Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Monday appealed to the government to reconsider their decision to install two new toll plaza at Lakhanpur and Jammu-Akhnoor highway.

�We strongly condemn the move to install two toll plazas at Akhnoor in Jammu-Akhnoor highway and Lakhanpur which is unjustified and has over burdened the middle class and self employees,� Bhalla said.

Bhalla expressed his serious concern over the way the Toll Plazas are being imposed on the people of Jammu who have already opposed the same in Sarore in Samba district and Ban area in Nagrota.

�The local commuters are being compelled to pay the toll in these plazas which is unjustified and it is a deliberate attempt to put financial burden on the middle class when entire world is fighting against pandemic novel coronavirus,� said Bhalla.

He said that generally toll is collected from the commuters on the highway from outside but local commuters have been put to unnecessary harassment to make revenue from them.
�People have already rejected the already established two Toll Plazas in Jammu, and there is strong resentment among the people. The Government must understand what people want,� he said.

He said, �The Jammu people feel cheated with the installation of two more Toll Plazas and there is a general feeling among people of not being heard by the authorities concerned even as they have raised their concern through various means.�

The Government must understand the pulse of the people as it has become one of the main concerns for the Jammuites. It is not going to be tolerated anymore, he added.
He appealed to the Government to reconsider their decision and avoid the installation of toll plazas.

Bhalla asked BJP J&K leadership to come clear on their statements issued in recent years over the opening of toll plazas across Jammu and Kashmir. All the claims of BJP leadership seem hollow and blown out of imagination as more and more toll plazas are being open.� he said.

Hitting hard at BJP government at Union Govt for befooling people of Jammu and Kashmir, Bhalla said that BJP announced a four-lane highway from Jammu to Poonch in 2014 polls but work has now started only on Jammu Akhnoor stretch with reports revealing that the project of four-lane from Akhnoor to Poonch has been going on at snail�s place.
Former Minister on Monday interacted with prominent persons of Ward -57, Model Town in Gandhi Nagar constituency to listen to their grievances. Prominent among those present on the occasion include Corporator Inderjeet Kour, Block President SS Dutt, Rajinder Singh, Surjeet Singh Davinder Singh, Harbans Singh, Madan Lal, Ashok Kumar, Ramesh Choudhary Janak Lal, Hans Raj beside others.