NCP call to debate migrant permits

Referring to the demand by the Shiv Sena that a permit system be introduced,Verma said,“You can’t say stop migrants. You can’t take the law into your hands because it is a constitutional right. But let there be a debate.”

He said not only Mumbai but all major cities across the country are facing the same problem due to lack of job opportunities in rural areas.

“Urabanisation is rapid. Over 42 per cent of Maharashtra is urbanised and small towns are growing into cities,” he said. “We need to discuss the issue and for that there should be a debate on ways and means to tackle the problem. The Sena has no right to raise this issue because it did nothing during the NDA regime to tackle the problem. This (migration) did not start overnight.”

He listed out his agenda: strengthening the NCP for the city municipal polls in 2012,taking up civic issues,reaching out to the youth.

He said that in 1990-92,as chief of the National Students’ Union of India,he had defeated the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (the student’s wing of the Sena) led by Raj Thackeray in the Mumbai University senate polls. He is looking forward to taking on Raj again in the BMC polls. “I will also take up a campaign to demand revival of university elections; otherwise we won’t get leaders from the student community.”

On Mumbai’s water scarcity,he said,“It is strange that the city is facing a water scarcity August onwards. It shows the lack of planning by those who rule the BMC. While the population has grown,they had not planned new water sources all these years.”