NHAI cancels Surathkal toll gate

Mangaluru: The National Highway Authority of India under the direction of the Union ministry of surface transport has ordered the operator of the toll gate to cancel it at Surathkal. Though the orders are yet to reach the operator, the gazette notification has already been out in the public domain on Monday.

The controversial toll gate had been under siege by the people of Mangalore and Mulky for over a year and the fight had intensified in the last three months. This had escalated into an indefinite dharna by the users, activists and political parties including Indian National Congress and left parties and its fringe groups. BJP had kept itself scarce despite its MLAs' representing Mangalore city North and Mulky Moodbidri constituencies on both sides of the toll gate. None of them had done as much as raise a little finger about the illegal toll gate.

The common people who had to pay several hundred rupees towards the toll every week had been fighting against this toll gate for over 6 years. Mithun Rai INC leader and KPCC general secretary told Hans India that "it was definitely a big victory of the people against the authoritarian and majoritarian tendencies- the sustained fight against the illegalities of the government has been laid naked on the roads" he said.

The victory for this fight had been hailed by many people who took part in the protest that went on for 18 days, as a monumental victory for the common people. "This was a fight against the tendency to subjugate the common people and push them into a circle of illegalities but the protestors have made it point to demonstrate that no such things will work here. Had there been any laxity in our approach we would have been under great pressure" Muneer Katipalla who led the protestors cutting across the party lines. Muneer is the state president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India.

On 18 October the district administration took the wrong decision of having the police caning the protestors. "This had actually helped the protestors by bringing it into the public domain more prominently and bringing more people into the movement against the illegal toll gate. The system of police and the administration showed such an uncharacteristic attitude that they did not try to arrest us despite the crowd being overwhelmingly agile. Had they arrested us none of us would have applied for bail and would have chosen to sit inside the jail" Prof MG Hegde, educationist and thinker told"

However, the indefinite dharna will enter its 19th day on Tuesday irrespective of the gazette notification. "We will not relent until the toll collection stops and they physically remove their crew and dismantle the structure," Muneer said. Nalin Kumar Kateel MP of Dakshina Kannada had given a date of 7 November to remove the toll collection but even after a week the toll collection continue unabated which could be a major embarrassment to him and his party.