1.5 lakh BMC employees threaten to go on indefinite strike, demand action against MNS
BMC engineers protesting outside CST. Picture Courtesy: Laxman Singh
A day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers shamed a top civic official in public, 1.5 lakh BMC employees have threatened to go on an indefinite strike if no action is taken against the people responsible for the act.
On Wednesday, MNS workers had taken Sanjay Darade, chief engineer of the BMC’s Roads Department, to Dadar and made him stand with a placard that stated he was responsible for the condition of city’s bad roads.
The public humiliation of a top civic official caused an uproar, following which at least 700 BMC employees handed over their resignations to Municipal Chief Ajoy Mehta on Thursday evening.
Apart from the resignations, another 4,200 civic engineers and 1.5 lakh BMC employees have threatened to go on strike on Saturday if strict action isn’t taken against MNS corporators.
MNS workers, including corporators Sandeep Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri, had gone to meet Darade at his Worli office on Wednesday. They called Darade out Dadar under the pretense of showing him potholes.
However, once Darade reached the spot between Sena Bhawan and Plaza Theater in Dadar, he was made to wear a placard that read (in Marathi), “I, the chief engineer of roads department, am responsible for potholes in the city. Citizens take note of this”.
Deshpande justified the party’s actions by claiming that citizens are suffering because of the lackadaisical attitude of the engineers who allow contractors to get away with potholes.
When asked about the civic employees’ demand, he said, “People have the right to ban me, not the engineers,” adding that it was a “result oriented action”.
Deshpande also stated that he did not regret what he had done.
The MNS corporator had earlier said that they had given a deadline of October 5 and Darade had to take the blame for not filling hundreds of potholes.
A complaint against the party workers was filed with Shivaji Park police station yesterday itself. However, the FIR for humiliating Darade in public was registered today evening.
Sources also claimed that both Deshpande and Dhuri were likely to get debarred from the standing committee after the incident, however, there has been no update on that front.
