Nagpur, Dec 7 (IANS): Adopting an aggressive stance, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders staged a vociferous protest outside the Nagpur Vidhan Bhavan where the Winter Session got underway, here on Thursday.

The MVA leaders comprising state Congress President Nana Patole, Shiv Sena (UBT) Leader of Opposition Ambadas Danve, Nationalist Congress Party (SP)'s Anil Deshmukh and other opposition legislators raised slogans against the government, demanding justice for the farmers.

Several MLAs, sporting garlands of fruits and vegetables, said that the farmers have been ruined by the recent spell of unseasonal rains and hailstorms, but there has been no help forthcoming from the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-NCP (AP).

They alleged that while the insurance companies have been enriched the farmers have been reduced to poverty and are shedding tears of helplessness.

The MVA leaders showed black placards with pro-farmer and anti-government slogans and called upon the government to "wipe the tears" of the farmers who have been badly hit in more than 15 districts in the state, to prevent them from lapsing into the vicious loan-debt cycle.

It maybe recalled that in late-November and early this month, many parts of Maharashtra were lashed by unseasonal rains/hailstorms, razing standing crops in an estimated 1.25-lakhs hectares, hitting standing crops of pulses, cereal, vegetables, fruits and cash crops.