“Vasai and Thane district are in Maharashtra and not Gujarat, and we will not tolerate name boards in Gujarati anymore.”

Activists of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) pulled down Gujarati signboards at some establishments in Thane district.

The cadres of the Raj Thackeray-led party smashed and pulled down over 20 signboards on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in the district’s Vasai area late last night, MNS Thane region president Avinash Jadhav said on Monday.

“Vasai and Thane district are in Maharashtra and not Gujarat, and we will not tolerate name boards in Gujarati anymore,” Mr. Jadhav told PTI on the phone, asserting that their agitation against such signboards would continue.

The Vasai police control room confirmed the incident, but said no offence had been registered so far.

In July last year, some workers of the MNS had protested against a jewellery shop in Dadar and a hotel in the Mahim area of Mumbai, asking them to remove the signboards in Gujarati, the police had then said.

Following the protests, the two establishments removed the Gujarati signboards, they said.

While the owners of the establishment did not lodge any complaint against the MNS cadres, seven of them were then arrested for “illegal gathering” in Mahim, the police had said.