'MP had promised to close tollgate'
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Feb 20: Suratkal Anti Tollgate Action Committee has planned to hold a mega meeting to register protest and also to hold protest demonstration in front of the tollgate near National Institute of Technology (Karnataka) at Suratkal here at 10.30 am on February 28.
The protesters will demand immediate closure of the said tollgate which they have termed as illegal, dropping of the proposal to collect toll fee from local vehicles, and also demanding to begin construction of new bridge at Kulur immediately.
This information was provided by convener of the committee, Muneer Katipalla, at a press meet he addressed here on Tuesday February 19.
He noted that the toll plaza at Suratkal had started functioning on temporary basis in 2016 amid strong opposition from the local people, with the promise to merge it with Hejamadi tollgate after three months. But, even after Hejamadi tollgate, which is only nine km away from Suratkal, has been functioning since the last several months, Suratkal tollgate continues to be operational where toll charges are being collected illegally from the people. The committee opposing the tollgate has been fighting against the gate since the last two years. The National Highways Authority of India had decided to merge this tollgate with the one at Suratkal, and on January 3, 2018, had obtained state government's nod at a meeting held at Bengaluru for the proposal. Still, the tollgate has not been closed and contract for toll collection is continued to be renewed," he explained.
Katipalla recollected that when indefinite strike was undertaken at Suratkal against toll collection from October 22 last, deputy commissioner and district in-charge minister, U T Khader, had promised to convene meeting of highways authority and resolve the issue. They also requested the protesters to withdraw their stir.
'MP had promised to close tollgate'
"MP Nalin Kumar Kateel openly had declared that the toll plaza at Suratkal would be closed. But none of the promises have come true," he lamented.
Mangaluru city corporators, Purushotham Chitrapur and Dayananda Shetty, Moosabba Pakshikere, Dinesh Kumpala, B K Imthiaz, Raghu Yekkar and Mustafa Angaragundi of the protest committee were present.