NAGPUR, 13 November 2007 — Opposition parties in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and Council plan to press the state government to immediately withdraw the “Red Wheat” imported from Australia, which is unfit for human consumption, said Nitin Gadkari, the state chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party and leader of the opposition in the State Legislative Council. Winter sessions of both the houses will begin on Nov. 19 in Nagpur.
Speaking at a press conference, Gadkari said opposition parties would table a bill in the house seeking immediate withdrawal of wheat from all ration shops. Gadkari alleged that despite knowing that the imported wheat was unfit for human consumption, the state government was distributing it in urban as well as rural areas and shopkeepers were being forced to sell it.
He said the opposition parties would also confront the government over suicides by farmers, low cotton and sugarcane prices, collapse of the law and order and huge government debts.
To solve the problems of farmers that has led to suicide incidents, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced a package which is yet to be implemented. “It is high time the state government stopped playing with the sentiments of the people,” he said.
