Ostensibly concerned at the sorry state of roads in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district, despite a sizable toll collection from the area, the Shiv Sena torched three toll booths in the city.
According to police sources, the incident occurred late Monday evening when rampaging Sainiks from the Sena’s district unit burnt down the booths at the Bavda, Shahu and Phulewadi stops.
The Sena’s justification for this vigilante act of arson was that the booths were within city limits and while residents had to pay a toll for entering and exiting the city, the State government was paying scant heed to the upkeep of roads.
The residents had apparently resorted to numerous agitations over the condition of the roads in the past.
According to Sena sources, their workers were forced to take the extreme action after receiving no response to a letter that was written by the Sainiks to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan four days ago, urging him to take notice of the Kolhapur roads.
While the residents are happy that they will not be paying the toll for now, questions are being raised regarding whether the Sena’s protest had to anything with the approaching elections.
