Mumbai: To protest against Monday’s violence in Pune which left one youth dead, the members of the Dalit community on Tuesday staged rail and road blocks as well as processions in city and carried out agitations across different parts of Maharashtra.The Bharipa-Bahujan Mahasangh, a dalit party headed by Prakash Ambedkar (the grandson of Bharat Ratna Dr B R Ambedkar), has called for a 'peaceful Maharashtra bandh (shutdown)' on Wednesday to express angst over the Pune incident.
Since this afternoon, thousands of dalits took to the streets in different areas of city like Chembur, Mankhurd, Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Worli, Naigaum and other strongholds in north-eastern parts of the city demanding action against the perpetrators of the Pune riots.Scores of dalit youths blocked the Harbour Line of Central Railway near Chembur railway station this afternoon, stalling local train services for over three hours and the blockade continued.
Several lakhs of commuters were stranded on stations or in stationery trains and many preferred to walk down on the railway tracks to their destinations.Similarly, hundreds of youths swooped onto the roads in eastern suburbs asking shops, restaurants and commercial establishments to down shutters and staged road blocks, resulting in massive vehicular snarls all over the city. However, police intervened soon after and traffic movement resumed.
Protests and violent incidents were witnessed in other parts of the state including Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Dhule, Beed, Nashik, Pune,Solapur, Thane and Palghar as dalits expressed their angst over Monday’s incident at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district.At least 25 buses of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, besides private luxury buses and other vehicles were damaged in stone-pelting by riotous mobs.In most districts, protestors staged road blocks stopping traffic and enforced shutdown of shops and commercial establishments in the district, even as additional police forces were deployed.Earlier this afternoon, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a judicial probe by a sitting high court judge and a CID investigation into the violence. (UNI)