Bandh in Kota ZP constituency planned opposing toll collection from local vehicles at Sasthana toll plaza on December 31
The Hindu
Sasthana Rashtreeya Heddari Jagruthi Samithi to protest toll collection at Sasthana Toll Plaza on NH 66.
Sasthana Rashtreeya Heddari Jagruthi Samithi has announced that Samithi members and general public of Kota Zilla Panchayat constituency will observe voluntary bandh on December 31, protesting toll collection from local vehicles at the Sasthana Toll Plaza on NH 66 in Udupi district.
Samithi General Secretary Alwyn Andrade told reporters in Udupi on Saturday (December 28, 2024) that commercial establishments in the region will remain closed throughout the day while people would sit in protest near the Toll Plaza from 9.30 a.m. The bandh and protest were against National Highways Authority of India’s concessionaire of NH 66 demanding toll from local commercial vehicles at the Sasthana Plaza.
He said private and commercial local vehicles were exempt from toll payment. However the concessionaire recently began demanding toll from commercial vehicles. The Samithi already held a protest demonstration at the Plaza on December 22, 2024 during which time Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Kota Srinivas Poojary intervened and convened a conciliatory meeting on Monday (December 30, 2024) at Udupi. If the meeting does not recommend exempting local commercial vehicles from toll payment, the Samithi would go ahead with the proposed bandh and protest.
Mr. Andrade said the NHAI was keen only on toll collection completely disregarding highway maintenance. While the highway stretch has been in a bad condition, street lights along the Sasthana-Kota stretch do not function. Highway flanks and the median are not regularly cleaned and are covered with thick vegetation thereby endangering public safety. The NHAI which should have provided a service road along the stretch for local vehicles, has not built one even after a decade, he lamented.
Samithi leaders Airodi Vittal Poojary, Prathap Shetty, Saligrama Town Panchayat President Sukanya Shetty, Gram Panchayat Presidents of Pandeshwara, Kota and Kotathattu, Susheela Poojary, Jyothi Bharath Shetty and Satish Kundar and others were present.
