Tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray's ‘wonderland’ sends BMC rules for a toss

People crowd at the wonderland garden at Bandra Reclamation causing terrible traffic jams in the area. Pic/Satej Shinde

Two days after the civic chief prohibited New Year's celebration in view of the rising Covid-19 cases, state cabinet minister and CM's son Aaditya Thackeray invited people to witness the Christmas light show at Bandra Reclamation on Sunday. Lakhs of people gathered after 9 pm when Section 144 comes into effect, barring the assembly of more than five people at a place.

BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Friday announced strict guidelines, including a ban on the gathering of over five people between 9 pm to 6 am. However, Thackeray sent out an open invitation on Twitter. "Presenting Bandra Wonderland! Do visit Bandra Reclamation and enjoy the festivities, safely! Heartfelt thanks to @reliancejio and MSRDC for their support of this initiative," he tweeted

A mid-day team visited the Reclamation and saw a massive traffic jam, as people had parked their vehicles on the road. Several visitors were not allowed to enter the garden to witness the light show and were turned away.

A group of four people from Sion Kumbharwada arrived around 8.45 pm, but were not allowed inside the garden. "There was so much crowd. It took us more than 1 hour to reach the garden gate. There was no crowd control and no Section 144. More than 2-3 lakh people had gathered there," Jaynik Tank, one of the members, told mid-day.

Another office group from Malad reached the reclamation. One of them said, "We saw the invitation message on social media and came here. We are upset as we didn't get a chance to go inside the garden to watch the light show. But this show was an open invitation to the Coronavirus."

Senior Inspector Vishal Khaire of Bandra Traffic Division said, "Traffic was out of control. Most of the visitors parked their vehicles on the roads. The traffic jam at the Sea Link was for an hour. People should understand that vehicles should not be parked on the road. Though we do not have a count, we penalised many people for parking on the highway."

Rahul Kanal, the organiser of the light show, said, "We shut down the show at 8.45 pm. There was overcrowding as today was Sunday. We had deployed private security guards and also our Yuva Sena workers to control the crowds. We are following all Covid-19 protocols. We understand that there are Covid-19 restrictions and night curfew, but many malls, restaurants and other places are open till 12 am. So we are not violating any rules." mid-day's messages to Thackeray went unanswered.