Mixed response to Pune bandh

Pune bandh was marred by stray incidents of violence in which protesters damaged 55 buses of Pune Minicipal Transport were damaged. The bandh call given by saffron Shiv Sena- BJP alliance and supported by MNS, to protest against the removal of Dadoji Konddev statue from historic Lal Mahal by Pune Municipal Corporation on Monday evoked a mixed response.

Except in the opposition dominated areas where it evoked good response, the response elsewhere was quite lukewarm as shops and establishments function quite normally in most of the city.

Shops and commercial establishments in many parts of the city downed their shutters while normal life remained unaffected in other parts of the city. Over 150 activists of Sena- BJP and MNS were taken into custody for causing damage to the public property.

Adequate police bandobast was deployed in the city and adjoining areas to avoid untoward incidents during bandh.

Sources said that corporators of saffron parties, legislators and MPs staged dharna at different places. They were immediately picked up by the police. Shiv Sena has demanded that the statue be re installed at the Lal Mahal while MNS has threatened to launch an agitation in this regard.

On the other hand, BJP has hit out against the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar who the party claimed was a brain behind the Pune Municipal Corporation's move to remove statue from the Lal Mahal.

Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe claimed that over 150 agitators including Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Babar and MLA Chandrakant Mokate were detained and later released as they broke prohibitory orders in different parts of the city and industrial township of Pimpri- Chinchwad, enforcing the bandh.

After initial targeting of the buses by the pro- Bandh activists, police beefed up security at all points including bus stops, ensuring smooth vehicular traffic throughout the city even as the Bandh was called off in the evening.

Earlier in the day, some Sena activists disrupted rail traffic at Lonavala on Mumbai- Pune section of Central railway for half- an- hour, leading to detention of the activists.