The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday demanded immediate withdrawal of vehicles procured under the Nirbhaya Fund and deployed for security of legislators from the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The Opposition party said these vehicles should be given back to the Nirbhaya Squad, a dedicated force formed to put a stop to various crimes perpetuated against women and girls.
The Sharad Pawar-led party has written a letter to the director general of Maharashtra police about the demand.
A police official had on Sunday claimed some of the vehicles procured by the Mumbai police earlier this year with money from the Nirbhaya Fund were being used for providing Y-plus security to MLAs and MPs of the Shiv Sena faction led by the chief minister.
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“The Nirbhaya Fund was created to enable the police machinery to effectively deal with issues relating to the safety of women in the state. Diverting vehicles meant for women's safety and pressing them in the service for protecting MLAs supporting the government is clearly violative of the Nirbhaya Scheme,” state NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase wrote in the letter.
The state government is duty-bound to correct the wrong which has been committed purely under political pressure, he said.
In June this year, the city police procured 220 Boleros, 35 Ertigas, 313 Pulsar motorcycles and 200 Activa two-wheelers using the Rs 30 crore corpus that it had received under the Nirbhaya Fund.
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The Nirbhaya Fund is being given to state governments by the Centre since 2013 to implement schemes related to safety of women and girls. The Fund was created in the backdrop of the 2012 rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student in New Delhi.
The NCP demands the immediate withdrawal of the said vehicles deployed for MLAs' security and they be sent back to the Nirbhaya Squad, Tapase wrote.
The state home ministry has granted Y-plus security to all MLAs of the Shinde faction, which itself seems like a move to accord VIP status to these legislators, he said.
"It is shameful how these MLAs have accepted these vehicles and nobody seems to be bothered or willing to voluntarily withdraw the said vehicles after it has come to light that they were procured for the protection of women," the NCP leader said in the letter.
