Maha Budget session begins; BJP raises farm loan waiver issue

The budget session of the Maharashtra Assembly got off to a noisy start on Monday as the opposition BJP accused the Shiv Sena-led state government of not fulfilling the assurances made to farmers and failing to check the rising crimes against women. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis demanded a discussion on the issue of farmers "not getting" benefits of the loan waiver scheme. He said before the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress came together to form government in the state, the three parties were demanding that farmers get Rs 25,000 to Rs one lakh per hectare for crop damage.

"There is no clarity on relief to farmers. Only 20,000 farmers are beneficiaries of loan waiver. There needs to be a discussion on this," the former chief minister said. The BJP members then came into the well of the House and shouted slogans against the Uddhav Thackeray government. Fadnavis also demanded a discussion on rising incidents of crime against women in the state.

Amid the noisy scenes, supplementary demands for 2019-2020 and the statement on excess expenditure from 2014 to 2017 were tabled by Finance Minister Ajit Pawar. Earlier, as soon as the House was convened, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray introduced Congress member Vijay Wadettiwar as Minister of the Bahujan Kalyan Department and the Relief and Rehabilitation Department.

Fadnavis asked why Wadettiwar was not present in the Assembly during the last session when all the ministers were introduced. When Thackeray expanded his Cabinet in December last year, Wadettiwar was upset over not being given the relief and rehabilitation department and had stayed away from taking charge of his ministerial duties.

Meanwhile, as the House took up the condolence motion to pay tributes to former legislators, the BJP members went to their seats. The House paid homage to former MLAs Pushpasen Sawant andKisanrao Raut, who died recently. Speaker Nana Patolethen adjourned the House for the day.