Nagpur: Maharashtra Government is hopeful of a smooth passage to the resolution repealing the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA) in the winter session of state legislature beginning here from tomorrow.

The ULCA resolution has been discussed in the last two successive legislature sessions. "The resolution is the property of the House and we have to push for its passage in the House, where it will come up on November 21," Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said while talking to reporters here this evening.

The act was done away with at the Centre in 1999. The law, which puts a ceiling on land holding in urban areas, once scrapped will free vast areas in Maharashtra.

To queries about ULCA, Deshmukh said this session will be the last opportunity to pass the resolution before the Centre's extended deadline for its repeal expires in March.

Main Opposition Shiv Sena has opposed the move.

The CM criticised the Sena-BJP combine for once again boycotting the customary tea party hosted by him on session eve, citing DF Government's "failure" on all fronts.

"This is a platform to discuss various issues across the table with the government, but the Opposition has failed to utilise the opportunity," Deshmukh said.

On farm suicides and loan waiver issue, he said: "as per our record the percentage of farmers committing suicide due to debts has dropped from 60 per cent to 20 per cent." Deshmukh also said all the farmer suicides, most of them in Vidarbha region, were not due to debt as several factors were behind the trend.

A committee under Narendra Jadhav, Vice-Chancellor of Pune University and ex-RBI chief economist, has been set up to look into the issue of farmer suicides, he added.

Source : PTI