In another incident, traffic on the busy Wardha road (between RBI square and Rani Jhansi square) was badly affected due to organisations taking out morchas to press for their various demands.
Near Pardi Naka, at around 3.30pm, around 100 BVS activists armed with sticks forcibly stopped trucks, two and four-wheelers, and threatened drivers to obey their directives or else face the consequences. Interestingly, all this happened in front of over 300 police personnel. Despite having prior information, the city police failed to act, and the saffron brigades literally created panic among motorists. They also damaged windshields of a few trucks and tempos when drivers tried to speed away from the busy square. The protesters also burned tyres to register their protest.
No person was injured in the protest, was the only comment by DCP (Zone-III) Kishor E Jadhav.
Bhavani Shankar Sharma, a motorist, wondered how the 100 BVS activists could hold traffic to ransom when the entire state machinery is camping in the winter capital of Maharashtra. Many other motorists too expressed anguish over the police inaction.
District BVS chief Ramcharan Dubey told TOI that Sena MLAs Sanjay Rathod, Ashish Jaiswal, Abhijit Adsool, Sharad Patil and Ravindra Waykar were suspended on December 2 for raising the issue of farmers. "What's wrong in this demand by the MLAs?" he asked. He further pointed out they were just demanding compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare for fruit crops and Rs 25,000 per hectare for food crops.
He further said that farmers are in trouble as they have lost their crops. If the government wants to wait till the report on crop damage, then a minimum Rs 10,000 per hectare should be given by the government as immediate relief to farmers of the state, he said.
The other activists warned that if the speaker did not revoke the suspension of its five MLAs, then an agitation will be organised across the state. "We will keep raising issues of farmers," they said. The BVS also submitted a memorandum to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan demanding free education for children of farmers who have committed suicides.
Even though police had picked up some protesters, no arrests had been reported till the filing of this report.
Meanwhile, around 30 activists under the banner of Matang Samaj Mahasangh also staged a rasta roko at Morris College T-point after their delegation was not allowed to meet either chief minister Prithviraj Chavan nor social justice minister Shivajirao Moghe. Mahasangh leader Sanjay Kathade said that unless the CM meets them and addresses their issues they would not discontinue their agitation. Later, their delegation met Moghe, who assured to solve their problems.
Monday was a hectic day for both public representatives and the police as the city saw 16 morchas taken out by various organisations.
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