STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana today urged the administration to exempt the people residing in the Nagrota Assembly Constituency at Ban Toll Plaza to facilitate their hassle free travelling to Jammu on daily basis.
“Such an exemption was already available to the residents of the Constituency but for reasons unknown the road toll is again being levied on the vehicles travelling between Nagrota and Jammu”, Rana said while interacting with a delegation of prominent citizens from the Constituency this afternoon in this regard. He said Nagrota and its peripheral areas are almost part of the greater Jammu and the people are required to commute on daily basis and at times twice or thrice a day in pursuit of their economic avocations, duties, education of children etc and levying of road tax is grossly unjustified, especially as such a provision is already available. Devender Rana hoped that the J&K UT administration and National Highway Authority will take an urgent call on this issue of immense public importance and appreciate instructions for exemption of the toll duty to the entire population of the Nagrota Assembly Constituency. Such an exemption should cover all modes of vehicles keeping in view the close proximity between Jammu and Nagrota. He said that Nagrota’s economy is interlinked with Jammu and harsh measures of levying road tax will hamper this important activity. He recalled the successful agitation of the Nagrota residents against levying of the road tax during the commissioning of the Ban Toll Plaza and said that this had resulted in the cancellation of the toll order for locals by the then Minister for Public Works. The demand of the people was as logical then as of now, he added.
Rana said he has already taken up this issue with all concerned who have appreciated the genuineness of the popular public demand and hoped that necessary orders with regard to waiver of toll to the people of the Nagrota constituency will be issued earnestly.
“This is necessary for smooth and hassle free vehicular traffic between Nagrota and Jammu”, he added.