Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said the opposition expressed by party leader Jitendra Awhad over Maharastra government’s decision to confer state’s highest award to historian Babasaheb Purandare, saying it was his “personal view” and should not be construed as the official stance of the party.

“What Awhad has said is his personal view and not that of the party,” Pawar said, when his attention was drawn to Awhad objecting to Maharashtra government selecting Purandare for the state government’s highest award, the Maharashtra Bhushan.

“The state government has the full authority to select any person it deems fit for the award,” Pawar added.

Police last month booked Awhad, NCP MLA, for allegedly disturbing communal harmony through his provocative speech at a function organised in Sangli by Sambhaji Brigade to demand cancellation of Maharashtra Bhushan award to Purandare.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh had last month opposed the BJP-led state government’s decision to confer the prestigious award to the 92-year-old historian and said that it is “an insult to the nation”.

“Awarding Purandare, who distorted the history of Shivaji Maharaj, with the title of Maharashtra Bhushan is an insult to the nation,” the Congress leader had said.

“Distorting history is RSS agenda and I strongly condemn their attack on Jitendra Awhad, who is a relentless fighter against communal forces,” he had added.

Meanwhile, Jnanpeeth award winner Bhalchandra Nemade said “there is no cause to object to the Maharashtra Bhushan as the award is not that important.”

Nemade also said there was no need for literary meets as nothing is achieved through them.

Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar released a booklet titled ‘Birds of Thane Creek’ by Sunjoy Monga in order to showcase the diversity of birds in the area.

This booklet, penned by nature photographer Monga, is the first ever documentation of bird species of the area.

It has been published by the Mangrove Cell under the Central government’s Indo-German GIZ Project on Coastal and Marine Protected Areas (CMPA).

“I hope that this book would be cherished by wildlife enthusiasts, students and tourists visiting Thane Creek.

Forest Department would facilitate the visit of nature enthusiasts to Thane Creek, which is a natural wonder in an urban setting,” Mungantiwar said.

Recently, the Maharashtra government declared a Thane Creek, situated on 1,690 acres as a ‘Flamingo Sanctuary’.

As many as 200 species of birds, many of which are exclusively found in the aquatic environment, constitute the bird diversity of Thane Creek.

Apart from greater and lesser flamingos, which are spotted here, there are various species of waders, raptors, sand pipers, gulls and terns found here as well.

Bulk of the aquatic avian fauna comprises of the waders, whose lives revolve around water and many of these birds are migratory.

In a brazen attempt at extortion, a physically-challenged shopkeeper was attacked with a sword in suburban Chembur in Mumbai by an assailant, said to be part of a gang of drug addicts who go around and demand cash from shop owners by intimidating them.

The 36-year-old shop owner was saved by a customer present at the shop who managed to overpower the sword-wielding assailant, leading to the arrest of four persons, police said.

The assailant — Akram Sheikh (28) — barged into the shop of Rajnish Thakur at P L Lokhande Marg in Chembur on Tuesday evening and attacked him with a sword, Tilak Nagar police station’s senior inspector Bhagwat Sonawane said.

The accused is part of a gang of drug addicts involved in extorting money from shopkeepers, he added

The incident was captured on the CCTV camera installed in the shop with the help of which police traced and nabbed four members of the gang, who were later remanded in police custody by a local court, the police officer said.

Search is on for two more persons in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, the shopkeeper has been admitted to a hospital, police said.

According to Thakur’s brother Manish, a group of drug addicts had been allegedly trying to extort Rs 1,500-2,000 every month from the 200 odd shops in the Chembur area by threatening to damage their set-up if the money was not given.

“My brother and I had distributed pamphlets and put up small posters outside shops in Chembur so that the shopkeepers refuse to pay the extortion money,” he claimed.

“In last one-and-a-half months, we had informed police thrice about threats for extortion from junkies in the area. But, neither preventive nor any other appropriate action was taken,” he alleged.

“Few days back, my brother and I had taken a group of shopkeepers to DCP (Zone VI) and informed him about the constant threats. The DCP had instructed the police personnel concerned to take action against the culprits,” he said.

“However, no action was taken by the police. We are the cops waiting for such an untoward incident or someone to die for taking action against the hooligans?” he asked.

DCP (Zone VI) Sangram Singh Nishandar was unavailable for comments in this regard.

In a bid to mobilise its cadre and reach out to the masses, the Aam Aadmi Party will organise a mega rally in Mumbai on August 15 as a part of its ‘Jan Samwad Abhiyan’.

The rally will be led by party’s national executive members Mayank Gandhi and Subhash Ware.

Terming it as an outreach programme towards voters in urban Maharashtra, Gandhi said, “Our volunteers across Maharashtra have been silently working towards building our organisation and strengthening it at the grassroots.”

“Political parties have been taking the people for granted as is evident with absolutely no discussion in the monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly on the issue of rampant corruption as well as farmers’ suicides,” he said.

