Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 10: A joint delegation of Hotel & Restaurant Association, Katra (HRAK) & PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry Jammu Region Chapter (PHDCCI) met Regional Officer National Highway Authority of India, Incharge Chandigarh & Jammu & Kashmir area, R P Singh and discussed in detail the problems being faced by the public at Ban Toll Plaza.
The delegation comprised of HRAK President & Mentor PHDCCI Rakesh Wazir; HRAK Chairman Shyam Lal Kesar; Vice President Municipal Committee, Katra, Ajay Baru; former President HRAK, Shiv Kumar Sharma; Sr Vice President HRAK, Virender Kesar; Vice President Ajay Kotwal, Councellor Ravi Nag, Sohan Lal, Shubham Kumar, Neeraj Kumar and others.
Wazir and Kesar explained to the Regional Officer that on the basis of guidelines of Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, and on the basis of clarifications given by the Deputy Commissioner/s concerned, local Passes were issued to the people some five years back for the non commercial private vehicles of locals falling within 20 KM area particularly to the people of Katra and are renewed since then but all of a sudden their renewal was stopped for the people of Katra by the Contractor on the basis of plea that Katra is beyond 20 KM which is totally incorrect because leaving aside measurement of straight distance between Katra to Ban which is close to 17 Kms even. Even Deputy Commissioner Reasi too has already authenticated that the area falls within 20 KM and thus in those circumstances non renewal of passes by the contractor and cutting of money from the accounts of the people whose passes are valid even as on today is totally illegal, they added.
Ajay Baru, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Virender Kesar, Ajay Kotwal and Ravi Nag apprised Singh about all the irregularities at Ban Toll plaza, including over charging, taking/deducting of money from the people or from their tags whose local passes are already issued<.
Singh listened to the delegation patiently and assured that all things elaborated in the meeting will be streamlined shortly, including activation of the local passes which have been de activated by the contractor.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
