Six people including three corporators in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) landed in the soup for allegedly propagating unverified content related to relaxations in view of the on-going fasting season of Ramzan, amid the complete lockdown imposed by the district administration which is in force from 23, April to prevent further spread of the deadly coronavirus in the twin-city. The corporators have however refuted the allegations as wild and baseless. The Naya Nagar police have registered an offence under the relevant section of the IPC, Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Act against the Congress corporators- Sarah Akram, Naresh Patil and Amjad Shaikh. No arrests have been made. It has been alleged that sans any official orders by the civic administration, the over enthusiastic corporators jumped the gun by sharing information on social media platforms that barricades will be lifted in the Naya Nagar area and fruit-vegetable shops, milk-booths and bakery stores will be allowed to remain open in designated time slots.
Terming the allegations as politically motivated and orchestrated by some of their own party-men, Naresh Patil said, “The FIR is totally unjustified. The content of the message itself explains that the relaxations were assured by municipal commissioner with whom all three of us had met with the request.” The message had gone viral on various social media platforms-especially Whatsapp, creating unnecessary confusion amongst local citizens. Notably, the civic administration has extended its rigid containment exercise in the form of a complete lockdown till 3, May.
