Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann (File Photo)The Punjab Congress on Monday slammed Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for taking credit for removing the toll plaza on Dhuri-Sangrur road and stated that the term of the toll plaza was anyway scheduled to end on September 4.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, senior party leader and former Dhuri MLA, Dalvir Singh Goldy, said that “the toll plaza was illegal and unauthorized from day one, as it had been set up on an already constructed road”.
Goldy said that his party had been “fighting against its installation right since the beginning and had highlighted the issue before three governments since 2014”. He said “it was strange that the Aam Aadmi Party government was trying to claim as tits removal as an achievement, when its (the toll plaza) term had already expired”.
Goldy also questioned Mann as to “why he had never raised his voice during his eight year stint in Parliament as Sangrur MP against the toll plaza.”
He pointed out that Mann, before becoming the Chief Minister, was MP from Sangrur but had “never raised the matter”. “Rather the CM would earlier dismiss it as a minor issue,” he said.
The former Dhuri MLA said he had constructed an alternate road to save people from being charged money for the short distance of 13 km from Dhuri to Sangrur. And for this, he added, several cases had been registered against him from time to time by the toll plaza operators.
Challenging the Chief Minister, he said, “If Mann really means to provide relief to people from toll plazas, then he should remove other toll plazas as well, just like the one at Dhuri”.