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Mumbai: 60 people arrested in Mumbai as part of a BJP protest against potholes in Andheri

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Tajinder singh tiwana

As elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation approach, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has escalated its attack on the Shiv Sena, this time over potholes on roads in Mumbai and other cities across the state.

Over 60 Bharatiya Yuva Morcha members led by Tajinder Singh Tiwana, arrested for unlawful assembly, rioting, and violating Covid-19 prohibitory orders in Andheri €. Around 100 protesters gathered in a lane next to MIDC-Seepz to protest BMC’s indifference and failure to repair potholes. While the BJP claimed that police used a lathicharge on a peaceful protest, police claimed that protestors mistreated them when they tried to evict them.

As elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation approach, the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha led by Tajinder Singh Tiwana has escalated its attack on the Shiv Sena, this time over potholes on roads in Mumbai and other cities across the state. The BJP has also questioned whether the threat of legal action against the errant contractors was bogus, accusing the mayor of Mumbai of inflating pothole numbers to benefit the contractors.

While speaking to the media on Thursday, BJP leader and former minister Ashish Shelar questioned the disparity in claims made by the BMC administration and the mayor. “The mayor has claimed that they fixed 42,000 potholes, but only 927 potholes have been fixed as claimed by the civic body portal.” Why has Sena protected the contractors? The CM has been warning the contractors about the impending action. Has the Sena-led civic body taken any action against a contractor and held him accountable? In the last 25 years, the BMC has spent Rs21,000 crore on road construction and repair. 

CM Uddhav Thackeray convened a meeting of related departments and state entities and warned that action would be taken against those responsible. Shelar has called the meeting a sham. “No action was taken against any contractors, and no investigation was launched to look into the materials used to build the roads.” He didn’t even invite all of the agencies in charge of road construction to the meeting. The meeting couldn’t solve the problem as it was just wastage of time, he added. 

Shelar also mocked Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule, recalling her “selfie with potholes” campaign during the state’s BJP-led government. Shelar questioned why the NCP MP had vanished and why she was not raising the issue again. The party has also made an appeal to Mumbai residents to join them in their protest against potholes by photographing them and submitting them to the party’s upcoming exhibition.

Taking a page from Sule’s book, the party’s south-central district ward has organised a “Selfie With Potholes” competition. We will hold an exhibition and award the best selfies in our BMC office. The exhibition will be taken to various parts of the city in an effort to draw attention to the plight of the people. “Potholes on city roads are simply the result of corruption in road construction, and they are a failure of the civic body, which has been ruled by the Shiv Sena for more than three decades,” said Rajesh Shirwadkar, district president of the ward.

Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar stated that BMC officials have been directed to fill all potholes by the end of October. Pednekar also stated that engineers have been directed to report any problems with pothole filling. Furthermore, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has directed BMC officials to repair all potholes in the city within the next 2-3 weeks.

‘We strongly condemn and protest against lathicharge on our peaceful BJYM activists who were agitating against potholes in Andheri #Mumbai,’ said opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis on Twitter. We will not remain silent and will not tolerate such police atrocities; we will intensify our agitation. This lathicharge injured 15 BJYM Karyakartas led by Tajinder Singh Tiwana BJP


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