Vehicles procured with Nirbhaya fund diverted to Shinde MLAs’ security

Opposition parties slammed the Shinde-Fadnavis government over the loan of the SUVs to protect MLAs from BSS. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has asked for an audit of the use of the Nirbhaya fund while the NCP has demanded that the vehicles be sent back to the squad immediately

Mumbai: The VIP security department on Friday requisitioned 20 more Bolero SUVs from police stations in central and south Mumbai to escort the G-20 summit delegation. This is in addition to the 47 Boleros that were requisitioned by the department from several police stations and given as escort vehicles to MLAs and MPs of the Shinde faction for their Y-plus security cover, stirring up outrage from opposition politicians.

Mumbai, India - October 31, 2019: Shiv Senas new legislative leader Eknath Shinde (L) along with party chief whip Sunil Prabhu pose for a photo at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, October 31, 2019. (Photo by Kunal Patil/Hindustan Times) (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

A police official, by way of defence, said that since these were new vehicles, it was appropriate that they were given to escort the G-20 delegation. “The vehicles were taken from police stations where the patrol squad could manage,” he said. An officer from Dadar police station said that his station had two Boleros, one for a police inspector and the other for the detection staff for patrolling and transporting accused. “One of them was given,” he said.

In June this year, the Mumbai police procured 220 Boleros, 35 Ertigas, 313 Pulsar motorcycles and 200 Activa two-wheelers with the corpus of ₹30 crore that it received as part of the Nirbhaya Fund from the central government. It gave two vehicles to each police station across the city including the cyber, traffic and coastal police units. The fund is specifically meant for the security of women.

Opposition parties slammed the Shinde-Fadnavis government over the loan of the SUVs to protect MLAs from the Eknath Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has asked for an audit of the use of the Nirbhaya fund while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has demanded that the vehicles be sent back to the squad immediately.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that if the fleet was not diverted back to the Nirbhaya squad within a week, the party would take to the streets in protest. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been holding forth on women’s safety and dignity,” she said. “Is this treatment meted out to women by the government expected of him? Ministers in the state government keep insulting women every now and then. The defector MLAs have been given security using vehicles meant for women. Who are they scared of? They are scared of their own voters who are raising questions about their betrayal. We demand an audit of the funds and their misuse by the state government.”

Former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray termed the diversion of the vehicles a “mean” act. “It shows the mindset of the government. The Nirbhaya fund is mean to protect women from atrocities, and its misuse is not acceptable,” he said. Added NCP MP Supriya Sule, “The Nirbhaya fund was constituted by former prime minister Manmohan Singh. The diversion is not acceptable. I request deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to look into it at the earliest.”

Maharashtra Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant has demanded an inquiry into the diversion of the vehicles. “The Nirbhaya fund is meant for the security of women in distress. The Shinde-Fadnavis government should speak up if the diversion of the fund and the vehicles was right and the protection of the MLAs was more important,” he tweeted.

Senior Congress leader and former union minister Jayram Ramesh tagged Sawant’s tweet and tweeted, “Yes, this is indeed atrocious.”