JOIN USBundh against killing turns ugly
Angry locals from Tehekar’s Nate village and Sena cadres resorted to stone pelting, deflating tyres of state transport buses and ransacking of local district hospital.
In the legislative assembly, Minister for Home, R R Patil announced a judicial probe into the police firing at Nate village and to find out possible political linkages to the anti-Nuclear power plant agitation in Jaitapur.
The Ratnagiri district administration has clamped down section 144 in the area to prevent any further incidents of rioting and arson.
Almost all the government offices, educational institutions, private establishments and shops remained closed for most part of the day. Police resorted to lathi-charging the demonstrators who burned car tyres and even burnt the effigy of Union Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh. Several local Sena leaders were arrested during the day long agitation.
The BJP-Shivsena led opposition in the state legislature moved an adjournment motion over the police firing incident in Nate village near Jaitapur which was accepted by Speaker, Dilip Walse Patil.
Congress minister for Industries, Narayan Rane accused the Sena leadership of plotting the Nate village incident. The Sena-BJP led opposition demanded a judicial probe into the police firing, a compensation of Rs 25 lakhs to the kin of Tehekar, a rethink of the controversial Nuclear power project and suspension of the police officer who ordered the firing.
Taking part in the debate in the state legislature, Rane accused the Sena leadership of hatching the plot to torch the Nate village police station at Sena Bhavan, Dadar in Mumbai on April 12.
Meanwhile, Sena working president, Uddhav Thackeray came in for a flak on Tuesday as he arrived in Nagpur enroute to Kanha-Kelsi national park in Madhya Pradesh for a wildlife photo-shoot even as his party cadres went on a rampage in Ratnagiri.
When media persons tried to speak to Thackeray at the Nagpur airport, the Sena working president and his personal assistant Milind Narvekar pushed aside the media persons. Sources disclosed that a special helicopter had been booked for Thackeray to ferry him to the Kanha national park along with his younger son.
Earlier on Tuesday morning Sena cadres blocked vehicular traffic on the major arterial roads in Ratnagiri district. The flash point came as Congress MP Nilesh Narayan Rane and his cadres set aside the road blocks and proceeded ahead. Enraged Sena cadres then pelted stones on state transport buses and deflated the bus tyres. Local Sena MLA Rajan Salvi who is spearheading the agitation, was detained by the police.
While 16 Sena cadres and a deputy superintendent of police were injured in the rioting and arson incidents across the district. Meanwhile, the state government has agreed to send its representatives to the region to talk to the local agitating people.