The district unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has criticised the city municipal council (CMC) for prohibiting party leader and former MLA Zulfikar Hashmi from entering its premises for six months and for filing a criminal case against him for allegedly intimidating its officials on March 23.
Members of the BSP staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office on Thursday demanding withdrawal of the order. They also demanded suspension of CMC Commissioner S.R. Garwad and the environment engineer of CMC for foisting a “false case” on Mr. Hashmi.
In a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta, the members charged Mr. Garwad and the environment engineer withbehaving in a high-handed manner. They alleged that people going to the CMC office to get their grievances redressed were ill-treated by officials there.
Condemning the CMC Commissioner for filing a “false case” against Mr. Hashmi at the Market Police station, the memorandum said Mr. Hashmi visited the CMC office to raise the issue of displaced auto establishment owners who were facing problems owing to the “arbitrary action of the CMC officials of sealing their business establishments without providing alternative sites and adequate time to move to a new location”.
They sought proper distribution of 18 per cent of the grants earmarked for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the SFC grants. They also demanded that the problem of drinking water shortage in some areas of the city be addressed immediately.
President of the district unit of the BSP B. Vithal Dakulgi, general secretary Abdul Samad, secretary Narsing Soni, Zameel Ahmed, Dattu Suryavanshi and others were present.
