The Panvel Toll Naka Issue – Everything You Needed to Know

The citizens of Panvel, Kharghar, Kalamboli, Kamothe and other areas have been given respite from the Kharghar Toll. Vehicles with licence plates MH-46 and MH-06 will not be charged toll. This is heartening news for the people who were protesting against the toll naka at the destination. The actions and resulting discussions have taken interesting turns.

The anti-toll protest had been spearheaded young Indian politicians and Panvel MLA Prashant Thakur, part of the Indian National Congress. They staged a street protest on the day of the inauguration of the toll plaza. As a result, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan held a meeting with Prashant Thakur assuring the latter that his demands would be met. Vehicles with licence numbers MH-46 and MH-06 were thus exempted from the toll. Also, he proposed to formulate a committee of young Indian politicians including Prashant Thakur to check the feasibility of eliminating all toll plazas from Maharashtra. Further updates on it are pending.

This toll naka was proposed for recovering the 1,220 crores paid by Public Works Department (PWD) for building the road from Kharghar to Panvel. After the original plan of the toll plaza was shelved, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar opined that CIDCo should pay the amount, which CIDCo openly denied. “Just because an organization is cash rich, it doesn’t mean we look after the whole of India”, said an official. “How can we put all our money in one road project simply because it falls in our jurisdiction?” The jury is still out on this debate.

With an eye on the 2014 Maharashtra Elections, each politician seems in the mood to score brownie points for his party. The Panvel toll plaza issue is running in circles when the resolution could have been simpler. However, what matters is that the issue of public interest has been taken care of for now. No one knows how the 2014 Maharashtra Elections will pan out, and what decisions the ruling party may take after that.

The outcome of election results in Maharashtra, Bihar and 9 other states to be held this year holds the key to India’s future in the next few years. The BJP had a thumping victory in the Central Lok Sabha elections this year, but needs the support of state governments to be able to implement policies which it considers beneficial. If the BJP comes into power in these State governments, pushing these policies will become substantially easier. However, other parties come into power, they may thwart the BJP’s attempts to implement policies and legislations, making the latter’s campaign for the 2017 Elections difficult. Hence we are seeing a lot of clamour over proposed policies. Many populist moves like reservation for Muslims and Marathas in Maharashtra (which will mostly be rejected) and proposing and later withdrawing the Panvel toll plaza are hogging the news. We need young Indian politicians to take some radical steps which surprise common man and are aimed at progress and development. However, the possibilities of it appear quite bleak. For now, we can ensure that we vote and bring the right politicians who canvass growth and development to power.