MUMBAI: Owing to the protest rallies taking place in Mumbai today, a set of traffic curbs has been issued. Over 2,500 police personnel have been deployed on the streets to ensure that no troublesome incident takes place in the city, officials said.
Adequate number of police personnel has been deployed on the route of the march to maintain law and order, an official said. As many as 317 police officers, 1,870 constables, 22 platoons of State Reserve Police Force and at least 30 squads of Riot Control Police will be on hand to maintain law and order, he said.
More than 5,000 workers are expected to join MVA in ‘Halla Bol’. BJPs first rally began in Kandivali East at 10.30 am. The protest rally at Dadar, Nariman Pt began at 11.30 am. At Ghatkopar, the rally begins at 3.30 pm.
Two protest marches today – one by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) ‘Halla Bol’ protest against Eknath Shinde’s government and the other one is a counter-protest by the ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to the leaders of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, one of the reasons for the MVA protest is the “insults” of the state’s icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. The other reasons for the protest include, “atrocities” against Marathi-speakers in border areas of Karnataka, industrial projects being taken out of the state and “injustice” meted out to Maharashtra.