24 June,2009 01:39 PM IST | | A Correspondent
Shiv Sainiks today took to the streets in protest of rising electricity tariffs and appealed to Mumbaikars to stop paying their bills in protest.
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The Sena workers have been protesting outside Reliance Energy offices in parts of the city since morning.
However, theu00a0protests took an ugly turn outside the corporation's office in Goregaon when police restored to lathi charge after Sena activsits threatened to turn violent. Over 35 people were injured in the incident including women protestorsu00a0
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Over 300 protestors have been detained, including senior party leader Subhash Desai and Sunil Prabhu
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According to Sena leader, Vinayak Raut, the party had to resort to this after previous appeals had fallen on deaf ears. "We have made appeals to the minister for power and the chief minister too but since they didn't pay heed to our complaints we are now on the streets. This protest will continue until a solution is worked out," said Raut.
Reliance Infrastrauture Limited plans to recover Rs 1376 crore and has proposed a hike of 30 per cent for residential consumers, while the overall hike is 5 per cent. "We have given the memorandum submitted by the Shiv Sena to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), who will decide whether it can be incorporated in our proposal to them," said a spokesperson from Reliance Infrastructure.
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A mob of over 500 Sena activists had earlier this month attacked the Reliance Energy office in Santacruz.
Also read: Has Shiv Sena struck a chord with Mumbaikars?
