Mumbai: It's raining ED summons but trust the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and his Sainiks to spring a surprise on the Enforcement Directorate.
On Thursday, even as ED officers were busy quizzing Raj in the Rs 450-cr IL&FS case related to Dadar's Kohinoor Square, his followers were busy checking out the ED premises.
This is what the MNS found: the ED name board was in flagrant violation of the rule that official signboards must be in Marathi.
In its first tweet, MNS Adhikrut announced: "MNS notice to ED!" The ED board reads: Pravartan Nirdeshalay, which means Enforcement Directorate in Hindi, which obviously has riled the MNS, as it does not fit in its sons-of-the-soil scheme of things.
"Maharashtratat shasakiya falak hey Marathit asayala havet, hey ED karyalay bahude visarla ahe. Pan amhi hyachi takrar jilhadhikariyan kade keli ahe. Ani ya notshichi chi prat ED la pathavli ahe. Marathi bhasha vibhag ED la Marathi falakachi sakti karnar @CMOMaharashtra?
(ED seems to have forgotten that official signboards should be in Marathi. We will remind them and, accordingly, have sent a notice to the district collector. Will the Marathi language department take strict action?)"
But as soon as this tweet went viral, the MNS went into a huddle and the tweet subsequently disappeared. The party then claimed it was only echoing the sentiments of Marathi Ekikaran Samiti (MES), asking the ED to install a Marathi signboard.
"As per the Shops and Establishment Act of the BMC, the regional language of the state must be there for identification. We visited the ED office yesterday and found that the Marathi name is missing on the ED signboard and, thus,
we have sent a notice to the BMC, the shops and establishment department, collector's office and the Marathi department of the state government," said Govardhan Deshmukh of the MES.
The Bombay Shops and Establishments Act 1948, states, signboards outside any public or private office must be displayed in Marathi. Non-implementation of the rule results in a levy of fines ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000.
