NCP floods Maharashtra minister's house with live crabs after his dam breach comment - Watch

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers on Tuesday threw crabs outside Maharashtra Water Conservation Minister Tanaji Sawant's residence after he claimed that crabs were responsible for Tiware dam breach. The NCP workers brought boxes of live cabs which they threw outside the gates of his house. 

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. 

#WATCH: NCP workers stage protest and threw crabs outside the residence of Maharashtra Water Conservation Minister Tanaji Sawant in Pune against his statement on Ratnagiri's Tiware dam breach. The Minister had said that crabs were responsible for the breach in the dam. pic.twitter.com/7wbsT8yGIs — ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2019

Stating that there were no breaches in the ill-fated Tiware Dam earlier with the reservoir storing water for the past 15 years, he had said: "Leakage happened after a large number of crabs gathered around the dam. Locals brought the issue to our notice and our department acted on it. The incident is unfortunate." He had also said that he came to know about the shoddy construction work from the farmers and villagers of the area.

Hitting out at the minister for his comment, NCP leader Jitendra Awhad had earlier said: "Shameless government leader blamed crabs behind the breach in the dam, nobody is asking them to take all the responsibility regarding the incident but at least don't put the blame on someone who cannot be held accountable for anything."

"If a few rich people would have died in this incident, the government would have definitely done something at the soonest. But some people went missing and died in this incident, why would the government even bother about them?" he had said.

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Attacking Sawant, NCP national spokesperson Nawab Malik had also termed the remark "a shameful defence of his party (Shiv Sena) legislator who is the contractor for the dam". "You want to save a big, corrupt shark and blaming poor crabs? This cannot be tolerated. There must be an enquiry and he must be punished," demanded Malik.

The Tiware dam in Ratnagiri developed a breach on the July 3 night due to heavy rains. The breach caused a flood-like situation in seven downstream villages. At least 19 people had lost their lives in the incident.