Maha legislature: Oppn stages demonstration, seeks resignation of minister Sattar in land order case

Members of the opposition parties staged a demonstration in the Maharashtra legislature complex here on Monday and demanded the resignation of minister Abdul Sattar over his order in a land regularisation matter.On the other side, members of the ruling Shiv Sena faction of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Bharatiya Janata Party raised slogans demanding action against a Yuva Sena leader, without naming him, for supporting a woman who had levelled rape allegations against Lok Sabha member Rahul Shewale of Shinde faction.

Members of the opposition parties staged a demonstration in the Maharashtra legislature complex here on Monday and demanded the resignation of minister Abdul Sattar over his order in a land 'regularisation' matter.

On the other side, members of the ruling Shiv Sena faction of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Bharatiya Janata Party raised slogans demanding action against a Yuva Sena leader, without naming him, for supporting a woman who had levelled rape allegations against Lok Sabha member Rahul Shewale (of Shinde faction). The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court last week issued a notice to Sattar for ordering 'regularisation' of the possession of land reserved for public 'gairan' (grazing) in favour of a private person in the face of a civil court order.

Sattar had passed the order in June this year when he was the Minister of State for Revenue in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

The HC last week held that prima facie (on the face of it) Sattar passed the order with knowledge that additional district judge, Washim, had disallowed the claim of the private person for continuation of his possession over the gairan land.

On Monday, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajit Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Uddhav Thackeray, Aaditya Thackeray and other MVA members raised slogans in the Vidhan Bhavan complex against Agriculture Minister Sattar and demanded his resignation. The opposition members also raised slogans against the Maharashtra government, calling it the ''ED government'' and demanded the resignation of CM Eknath Shinde.

Former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray demanded that ''Karnataka-occupied Maharashtra'' be declared as a Union Territory, amid the ongoing border dispute between the two states. The opposition members demanded bonus for paddy farmers and that the orange growers in the Vidarbha region get a good price for their produce.

They also demanded the resignation Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari for his remarks on the 'icons' of Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, members of the Shiv Sena faction led by Shinde and BJP demanded action against a Yuva Sena leader, whom they did not name, for supporting a woman who had levelled rape allegations against MP Shewale.

Earlier on Sunday, Shewale demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the complaint of rape filed against him by the woman, who he alleged had links with Pakistan and fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

Shewale had said the woman was making baseless allegations against him.

''Police are on the lookout for the woman. It is a serious matter that the woman is being shielded and brought on a public platform. The Yuva Sena and Nationalist Congress Party are behind this move,'' he had alleged.

Maharashtra Legislative Council Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe on Thursday asked the state government to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to probe rape allegations against the Mumbai South Central MP after the matter was raised in the House by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLCs.