Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, OCT 16 :
With the situation becoming from bad to worse over the establishment of Sarore Toll Plaza, the fury among the people has turned into an outrage which could be fraught with dangerous portends. “The writing on the wall is loud, crisp and clear. BJP has written its own obituary. The Saffron brigade who once created ruckus over the installation of the site while in opposition has now gone into obnoxious hibernation. You further went to an extent to vandalize the structure and raze it to the ground at that time. Your chameleon character came to fore when you inaugurated the Toll Plaza with fanfare and photo ops, a couple of days ago adding one more glaring example of deceitful activity in your archive of skullduggery”. This was stated by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and former Minister while launching a blistering attack on the BJP today.
Anguished over a series of Toll Plazas coming on Jammu’s highway, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh regretted that in view of the in appropriate banking of the road stretches and rising road mishaps on National Highways in Jammu region, the renewed attempt of NHAI to establish 7 toll tax collection sites had raised many eyebrows. He said while the Lakhanpur, Ban and Chenani-Nashri Toll Plazas were already functional, the installation of Sarore site less than 40 Km behind Ban had not only violated the norms of NHAI as described under user rules of 2008 but also subjected the local population and the pilgrims to further loot and extortion. The most appalling fact remained that the said nodal agency of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has tendered out the construction of another Toll Plaza at Rajbagh while two more tax collection sites were proposed for Akhnoor and Ring Road, Harsh divulged.
Taking a jibe at the BJP, Mr. Singh rued that in view of J&K’s economy facing serious crisis with tourism coming to a grinding halt, the nasty move of the government to establish Toll Plazas in Jammu Pradesh would not only affect the pilgrimage but the hefty taxes levied would severely break the back of a common man. “The aftermath of Sarore Toll Plaza speaks about the woes and inconvenience faced by commuters with traffic jam for hours and forced extortion”, Harsh maintained.
Expressing serious concern over discrimination doled out to the subjugated Jammu region, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said while the GoI once again pursued the policy of appeasement in doling tall promises to Kashmir valley in the name of socio-economic reforms, abundant employment opportunities, premier educational institutions, hospitals and tertiary healthcare institutes, etc., the people of Jammu were put under the tax burden to compensate for the development of the valley. He said the BJP has found a new way of pampering Kashmiris post abrogation of Art 370. Loot the pockets of Dogras from Toll Plazas and feed the Kashmiris for their well being and upliftment, he said.
“Its traumatic to see that Jammu which has come to be known as ‘City of Temples’ with innumerable temples and shrines doting the skyline to create the ambience of a holy city is being converted into the ‘City of Toll Plazas’ by the BJP for a malevolent cause”, lamented Harsh.
