Jammu: NC MLA Devender Singh Rana on Wednesday asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to shutdown the toll plaza on Jammu-Srinagar national highway or else he will get it closed.
"The people are made to suffer, the road itself is incomplete, the road construction work is on but still people are made to pay the toll taxes, this is injustice," Rana said in the Assembly today.
However, the minister for industries and commerce Chander Prakash maintained that the construction of the toll plaza on the highway was started during the previous NC-Congress government and questioned why the same was not stopped then.
"Why did you allow the construction of the plaza when it was being constructed during NC Congress government, we didn't allow the construction of the toll plaza in our area, why did you allow the same in your area," he said.
Not satisfied with the reply of the minister, the NC leader said that he would ensure that the toll plaza gets removed from the area.
"We will do what you did and I challenge from the floor of this house that whatever it takes I will get this toll plaza removed from that area even if we have to come on roads," Rana said.
Demanding for expunging Rana's statement from proceedings of the house, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) Zulfiqar Ali said, "If a lawmaker talks about breaking of law and if he breaks it, then the law will take its own course."
On this Rana said that he has thrice raised the issue "politely" but was not given a satisfactory answer by the government.
However, Ali assured the opposition member that the issue would be taken with the ministry of surface transport government of India.
