MNS workers burn auto rickshaw in Mumbai with new permit

Mumbai: A day after MNS chief Raj Thackeray hate speech against immigrant workers in the city, a brand new auto was allegedly torched by miscreants last night.
According to police, the unidentified culprits were behind the incident but eyewitnesses said they were shouting MNS slogans.

Raj claimed that around 70 per cent of those given new permits are non-Marathi and demanded that only sons of the soil should be given licences.

“The government has done away with norms like asking for a domicile certificate and a letter from the CID before handing out auto permits to those seeking it, so that they can anyhow grant 70,000 permits in the coming days,” Thackeray said.

“If any such auto with a new permit is seen plying on the road, those sitting inside will be asked to come out and the auto will be set on fire,” he had said in a speech on the 10th anniversary of his party’s foundation.

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“The cost of each auto is Rs 1.7 lakh and Rahul Bajaj’s company (Bajaj Auto) has the lot of 70,000 autos ready. It means that this is a business of Rs 1,190 crore,” he said. Thackeray alleged that there was no difference in the functioning of the erstwhile Congress-NCP government and the present BJP-Sena government as “corruption continues unabated.”

“Only faces have changed in the new government, but the corruption and style of working has remained unchanged,” he said.