinod Tawde of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the members shouted slogans like "Governor go back", "Make Maharashtra toll-free" during Sankaranarayanan's address to the joint session of the legislature on the opening day of the four-day vote-on-account session.

The entire opposition Sunday announced it would disrupt the governor's address over his refusal to grant sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute former chief minister Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh Society scam.

Undeterred by the chaos, the governor continued his speech and spelt out the achievements of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) coalition government in the past one year across various sectors.

Prominent among the achievements he mentioned were mega-infrastructure projects of Mumbai, like the recently-started monorail, the soon-to-start metro rail, creation of 4,484 km roads, closure of 67 toll plazas and attracting the highest foreign direct investment among all states.

"The state has the highest 18 percent share of FDI amounting to Rs.10,21,633 crore in the total investment in industrial proposals filed with the government of India's department of industrial policy and promotion," Sankaranarayanan said.

He said the state government has succeeded in reducing Maoist activities in the eastern districts of Gadchiroli, Gondiya and Chandrapur, with a variety of measures like involving villagers in the affected areas and their school-going children.

The governor said that besides Mumbai, metro rail projects have been approved for Pune and Nagpur, and world-class monuments will come up in honour of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai, Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Ambedkar in Mumbai and Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj in Kolhapur.