Mumbai: Tens of thousands on Monday joined a ‘Jan Aakrosh’ campaign called by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to protest against demonetization all over Maharashtra.
Senior NCP leaders including Ajit Pawar, Supriya Pawar, Sunil Tatkare, Nawab Malik, Jayant Patil, legislators and MPs took part in the protests along with activists.
They carried banners, placards and black flags, raised slogans, blocked roads and submitted memoranda to local authorities, including in Mumbai.
In Kolhapur, a group of Nationalist Congress Party activists tried to form a queue of buffaloes outside a closed ATM of a nationalized bank, but police chased away the animals.
In Mumbai, Pune and Thane, the NCP activists took out ‘ATM funeral processions’.
“It is over two months since demonetization was implemented on November 8. Yet ATMs are not functional, people have to struggle to get their own money from banks,” Supriya Pawar, MP, said in Pune.
“It’s a pity that even after 60 days the government has no idea when the situation will become normal,” state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said in Kolhapur.
NCP women’s wing President Fauzia Khan led the protests in Aurangabad.
Mumbai party chief Sachin Aher warned that the anti-demonetisation agitation would be further intensified since the poor have been badly hit, businesses are down and unemployment looms large.