NCPCR seeks FIR against Aaditya Thackeray over presence of minors in 'Save Aarey' protest

On Monday, the National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights (NCPCR) demanded an FIR against Shiv Sena MLA and former Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray. In a letter addressed to Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, NCPCR registrar Anu Chaudhary referred to a complaint received from an organization named Sahyadri Rights Forum which accused Thackeray of using minors in the 'Save Aarey' protests. According to her, this constituted an offence under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, Article 21 and IPC. The NCPCR registrar asserted, "In view of the above, the Commission thereby requests you to investigate the matter urgently by lodging an FIR against the accused person (s) at once. The children should be identified and produced before the Child Welfare Committee as per Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 for recording their statements. An action taken report along with copy of FIR and statement of children may be shared with the Commission within 3 days of receipt of this letter." Row over Metro car shed in Aarey The Mumbai Metro 3 project comprises a 33.5 km underground corridor running along the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ route. In total, there will be 27 stations out of which 26 will be underground. Over 96% of the tunnelling work has been completed. There has been a long dispute regarding the location of the Metro car shed. According to environmental activists, Aarey is a forest area and any construction work would hamper the ecological balance. On the other hand, the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis regime highlighted that the long-term gains of the project would offshoot the temporary damage caused due to the felling of trees. Widespread protests were held against the Aarey land being utilised for the purpose of building a car shed for Mumbai Metro 3. As the Bombay High Court upheld the permission granted by the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Corporation’s (BMC) Tree Authority in October 2019, over 2,185 trees were razed overnight. This led to a petition in the SC that ordered a freeze on the cutting of any more trees till further orders. After taking over as the CM in November 2019, Uddhav Thackeray asserted that a single leaf of Aarey would not be cut for constructing the car shed. On October 11, 2020, Thackeray announced that the car shed will be shifted from Aarey to Kanjurmarg and no cost will be incurred for the purpose. However, the Bombay HC stayed the transfer of the 102-acre land in Kanjurmarg to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the construction of the car shed on December 16, 2020. After the formation of the Eknath Shinde-led government, protests again started over the public intent expressed by Fadnavis to shift the car shed back to Aarey. Both Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray have vehemently opposed this proposal. Aarey is a unique forest within our city. Uddhav Thackeray ji declared 808 acres of Aarey as Forest and the car shed must move out. Our human greed and lack of compassion cannot be allowed to destroy biodiversity in our city. pic.twitter.com/YNbS0ryd8d — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2022

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NCPCR seeks FIR against Aaditya Thackeray over presence of minors in 'Save Aarey' protest

On Monday, the National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights (NCPCR) demanded an FIR against Shiv Sena MLA and ex-Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray.

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