Maharashtra
Maha onion, cotton, soybean farmers in doldrums, MVA protests outside Assembly
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party-Shiv Sena (UBT) protested outside the Assembly here on Tuesday on the plight of the farmers demanding a fair price for the farm produce, especially onion, cotton and soybean cultivators.
Many of the opposition leaders and MLAs came sporting garlands of ‘onion’ mock ‘selling’ basket-loads of the vegetable to draw the state government’s attention to their situation in view of the sudden drop in procurement prices.
Inside the Assembly, NCP’s Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar raised the issue and said the farmer is in dire straits and the house must drop everything else to discuss their woes.
“We have already informed the government how a cheque of Rs 2 was given to an onion producer in Barshi (Solapur) for his stock, which is a mockery. The government should immediately intervene and direct organisations like the NAFED to purchase the agro-produce plus coordinate with the Centre to resolve the issue,” Pawar urged.
He emphasised that the farmers must be given the right prices for their produce since Maharashtra is India’s largest onion growing state with 33 per cent share, and the state leads in exports owing to the good quality of the vegetable produced here.
“However, presently, the price is barely Rs 500-600/quintal that has disappointed the farmers and led to widespread protests like roadblocks, dharnas, marches, etc. Besides, even those cultivating cotton, soybeans, gram, grapes are also suffering huge financial losses as they are unable to recover even the production costs,” said Pawar.
He called for restarting the Onion Export Promotion Scheme and procuring onions through NAFED and Marketing Federations in the state
Outside the Assembly, several opposition MLAs raised slogans, displayed placards and banners in support of the onion farmers, and condemned the indiscriminate caning of the peasants protesting peacefully in Buldhana.
They pointed out how a farmers leader Ravikant Tupkar has threatened to self-immolate himself if the demands of the agriculturists are not met, while Pawar moved an adjournment motion inside the House demanding a probe against the caning incident.
The opposition MLAs like Amol Mitkari, Bhaskar Jadhav, Chhagan Bhujbal, Yashomati Thakur and others pointed out that farmers have been agitating for compensation for crop losses in heavy rains, crop insurance, etc, but nothing has been given so far.
Half the farmers in the state cultivate soybean, which is around 40 per cent of the total national production, and the average cost is around Rs 5,783/quintal, but they are getting barely Rs 5,000/quintal.
Similarly, the production costs for cotton is around Rs 8,180/quintal, but the current market rate is around Rs 8,000/quintal and keeps fluctuating, demanding a fair price for their produce.
Maharashtra
Maharashtra: Abu Asim Azmi presents bill in the House against religious hatred and blasphemy, application of MCOCA and UAPA also included in the draft bill

Mumbai: Nagpur Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi presented a private bill in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly against those who spread blasphemy and religious hatred. The bill demands action against hate elements and calls for action under MCOCA and UAPA against those who spread religious hatred, in addition to ten years of imprisonment and a bail of Rs 2 lakh so that sectarians do not get bail and such cases of spreading religious hatred are banned. He told the House that there has been an increase in cases of blasphemy in the country and in such a situation, tension arises in the country. Action should be taken against such elements to maintain law and order. This will be possible only when action is taken against such sectarians who promote a hate agenda under the guise of freedom of expression. He said that the Supreme Court had also issued an order for strict action against hate elements and miscreants and has banned inflammatory and hate speech. In such a situation, Maharashtra The bill has been formally introduced in the House to take action against those who spread religious hatred and incite hatred against important people. The draft bill proposes to register a case against communalists under the section of the MCOCA UAPA, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years, so that such elements cannot be granted bail.
Maharashtra
Mumbai fuel theft gang busted, 13 accused arreste, The gang of thieves had attempted to steal fuel in November

Mumbai: Police claims to have busted a petrol theft gang. The accused were arrested for attempting to steal petrol from BPCL company on November 14 at around 3:30 am under the limits of RCF police station in Mumbai. A complaint was registered for attempting to steal fuel from the underground 18-inch Mumbai Manmade Multi-Product pipeline on Mumbai Gadkari Road. Vinod Devchand Pandit was arrested from Chembur on November 17 on the basis of technical investigation and information from an informant. His investigation revealed that the mastermind of this racket, Riaz Ahmed Ayub (59), Salim Mohammad Ali, Vinod Devchand Pandit had hatched a plan to steal fuel. 13 accused including Gopal Narayan, Mohammad Irfan, Vinay Shashikant, Ahmed Khan Juman Khan, Nishan Jagdish, Mustafa Manzoor, Nasir Shaukat, Imtiaz Asif have been arrested. All these accused have been arrested from various areas. Their arrests were made from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and surrounding areas. This operation was carried out by Additional Commissioner Mahesh Patil and DCP Sameer Sheikh on the instructions of Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti.
Maharashtra
Vasai-Virar Faces 50,000 Duplicate Entries In Voter Roll; Voters Asked To Choose Single Booth

Virar: More than 50,000 duplicate voters have been found in the Vasai-Virar city area. The Municipal Corporation has published a list of these voters on its website. The Corporation has appealed to those whose names appear in duplicate to visit and vote at any one polling center of their choice and inform the Corporation of their decision in advance.
More than 50,000 duplicate voters were found in the draft voter lists published by the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation. This large number of duplicate entries has created a major conundrum. To resolve this issue, the Election Commission has allowed voters with duplicate names to cast their vote at any single designated polling center.
Accordingly, the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation has published the list of 50,000 duplicate voters on the municipal website. Municipal Commissioner Manoj Kumar Suryawanshi has appealed to these voters to check their names, select one polling center, and vote there.
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