MUMBAI: The monsoon session of the Maharashtra legislative assembly began in Mumbai yesterday, with several hot and burning topics to be discussed.
The opposition Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (SS-BJP) alliance leaders submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in which they slammed the report of a two-member committee set by the state government to probe the Mumbai terror attacks. The alliance demanded that a judicial commission be appointed to probe the lapses on the part of police officers.
The Maharashtra government would make efforts to table the report of the Ram Pradhan Committee that went to the different aspects of the Mumbai terror attacks during the monsoon session of the legislature even as the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron combine termed it as nothing but eyewash. "The report is nothing but an eyewash," said the leader of opposition, Ramdas Kadam (Sena), who was accompanied by senior leaders including state BJP chief Nitin Gadkari after a meeting of the opposition parties.
"We do not have faith in the Pradhan Committee report. It is a false report," he said adding that one of the members, former bureaucrat Ram Pradhan was the Congress candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, and hence neither the people of Maharashtra nor the opposition expected the report to be impartial.
"Our efforts would be table it (the report) during this session," Chavan told journalists here on Sunday.
In an element of surprise, veering from the usual practice of boycotting the customary tea party meeting hosted by the state chief minister on eve of the state legislature session, the SS-BJP alliance leaders attended it at Chavan's residence on Sunday evening.
Kadam said that when federal Home Minister Shiv Raj Patil, former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and the Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil had resigned, why no bureaucrat, a reference to former Additional Chief Secretary Chitkasala Zutshi, and senior police officer, then-state Director General of Police, Anami Narayan Roy, had been held responsible.
Rejecting the findings of the committee, Kadam alleged that the state government was using the "biased report" for "thumping its own back."
Reacting to the demand, Chavan said that after he received the report drafted by Pradhan, a former Home Secretary and former Research and Analysis Wing official V. Balachandran, on May 26 and has referred to a two-member committee headed by Chief Secretary Johny Joseph which would prepare the Action Taken Report (ATR). The committee includes additional chief secretary in-charge of home department.
"We would like to present the report along with the ATR," Chavan said. On being asked that it could have been tabled before the House directly, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said: "When such report comes, there are some laid down customs and procedures. Even when the Srikrishna Commission report was received an ATR was prepared and the report was tabled in the House along with the ATR."
To a query on clean chit being given to the police, he said: "First of all, I would like to clarify that after submitting the report when Pradhan interacted with media, he has praised the efforts of the policemen who had laid down their lives for the country. Secondly, that is not the entire report. We would have to wait till it is tabled before drawing conclusions. Some of the statements and arguments of the opposition leaders are based on media reports, let the report be tabled."
The Sena-BJP also demanded that Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, the lone alleged Pakistani terrorist captured be hanged within two months time. Chavan, however, said that Qasab is being tried by the Special Court and witnesses are being examined. "The government has appointed Ujjwal Nikam as the special public prosecutor. We would have to wait for the judgment of the court," he added.
