Silvester D'Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (MS)

Kundapur, Oct 30: "IRB company has forgotten the promises made during the construction of four-way national highway 66 on Karwar-Kundapur stretch. If the company starts to collect toll, without completing the promises, it will have to face stern protest from the public," warned former MLA K Gopal Poojary.

Poojary was speaking at the ‘Toll Chalo’ protest programme that was held on Wednesday, October 30 at the Shiroor toll gate.

Gopal Poojary further said, "All the service roads on the stretch of the four-way national highway have to be completed properly. IRB has resorted to toll collection, without taking into consideration the appeal for giving relaxation for local vehicles in the toll fee. The rules of the highway construction are violated by the company and it has started collecting toll without completing the work. This protest is done as a primary step. If IRB does not respond to this, we will resort to intense protest by taking a foot march from Tallur to Shiroor."

Speaking on the occasion, MLA Sukumar Shetty said, "I will fight, regardless of party affiliation, if there are lacunae in the works that is intended for public convenience. According to the agreement, toll collection needs to be done only after completion of 75% of the work. But the service roads are not yet constructed. Connecting roads are not laid. This has been already brought to the notice of the Chief Minister Yediyurappa. This will also be brought to the notice of the transport minister in order to resolve this issue. I will always be with the public in matters that are for the betterment of the citizens."

Raju Poojary, Deepak Kumar Shetty, Sharath Shetty, Umesh Shetty Kalgadde, Pushparaj Shetty, Priya Kamalesh Bijoor, Arun Kumar, Suresh Batwadi and hundreds of protesters participated in the programme. An appeal was submitted to site engineer Naveen after the protest.