Miscreants damage Goa Bhavan board
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.co
MUMBAI/TIVIM/PONDA: Five persons, suspected to be associated with an NGO led by Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh, were arrested for allegedly vandalising four Goa-bound tourist buses in suburban Borivali while protesting against their leader’s arrest in Goa, police said.
According to police, a group of people brandishing hockey sticks allegedly smashed the windows and other parts of four parked Neeta Travels buses at Link Road in suburban Borivali Tuesday night. They also pelted the buses with stones.
Five of the group, allegedly associated with Swabhimaan Sanghatana led by Nitesh, were arrested, an official at MHB Colony police station said, adding that they were enraged with their leader Nitesh’s arrest in Goa.
In a related development, four unidentified persons also damaged the name board of Goa Bhavan in suburban Juhu.
Police suspect the assailants could also be linked with the NGO and they carried out the attack protesting Nitesh’s arrest in Goa.
Nitesh was yesterday arrested along with his three supporters for allegedly vandalising a toll booth and attacking its staffers in Goa.
Meanwhile, the Nitesh Rane episode evoked a mixed response amongst travel operators in Mapusa, while no tension was felt in the temple town of Ponda.
When Herald visited the interstate bus stand at Mapusa, a couple of travel operators said buses will run normal. “We hope all is well and forgotten,” a travel operator told Herald.
Another operator said: “I haven’t heard of anything, but if our buses in Mumbai have been damaged, then it’s sad. Several Maharashtra buses also ply in Goa, there could be retaliation and the bus operators would suffer.”
A bus operator said: “Goans are peace lovers and this being tourist season, we do not want any disturbance in Goa that may keep the tourists away. Few buses have been damaged, but we need to keep our cool and continue doing our business.”
In Ponda, there are few travel agents and according to information, a couple of bus tickets to Bombay were booked.
“As usual, there were couple of tickets booked on Wednesday. We have no information from bus operators or passengers who have cancelled their tickets,” said an attendant.
Another attendant from a known travel agency from Ponda said, “there are no bookings for Bombay today and there is no such information of not accepting ticket bookings.”
