Maha Assembly adjourned after uproar as BJP raises OBC quota issue

Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Friday as the opposition BJP targeted the MVA government over its refusal to seek state minister Nawab Maliks resignation and blamed it for the Supreme Courts rejection of the interim report of a panel on political quota for Other Backward Classes OBCsThe House was adjourned for the day after BJP members and leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA indulged in sloganshouting against each other over the two issues Before being adjourned for the day the Assembly saw two adjournmentsThe Supreme Court on Thursday said it is not possible to permit any authority to act upon the recommendation made in the interim report of the state Backward Classes Commission which has said that up to 27 per cent reservation can be granted to the OBCs in the local bodies in Maharashtra subject to the condition that the total quota shall not exceed 50 per cent limitAs soon as the Lower House assembled on Friday Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raised the OBC quota issue through an adjournment noticeThe former chief minister demanded that the issue be taken up for discussion and the rest of the business be set asideHe said there should be no election to local bodies in the state till the political quota of the OBCs is restoredFadnavis termed as mockery the interim report of the commission which was rejected by the apex courtThe report has no date about when the data was collected and does not carry any signatures The states lawyers failed to explain on what basis the 27 per cent quota has been recommended he saidIn the coming days two third local bodies of the state will have to go to polls and if the elections take place without the OBC quota the community will not get any representation he addedWhat happened in the Supreme Court was shameful for Maharashtra Fadnavis said and demanded that the state enact a law which will allow it to fix the dates of local bodies electionsMaharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister and prominent OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal admitted that there could be some technical mistakes in the report since it was compiled expeditiouslyIn 2010 the apex court had asked for compilation of empirical data regarding information of political backwardness of the OBCsThe UPA government had started the process of collecting the data which was submitted in 2016 but the Modi dispensation did not share the data with the state he saidEven Fadnavis who was state chief minister for five years did not do anything on that front Bhujbal allegedNeither you nor the Modi government took any further steps and now you are blaming us he said while accusing Fadnavis of indulging in politicsAfter Bhujbals statement Zirwal said he was rejecting the adjournment notice and called for the question hour But the BJP legislators started shouting slogans following which the House was adjourned for 20 minutes But when the proceedings resumed after that the sloganshouting continued due to which it was adjourned for the second time till the end of the question hourWhen the House met again BJP legislators rushed to the well shouting slogans against the MVA government while the treasury benches retorted with slogans against the CentreShiv Sena legislator Ravindra Waikar initiated a discussion on the state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyaris address to the joint sitting of the stat legislature and criticised him for reading out the first and last paragraphs of his speech and leaving midwayHe did not even stop when the national anthem was played he saidHowever Waikar later stopped his speech saying that he cannot speak amid pandemonium The BJP MLAs raised slogans against the government demanding the resignation of Nawab Malik who was arrested by the Enfocement Directorate ED last week The chair asked for introduction of bills and adjourned the House for the day after rushing through the rest of the businessThe first day of the Maharashtra legislatures budget session on Thursday witnessed unprecedented chaos as the governor left the Vidhan Bhavans Central Hall without completing his address to the joint session of both the Houses amid sloganshouting by legislatorsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever