Mumbai: Angered over suspension of its
nine members, Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative
Assembly is planning to bring a no-confidence motion against
Deputy Speaker Vasant Purke.
The Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse said that a
decision of moving the motion will be taken "soon".
Nine Shiv Sena-BJP MLAs were today suspended from the
Assembly for disrupting the budget presentation by Deputy
Chief Minister Ajit Pawar yesterday.
Terming the suspension of MLAs as "one-sided action,"
Khadse said "We have convened a meeting of opposition
legislators to work out the next strategy to counter the
government during the budget session including moving a
no-confidence motion against deputy Speaker Vasant Purke".
When asked why MNS MLAs, who were also in the Well
shouting slogans during the budget presentation were spared
from suspension, Khadse said " Ask Harshavardhan Patil
(Parliamentary Affairs Minister)".
Referring to passing of the supplementary demands
without debate because of noisy scenes by the Congress-NCP
MLAs, Khadse accused the Deputy Speaker of "rushing through
the business".
"This is the trend we have been observing in the last
two days. An attempt is being made to suppress the voice of
the opposition so that the irregularities committed by the
government are not brought to light," he said.
Khadse said that Maharashtra (Supplementary)
Appropriation bill to authorise payment and appropriation of
funds from Consolidated Fund of the state for services of the
year ended March 31,2011 was passed when the ruling MLAs were
shouting slogans. "Even though the Opposition members wanted to speak on
the bill, they were not allowed to do so by?Purke", Khadse
said.
He said entering the well of the house was the last
resort for a member if his requests go unheard or if
"injustice" is meted out.
The Leader of Opposition said that in 2009-10, a
provision of Rs 117 crore for development works-Rs 82 crore
for municipal corporation areas and that of Rs 35 crore for
municipal council areas-was made. However, 95 per cent of the
funds were released only in the areas where ruling combine of
the Congress and NCP is in power.
He said, in 2008-09 Rs 70 crore was given for
providing facilities in rural areas, in 2009-10, the amount
was Rs 140 crore, in 2010-11 Rs 95 crore and Rs 40 crore in
2011-12. Out of this amount, the constituencies represented by
the Opposition MLAs got only Rs 3.5 crore.
Justifying the sloganeering by Opposition members
during the budget presentation Khadse said "nine is too small
a number. The government should suspend all of us. If it
thinks this move will put us on the back foot, they are
wrong".
"I will expose the government`s misdeeds outside the
House. The irregularities to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore to Rs
80,000 crore have been committed by the government and
majority of the cases are reported from Pune," Khadse said.
Khadse said the ruling coalition members created noisy
scenes because they wanted to "watch India-Australia quarter
final".
PTI
