Written by: Express News Service
2 min readPuneAug 17, 2011 03:48 AM IST
First published on: Aug 17, 2011 at 03:48 AM IST
Over 2,000 activists,citizens and industrial workers today brought the Pune-Mumbai highway — passing through the limits of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation — to a grinding halt for nearly one hour as they staged a demonstration in support of Anna Hazare who was arrested in New Delhi early in the morning. As many as 150 activists,workers and their leaders were taken into preventive custody by police and later released.
The demonstration began around 11 am as activists and workers of various industrial units in Pimpri-Chinchwad started pouring in to the Pimpri chowk. Over 100 organisations,including Bharashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan,Nagari Suraksha Haqq Samiti,Shramik Ekta Mahasangh,Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sanghatna,Patanjali Yog Samiti,representatives from Tata Motors,Lumax and several other industrial units were present. Except for BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Eknath Pawar and a few activists of BJP and MNS,leaders and represenatives of political parties were not seen. After the highway was blocked,there was traffic chaos even on internal roads.
Independent corporator Maruti Bhapkar said the response was spontaneous and overwhelming. “Without calling anybody,people just trooped in and kept coming till the evening. Citizens were from all strata of the society,including college and school students,too participated in the demonstration,” he said. Bhapkar said the detained activists insisted that they be taken to the jail,but police refused. “Despite our repeated requests,the police did not take us to jail as we wanted to launch jail bharo agitation,” he said. Bhapkar said police did not beat the agitators. “At the police station,they offered us tea,but we refused. They let us off after two hours. But we walked back to the demonstration venue and peacefully resumed the demonstration,” he said. Even as the agitators were being taken into custody,slogans were raised in support of Anna.
Among others,activists and representatives of workers including Manav Kamble,Dilip Pawar and Kisore Dhokle were present. Bhapkar said their protest will continue on Wednesday too. “We will wear black bands,resort to ghanta nad and court arrest. The agitation will continue whether Hazare is in or out of the jail,” Manav Kamble said.
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