Chavan braces for a tough Maharashtra budget session

Mumbai: The six-week-long budget session of the Maharashtra legislature will begin from tomorrow, and is expected to see a face-off between the government and the Opposition on issues such as corruption, murder of additional collector Yashwant Sonawane, and Jaitapur nuclear power project.

This will be Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's first budget session after he took over last November in the wake of the Adarsh Housing scam.

He is not a member of either house of the legislature. Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt has vacated his seat in the Legislative Council for him, and the date of the bye-election is expected to be announced soon.

Unlike the winter session in Nagpur, Chavan may not have a smooth sailing in the budget session. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement in the Rajya Sabha that Chavan was responsible for shortlisting P J Thomas for the post of Central Vigilance Commissioner, has provided ammunition to the main Opposition, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine.

The BJP has also organised a rally on issues such as inflation, corruption, etc., to coincide with the session.

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But the Congress may countercharge, raking the issue of alleged involvement of BJP Mumbai unit president, Raj Purohit, in a Pune land scam.  

The Opposition is expected to take on the government regarding the tardy pace of investigation into the Sonawane murder case and Adarsh scam. BJP will highlight an alleged land scam in Mumbai worth Rs 50,000 crore, regarding which a PIL has been filed in the High Court by Kirit Somaiya, a party leader.

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Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar will present his first budget on March 23.

A landmark bill, facilitating 50 per cent reservations for women in local self-government bodies, is expected to be introduced in this session.

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The Shiv Sena could raise the Jaitapur Nuclear power project issue, demanding its scrapping. Locals in the coastal Ratnagiri district are fiercely opposed to the project.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Eknath Khadse, told PTI that the Opposition will demand a white paper on the state's economy. "The debt is now Rs 2.36 lakh crore. We want to know how the government spent the money," he said.

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Law and order situation has deteriorated, with crimes against girls in state-run residential schools on the rise, he said.

The Opposition would also raise the issue of irregularities in cooperative sector and Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees in the state, he said.