Centre monitoring situation in Mah: Home Secretary

New Delhi, Feb 4 (UNI) The Centre is monitoring the situation in Maharashtra and has directed the administration to take all measures required to ensure peace and normalcy in the state.

Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta spoke to a senior state government official today regarding the violence against North Indians at many places in the state on the ''instigation'' of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists.

The official told Mr Gupta that cases have been registered and arrests made. They assured that all security measures were taken where ever required and the situation was now peaceful.

MNS activists had gone on a rampage in the metropolis and elsewhere in the state yesterday in the wake of party chief Raj Thackeray's remarks against the North Indian commuity in general and Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in particular.

Mobs of MNS workers assaulted a migrant taxi driver at Dadar in Central Mumbai last evening, vandalised cinema theatres in Thane and Nashik where Bhojpuri films were being screened as well as clashed with activists of Samajwadi Party in Dadar.

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