Maha Council: Oppn demands discussion on farmers' compensation

The opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council today demanded a discussion prior to Question Hour on the state government's compensation to paddy cultivators as well as farmers whose cotton crop had been damaged by bollworms.

The demand was made by Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, Dhananjay Munde, who said that the issue was a serious one.

Legislative Council chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar, however, declined Munde's demand who continued to insist on it.

"In the last winter session in Nagpur, the agriculture minister had announced Rs 34,700 per hectare as compensation for the loss caused to cotton crops by bollworms and Rs 14,000 per hectare for paddy growers," NCP's Munde said.

He pointed out that the government, however, had not given more than Rs 2,000 per hectare to the affected farmers.

"The government is lying and is not doing what it had committed to do," Munde alleged.

After Nimbalkar denied the demand for a discussion, the opposition indulged in sloganeering, following which the house was adjourned for thirty minutes.

When the House resumed at 12:40pm, the opposition once again demanded a discussion and raised slogans in support of their demand.

The House was adjourned once again for half an hour.

On resumption at 1:15pm, Nimbalkar informed about an important decision he had taken regarding security checks within the Vidhan Bhavan premises.

He told the House that directives had been issued to restrict entry of persons without authorised passes in the premises and this included legislator's personal secretaries (PA) in case they did not possess authorised ID proof.

He further informed that people, as well as delegations, coming to meet ministers would not be allowed to have such meetings within the premises of the Vidhan Bhavan.

Such meetings would have to be conducted at the offices or residences of the ministers, Nimbalkar said.

Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe raised the issue about heavy rains causing water-logging and other hardships in the state and also demanded information on the bridges which had been termed dangerous for traffic.

Replying to her query, PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil said that all bridges over rivers in the state had been provided with sensors which would be helpful in areas like the Konkan which are prone to flash floods.

The minister also informed the House that sirens had been provided at bridges, and inverters were deployed for power back-up.

He said that these measures had been taken following the collapse of the bridge on the Savitri river in Mahad in August, 2016.

The Legislative Council was adjourned for the day after the opposition continued to raise slogans demanding a discussion on farmers' compensation.