14 April,2011 06:35 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
Hospital dean files complaint against party workers erecting pandal near exi gate on Ambedkar Jayanti
The seemingly noble act of distributing food to about 50,000 people who turn up annually to pay obeisance to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at his statue installed opposite Sassoon Hospital became a cause for altercation between the hospital authorities and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers.
Won't give up: MNS activists voice their protest against Sassoon
Hospital administration near the exit gate. Pic/Vivek Sabnis
That the MNS erects a pandal outside the exit gate of the hospital to distribute the meals did not impress Dr Renu Bharadwaj, the hospital dean, who in a heated exchange with Sushila Netke, city president, women cell of MNS, made her displeasure known.
The MNS has been distributing food free of cost to the followers for the last five years. The food is prepared elsewhere but served near the exit gate of the hospital in a pandal, specially erected for the purpose. Dr Bharadwaj objected to the pandal that is annually erected and also to the distribution of food near the hospital premises.
She also filed an official complaint at the Bund Garden police station. Angry MNS workers along with their leaders Arun Kalble, Ganesh Jadhav, Sunil Atole, Dharmendra More, Sharad Hargude, Meera Khatri and Anita Chavan, organised an agitation outside the hospital reproving Bharadwaj's stand.u00a0u00a0
"I condemn the stand taken by Dr Bharadwaj," said Netke. "This is a social work to show respect to Dr Ambedkar's followers who come from remote areas of the state to pay tribute to their idol. We shall not stop and continue to distribute food outside the Sassoon hospital exit gate tomorrow."
