NEW DELHI, April 8: A group of protesting Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) workers tried to enter the residence of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday and indulged in violence.
Pawar’s daughter and MP Supriya Sule who found herself mobbed by the protesters confirmed that their house was “attacked” with reports saying that some of them misbehaved with her. “I am thankful to the Mumbai Police for their prompt reaction and what they did for my parents and my children. What has happened today is very unfortunate,” Sule said. “This is the first time I am seeing something like this happening in Maharashtra,” she added.
Over 100 workers of the state road transport corporation held a protest, shouting slogans against the veteran politician, accusing him of not resolving their issues. Some employees even hurled their footwear towards the NCP supremo’s house. The workers said they are firm on their demand of the merger of the MSRTC with the state government.
Reacting to the incident, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil said action would be taken against those provoking Scheduled Tribe (ST) workers. Referring to an “unknown force” behind the agitation, Patil while talking to the media said attempts were being made to destabilise the state.
The minister also said if so many people were marching to the residence of a leader like Sharad Pawar, the intelligence officials should have known about it. “We will also investigate if there was intelligence failure on the part of the police,” he said.
Later, in a series of tweets, Patil said the Maha Vikas Aghadi government has always kept its doors open for the ST employees to discuss the issue. “There has to be respect for the legal process,” he said. Calling the protests inappropriate, he further appealed to the ST staffers to raise their issues in a constitutional manner through dialogues and not take the law in their hands. MSRTC workers have been on strike since November 2021 demanding to be treated at par with the state government employees.
The protest comes a day after the Bombay High Court asked the striking workers of the transport corporation to resume duty by April 22. Following the court order, state Transport Minister Anil Parab had assured that no action would be taken against those workers who re-join duty by the deadline set by the HC.
“Some 120 MSRTC employees have died by suicide during the strike. These are not suicides, but murders of the state policy. We are firm on our demand of merger of the MSRTC with the state government. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has not done anything to resolve the issue,” an agitating employee of the MSRTC said.
“We respect the decision of the Bombay High Court given yesterday, but we were discussing the issues with the state government, which has been elected by the people. This elected government did nothing for us,” they said. Pawar is considered the chief architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress which was formed in November 2019.
(Manas Dasgupta)
