Mahant talks to CS on toll plaza issue

Raipur, Jun 26, 2012

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industry Charandas Mahant on Tuesday talked to Chief Secretary Sunil Kumar over phone on proposed site of toll plaza and asked him to take necessary action to shift it out of Raipur municipal limits.

The state president of Congress business cell Kanhaiyya Agrawal informed that Mahant held talks with the CS after he and other Congress leaders handed him a memorandum seeking his intervention into toll plaza issue.

“We provided copies of all the relevant documents pertaining to toll plaza to Mahant. He too found that the toll plaza should be constructed out of the city limits according to agreement done by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the government. He then called upon the CS and asked him to quickly ensure shifting of toll plaza out of the city,” informed Agrawal.

“Mahant termed our agitation genuine against proposed site of toll plaza and told the CS that nowhere in the country has any toll plaza being constructed within the city as is being done in Raipur,” Agrawal added.

Notably, the Congress has categorically announced that it would not allow construction of toll plaza at Ring Road No 1 near Sundar Nagar and launch massive protest movement against it.

The party has also announced to gherao PWD Minister Brijmohan Agrawal as the proposed site for toll plaza comes under his Raipur South Assembly constituency but he did not object over it.

Recently, a delegation of Congress leaders handed over a memorandum to PWD Principal Secretary RP Mandal on the name of CS and urged to shift the toll plaza outside the city.

“Since we could not meet the CS last time, we will meet him now on Wednesday at 12 pm regarding toll plaza issue,” informed Agrawal.

Earlier, the party will submit a memorandum to RMC commissioner TP Sinha at 11 am on Wednesday.

The Congress leaders who met Mahant on Tuesday were DCC Raipur Urban President Inderchand Dhariwal, DCC Raipur Rural president Pankaj Sharma, RMC mayor Kiranmayi Nayak, PCC secretary Amit Pandey, Dr Niranjan Haritwal, Nischay Bajpayee, Ashwini Sharma, Radheshyam Vibhar, Shreekumar Memon, Sheikh Shakeel, Atul Raghuvanshi, etc.