BJP to 'gherao' Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur during winter session

BJP on Thursday said it will gherao the Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur during the winter session of Maharashtra legislature on December 11.

State BJP chief Sudhir Mungantiwar said here that the protest had been organised to highlight the people's anger against price rise, corruption, government's apathy towards farmers' suicides, false assurances regarding zero load-shedding and FDI in retail.

The government had not updated its Below Poverty Line (BPL) criteria since 1997, Mungantiwar said. "Instead of giving 12 LPG cylinders at subsidised rates, the government has decided to give only nine, which includes three from the state, to BPL families," he said.

Cotton farmers in the state should be given Minimum Support Price of Rs 6,000 per quintal while paddy growers should get Rs 2,500 per quintal, he demanded.

Another demand of BJP is probe of the irrigation scam by a Special Investigation Team.

Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Eknath Khadse said he had written to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan saying that the proposed white paper on irrigation should not be just a status paper, but should deal with the question of why, despite expenditure of Rs 76,000 crore in ten years, only 0.01 per cent additional land had come under irrigation.

But the Chief Minister was yet to acknowledge receipt of the letter, Khadse said.

"BJP will bring out a black paper if the government's white paper is unsatisfactory," he added.