Pune: NCP workers on Thursday held demonstrations in various districts to protest the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue in Malvan despite being a part of Maharashtra govt, after the party chief, Ajit Pawar, apologised to the entire state taking the onus of the incident as a part of the ruling dispensation. Echoing the opposition’s demand, NCP workers sought a strong action against those responsible for the collapse of the statue. The city unit of NCP staged a silent protest near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue on the campus of SSPMS in Shivajinagar.
“Prima facie it appears that there was gross negligence regarding following the norms while installing the statue. It is quite shocking that the statue collapsed within eight months of its installation. We demand state govt to take the strictest possible action against the people involved in the process of the statue’s installation,” Deepak Mankar, the city unit chief of NCP, said.
While the opposition is targeting state govt, NCP’s statewide demonstrations over the issue have caught the govt in a fix. Pradeep Deshmukh, the working president of NCP’s Pune unit, said, “When it comes to Shivaji Maharaj, there will not be any compromise because he is our national pride. Whether we are a part of govt or we are in opposition, we will never tolerate the insult of our national icon.
We held demonstrations to send a strong message that such incidents should not repeat in future.” A statue of Chhatrapati.