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‘Who is the General Dyer in Maharashtra Govt?’: Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray

Aaditya Thackeray was referring to the police action against protesters demanding Maratha reservation at Antarwal-Saraati village last year.

Aaditya ThackerayShiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray. (File Photo)

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said on Sunday the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government has a “General Dyer” among them who had ordered a lathi-charge on Maratha agitators demanding reservation last year.

Aaditya Thackeray was referring to the police action against protesters demanding the Maratha reservation at Antarwal-Saraati village in Maharashtra’s Jalna district on September 1, 2023.

While speaking to reporters in Pune on Sunday evening, Aditya said, “After this lathi-charge, some police officers were transferred. Such a lathi-charge cannot take place without orders from the top. Who was the ‘General Dyer’ who gave the orders for police lathi-charge? We need to understand whether it was the Chief Minister or two of the Deputy Chief Ministers who had given the orders”.

The Sena leader said wrong-doers are calling the shots in Pune. “In Pune, several wrong activities are taking place. And it seems the state government is backing such wrong activities. Is this a government working for the common man or the contractors?” he asked

Aditya said the confiscation of drugs in large quantities in Pune shows the vicious grip of the contraband on youngsters and reflects the worsening law and order situation. “The police are taking action in the matter. But pictures of politicians with goons are going viral. Law and order has gone for a toss… Does a government exist in Maharashtra?” he asked.

Criticising the BJP, Aditya said the party does not want democracy to continue in India. “First, they split the Shiv Sena and then the NCP. Now, they are trying to break the Congress. From this, one can easily conclude that the BJP is not interested in democracy,” he said.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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