In a major decision, the Maharashtra government has banned all open-air public meetings/rallies between 12 noon to 5 p.m., state Tourism Minister Mangal Prabha Lodha said here on Wednesday.
The move came three days after the deaths of 14 people, ‘Shrisadasyas’, who died hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah conferred the ‘Maharashtra Bhushan Award’ 2022 on social reformer Dattatreya Narayan Dharmadhikari, revered as Appasaheb, at an open-air event which attracted an estimated 20 lakh followers.
The development also came 48 hours after Shiv Sena (UBT) Kishore Tiwari made a strong plea to the Centre and state governments to come out with a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all such mega-events and prevent recurrence of such calamities with loss of precious human lives.