Assam Group Demands Halt to Highway Toll Collection

Guwahati: The Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuva Parishad wants an immediate freeze on all state toll plazas. Construction work is incomplete. Roads remain in ruins. President Ujjal Kumar Chutia and General Secretary Udayan Kumar Gogoi claim the state ignores its own rules to extract cash from drivers.

The group demands a total suspension of fees until contractors finish building and fixing highways from Sadiya to Dhubri and Dhemaji to the Srirampur border. They specifically pointed to the neglected Jorhat to Moran stretch of National Highway 37. Tolls keep flowing despite the poor road quality. It is a scam. The government collects money while failing to provide basic road safety or emergency help.

Basic services are missing. Drivers cannot find functional toilets, first aid, or rescue teams. When cars break down or run out of fuel near these plazas, no one helps. The group also slammed the lack of toll-free numbers for commuters to report illegal fees or bad road conditions. They specifically challenged the placement of the Raha toll plaza, citing laws that restrict building such stations too close to urban centers.

The organization invoked promises made by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari regarding the 60-kilometer rule. Regulations dictate that no two toll plazas should exist within 60 kilometers of each other. The group insists the government close all stations that violate this distance mandate. They highlighted a recent crash that killed eight people, linking poor road maintenance directly to the tragedy.

The leaders did not mince words regarding the current state of affairs. "If revenue collection becomes a higher priority for the government than saving human lives, questions will inevitably arise over the government's accountability to the people," the pair stated.

The Yuva Parishad is now demanding full transparency. They want the state to disclose the legal status, exact locations, and construction progress for every plaza. They also want a working grievance system for the public. The current setup prioritizes profit over safety, and they want it stopped now.