Ghatkopar billboard tragedy: MVA and Mahayuti blame each other for allowing hoarding to be constructed

Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Uday Samant also released a photo of Uddhav Thackeray along with Bhavesh Bhinde, owner of the company which had set up the hoarding and who has been booked by the police.

“Even Shiv Sena division chief Parameshwara Kadam filed complaints. However, over the past three and a half years, Bhinde adamantly refused to remove the hoardings. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party held power in the BMC for 25 years, and Uddhav Thackeray himself served as the CM in the MVA government. So, who empowered Bhinde during this time?” Cabinet Minister Uday Samant said.

Hitting back at the BJP and Shiv Sena over linking the Sena (UBT) to Bhinde, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that there was an administrator in the BMC for the last 2.5 years and that this person was responsible for the mishap and loss of lives.

“Who is running the BMC administration? The BJP and Shinde faction are ruling the BMC through the Administrator. So they are responsible for the deadly incident,” Raut said.

Alleging the BMC administration and state government were negligent, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said that “charges of culpable homicide should be filed against the state government and the BMC in connection with the incident. The hoarding mafia in Mumbai are protected by the BJP-Shinde-Ajit Pawar government”. He added that an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the relatives of the deceased in this incident was very meagre.

Senior Congress leader and state in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, who visited the hospital, said that the state government and the BMC administration were responsible for the hoarding incident in Ghatkopar. “No representatives of the people exist in the municipal corporation since the last two years because the government has not held elections. All the affairs are being run by officers and employees of the Municipal Corporation as per the directives of the state government,” he said.