Mumbai, Oct 14: BJP in Maharasthra today launched a blistering attack on Congress-led DF government for `failing' to tackle the severe scarcity in parts of the state and threatened to launch an agitation if the ruling coalition failed to declare scarcity in 10 affected districts before Diwali festival. "The government has failed to tackle the scarcity. It should immediately announce drought-like condition in ten affected districts,” said BJP state unit chief Gopinath Munde at a news conference here.

Recalling his visit with the Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Munde said the Centre's team has already visited Maharashtra to review the situation.

"Now it is for the state government to declare drought-like conditions and seek assistance from the Union Government,” Munde said.
Alluding to the recent spat between Congress and NCP—the main partners in the ruling coalition over the foreign origin issue-- Munde said, "it was akin to serving divorce notices to each other".

The people of the state are fed up with the game of political one-upmanship of both the coalition partners and it was nothing but "immature politics". However, he added that the Cong-NCP bickering would definitely benefit the Shiv Sena-BJP opposition combine.

He demanded that the government should announce a rate of Rs 2,700 per quintal of cotton under the state's monopoly cotton procurement scheme.
Munde, who recently took over as the chief of the state, also announced the new state executive.

Bureau Report