A day after people's protest in Navi Mumbai over the naming of the upcoming international airport in the city, the Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh thanked people for their support and cooperation despite inconvenience in maintaining law and order.
Taking to Twitter, Bipin Kumar Singh said: "Navi Mumbai Police is thankful to people for their support and cooperation in-spite of inconvenience in maintaining law and order yesterday. The agitation for naming the Airport passed off peacefully without any untoward incident. Thanks a lot."
Thousands of people from Raigad, Thane and Palghar districts of Maharashtra staged a protest in CBD Belapur area on Thursday demanding that the under-construction Navi Mumbai international airport be named after late D B Patil, a local leader, by August 15.
The police had deployed more than 4,000 personnel, 500 officers and Reserve Police Force units on the roads leading to the CIDCO office, Deputy Commissioner of Police Shivraj Patil told PTI. The protest march went off peacefully but the organizers would be booked for organizing it without police permission. At least 10,000 people took part in the protest, he added.
The protesters, numbering around 10,000, shouted slogans against the state-run City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is executing the project, and asked for nixing of the decision to name the airport after late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.
Leaders of the protest also threatened to stop the construction of the greenfield project if the demand was not met by August 15.
While several local leaders including those from ruling alliance partner Congress and opposition BJP took part in the huge protest, leaders from the Shiv Sena were absent.
While the organizers had earlier given a call to "gherao" (besiege) the CIDCO Bhavan at CBD Belapur township in Navi Mumbai, the protesters were stopped a kilometre away.
(With inputs from PTI)
