'Not the last one': Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann after closing 16-year-old toll plaza

PATIALA: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann closed a 16.5-year-old toll plaza on the Samana-Patran road in Patiala district on Wednesday, making it the ninth such toll collection point which has been shut in the state since the Aam Aadmi Party came to power last year.
Mann said the toll plaza's closure would save public's Rs 3.8 lakh every day. Mann, who had last shut a toll plaza on the Kiratpur Sahib-Nangal-Una road on April 1, asserted that his government would order closure of more such toll plazas in the state. "This is the ninth, but not the last toll plaza, to be closed in larger public interest as more such will be freed in the coming days," the CM said.
Mann said the agreement of this toll plaza was signed by the then Congress government in 2005. He claimed that the toll plaza could have been closed down in June 2013, when several shortcomings were noticed in its operation and a heavy fine was imposed on its operators. The chief minister said the company managing the plaza had moved court when the AAP government had issued a notice to it for violations.
He said the government had decided to close down the plaza after the company's plea was rejected by the court. The company had been seeking an extension on the pretext of farmers' agitation and Covid-19 pandemic, but the government had denied it. He said this work should have been done earlier, but none of his predecessors bothered to secure the interests of people.
Mann said instead of working for the people, goverments had been protecting the rights of this company. He said at none of the toll plazas shut so far, there was any facility for an ambulance or a recovery van, despite provisions for them in the agreement. Mann also assured justice in the October 2015 sacrilege incidents. He said this could have been ensured earlier, but none of the previous governments bothered.