Governor must suspend all Tolls during yatra: Ex-MP

Toll leading to long traffic jams on NH

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, July 2: Former Member of Parliament and senior Congress leader, Madan Lal Sharma has demanded that Governor must suspend all Toll Taxes in the State during Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra as tourists and local people are suffering due to hours long traffic jams on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
In a press statement here today the Ex-MP demanded the suspension of Toll Tax in Jammu region as done recently in Kashmir, till the holy yatra of Shri Amarnath Ji concludes in the State. He has requested the J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik to immediately instruct the concerned authorities to make the Jammu-Srinagar Highway free from Toll collection at all Toll points as these tax collection points are leading to kilometers long traffic jams and is causing inconvenience to the public.
Madan Lal said that the authorities have already restricted the movement of traffic to certain hours for the general public to facilitate the easy movement of yatra and within those restricted hours all the private as well as commercial vehicles have to cover very long distances on the highway. The condition of highway from Udhampur to Jawahar Tunnel is also very bad as construction is going on highway which itself leads to slow movement of traffic and after that the toll collection of these thousands of vehicles further leads to slowing of the traffic across the whole highway. This all is leading to lot of problems for the general public who have to suffer with their families and small children for hours while they are stuck in the traffic jams on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.
The suspension of Toll tax will bring a big relief for the commuters and decision on it should be taken immediately by the administration for the welfare of the people he added.