Reconsider toll tax
Even as the four lanning of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is still incomplete as a major portion to convert it into a 4-lane highway is under construction, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) started levying taxes on the vehicles moving on Highway at toll plaza set up at Charsoo, Kachachkot in south Kashmir.
The order to charge the toll tax has been executed by the NHAI and every vehicle passing through the toll plaza will be charged Rs 85. Therefore, Rs 170 will be charged per day on any vehicle moving to and fro on the highway.
The toll tax is surely an impediment for the people to use this highway for their daily travel as the fragile and unreliable economy of the region does not permit commuters to pay such a heavy toll tax for their routine travel.
Though some exceptions have been made as people living within 20 kilometers radius of toll plaza have been exempted from paying the tax, but the moot question is that can the daily commuters afford such a tax every day.
The same principle applies for the small passenger cabs that run on the highway while ferrying people from various districts to Srinagar and vice versa.
The issue of paid highways has been emerging across India and except the DND flyover in Noida, these paid highways have always been a contentious issue for the commuters. In Maharashtra various incidents of violence have been reported wherein even political parties asked people to defy paying such a tax.
The issue has even reached various courts and even the Supreme Court in July last year maintained that no tax will be levied on the Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) flyway. The court gave this verdict during a petition filed by the Noida Toll Bridge Company Limited (NTBCL) against an Allahabad High Court order. The Allahabad high court had on October 26, 2016 ordered that no toll would be collected from the commuters on the 9.2 km-long, eight-lane flyway. The HC ruling had come on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Associations in 2016.
It is a fact that new highways for a better movement of traffic need to be constructed, but at the same time making a common man suffer and to pay for it needs to be addressed.
Kashmir is a very small geographical entity and the state’s economy is not that vibrant that the people here can afford to pay such a huge amount as toll tax during their daily commuting. The state is grappling with disturbed conditions during the past 30 years now and the economy of the region is in shambles.
People in Kashmir are highly dependent on travelling from one district to another for their routine works and in such a scenario if a heavy toll tax is imposed on their movement, the inter-district support to the trade and other commercial activities will be hit very badly.
This issue needs to be taken into consideration before the move is strengthened and established to become a norm.
The government needs to wake up to the needs of the common man and work out an arrangement to exempt all private vehicles from the toll tax. Even an arrangement needs to be worked out for the commercial vehicles as well as such a huge amount will have a telling effect on their budgets also.
KV Network
