A video showing a woman legislator from Thane district of Maharashtra slapping a junior civic engineer in public view has gone viral on social media.
The video clip shows Mira Bhayandar MLA Geeta Jain abusing two engineers of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) over razing a house which resulted in its occupants, including children, being forced to stay on the road ahead of monsoon.
She held the collar of one of the two men and slapped him.
The MLA said she didn't regret her action and is ready to face punishment.
“I lost control when I saw the civic official laughing when the homeowners were sharing their plight. When women who saw their home being demolished were crying, the concerned civic official was laughing at them. My action was a natural reaction to him," Jain told Marathi news channel ABP Majha over the phone.
Jain admitted that her act was against the law.
WATCH THE VIDEO
Speaking about the incident, Jain said only a portion of the house razed by junior civic engineers was illegal and its occupants had promised to remove the illegal part.
"The illegal construction was proving to be a hurdle for a builder and not to any government amenity or road. Still, these civic officials went there and instead of demolishing the illegal portion, they razed the entire house," she claimed.
Jain referred to a Government Resolution (GR) which says no house, whether legal or illegal, should be razed ahead or during the monsoon season.
“I had told the officials about this GR and asked them not to proceed 15 days back. The order comes into effect on June 1 every year. Still, they went ahead and damaged the house a few days back,” she claimed.
The civic officials even pulled the hair of women who were opposing the demolition of their house, Jain alleged.
The MLA claimed the two engineers were carrying out the demolition work on a private
piece of land in connivance with builders.
"I will raise this issue in the Assembly. Let him (the engineer who was slapped) file a case against me.... I am ready to face it. How can one tolerate civic officials pulling down structures built on private land?" the legislator asked.
Jain won the 2019 assembly election as an Independent but later extended support to the Shiv Sena after Uddhav Thackeray became chief minister. However, after Eknath Shinde's rebellion in June 2022, Jain is now in the BJP camp.
