Samana (Pb), Apr 12 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday announced the closure of a toll plaza on the Samana-Patran road here, officials said.

This is the ninth toll plaza to be shut in the state since the Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government assumed office last year.

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Addressing a gathering, the chief minister said these toll plazas were “shops for open loot of general public” and they had “plundered public money by flouting all norms of their agreements".

He said with the closure of the toll plaza, Rs 3.80 lakh of the general public will be saved every day.

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It is surprising that instead of taking action against them, the successive state governments had “patronised" this loot by turning a blind eye towards their misdeeds, said an official release quoting Mann.

He said the previous governments ignored the ambiguities of these “erring” toll plazas and allowed them to “mint money illegally”.

At none of the toll plazas, shut so far, the facility of ambulance or recovery van was visible despite a provision for it in the agreement, he said.

Mann said the agreement of this particular toll plaza was signed on September 1, 2005, during the previous Congress government and the toll was imposed for over 16 years.

He said due to several “shortcomings”, a fine of Rs 1.48 crore was imposed on the company and it could have been closed on June 24, 2013, due to these shortcomings.

But this never happened, he said, adding that the toll plaza could have also been shut down on October 16, 2018, when the second overlay (laying of bitumen) was not done. However, this time too, no action was initiated, he said.

When the AAP government issued a notice to the toll plaza over the “violations”, the company managing it moved the court, he said.

However, the plea was rejected and in the larger public interest, the government has decided to close the toll plaza, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)