Maha Congress seeks spl legislature session to discuss major issues

Mumbai, May 2 The Maharashtra Congress leaders here on Tuesday demanded a special session of the legislature to discuss major issues confronting the state including the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. project, the agro-crises owing to unseasonal rains and the quotas for Marathas.

A delegation led by state Congress president Nana Patole, Ashok Chavan, AICC Secretary Ashish Dua, Naseem Khan, Devanand Pawar, Hussain Dalwai, Anis Ahmed, Raju Waghmare, Amar Rajurkar, and others called on Governor Ramesh Bais and submitted a memorandum.

They reiterated the demand to appoint a probe headed by a high court judge into the Navi Mumbai tragedy of April 16 which claimed at least 14 lives due to heatstroke, terming it as 'state-sponsored murder' and holding the state government responsible for it.

The delegation pointed out how the proposed RRPL project, coming up with Arab help, is being pushed through on the people of Barsu despite strong opposition from the local villagers.

Another issue raised was the sufferings of the farmers after the recent spell of unseasonal rains and hailstorms that lashed large parts of the state, leading to large scale destruction of farmland.

"The farmers have been devastated by the climate change effects, they are not getting timely help and the government's policies are fuelling the farmers' suicides in Maharashtra," said Patole.

They also called for relaxation of the CIBIL score clause which has deprived many farmers from availing agricultural loans.

Chavan brought up the issue of increasing the reservation ceiling beyond 50 percent to enable implement the Maratha quotas, and cited the example of Chhattisgarh.

"In order to discuss all these urgent issues, we have requested the Governor to convene a special legislature session at the earliest," said Patole after the Raj Bhavan meeting.