DNA
Mumbai, Mar 15: The budget session of the State Legislature Assembly began on a stormy note on Wednesday when members of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine disrupted Governor SM Krishna’s address to protest against his English-language speech.
The Opposition members hurled headphones and shouted slogans asking Krishna to deliver his speech in Marathi. They adopted an aggressive posture, disrupting the speech for 45 minutes with comments against the Democratic Front (DF) government. The Opposition also embarrassed the ruling Congress-NCP alliance when it raised the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute and suggested the governor should take a stand in favour of Maharashtra.
With almost one-third members absent, including cabinet ministers, Opposition members indulged in taunts to expose the Congress-NCP infighting. The Vidhan Bhavan reverberated with slogans such as “jooth bole kauwa kate, Patangrao Kadam (Congress) aage badho, hum tumhare saath hain to Governorsaab Marathi bola”. Throughout the hoopla, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh watched the budget session in silence.
Despite the relentless verbal salvos, Krishna outlined the state policies for 2007-08, emphasising on infrastructure development in Mumbai. He also spelled out the state’s initiative to resolve the power crisis and tackle the farmer suicides in the Vidarbha region.
“Projects such as the Bandra-Worli Sealink, Mumbai Urban Infrastructure and Mumbai Urban Transport are progressing well,” said Krishna. “The Phase I Mithi River clean-up is complete, and work has begun on Phase II.”
Krishna announced the state government has invited financial bids for Shivdi-Nhava Trans Harbour Link. “Work on the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar phase of Mumbai Metro is in progress,” he added. “The Centre has approved the Charkop-Bandra and Mankhurd corridors.”
The Centre has also agreed to provide the viability gap funds for Phase II of the Mumbai Metro project, and the Planning Commission will fully fund the Brihanmumbai Storm Water and Drainage (BRIMSTOWARD) project, Krishna said. Admitting the state’s shortcomings in the power sector, Krishna announced during 2007-08, an additional 1800mw power will become available from the Centre’s power projects and 500mw from the state’s Paras and Ghatghar projects.
“The state has also undertaken time-bound programmes for generation capacity, which will provide 10,000mw,” he said. “This programme includes 1,600mw project at Dhopave in Ratnagiri district and 1,040mw expansion project at Uran.”
The state also promised planned investment of Rs14,000 cr for strengthening the distribution system and Rs21,000 cr for power transmission within the next five years.