The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) staged a protest outside an event attended by PWD Minister Ravindra Chavan to draw attention to the deplorable condition of the Mumbai-Goa National Highway.
The demonstration took place at the Shanmukhananda Auditorium in Mumbai’s Kings Circle, coinciding with a felicitation function for engineers on Engineers’ Day, observed on September 15.
MNS activists, led by party leader Sandeep Deshpande, chanted slogans outside the venue. While the Mumbai police deployed a significant number of personnel to maintain order, a brief commotion occurred when police pushed media personnel covering the protest. Deshpande spoke to reporters, expressing the party’s opposition to felicitating engineers, attributing responsibility to them for the highway’s poor state. In response to Union Minister Narayan Rane’s claim that one lane of the highway had been concretized, Deshpande countered by asserting that even the newly constructed concrete lane had developed cracks and potholes.
He emphasized that their protest aimed to be peaceful, not disruptive, and highlighted their previous ‘Padayatra’ (foot march) on the highway, which included party chief Raj Thackeray and his son Amit, as part of their efforts to draw attention to the highway’s deteriorating
condition.
