Maharashtra Home Minister Jayant Patil's diktat that parties like Shiv Sena and MNS would have to pay for the damages to property in course of their recent violent agitations has fallen flat on Sena leader's ears.
"We will not pay a single paisa," party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said in Mumbai on Thursday.
"Forget about paying Rs 20 lakh, we will not pay even 20 paise," Raut, also executive editor of Sena mouthpiece `Saamana', said.
Sena and MNS had organised violent stirs over issues ranging from retrenchment of employees at a luxury hotel here to "neglect" of Marathi language by Mumbai University.
"No matter what the party, it will have to compensate for the damage to property during their stir," Patil had said.
"I have asked commissioner of police and state police chief to ensure that action on these lines is initiated immediately without bothering which parties are involved," he had said.
"The government will not tolerate parties holding people to ransom as a result of their violent agitations," the Home Minister had said.