Responding to a call given by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), farmers protesting the Centre’s new farm laws halted toll collection on most highways in Haryana on December 25.
According to officials, toll collection was halted past midnight or from early Friday morning at several toll points in the State.
While at many places, farmers took over toll plazas not allowing authorities to collect fees from commuters, toll employees themselves halted the process in view of the protest at other places. The toll plaza employees allowed vehicles to pass through without having to pay the charge.
The BKU had announced that toll booths in Haryana would not be allowed to collect toll between December 25 to 27. BKU leader Jagjeet Singh Dalewala had said, “From December 25 to 27 all toll booths in Haryana will not be allowed by us to collect toll, we will stop them from doing so.”
Farmers halted operation of toll plazas on NH-44 at Bastara in Karnal; and on the Karnal-Jind highway, at Khuian Malkana toll plaza at Dabwali in Sirsa district and at Makrauli Kalan on Rohtak-Panipat highway.
However toll was being collected as usual on Friday morning at Kherki Daula toll plaza in Gurgaon.
Farmers have been protesting at various sites on the Delhi border for almost a month, even as the stalemate between the government and the protesters demanding a repeal of the three new agriculture laws continued without signs of a breakthrough.
Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the central government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.
However, farmers have expressed apprehension of the new laws eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and doing away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
The government has repeatedly asserted that the MSP and mandi systems will stay and has accused the Opposition of misleading the farmers.
