Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
MSRTC employees throw chappals at Pawar’s house
State orders inquiry; 104 people, including 23 women, held; NCP chief blames ‘wrong’ leadership; Uddhav calls for stern action
MUMBAI: Tension prevailed outside Silver Oak, the Malabar Hill residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, on Friday when hundreds of employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) gathered and raised slogans against him, claiming that he did nothing to fulfil their demands. They even threw stones, shoes, and chappals at the house before police personnel intervened.
The state government ordered a probe into the incident.
The agitators accused the state government of being unsympathetic to them even after around 120 employees died by suicide. Workers of MSRTC have been on a strike since November 2021 demanding that they be treated on par with state government employees and that the cash-strapped transport corporation be merged with the government.
Though Pawar was not at home at the time of incident, his wife Pratibha and granddaughter Revati were inside. When his daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule tried to enter the premises, she was surrounded by the protesting employees and the police had to escort her in. Later, she came out to have a dialogue with them but in vain.
The Gamdevi police arrested 104 protesters, including lawyer
Gunratna Sadavarte who is representing the striking MSRTC employees in the Bombay high court. There are also 23 women among those who were arrested. A case was registered against 132 people under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Maharashtra police Act.
Home minister Dilip Walse Patil said he had asked Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay
Pande and joint police commissioner (law and order) Vishwas Nangare Patil to investigate the matter. “We are also checking if there was failure of intelligence and if any corrective measures are required to be taken.”
Pawar said he was behind the MSRTC workers but not behind the ‘wrong’ leadership of workers. “There is nothing surprising because if the leader is not good, then the cadre cannot be controlled and we could see this in today’s incident.”
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray condemned the incident. “Maharashtra has never seen such an incident in which the residence of a leader and his family is attacked. I have asked the home minister to take stern action against those who are responsible.”