Following the arrest of two of its corporators for their humiliating treatment of the chief civic engineer (road) over potholes, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) will now gherao the civic official
Following the arrest of two of its corporators for their humiliating treatment of the chief civic engineer (road) over potholes, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) will now gherao the civic officials at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarter Monday morning.
In the meantime, the BMC has started repairing potholes in the city to avoid further criticism and meet the self-imposed deadline of October 10 set by municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta.
“We will gherao the civic chief tomorrow over the pothole issue. But we were told that Mr Mehta is not in town and has deputed his responsibilities to another officer. We need some assurance from the BMC that the potholes will be filled and repaired soon. We are also going to check if the BMC officials have done anything to repair the potholes,” MNS leader Shalini Thackeray said.
MNS corporators Sandeep Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri were arrested Saturday evening by the Shivaji Park police station for humiliating the chief engineer. Both had targeted chief engineer of the BMC’s road department Sanjay Darade holding him responsible for the potholes. The arrested corporators have refused to take bail and preferred to remain in the jail.
“We are concerned. Our corporators have refused bail. Out next line of action will be decided only after we meet with the BMC officials,” Ms Thackeray said.
The incident with its chief engineer has irked BMC officials and engineers who have protested against the MNS for targeting their colleague. There was a demand from the BMC staff to disqualify MNS corporators.
On the other hand, to intensify its campaign, MNS workers have started collecting signatures from citizens blaming the BMC administration for the potholes.
On Sunday, about 2,000 signatures were collected from Shivaji Park area alone, said one of the workers.
Also, they are writing letters to every police station asking the police to lodge FIRs against the BMC engineers for not taking care of the public property.
The party leaders will also hold a press conference on Monday to discuss potholes.
