Mumbai:
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday claimed that the massive rail roko protest at Thane’s Badlapur over the alleged sexual assault of two four-year-old girls by the sweeper in the washroom of a school in the town, was “politically motivated” and aimed at maligning the state government.
He further slammed the opposition and said those doing politics over the incident should be ashamed.
“The protest was politically motivated because the protesters were not local residents. The local residents who were part of the protest could be counted on fingers,” he said.
He said state minister Girish Mahajan agreed to all demands of the protestors but they were still not ready to relent. “This means they just wanted to malign the government,” he added. .
The chief minister claimed that some protesters were carrying placards mentioning the ’Ladki Bahin Yojana’, his government’s flagship financial assistance scheme for women. The placards said they did not want the monthly sum of Rs 1,500 but protection for their girls.
Thousands of protestors on Tuesday blocked railway tracks at Badlapur station which caused massive disruption of local train services and diversion of some long-distance trains. At least 15 outstation trains and suspension of local train services on the Ambernath-Karjat section for ten hours, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
