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| Kathua residents protest toll collection at Lakhanpur | | Accuse BJP of duplicity, no match between promises and action | |  SANJAY PATHAK
Early Times Report
KATHUA, July 19: Activists of various organizations on Sunday held a noisy demonstration against the decision of the government to operationalize toll collection at Lakhanpur from July 21.
Led by president Youth Federation Lakhanpur Sunny Sharma, scores of protestors belonging to various groups raised anti-government and anti-NHAI slogans demanding immediate rollback of the decision.
“Under the garb of lockdown, the NHAI has decided to start toll collection at Lakhanpur which is quite unfortunate. People are already passing through testing times amid Coronavirus pandemic and the government is bent on imposing taxes one after another,” Sunny Sharma said.
He accused the ruling BJP at the Centre of “duplicity” saying “there is no match between its promises and actions on ground”.
“It was the BJP’s manifesto to remove all toll posts from J&K but they have established three toll posts between Lakhanpur to Katra. People now feel cheated by them,” Khushbu Bhagat, a Congress leader alleged and warned that they would intensify their protests if the government did not revoke the decision.
Protestors said as per the toll fee fixed by the NHAI at Lakhanpur toll plaza, the Light Motor Vehicles will be charged Rs 85 for a one-way journey and Rs. 130 for a return journey within 24 hours. Similarly, Mini Bus will be charged Rs 140 for single and Rs 205 for double entry while bus/truck (2 axle) will be charged with Rs 290 for single and Rs 435 for double entry within 24 hours and this will dent on the pocket of common masses.
“Highway travel to get even more costly now in J&K. With this additional Toll Plaza at Lakhanpur, all Kashmir-bound tourists and Vaishno Devi pilgrims entering or leaving J&K will now have to shell out extra money on toll at three different toll posts—Thandi Khui Toll Plaza, Ban Toll Plaza and Lakhanpur Toll Plaza,” they said.
Pertinently, the ruling BJP at the Centre has been facing sharp criticism for turning Jammu into a “city of toll plazas” as three toll posts including one at Chenani-Nashri tunnel in Udhampur district. The government has also proposed two more toll posts, one each at new Ring road and Jammu-Akhnoor highway. J&K unit of BJP had written a letter to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari with request to scrap “entire plan of establishing Toll Plaza” but it yielded no results so far.
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