Oppn demands animal fodder camps in drought-hit areas of Maha

Opposition parties in Maharashtra staged a protest in the legislature complex here on Wednesday demanding that adequate number of animal fodder camps be set up in drought-affected areas of the state.

Members of the Congress, NCP and other opposition parties sat on the steps of the Vidhan Bhawan, where the budget session is currently on, and shouted slogans against the BJP-led state government.

NCP legislator and former minister Ajit Pawar claimed that the Devendra Fadnavis government had got its priorities wrong.

"This government does not want to set up cattle fodder camps but is keen on giving licences to dance bars. This shows the government's priority is not for farmers and their cattle. The drought situation in the state is getting worse but the government seems to be indifferent to it," he said.

Pawar also expressed disappointment over the government not granting classical language status to Marathi.

The state is celebrating the Marathi Language Day on Wednesday, which is the birth anniversary of late Marathi litterateur and Jnanpeeth awardee V V Shirvadkar, popularly known as Kusumagraj.

So far, Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia have been given the status of classical languages.

The government's criteria to determine the eligibility of a language for classical status includes its recorded history over a period of 1,500 to 2,000 years, its ancient literature, to check if its literary tradition is original and not borrowed from another speech community, and other yardsticks.