Chandigarh 4th September : Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday announced the closing of two of the two toll plazas along the Sangrur-Ludhiana highway since their terms are set to expire at midnight on Sunday, September 4. “These toll plazas had been seeking extensions of 20 months, or compensation for 50 crores, but I’ve rejected the request and ordered the closing of the tolls in the public interest in general,” he said while speaking to a crowd in Sangrur.
The Chief Minister stated that the toll was introduced on the 5th of September, 2015 for an amount of seven years.The toll was an “gift” of the then Akali government, whose candidate been crowned the winner in by-polls held in April of 2015, he said.
Mann said that the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had stated that the toll would not be constructed, as soon as their candidate was elected to the by-poll, they made an opposite turn and the toll was operational in September.
The Chief Minister stated that over the course of seven years people paid huge sums of money out of their pockets to get through these toll stations.
Mann claimed that as an MP, he also raised the issue of high toll rates in Parliament, but to no success.
But, he explained that since the period of toll plazas would expire at midnight of September 4, so starting Monday, these toll plazas will not be operational.
In describing it as a major relief to the masses the Chief Minister stressed that people are able to travel freely on the roads without paying a hefty tolls on both of the toll plazas beginning Monday.
Mann has firmly stated that he had denied the request of the company for a delay or compensation “as coronavirus was a global catastrophe and farmers’ agitation was the result of strict farm laws of the Central government and to which the Union government later apologised”.
He said that any other person would have backed the plans of the company, however he maintained his interests of Punjabis above the interests of the corporation and chose to shut the company.
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