Stage set for a stormy budget session

MUMBAI: After causing a lot of resentment among farmers and small businessmen in Raigad district, the proposed Maha Mumbai SEZ is set to rock the state legislative assembly. Shiv Sena MLA Ramdas Kadam, leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly, said on Tuesday that the Opposition would grill the government on the Maha Mumbai SEZ issue. “Special Economic Zones in Raigad district top list of issues we shall grill the government on,” Mr Kadam told mediapersons on the eve of the state’s budget session.

This is the first time that the opposition Shiv Sena-BJP in Maharashtra has decided to take up the SEZ issue during a legislature session. The BJP has pointed out several irregularities in the land acquisition process for this SEZ and demanded that all information in the government domain on this SEZ be made public. But the issue has not been raised in the assembly so far.

Mr Kadam said the Shiv Sena has been speaking out against the Maha Mumbai SEZ and the way it was being promoted by the government. “We have put on record our opposition to the Raigad SEZ and the way land is being acquired by the developer in connivance with the government. The Shiv Sena raised this issue even in the ZP polls,” Mr Kadam said. The Shiv Sena leader from Konkan said the party workers in Raigad district had been vociferously opposing the SEZ plan. “We have also backed the agitation being carried out by other organisations against the SEZ and would continue to do so in future. We intend to raise the issue in the assembly and grill the government on this as there are a lot of concerns associated with this SEZ plan,” Mr Kadam said.

Incidentally, Shiv Sena’s anti-SEZ stir has won the party popular support in the coastal Konkan region. A proof of this popular support has come in the recent Zilla Parishad elections in which the Sena has done well in the districts of Raigad, Ratnagiri and Thane in the Konkan region. In Raigad for instance, the Shiv Sena has bagged 16 ZP seats out of 62, which is next to 22 seats won by Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), which is also opposing the Maha Mumbai SEZ.

Meanwhile, the opposition has lined up other issues also for the Budget session. State BJP president Nitin Gadkari said the opposition would like to know the government’s reaction to the ZP polls which “we said were not free and fair”. “In particular, the Congress and the chief minister need to respond to the abuse of police force by the NCP,” Mr Gadkari said.