lok Sabha members on Wednesday demanded “immediate abolition” of toll tax and instead asked the Government to introduce cess which could be used for “developmental purposes.”
Some of the MPs also focused on the high-rate of accidents on Indian roads and wanted more ambulance services, including in waterways, to save injured people.
While participating in the discussion on the demands of grants for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (BJP) demanded that toll tax should be abolished immediately. “Toll tax should immediately end,” the BJP MP said. He instead advocated that the Government could bring in cess, which could be used for various developmental works. He said the tax was not serving any purpose.
Singh referred to “astronomical bribes” paid throughout the Indian road network and sought involvement of the public to stop traffic violations. He said unemployed youths should be awarded for clicking photos of traffic-violators and submitting them to the police as evidence.
The BJP MP drew attention to the high-rate of accidents on Indian roads and mentioned names of leaders who died in road accidents, like Congress leader and former Union Minister Rajesh Pilot, BJP leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, senior TDP leader Yerran Naidu and BJP leader and Union Minister Gopinath Munde — to prove his point.Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD) also demanded abolition of toll tax which he said was a nuisance, causing problems for the public. Members said toll tax was causing inconvenience to the public and serving no purpose.
In the recent past, Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva had also suggested that toll tax be abolished along the Delhi-Jaipur Highway (NH-8). The NH-8 regularly witnesses traffic-chaos on account of complete mismanagement in toll-collections, causing public outrage. Shiv Sena in Mumbai has also been up in arms against “unfair toll collections.”
On other issues, Vinod Kumar (TRS) from Andhra Pradesh wanted the Minister to clarify whether the Transport Ministry would adopt the PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) or EPC (Engineering-Procurement-Construction) business model. He said while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has spoken of the PPP model, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has mentioned EPC. G Hari (AIADMK) said a chain of Tamil Nadu model Amma Restaurants should be set up along National Highways across the country so that people can get subsidised food.
Rabindra Kumar Jena (BJD) said research and development packages for National Highways should be increased. MPs expressed concern over delay in getting clearances for 363 National Highway Projects worth Rs 60,000 crore due to complex procedures. Initiating the discussion, Congress leader and former Union Minister Vincent Pala said National Highway projects should be brought under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution so that it could not be challenged in courts and, thus, delay in the execution of projects could be avoided. Former Union Home Secretary-turned politician RK Singh (BJP) also pointed to the delay in clearance of road projects.