Northlines News Desk
With the Jammu's trade bodies announcing Jammu Bandh on Saturday, the battle-lines seem to have been drawn as the government is in no mood to see the rationale in discontinuing the charging of Toll Tax at Sarore without providing hassle-free functional Jammu-Pathankot road.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCI) Jammu on Thursday gave a one-day call for Jammu shutdown against continuation of Sarore Toll Post on Jammu-Pathankot national highway in Samba district of Jammu Division. ICC president Arun Gupta said that till the damaged bridge of Taranah Nallah on National Highway is completely restored and the damaged roads are repaired and made fully operational, the toll tax collection be kept in abeyance.
On Wednesday, chief secretary, Dr. AK Mehta who was here in Jammu, impressed upon the ‘stakeholders' to expedite the necessary repairs of road and Tarnah Nallah Bridge, without referring to the burning issue of Sarore Toll Plaza and its fallouts.
Social media has been viral with the protesting voices and public resentment against the government as they feel the issue was not that big to be neglected. Instead of dealing the matter amicably with the citizenry, the government preferred to look the other way. Political observers see the incident as a trigger that may burst out the simmering anger among the people of Jammu who have been feeling dodged due to governments numerous unfriendly decisions thrusted upon the people that followed after the dilution of Article 370.
Interestingly, in a similar situation, even the District Administration has shown a great public concern in Himachal Pradesh, when the District Magistrate -cum-Chairman District Disaster Management Authority ordered the closure of the toll tax plaza at Sanwara till the Parwanoo-Solan highway was restored for vehicular traffic. The National Highway (NH)-5 has been damaged at multiple locations between Solan and Parwanoo and blocked at Koti owing to heavy rain since August 2. Despite this the locals were being charged a toll for using the highway.
The Punjab government has shut as many as ten toll plazas in its tenure of fifteen months, the latest being the Moga-Kotkapura Toll Plaza on July 05, 2023. It has declared to close nine more Toll Plazas in the coming few months.
Terming the operation of toll plazas an “open loot”, the Chief Minister of Punjab said, “It is surprising that the previous governments, instead of taking action, patronised them (toll plazas) by turning a blind eye.”
He added, “Every single penny plundered from the people will be recovered. More such toll plazas will be freed in the coming days to give respite to the people.”
Instead of appreciating the genuine public demand, the Authorities in Jammu Kashmir preferred the path of confrontation by arresting the protesting youth and immediately restricting the movement of people near Sarore toll plaza by imposing Section 144 of the CrPC) which forbids the gathering of four or more people at a particular place.
The protestors said the toll plaza has been set up in violation of the rules and the declared policy of within 60 kilometre distance between two toll plazas. Interestingly, the distance between Sarore and Ban toll plazas is less than 43 kilometres. Many other organisations, including trade bodies, have also demanded the removal of the toll plaza, saying people have to pay an unnecessary toll while moving out of their homes for essential work.
