Two women admitted to hospital after ‘brute force’ used, protesters allege; parents had been protesting outside Vidhan Bhavan against arbitrary fee hikes by schools.Two women had to be admitted to GT Hospital on Wednesday after the Mumbai police resorted to brute force to break up a protest by parents outside Vidhan Bhavan on Wednesday afternoon. The women were later discharged, sources said.Parents of school-going children from Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Solapur and several other parts of the state had sought a meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to submit a list of their demands to him.Nearly 40 of these protesters had gathered outside Vidhan Bhavan in response to a call by the Punebased Prajakta Pethkar Education trust, against arbitrary fee hikes in schools across Maharashtra.The parents were demanding that the government take strict action against schools that do not follow the norms laid down by the state under various fee-regulation provisions.The protesters were camped peacefully outside Vidhan Bhavan since 9 am, the parents said. It was only at 2pm that negotiations between the police and the parents fell through, after which the police asked them to leave.“Private schools cause a lot of grief to students, which is why parents from all across the state protested. Some ladies were dragged by their hair into the police van and taken to Marine Lines Police Station,” said Vijay Wagle, a parent from Pune.Prajakta Pethkar said that after being beaten up (reportedly on the orders of officers) and hospitalised, the parents were able to get the government to blink with regard to at least one of their demands.“There were a lot of demands, but we managed only one. The demand is that all the deputy directors in the state will be able to criminally prosecute school trustees who harass and expel students, and hike fees illegally,” Pethkar said.Other demands included criminal prosecution of public servants who are found to connive with schools, and a refund of fees hiked illegally.“We came here to simply have a discussion with top bureaucrats, but they refused to meet us,” said Siddharth Shankar Sharma, legal adviser to the parents, who runs a practice in Pune. “It was very peaceful.”Sharma said the protesters had been sitting on the road, neither blocking it, nor shouting slogans, as it is a restricted area. He said the parents were considering lodging a complaint against the police, and termed the cops’ actions “unfortunate”.“The situation would not have escalated had they met us instead of crushing the protest brutally,” he said.When contacted, DCP Manoj Sharma of Zone-I remained unavailable for a comment.Meanwhile, the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, raised the issue by way of point of information. Speaking on Wednesday evening, Vikhe-Patil said the parents were demanding a meeting with the CM and the education minister, but the police kept them at the gate for a long time, and since no ministers came to meet them, they started a dharna near the gate.“The police should have shown some courtesy. But these women were beaten up brutally by police and one of them was admitted in a serious condition to GT Hospital,” he said.“On the one hand, we are celebrating Women’s Day in the presence of the women and child welfare minister; it is shameful that such incidents happen. The minister must act, and suspend the police officials who attacked these women. If protectors become attackers, the government’s image is affected,” Vikhe-Patil said.MoS for Home, Ranjit Patil, said he would seek details about the incident and take action.