Maharashtra Assembly ruckus: Speaker suspends 19 MLAs till December 31

Mumbai: Opposition members protesting against the BJP government on farmer’s issues during the Maharashtra Assembly Budget session in Mumbai. (Source: PTI/file photo)

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagade on Wednesday suspended nineteen MLAs for creating a ruckus on the state budget day. The MLAs — nine from Congress and ten NCP — were suspended from the assembly till December 31 for disrupting Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s speech and burning copies of the budget outside the assembly on March 18. They were also seen displaying banners, playing cymbals and raising slogans.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat moved a resolution to suspend the MLAs for conducting themselves in a “disgraceful and unconstitutional manner”. The MLAs were protesting against the government’s failure to come out with a loan waiver scheme. FM Mungantiwar did not announce any loan waiver scheme for the state farmers, despite demands from the Shiv Sena and Opposition parties. However, the government allocated Rs 8,233 crore for various irrigation projects.

“Maharashtra’s growth rate for 2016-17 was 9.4 percent and we aim to take this at least in double digit in the coming year (2017-18). For farmers, Rs. 8,233 crores has been allocated for water resources and Rs. 2,812 crore has been allocated for Prime Minister’s irrigation scheme proposed for year 2017-18,” Mungantiwar said while reading out the budget.

Story continues below this ad

The MLAs suspended are Amar Kale, Vijay Waddetiwar, Harshwardhan Sakpal, Abdul Sattar, D P Sawant, Sangram Thopte, Amit Zanak, Kunal Patil, Jaikumar Gore (all from Congress) besides Bhaskar Jadhav, Jitendra Awhad, Madhusudan Kendre, Sangram Jagtap, Avdhut Tatkare, Deepak Chavan, Datta Bharne, Narhari Jirval, Vaibhav Pichad and Rahul Jagtap from the NCP.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said the government can suspend all the Opposition MLAs but they will continue to raise farmers’ issues.

With inputs from agencies