Mumbai, Aug 15 Maharashtra celebrated India's 77th Independence with patriotic fervour, singing the National Anthem, hoisting and saluting the Tricolour amid a nationalistic spirit, at many events here on Tuesday.
The state’s official function was held in Pune where Governor Ramesh Bais hoisted the Flag and took a salute, while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde did the I-Day honours in Mumbai at his official residence.
The Bombay High Court Chief Justice Devendrakumar Upadhyay hoisted the Tricolour in the presence of Shinde and other judges at the high court building in south Mumbai.
Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar led the I-Day celebrations in Nagpur and Kolhapur respectively, hoisting the Tricolour, taking the salute and interacting with the people.
All Ministers were also present in different districts for the I-Day events, besides Collectors, top civil and uniformed officers across Mumbai and the state.
Government and private organisations, schools, colleges, housing societies and complexes, public and social groups also organised their own I-Day festivities which attracted enthusiastic participation.
Central Railway General Manager Naresh Lalwani, Western Railway General Manager Ashok Kumar Misra and Konkan Railway Chairman-cum-Managing Director Sanjay Gupta led the I-Day celebrations at their headquarters in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Churchgate and Navi Mumbai, respectively.
All political parties also celebrated the I-Day with great fanfare and participation of top leaders, workers and activists at their party headquarters.
The Congress celebrations were led by state party President Nana Patole, with senior leaders like Hussain Dalwai, Wajahat Mirza, Vilas Autade, Sandhya Savvalakhe, and others.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) President and ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aditya Thackeray, Arvind Sawant, Sanjay Raut, and other top leaders along with many activists joined the celebrations.
The Nationalist Congress Party (SP) held its celebrations with senior leaders like Supriya Sule, Dr. Jitendra Awhad, Jayant Patil, Naseem Siddiqui, Vidya Chavan and other leaders and workers at the party headquarters in south Mumbai.
The breakaway NCP (AP) faction also celebrated I-Day with its Working President Praful Patel hoisting the flag and taking the salute with a large number of activists.
Most colleges, schools, universities and other academic institutions celebrated I-Day with the participation of many students in Mumbai and other parts of the state.
The All India Professionals Congress organised a ‘Bhaichara March’ (Brotherhood March) from Mazagaon to Maharana Pratap Chowk in which professionals, intellectuals and others joined to express concerns over the communal-casteist divides and ethnic unrest in different parts of India.
Thousands of housing complexes, society, slum-dwellers and tenements celebrated I-Day, singing the National Anthem, hoisting the Tricolour and then distributing sweets to each other, homes, offices and shops had the flag fluttering atop masts or poles.
The city and state police had maintained tight security all over to ensure the celebrations passed off without any untoward incidents.
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