Friday 4 October 2019

Aarey protests LIVE updates: FIR against 38 protesters as cops barricade all three entrances to Mumbai's green lung

10:33 (IST)

All three entrances to Aarey Colony blocked 

The three entrances to the forest area – from the Western Expressway Highway and Marol – have been blocked, with no one being permitted inside the radius of around 3 kilometre. 

10:31 (IST)

All roads leading to Aarey metro shed project location barricaded

All roads leading to the to the Aarey metro shed project location have been barricaded by cops after activists clashed with the police over felling of trees at the Aarey Milk Colony on Friday night.

These developments came as Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation to chop off the trees in the dead of the night, hours after the Bombay High Court verdict refusing to stay the development plan.

Aarey protests LATEST updates: All roads leading to the to the Aarey metro shed project location have been barricaded by cops after activists clashed with the police over felling of trees at the Aarey Milk Colony on Friday night. These developments came as Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation to chop off the trees in the dead of the night, hours after the Bombay High Court verdict refusing to stay the development plan.

The three entrances to the forest area – from the Western Expressway Highway and Marol – have been blocked, with no one being permitted inside the radius of around 3 kilometre, reported The Indian Express.

Some media reports also claimed over 100 protesters were detained and taken to different police stations. The media persons were barred from getting inside the premises.

In light of the recent development, AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma urged citizens to gather at the three entrances, where traffic movement has stopped, and step up their protests.

Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray also lend his support to activists opposing the felling of trees at Aarey Colony area, terming the move of the Metro Rail authorities as a "shameful and disgusting" act which was carried out "in cover of night". Calling out the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRC) – the government authority executing the metro project – for treating Mumbaikars like "criminals", Aaditya tweeted.

"The vigour with which the Mumbai Metro is slyly and swiftly cutting down an ecosystem in Aarey is shameful and disgusting. How about posting these officials in PoK, giving them charge to destroy terror camps rather than trees?"Late on Friday evening, authorities began felling trees just hours after the Bombay High Court rejected the pleas against the cutting of over 2,000 trees in Aarey Colony, a prime green lung of the city, for Metro car shed project

NDTV

reported that activists gathered at Aarey Colony after a video showing a tree being cut there was widely circulated on social media. Rules say once a tree committee approves cutting, the order should be uploaded on a government website and trees can be cut 15 days after posting the permission on the website, sources told NDTV.

Mumbai Mirror reported that authorities began cutting trees around 9 pm despite protests from activists.

Nearly 300 people gathered at the site as activists removed barricades to stop authorities and were later lathicharged, as per the report. Reema Shah, a member of the Aarey Conservation Group, said, "We were at the entrance and people weren't allowed to enter. Soon, a lot of people gathered at the gate. Once, people even managed to push through. Sometime after that (about an hour or so later), they pushed the public away from the gates." Mayanka Goel, a 25-year-old who was on the scene, claimed the police lathicharged the crowd. "A crowd gathered outside the gates, chanting and demanding to go inside. The police shut the gates and were guarding the entrance. There are already a lot of police vans on the spot," she told Firstpost.

"At some point, the police lathicharged the crowd. After a point, there were two distinct sides. A wall of police and the citizens. Once again, things got out of hand and a number of cops started to drag the crowd away. They arrested the most vocal activist. She was in fact the one keeping the crowd in control, making sure we protest silently instead of charging inside." The cops soon started forcing the crowd to disperse, Mayanka added.   

Congress leader Jignesh Mevani took to Twitter to ask Mumbaikars to resist:

Environmental activist Harish Iyer tweeted:

AAP national joint secretary Ruben Mascarehnas claimed the crowd was lathicharged twice:

With inputs from PTI



from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/2OnAm9a
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