Office entrance blocked, parties fume

A day after cutting the power supply to political party offices, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) on Monday placed barricades at their entrances at Nariman Point. Officials said that this had been done so that work on the Metro 3 project can start, but the parties are miffed.

They said that they were finding it difficult to function with the constant push to relocate, when they had already agreed to it.

While the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Monday shifted its office, Bharip Bahujan Mahajan (BBM) sent a legal notice to the MMRCL for violating the conditions of the agreement signed between them.

MMRCL had issued three notices to the eight political parties ,asking them to temporarily vacate their office spaces on Free Press Journal Road, Nariman Point, as it plans to start work on the underground metro corridor that will link Colaba and SEEPZ in Andheri (east).

MMRCL has also allocated rented space to these parties at Thackersey House in Fort until the new offices were reconstructed at Nariman Point. However, the parties have not shifted to the new place citing incomplete renovation work.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that they were yet to get their new offices. “Our agreement is yet to be signed for the space to be taken on rent. How we can we shift to a place without having a proper agreement,” he said.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said that it was unfair to ties in such a manner. “We haven’t objected to vacate the office. We only wanted renovated spaces. If the state administration can treat opposition parties like this, one can imagine how they treat commoners,” he said.

With no entrance left, many cars including that of state NCP stuck at the site, sources said.

The barricades have also left the legal metrology department in the lurch because this has blocked its office entrance too. Sources said that Amitabh Gupta, additional director-general of police who heads the department has also written to ment saying that they had no place to work as their new office was not ready.

“We were caught unawares. We have been chasing MMRCL officials to complete the renovation. We wrote to them thrice. They still have 10 days before they hand it over What do we do