2 min readLucknowJan 12, 2014 02:34 AM IST
First published on: Jan 12, 2014 at 02:34 AM IST
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has sought the state government’s intervention to ensure safety of toll plaza staff in UP who have recently been assaulted allegedly by Samajwadi Party workers and others.
A senior NHAI official said: “Verbal conflicts, use of abusive and threatening language by leaders of political parties at toll plazas are frequent. But incidents of assault on toll plaza staff have risen in UP in the past one year.”
NHAI’s UP in-charge Col. (retd) Khushwant Singh recently met Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani and raised the three recent incidents of assault and manhandling of toll plaza staff in Faizabad and Kanpur regions. SP leaders were allegedly involved in all three incidents, in which FIRs have been lodged.
The NHAI official said he has requested Usmani to issue necessary directives to district magistrate and police chiefs of all districts to take appropriate measures and ensure safety of toll plaza staff.
Sources said the NHAI has for the first time raised an issue related to the law and order situation in the state.
There are 31 toll plazas at various highways under the control of NHAI’s UP regional office.
In Faizabad, a SP leader had on January 1 entered the Raunahi toll plaza on NH-28, where NHAI has given contract of collecting toll to M/s PNC Limited, and reportedly thrashed officer in-charge Hakim Singh when he was asked to pay the toll.
The other two incidents were reported from Bara Jode toll plaza and Anantram toll plaza in Kanpur Dehat where project developer M/s Etawah Chakeri (Kanpur) Highway Limited collects the toll. An activist of Samajwadi Party’s Lohia Vahini was arrested in one of the two incidents.
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