Aaditya Thackeray takes a dig at Eknath Shinde on Aarey: 'Anger against us...'

Written by Manjiri Sachin Chitre | Edited by Swati Bhasin

Jul 10, 2022 02:13 PM IST

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Environmentalists are holding a protest at Aarey colony against the Mumbai Metro Line-3 car shed.

Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday took a dig at the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra over the Aarey issue. "Whatever anger they have against us should not be taken out on city. Jungles and environment need to be protected, climate change is upon us,” he told reporters amid protests against the metro car shed construction.

:Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray joins the Protesters during 'Save Aarey' protest against cutting the trees and building a metro car shed in Aarey forest.(Pratik Chorge/Hindustan Times)

He further added that they had “proposed the metro car shed construction to be turned into a veterinary hospital for jungle," news agency ANI reported.

Environmentalists are holding a protest at Aarey colony against the Mumbai Metro Line-3 car shed. Aarey is often referred as the "green lung" of India's financial capital.

Also read: 'Don't toy with environment…': Uddhav's warning after Shinde's Aarey reversal

Hours after coming to power, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde - a couple of days ago - had overturned the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government's decision to relocate the proposed metro car shed from the Aarey Colony. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called the plan “half genuine and half sponsored”, adding that the construction of the car shed was the “only solution to Mumbai's congestion.”

“Aarey issue is half genuine and half sponsored. Work was paused after 25 percent of it had been completed. The cost has already been escalated by ₹10,000 crores. More the delay, the more the cost escalates. This is the only solution to Mumbai's congestion,” Fadnavis told reporters last week.

Highly criticized by environmentalists, the metro car shed was first proposed at Aarey by former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan in 2014. This was challenged by local NGO Vanshakti in the Bombay High Court, with a plea to prevent the cutting of trees in the area. Fadnavis, who had succeeded Chavan, went ahead with the project.

After coming to power, the Thackeray government had shifted the site to Kanjurmarg, but it got embroiled in a legal dispute. The MVA government had also declared Aarey as a reserved forest.