Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minster Ashok Chavan Saturday warned of stern action against hooligans indulging in violence or destruction of public and private property during the Monday opposition-sponsored nationwide shutdown.
He also ordered authorities concerned must ensure that essential services like the suburban and long-distance railways, air services, BEST services, essential food items, medical and ambulance facilities are operated with adequate personnel manning them.
Chavan’s orders came at a high-level meeting of officials from various departments, security, public transport authorities and others held here to review the situation two days before the all-India shutdown to protest price hikes.
Noting that per a Supreme Court ruling of 1998, all such shutdown calls were an ‘illegal and unconstitutional’ means of protest, he asked police and district officials to keep a strict watch on hooligans indulging in any form of violence or damage to property.
The government would recover the costs of all such damages, he warned.
Chavan specifically requested the officials of the Central Railway and Western Railway to ensure that the suburban trains are operated normally so that Mumbai’s eight-million plus commuters are not inconvenienced.
The BEST and state transport authorities would deploy additional bus services to ferry passengers to and from various points in the city and around the state as taxis and autorickshaw unions are likely support the shutdown.
Chavan added that care would also be taken to ensure that nobody is forced to join the shutdown and people are allowed to go about their normal routine as usual.
The July 5 shutdown has drawn support from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena.
The Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc issued a joint statement announcing a 12-hour shutdown to protest the hike on the same day.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Saturday also announced its decision to join the shutdown in the state. Its chief Raj Thackeray urged people to demand answers from the government about the disparity of prices of petroleum products between Mumbai and New Delhi.
