less than a week after the Shiv Sena activists ransacked seven toll stations and set two of them on fire at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra, the MNS activists followed suit on Thursday and vandalised a private toll booth at Dombivli in Thane district, in protest against the poor condition of the roads in the area.
More than 50 MNS activists, led by party MlA Ramesh Patil, ransacked the toll naka at Dombivli’s Katai locality around 11 am, as part of the ongoing agitation against the collection of toll tax at what they as an “illegal” toll station, in the absence of good roads and basic amenities for the vehicle users in the area.
Following the protests which saw the MNS activists damage all the equipment and furniture at the toll naka, the traffic on the Thane-Kalyan Road came to a stand still for a few hours.
In a crackdown on the protesters, the police arrested as many as 20 activists, including MNS MlA from Dombivli Ramesh Patil.
The arrested MNS activists have been booked under various sections of the IPC and o under relevant sections of Criminal law Amendment Act, 1932, and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 and Bombay Police Act,
The anti-toll protests at Dombivli come on the heels of a similar violent agitation witnessed at Kolhapur during the weekend. During the Kolhapur protests, the Shiv Sena activists had vandalized seven IRB Infrastructure-operated toll stations and set two of them fire.
The agitation against the continued collection of tax at various IRB Infrastructure-run toll stations had taken a violent turn at Kolhapur on Sunday, after the private firm ignored the assurance of discontinuance of toll tax given by two local ministers Hasan Mushrif and Satej Patil on the previous night and resumed the levy of tax at various toll stations.
The angry Sena activists and citizens had ransacked the toll stations of Shiroli and Phulewadi and damaged CCTV cameras, computers and furniture there. They had later set two toll stations on fire. The agitators also vandalised five more toll stations in that city.
In their intervention, Maharashtra labour Minister Hasan Mushrif and Minister of State for Home Satej Patil had assured the IRB Infrastructure the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) would pay up as much as Rs 500 crore to it so that the private could discontinue the levy of tax at various toll stations in the city.
The private company began collecting the tax in 2007, as part of the contract vested with it by the state government for constructing 49.49 km-long internal roads in the city. While the original cost of the project was pegged at Rs 220 crore, the company later claimed that the project had subsequently risen to Rs 520 crore and that it would continue the levy of toll for the next 30 years.
Meanwhile, the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation – which held a special general meeting on Thursday – decided not to pay any money to the IRB Infrastructure company at this juncture.
In a resolution passed at the special meeting, the KMC recommended to the state government that the accounts of the toll contract given by the IRB infrastructure be audited by a independent team of experts so as to assess the vastly escalated claim of Rs 1,000 crore made by the private firm for construction 49.49 km of interior roads in Kolhapur city. The civic body decided not to pay any money to the private firm till such an audit was conducted.
In related development, the KMC also urged the state government to restrain the IRB Infrastructure company from collecting any toll tax at the various stations set up by it in Kolhapur.