For 2nd day in row, opposition forces adjournment of Maharashtra assembly

NAGPUR: Continuing their protests on issues plaguing the farmers, the opposition parties once again disrupted the Maharashtra assembly on Wednesday, leading to its adjournment for four times. The first three protests took place during question hour while the last one was due to deferring of calling attention motion on massive crop losses due to insect attacks by government. However, the Congress-NCP legislators toned down their Tuesday's aggressive stand and allowed the other business to be conducted, after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured to include the issue of insect attack in a detailed discussion under Rule 293.

Earlier, the Congress-NCP legislators, led by opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and former deputy CM Ajit Pawar, accused the BJP-Sena government of being "insensitive" towards farmers' plight and demanded a detailed discussions on all issues like pesticides, crop loss due to insects and government's failure to grant total loan waiver. For all four times, the members trooped down the well, demanding justice for the farmers and shouted anti-government slogans, forcing speaker Haribhau Bagde to adjourn the proceedings.

The opposition MLAs cornered BJP-Sena government on a wrong foot when latter requested about adjourning discussions on the calling attention motion on important subject of attack by the insects. After the speaker agreed to the government's demands, they created uproar, while some of them including Abdul Sattar and Virendra Jagtap, sat on the floor in protest.