“I feel yesterday’s protest was politically motivated because whenever a protest happens, locals are involved, but in this case, there were only a handful of locals and people were brought in from other locations in vehicles to this place (Badlapur railway station). The minister (Girish Mahajan) accepted all their (protesters) demands, yet they did not budge,” said Shinde on Wednesday.
“Some of the protesters brought placards that they didn’t want Ladki Bahin Yojana and they wanted security for their sisters… Why did they get these placards and how immediately did these crop up? This shows that the Opposition is hurt by the Ladki Bahin Yojana,” the CM said.
Congress Opposition leader Vijay Wadettiwar took on the CM, calling it insensitive. “You should be ashamed that you kept the pregnant mother of one of the victims waiting at the police station for 11 hours. When the Nirbhaya incident happened in Delhi, people came out spontaneously. In this case, the outrage was more because there were two children who were victims. The government is talking of Ladki Bahin Yojana as if it is paying through its own pocket,” said the Congress leader.
The government is also facing the heat after a Shiv Sena leader Waman Mhatre allegedly asked a journalist: “Why are you so agitated, have you been raped?”
Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said that if Mhatre has made such comments, he needs to apologise and the party does not support such statements. Supriya Sule (NCP-SP) said if the state government had taken timely action, no protest would have happened.The Badlapur police have filed stringent and non-bailable sections against those who attacked the police personnel when they tried to remove them from railway tracks. Lawyers from Badlapur said the cases filed were too stringent and they would fight their cases pro bono. The Opposition has also backed the protestors, calling them organic.Earlier in the day, a local court extended till August 26 the police custody of the man arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two girls at a school in Badlapur town of Maharashtra’s Thane district.
The Maharashtra government issued a directive to all the schools in the state to install CCTV cameras on their premises within a month. The failure to comply with the order may result in severe consequences such as revocation of the permission to operate, said an order issued by education minister Deepak Kesarkar on Wednesday.
Susieben Shah, chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said the school preferred to cover up the crime instead of helping their parents file a police complaint.
