Chhagan Bhujbal urges Raj Thackeray to get toll figures from officials

Public works department (PWD) minister and in-charge of Nashik district Chhagan Bhujbal said that Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray could meet state PWD officials and get details of toll collected across Maharashtra.

"Let him get figures from the officials and point out any mistakes made by the government," Bhujbal told reporters.

Bhujbal, who is on a day-long tour of rural Nashik, told made the remarks when he was asked to react to Raj Thackeray's statewide agitation against toll collection.

"We are ready to answer all queries. If you (MNS) have the courage, come and speak. Though to agitate is a right, to take law into own hands is not so," Bhujbal said.

Meanwhile, both the city and the rural police have taken a serious note of the agitation against toll on Wednesday and police pickets have been deployed around toll booths in and around Nashik, police sources said.

Both Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and MNS are strong in Nashik. Chhagan Bhujbal is an NCP minister, while his nephew Sameer Bhujbal is the NCP MP from Nashik.

While MNS has 39 corporators in the Nashik Municipal Corporation and three MLAs from Nashik, namely Vasant Gite, Uttamrao Dhikle and Nitin Bhosale.

On Monday, NCP activists burnt an effigy of MNS chief Raj Thackeray at the crowded Dwarka square to protest against derogatory remarks made by the MNS chief at Pune against Chhagan Bhujbal.