The party cadres have been busy preparing for the event and attempts are being made to mobilise volunteers in full strength from 15 districts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), a leader said.

AAP aims to project ‘Jan Samwad Abhiyan’ as the largest “public problem solving” initiative of its kind, which Gandhi claimed has received huge and unprecedented support from the masses in Mumbai.

Further claiming that Mumbaikars have begun to “seriously consider AAP as a political alternative” and a contender to deliver on its promise of good governance, he said, “Despite Mumbai’s massive budgets for BMC and other public services, Mumbaikars receive pathetic treatment from the government authorities, no matter which established party is in power.”

“There is absolutely no link in the taxes paid by the people and the quality of services delivered by the government,” he noted.

Ware, who is the convener of the state party unit, said Mumbai has always provided leadership, whether it was the freedom struggle or the ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’ movement and what can be a better place than the city to unveil AAP’s future plans for the state.

The rally would begin from Borivali at around noon on Saturday to reach Sion Circle at 4 PM from where volunteers will march to the historic Shivaji Park where Gandhi and Ware will address the volunteers.

Warning political parties of contempt action, the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed BJP leader Ashish Shelar to publish appeals to party members in leading newspapers to not put up illegal hoardings across the metropolis.

A division bench of Justices A S Oka and Revati Mohite Dere had on March 12 issued show cause notice to Shelar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray and party leader Bala Nandgaonkar, BJP’s Mukund Kulkarni and NCP’s Shivaji Ghajre.

Shelar on Thursday filed an affidavit informing the court that he has issued a circular to all the party workers asking them to not display any hoardings, posters and banners without permission from the competent authority.

“On March 14, BJP issued a public appeal in two newspapers informing all the party workers about the circular and also the high court order prohibiting display of illegal hoardings, banners and posters,” he submitted.

The court was, however, not satisfied with this and said, “How much publication does these two newspapers have? The appeal should be published in leading newspapers with wider circulation. Publish the appeal in two leading newspapers from English, Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati.”

Raj Thackeray and Bala Nandgaonkar’s lawyer on Thursday informed the court that they were still inspecting the photographs submitted by the petitioner Bhagwanji Rayani and sought time to file affidavit.

The court has now posted the petition for hearing on September 11.

In September last year, the court had directed a crackdown. It subsequently sought the response of political parties. BJP, MNS and NCP came forward and undertook not to allow or encourage party workers to put up illegal hoardings and banners, to cooperate and not cause obstruction in their removal.

Coming out in support of police action in the ‘moral policing’ episode at Madh island here, residents of the area Thursday threatened to ‘gherao’ the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis if senior police officers who led the raids were transferred.

“We will hold a protest, as part of which we will gherao the chief minister’s residence,” said Naresh Jadhav, a resident of Madh village in north Mumbai’s suburb Malad.

“The villagers, who are relieved that their womenfolk are now safe from prying eyes after the police action, are pained to read reports condemning the so called ‘moral policing’,” said Jadhav.

“Police supported us and we will support them if any action is taken against policemen for doing their duty,” he said.

Rakesh Rajput, a resident of Dongarpada village in the area where the raids were conducted, said the villagers had been writing to police for last five years to take action to end the prostitution which was rampant in hotels, lodges and cottages in the area.

“Before the police action, our women had to go with bowed heads. Now they can walk freely. We can’t thank the police enough,” Rajput said.

Jadhav said the hotel lobby in the area was behind the ‘moral policing’ campaign as their business was affected due to the raids.

Jadhav lauded the police officers for their “timely intervention” in stopping the menace of prostitution in the area.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria had on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the raids in city’s Madh Island and Aksa area on August 6 in which 13 couples and 35 other people were rounded up, drawing severe flak from public.

“What police did was praiseworthy. They have got rid of the menace of prostitution in the area through their action,” Kansari Mata Adivasi Samaj Seva Sangh president Renuka Dive told PTI.

The Sangh is an organisation comprising residents of Madh and adjoining areas and its members are mostly tribals.

“In fact, we had written to Malwani police station under whose jurisdiction the area falls, to take immediate action, and warned of an agitation if no action was taken,” she said.

“The villagers had pointed out to police that prostitution was rampant in the area, in collusion with autorickshaw drivers, and owners of several lodges and cottages there.

“We had also brought to their attention vehicle numbers of autos and other vehicles which were used to bring pleasure seekers to the lodges and cottages. We also told police that incidents of eve-teasing had gone up as a result of this prostitution racket which the police busted,” Dive said.

A top police official told PTI that even Congress MLA from the area Aslam Shaikh had a few months back asked police to act against such cases.

Residents of Dongarpada, Aksa village and Dharvali village in the Madh island area had complained to police about the illegal activities taking place in the cottages there, the official said.

Some of the women arrested by police after the recent raid had confessed that they were part of a prostitution racket which operated in several other parts of Mumbai, including Worli, the official said.