MVA seeks special legislature session to discuss Maratha quotas, drought, drugs

Mumbai, Oct 30 (IANS) Maharashtra's opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Monday urged Governor Ramesh Bais to urgently convene a special session of the legislature to discuss the raging issue of Maratha reservations, and other problems confronting the state.

The delegation with top leaders of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party-SP, the Shiv Sena-UBT and others submitted a detailed memorandum to the Governor on other issues like the drought situation, farmers’ suicides, the growing drugs menace and disappearance of women/girls in the state.

Later, briefing the media, Congress state President Nana Patole said that the issue of quotas for Marathas and OBCs had come to the fore in an explosive manner, creating angst among the people towards the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP-AP alliance.

While these communities are demanding reservation, satisfactory work is not being done at the government level, and the situation has become so volatile that it can erupt anytime, he warned.

"Today, it has become difficult for leaders to move around their constituencies, law and order is under threat and the youth of the Maratha community is committing suicide. The Governor is the link between the state and Centre and he must raise the matter with the PM and also reassure the Maratha leader Manoj Jarange-Patil whose health has severely deteriorated," said Patole.

He reiterated that if the government comes up with a positive solution, the Opposition is ready to put aside all political differences and cooperate, but the three ruling allies are pushing the responsibility on each other and it is imperative that they take a collective decision in the matter on top priority.

"Since the people in this government are good at lying, no one has faith in them, so the draft reservation law should be made public and discussed before the Special Session of the Legislature," urged the delegation.

Besides Patole, the delegation included Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar (Congress), Leader of Opposition in the Council Ambadas Danve (Shiv Sena-UBT), other leaders like Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Prof. Varsha Gaikwad, M. Arif Naseem Khan, Basavaraj Patil, Praniti Shinde (all Congress), NCP’s state President Jayant Patil and Sena-UBT's Ravindra Waikar and Sunil Prabhu.

Raising other major issues, the MVA leaders said that there is a drought situation in many parts of the state, the farmers are in distress, and there is no price mechanism for agricultural products.

Since September, in many districts drinking water is being supplied through tankers, Kharif crops have failed in 24 of the state’s 36 districts due to poor rains and the prospects for the upcoming Rabi season are not bright.

"The future of the farmers is dark, even as the festival of lights is barely a fortnight away… The farmers’ hands are empty and we want the state government to declare a drought and provide immediate help to the tillers before Diwali,” said Patole.

Referring to the large stocks of narcotics that have been recovered in parts of the state, the MVA said that this is an indicator of the worsening law and order in the state.

"The government must take stringent action against the drug mafia, destroy the racket that is poisoning the future generations… The government must also address the disappearance of thousands of girls/women in the state which is linked with law and order,” said the delegation leaders.

In view of these problems plus the collapse of the health administration, the growing unemployment and other issues, they called upon the Governor to call a special session of the legislature to discuss everything threadbare.