Maharashtra legislator to ‘beg’ from people!

THANE - In a unique protest, an independent legislator from Maharashtra will “beg” and donate the collected money to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, an aide of the legislator said here Saturday.

Vivek Pandit, the independent legislator of the Vasai legislative constituency, has adopted this move demanding exclusion of 18 villages from the newly-formed Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC), said co-ordinator of the Shramjeevi Sanghatana Nalla Sopara (SSNS) Navin Dube.

“From Sunday (tomorrow), we shall ‘beg’ for a token donation of Re.1 at important locations in the Vasai legislative constituency like bus stops, temples, churches, markets, etc., followed by railway stations like Virar, Nalla Sopara, Vasai and Naigaon Monday,” Dube said.

Pandit said that hundreds of people would march Oct 2 from Vasai to Varsha, the chief minister’s official residence in south Mumbai and hand over the collected amount to Chavan two days later.

Explaining the rationale behind the drive, Pandit said that generally, after any eclipse (lunar or solar), people make small donations.

“We feel that there is a ‘political eclipse’ over Vasai. We want it to end soon and so we are going to beg from the people and hand over the money to the chief minister,” he said.

He said that for nearly two years, the people have been demanding exclusion of 53 villages from the VVMC and the Shramjeevi Sanghata Nalla Sopara has carried out several agitations.

The state government agreed to exclude 35 villages, but there was no progress on the status of the remaining 18 villages, barely 40 km to the north of Mumbai.