Mob rules streets, Mumbaikars harassed

Mumbai: Mumbaikars had a harrowing time on Wednesday as the day-long bandh called by Dalit organisations crippled public transport and blocked all roads across the city. Traffic came to a standstill on many roads. Regular flow of traffic was also affected at the iconic Bandra-Worli sea link and other major roads.

Public transport buses and auto rickshaws kept off the roads throughout the day while trains crawled due to demonstrations that were held on railway tracks. In some suburbs, protesters hurled stones at vehicles on roads.

In Vikroli area, protestors forcibly stopped vehicles and vandalised them. A person who tried to stop protestors from breaking their cars was beaten up so badly that he got 15 stitches on head. Vishal Singh said, “Around at 12 pm mob of all youngsters came. We kept telling them not to break any rickshaw or cars but none of them listened. Police were also helpless.”

Businessman Pankaj Singh, was beaten up by activists at Lokmanya Nagar, in Vikhroli (West). (Photo:Shripad Naik)

Ajay Salunke, Vikhroli resident said, “I was taking my pregnant neighbour to the hospital but was stopped. These protestors went inside our house and broke all the things, who have given them this right?”

A crowd of about 200 people in Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar had blocked the highway since morning stopping vehicles from going in or out of the city. The women, children were sloganeering against the government and its apathy to take action against Bhima Koregaon assailants. Meena Kamble who was holding a poster demanding justice was one of the witnesses whose bus was attacked while coming back from Bhima Koregaon. “We were 65 in the bus, all women and children. In the evening while coming back from the programme, four bikers surrounded our bus and hurled stones towards the bus. It was dark and we could not see anything.   All of us were scared.  There was noone to protect us. Our driver saved us as he did not stop the bus  despite the attack,” Kamble said.

The Western Railway (WR) called off the air-conditioned (AC) local services on Wednesday for a day. The WR ran only four AC services and then called off the rest eight services. The rake is a precious for the railways as the singular AC train cost the railways `56 crore and is susceptible to damage due to the glass and the delicate closing doors. An official said, “A the last non-AC train that we got costed us `42 crore as compared to the 56 crore of the AC so we have to be even more careful of this train due to the cost it would take to repair it as well as the fact that there is only one such train.”

The longest rail-rokos of the day were seen at the WR’s Goregaon and Malad stations and the CR’s Thane to CSMT section - they stayed suspended for almost three hours. The most violent protest on the railway line was seen at Kanjurmarg where protesters broke benches and threw them on to the track.

The Goregaon and Malad rail-roko clocked in almost four hours which took place simultaneously and sporadically from 8.53 am to 1.38 pm. The most violent railr-roko was at Kanjurmarg where protestors unhinged a seat made of steel and through it on to the track.