Oppn stalls house; Maha govt to bring new law for OBC quota

The government and the opposition traded charges over the Supreme Courts rejection of the Other Backward Classes OBC quota in the local body polls on the second day of the Budget session The government said it would make a law to enable itself to decide the election itinerary that the state election commission decides currentlyThe suggestion to make a new law had come from the leader of opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis He said the Madhya Pradesh government faced the same issue We could schedule the polls after the OBCs are provided with the quota he saidMove after SC directiveThe suggestion to make a new law had come from the leader of opposition in the Assembly Devendra FadnavisThe SC has directed the Maharashtra election commission to begin the election process without the 27 per cent OBC quota in the local bodies that are overdue for polls By next week 15 municipal corporations including Mumbai and 25 zilla parishad will be overdue for elections and will have their political leadership replaced with administrators commissioners and chief executive officers Some local bodies are already working under administrators The directive came after the SC found that the states interim report was without empirical data research and regionwise finding on the political backwardness of the OBCsThe blame gameAgreeing that there should be no polls without the quota the MVA government and the BJPled opposition continued to blame each other for the delay which resulted in the disenchantment of the largest vote bankIn the upper house Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the state cabinet would meet Friday evening to approve an MPlike billLeader of opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis launched a frontal attack on the government quoting from the SC directive He demanded that the days scheduled business be kept aside and instead the quota issue be debated Senior MVA minister Chhagan Bhujbal retaliated and blamed the Centre and the previous BJP governmentThe government hurried to transact some business amid slogans from the opposition benches The proceedings were adjourned for the day soon In the upper house Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the state cabinet would meet in the evening to approve an MPlike bill ldquoWith this the government can have the powers to decide the poll schedule The bill will come up for the legislatures vote next weekrdquo he said The upper house too stopped working soon thereafterMVA members meet GovernorA delegation of MVA ministers met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari a day after he had to leave without completing his address to the joint session of the legislature which was marked by slogan shouting However the ministers did not confirm whether they expressed regrets for Thursdayrsquos incident or tried rapprochement with the Raj Bhavan They said they requested him to allow the Assembly to hold the Speakerrsquos election in the ongoing budget session The government has already sent Raj Bhavan a letter on it Koshyari had withheld his consent in December saying he wanted to examine the legality of the rule that was amended for having a voice vote instead of a secret ballotSources said the delegation also discussed the OBC quota issue which the state plans to resolve by making a new law and the Raj Bhavanrsquos delay in clearing 12 MLC nominations in the governorrsquos quota The delegation included deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar ministers Ashok Chavan and Eknath Shinde15No of corporations civic overdue for elections