Congress says ‘no’ to Winter Session of State Legislature in city, ally NCP differs
| Date :23-Sep-2020 |
Staff Reporter :
The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government partners Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) do not appear to be on the same page, as far as holding winter session of State Legislature in Nagpur is concerned. Congress does not want it to be held in Nagpur as usual owing to COVID-19 situation. But, NCP wants it to be held in city. Vikas Thakre, Congress MLA and city chief, first raised the demand. He demanded the winter session of State Legislature to be cancelled.
The session is usually held in the month of December every year in Nagpur. Nagpur City (District) Congress Committee office-bearers seconded his demand and sent a letter in this regard to Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister, on Monday. In the letter, Congress’ city unit pointed out that COVID-19 was wrecking havoc in Vidarbha region in general and Nagpur district in particular. Due to inadequate healthcare facilities and trained manpower, situation is worsening with each passing day, they alleged. Police personnel, healthcare workers, doctors, administrative machinery were all busy in tackling COVID-19 situation. Hence, Thakre said, additional workload ahead of holding winter session of State Legislature in city might aggravate the situation.
Already, several Government officers, employees, healthcare workers, doctors, ministers, policemen, legislators, and even Nana Patole, Speaker of Legislative Assembly had contracted the infection. Against this backdrop, Congress’ city unit office-bearers stated in the letter to the Chief Minister, it would not be appropriate to delist MLA Hostel, Ravi Bhavan, Government tenements etc from being used as quarantine/isolation facilities. Instead of spending Rs 100 crore to Rs 150 crore on winter session of State Legislature, the said financial allocation should be diverted towards augmenting healthcare facilities in Nagpur district, they demanded. Adv Abhijeet Wanjari, Dr Gajraj Hatewar, Mahesh Shriwas, Dharamkumar Patil, Umesh Shahu, Dr Manohar Tambulkar, Ashok Tiwari, Vishveshwar Ahirkar, Balu Sheikh, and others signed the Congress letter. However, NCP city chief Anil Ahirkar differed from Congress.
According to Ahirkar, winter session of State Legislature is held in Nagpur every year as per the rules. “NCP does not agree with the views of MLA Vikas Thakre,” he said without mincing words. The session should be held in Nagpur as usual. There are many issues in Vidarbha particular those relating to farmers, employment, online education of students, healthcare etc. Due to the COVID-19, general public has to face many difficulties in making their issues heard before the State Government in Mumbai, Ahirkar said.
There are several issues including increasing number of COVID-19 cases, death rate, mess in hospitals, high charges recovered from patients by hospitals, hospital beds availability, failure of BJP-led Nagpur Municipal Corporation in tackling the situation, need for a committee to look into issues concerning Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital etc. These need to be discussed in winter session of State Legislature and relief should be offered to the people of Vidarbha and Nagpur. Hence, entire Government must come to Nagpur and hold winter session of State Legislature, Ahirkar stressed. Interestingly, the leading partner in the ruling alliance -- Shiv Sena -- leaders or office-bearers are yet to make their stand official regarding holding of winter session in Nagpur.