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IndianExpress:  FOR the second consecutive day on Thursday, violence and arson went on unchecked in the city and Pimpri-Chinchwad over alleged desecration of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statue in Kanpur. Probably for the first time in the twin industrial township’s 36-year-old history, shops, commercial establishments and schools shut down and a 24-hour curfew from 6.30 am on Thursday morning was clamped on 14 localities.

Over 160 people were arrested in Pimpri-Chinchwad and booked for rioting, unlawful assembly, damaging public property and carrying arms. At least 91 buses of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport were damaged in the violence and the services were off the roads for most part of the day.

Vehicular traffic on Pune-Mumbai highway was disrupted with people including women and children staging protests on the road and burning a PCMT bus. The police had to fire teargas shells to disperse the mob and extra forces were rushed in to control the situation.

IndianExpress: IN the Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial belt where violence continued on Thursday, corporates like Bajaj Auto, Kinetic Motors and Forbes Marshall suffered production losses due to low employee turnout.

Forbes Marshall director Farhad Forbes said production was affected as transporters did not operate throughout the day. “Even though 80 per cent of our employees turned up, production was substantially impacted due to transportation problems. There was no power throughout the day. We were unable to run the generators as we had no diesel and transporters refused to supply the fuel,” said Forbes, adding that other essential raw materials could also not be procured.

Forbes said they expect the disruption to affect 30 per cent of their monthly billing, as much of the supply is on the last two days of the month.

Bajaj Auto also faced similar problems. “Fewer people reported to work today as roads were blocked and public transportation was not functional,” executive director Sanjiv Bajaj. While employees of the first shift managed to avoid most of the transport problems, several people from the other shifts failed to turn up.

IndianExpress: LAST night, on our way home, the road close to a slum near Jai Ganesh Cinema hall at Akurdi had been blocked by a truck. We took a detour but that too had been blocked by a mob of around 50-70 people at the Chinchwad Station chowk.

As they started running, we took shelter in a hospital near the Chinchwad Station police chowki. Being a doctor and knowing people there helped me get entry to the hospital and then on we were privy to incidents unfolding outside.

First, the mob started stoning PMT and PCMT buses. Then, they overturned a few carts. They tried to overturn a bus. Instead, they burnt the bus. All this unfolded over 45 minutes in front of the chowki. I tried contacting the emergency phone number 100 but could not get through.

At around 10 pm, 10 police personnel in riot gear come out and dispersed the mob. Not a single arrest was made. The crowd went back to the nearby slum after vandalizing property worth about Rs 1 crore.

IndianExpress:  IT companies on Thursday resorted to monitoring the situation and keeping in touch with the police control room to ensure that their employees reached home safely.

Employees of Versant India PVT Ltd, coming from Camp and Katraj area who did not turn up for work in the morning turned up later in the day.

Senior manager Harsha Suru said, “The company will hold a meeting on Friday to protest against such incidents. We have asked employees from Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nigdi to stay with relatives or friends near Versant’s office at Shivajinagar.”

Zensar Technologies CEO Ganesh Natarajan said their administration and HR personnel were in touch with the police control room and other regulatory agencies throughout the day checking the situation. They had provided conveyance for the employees. “We have instructed our drivers to follow the safest route avoiding troublesome areas and had kept ready our guest house for our employees to stay back. We had also provided our employees helpline numbers.’’

IndianExpress: LIFE came to a standstill in Kondhwa, NIBM, Lullanagar and Wanavdi areas on Thursday morning as RPI activists and protesters staged a rasta roko at several locations and resorted to stoning. Traffic at the Salunke Vihar junction and Lullanagar junction was stopped for over an hour during the morning rush hour when slogan shouting RPI activists stopped traffic near the Samtanagar slums and asked the cars, autos to turn back.

Things took a violent turn when a group of miscreants started stoning PMT buses and smashed the windscreen of some buses plying on the Salunke Vihar Road. A 200-strong mob brandishing hockey sticks and rods also forced all shops and commercial establishments in the area to shut down. There were also incidents of ransacking of shops by the mob. Over 150 protesters also brought traffic to a grinding stop at Lullanagar Chowk for over two hours before the police dispersed them.
 
With the roads blocked, buses stranded and autorickshaws drivers refusing to ply, commuters had a tough time reaching their workplace. The first respite came when the protesters decided to end the rasta roko at Salunke Vihar junction, allowing commuters to take an alternative route through Wanavdi.