Left parties seek rollback of toll charges hike

CHENNAI: Left parties on Thursday hit out at the Centre for hiking the user fees in all the toll plazas and demanded its immediate rollback.

“The country is witnessing unprecedented inflation. The wholesale inflation has affected the small and medium enterprises while the retail inflation has badly impacted the poor people. The nation’s economic development has been moving towards a slowdown. To overcome it, the government should increase its expenditure to increase the purchasing capacity of the people. However, the centre is acting in such a way that it increases the burden on the common people, ” CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan said.

He said that the toll charges hiked on an average by 15 per cent in 28 toll plazas from September 1. At Samayapuram toll plaza in Trichy, he said that the use fee for the bus has been hiked by Rs 185 while the charges for the lorry have been increased up to Rs 300.

CPI state secretary R Mutharasan said that the hiking of the toll charges would result in a price rise of all the essential commodities. “On an average 48 toll plazas in the states collect Rs 135 crore a day from the vehicle users. Now they are forced to pay out more every day due to the hike, ” he said.