Nagpur: Ignoring opposition from Shiv Sena and some leaders of Congress and NCP, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has decided to hold the monsoon session of the state legislature in the city from July 4. This is the first time after 1956 that the monsoon session will be held here. After formation of Maharashtra in 1960, winter session was held in Nagpur as per an understanding with the then political leaders of Vidarbha.
Legislators from Vidarbha had urged the state government to hold the monsoon session here as the duration of this session is longer than the two-week winter session. Shiv Sena, which opposes almost every decision of the BJP, was against this demand. One of the ministers said that the government machinery should be in Mumbai during monsoon to supervise relief and rescue operations in case of flood. Many leaders of the Congress and NCP hailing from Western Maharashtra also were against holding monsoon session in Nagpur on similar grounds.
When the budget session was prorogued in Mumbai in April, Speaker Haribhau Bagde merely announced that the next session would start from July 4. He did not specify where it would be held.
After legislators demanded monsoon session in Nagpur, the government set up a three-member sub-committee headed by finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar with legislative affairs minister Girish Bapat and industries minister (Sena) Subhash Desai as members. The committee met several days after its constitution and submitted a report in favour of the demand. However, it was a two-to-one decision with Desai opposing it.
The Opposition, however, was not convinced with the reasons cited by the government that a stretched monsoon session would help them take up the problems of Vidarbha seriously devoting it more time. It was suspicious about the move. Some leaders felt that July session in Nagpur could mean that farmers, who form the fulcrum of all public agitations and morchas during Nagpur session, would be too busy with Kharif operations that start in June end to join Opposition-sponsored marches. If it rains well, even other protesting groups would not venture out.
Congress leaders from Vidarbha are also not impressed with the decision. Former minister Nitin Raut said that the BJP-led government was not serious about solving the problems of Vidarbha and hence holding the monsoon session would not change things. “The government must agree to discuss the problems of the region at length and tell us what it has done in four years. Otherwise holding a longer session will only mean more expenditure,” he added.
Former MP Vilas Muttemwar said that if the monsoon session was held here for practical reasons there was no issue but government should discuss the problems of Vidarbha at length.
BJP MLA Sudhakar Deshmukh, however, welcomed the decision adding that some pro-Vidarbha decisions should be taken in this session.