Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers on Tuesday staged protest and threw crabs outside Maharashtra Water Conservation Minister Tanaji Sawant’s residence for his bizarre reason for the breach in the Tiware dam. Water resources minister Tanaji Sawant had said that the breach in the Tiware dam in Ratnagiri district, which claimed 18 lives, was caused by crabs which had hollowed out its wall.
The NCP workers brought boxes of live cabs which they threw outside the gates of his house. Some of them enter the Maharashtra minister’s residence and empty a basket full of live crabs in the compound. The workers are wearing cloaks with pictures of crabs saying “What is my fault? I am not guilty.”
NCP workers had earlier also visited the Shahupuri police station in Kolhapur, holding live crabs demanding that an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) 302 (murder) be registered against crabs.
The breach in Tiware dam occured last week after torrential rains in the region. The dam is situated in Chiplun tehsil of Maharashtra’s coastal district. The breach caused severe damage in the downstream villages, affecting over 3,000 people. The disaster also caused a flood-like situation in the area surrounding the dam.
