There will be no pandals and podiums for political groups for the 59th Mahaparinirvan Din events at Shivaji Park, Dadar this year. Taking note of rowdy behaviour of two groups last year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and police have decided not to allow political groups to set up podiums at the venue.
Lakhs of people are expected to visit Chaityabhoomi to pay homage to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution, on the occasion of his 59th death anniversary on December 6. For this, the BMC also allows various Dalit groups to set up podiums to hold rallies at Shivaji Park.
However, last year followers of two groups had clashed with each other injured several people. The incident has raised question marks over security arrangement at Shivaji Park for the Mahaparinirvan Din events, which are visited by lakhs of people.
“This year there will no pandals and podiums of political groups at Shivaji Park. The police has asked us not to give permission to any group for this,” said a senior civic official. “We allow these groups to set up pandals so that they can pay homage to Babasaheb appropriately. However, it has been found that they are misused by them to settle personal scores. This is likely to create a law and order problem at Shivaji Park on Mahaparinirvan Din. We do not want to take any chance.”
