Pune: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) across Maharashtra led agitations against the inflated power bills and the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s failure to give the consumers any relief from them.
MNS led agitations in various cities of the state including Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad and more. The MNS had earlier raised banners in multiple cities with the message ‘My Bills, My Responsibility’ mocking the government’s ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ tagline for the coronavirus outreach initiative. MNS had warned the government with aggressive agitation on the issue if the relief was not given to the people.
In Mumbai, the agitation march was carried from Mhada Building to Collector’s office while Thane police denied the permission for Morcha. Pune also witnessed the agitation from the office-bearers of MNS Party. A senior leader from MNS, Bala Nandgaonkar in Mumbai said, “The police personnel are doing their job, we are doing ours, we will go to Ambedkar Garden and give a letter of request to the District Collector.”
Recently, Maharashtra Power Minister Nitin Raut said that no relief could be extended to domestic power consumers in case of inflated electricity bills during the three months of lockdown, the MNS on Thursday declared to hold state-wide agitations. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also decided to jump into the fray.
Last month, MNS President Raj Thackeray had met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari with the demand to provide relief to consumers and later had held a meeting with Nationalist Congress Party Supremo Sharad Pawar too.