Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray has stepped up his attack on the BJP-led Mahayuti government, accusing it of taking away sports grounds and open spaces from students and youth and turning them into commercial and residential skyscrapers in Mumbai. Thackeray has launched a campaign urging people to show the BJP a red card.
Hundreds of football lovers, including children, coaches, trainers and concerned parents, assembled at the iconic Neville D’Souza Football Ground in Bandra on Sunday as part of the ‘Show the Red Card’ programme. The gathering opposed the BJP-led BMC and state government’s move to change the reservation of the football ground to a convention centre.
Shiv Sena (UBT) opposed the BMC’s decision to hurriedly change the reservation of the Neville D’Souza Football Ground despite the Bombay High Court’s warning not to take any decision until the petition is heard and disposed of.
“In the last four years, the BJP has snatched the 17 open spaces that were either used for sports activities or for exercise purposes by the adjoining residents. Mumbai has only limited open spaces that are also called the lungs or breathing spaces, but the BJP wants to snatch them and hand them over to their party MLAs and cronies who fund them in elections. We will not allow this to happen,” Aditya Thackeray said.
“Mumbai’s recreation grounds and playgrounds should remain open fields that should not be turned into a concrete jungle. When Mumbai’s 2034 development plan was made in 2017, Uddhav Thackeray had told the corporators and mayors that he did not want to give a single ground to builders and contractors. He had taken a stand that the ground should remain a ground,” said Aditya Thackeray.
He also said that the original area of the Neville D’Souza Football Ground was 2.58 hectares, or six acres, and that it was a playground.
A Sena (UBT) leader said, “But that was planned to be handed over to BJP’s crony. Besides, the Andheri Sports Complex has been given to an organization that is close to the BJP’s top leadership for a Rs 21 lakh per year lease. The three MHADA plots have been given free of charge to an organisation of a BJP MLA. One after another, open spaces are going out. On one hand, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis talks about Gen Z, saying children should not be glued to screens but go out on the field, but where are the open grounds for them?”
Aditya Thackeray said that everyone should set aside their differences and come together in the greater interest of the city to save Mumbai’s open grounds. He said otherwise no grounds would remain for children to play on, alleging that the BJP was in a hurry to make money by handing over these grounds to its cronies.
