Farmers in Mysuru have announced that they will not pay toll for using the national highways in the district unless their demands were fully met by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The farmers, under the banner of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene, staged a dharna on Saturday at the toll plaza on the national highway stretch between Mysuru and Nanjangud, strongly opposing the toll collection.
They accused the NHAI of collecting the toll without providing proper infrastructure and introducing toll collection without any proper preparation, citing the problems over ‘FASTtag’ connectivity.
In a letter to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, the associations said there are no service roads, no subways, no provisions for diversion to nearby towns, no parity in the rules set for “FASTtags” and “non FASTtags” besides lack of patrol service and non-repair of damaged stretches.
“Unless our concerns are addressed effectively, we will not pay the toll and will continue to protest until our demands are fully met,” they said in the letter submitted through the Deputy Commissioner’s office, Mysuru.
They said the toll collection on Nanjangud highway will largely impact the local farmers. “Already caught in agrarian crisis, the farmers will be left with nothing if they have to pay at the toll plaza daily whatever they earn for their living,” the associations argued.
“This toll policy will take away our earnings. More than 10,000 farmers, factory workers and local villagers use the highway stretches daily. Farm produces are transported through this stretch to neighbouring States, particularly to Kerala, and also to the APMC,” the farmers said in the letter.
Toll plazas had been set up at K.N. Hundi near Kadakola on Mysuru-Nanjangud Highway (NH 766, earlier NH-212) and at Yadathore on the T.Narsipur highway. Farmers had staged protests at Yadathore on Friday opposing toll collection.
The farmers have warned of holding protests at the plazas daily seeking roll back of the toll collection.
