Mumbai:
Raj Thackeray, the MNS party chief has asked people not to pay toll tax at the toll collecting points across Maharashtra. Talking to the media in Mumbai, he said this move was needed due to the mismanagement of funds by the state government. "I am not against toll collection. But a citizen who pays the toll should know where that money is going and for what purpose it is used," he said," he said.
Within minutes, his workers were at various toll points in the state, exhorting people not to pay. The MNS workers have allegedly been sent to toll booths to check how many vehicles pass from the toll road and how much money is collected. This is being done to prove how contractors don't show the actual figure of vehicles passing, thereby showing lower profits only to get extended tenures for collecting tax.
The police have deployed additional forces across the state. They detained over 10 activists after they reached the Bandra-Worli Sea Link that connects suburban Bandra to Worli in south Mumbai.
Making his agenda clear, Mr Thackeray said money collected by the government was not being used to maintain roads and there was no answer as to where the money was going. According to him, in one year money collected through toll was used to pay teachers' salaries in government run schools.
Last month, Mr Thackeray had questioned the toll collection policy of the state government, even as hundreds of MNS activists attacked and damaged toll posts in various parts of the state, police had said.
"What is the cost of the project; within what period has the cost been recovered; how many vehicles pass through these toll posts daily... Nothing is displayed at the posts. Yet, collections are being carried out... All these questions need to be answered," Thackeray demanded back then.
Mumbai alone has five entry points, which generate an estimated annual revenue of over Rs.2 billion on an average from toll collection, one of the major sources of income for the state government.
The collection is made either directly by the government agencies engaged in building infrastructure or by contractors appointed for the purpose.
(With IANS inputs)