Speaker suspends 19 MLAs of Maharashtra Assembly

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ 19 Opposition MLAs were suspended by Speaker Haribhau Bagade till December 31 2017 for creating uproar in Maharashtra Assembly during budget announcement on March 18. The Maharashtra Government last week proposed to raise tax on liquor and lottery while earmarking Rs 8,233 crore for irrigation projects in its budget for 2017-18 with an estimated revenue deficit of Rs 4,511 crore.

Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar presented his third straight budget, which he described as “agriculture-centric,” in the assembly amid vociferous demand by the Opposition for a farm loan waiver. He said the BJP-led government has taken a major decision to merge plan and non-plan expenditure from 2017-18.

The budget was tabled on Saturday amidst noisy scenes by the opposition parties which vociferously raised the demand for a complete farm loan waiver package by the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government. Terming the budget as “directionless, which would push the state into a financial crisis,” the opposition made a bonfire of budget copies outside the legislature.