Minister arrives late, apologises, fumbles

Opposition members pointed out the absence of the ministers and requested Speaker Arun Gujarathi to reserve the question and adjourn the House till any minister of the concerned department arrived in the House. Leader of Opposition Narayan Rane, Eknath Khadse, Datta Nalawade, Girish Bapat and others lambasted the Government for its casual approach in conducting the affairs of the legislature.

About ten minutes later, Ahmed arrived in the House and an annoyed Gujarathi asked him to apologise first for coming late. Ahmed promptly apologised but he could not give satisfactory replies to a barrage of questions fired from the Opposition members.

Later, when Anil Deshmukh arrived in the House and rushed to the rescue of Ahmed, Opposition members booed the duo and insisted that only Ahmed reply to their querries. At regular intervals, members requested the Speaker to reserve the question till the Minister was promptly briefed by his officials and was able to give satisfactory replies.

After much noise from Opposition members and after much fumbling and hesitating, Ahmed announced that the principal of the polytechnic would be suspended as 38 students, who were victims of ragging had informed him on August 17 last year but he had not taken any action against the erring students.

According to the written reply circulated in the House by Ahmed, a student died on March 23 this year as a result of ragging and that the government had constituted a seven-member inquiry panel to investigate the case.

GODAVARI WORKS: Minister for Environment Surupsingh Naik today announced in the Assembly that he, alongwith interested legislators, would visit the Godavari ghats in Nashik to inspect the works in progress under the Godavari Action Plan.

Naik, who is also the Guardian Minister of Nashik district, was replying to a starred question of Dr Daulatrao Aher and others on the issue. Aher had alleged that the government’s claims that the works were about 80 per cent complete was incorrect and that there had been irregularities in the process. He said that none of the ghats had been developed and no afforestation had been carried out as claimed by the government.

The Minister said that officially four out of the six ghats had been revamped, the cemetry had been developed and the government was awaiting funds from the Central Government for the underground drainage works.

However, Dr Aher reiterated that the information was incorrect and that a committee of legislators be appointed to investigate. He also alleged that financial irregularities had taken place and that the question be reserved till the true information came out.

The minister then offered to inspect the Godavari ghats with interested legislators after the conclusion of the current session of the legislature. The Godavari ghats are being revamped and an underground drainage project financed by the Central Government is on cards for the Nashik city on the lines of the Ganga Action Plan to curb pollution.

SATPUTE MOURNED: Several members of the Legislative Assembly including Speaker Gujarathi, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, leader of the opposition Narayan Rane and Gopinath Munde mourned the death of Yamajirao Satpute, former MLA from Gangapur constituency in Aurangabad district. Satpute had been elected to the assembly from Gangapur in 1962. He died on March 29, 2000.