Passengers and traders travelling through National Highway-34 in Malda had a harrowing time after bus owners in the district went on a strike on Thursday morning.
The hardest hit due to the day-long strike were passenger and traders in the district and bus owners plan to organise another transport strike across the district on Friday.
Protesting against an unfair hike in toll tax at Gazol and Baishnabnagar 17 Mile area, the bus owners claimed that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) previously used to charge Rs 110 from buses which crossed the toll plaza.
The decision, they said, had been taken at a meeting where the district magistrate was the mediator.
However, according to the protestors, NHAI started charging Rs 450 from the buses all of a sudden.
The sudden hike in toll tax was not at all expected by the bus owners, leading them to protest against the toll hike.
The NHAI had started charging toll tax at Gazol and Baishnabnagar 17 Mile recently. However, the bus owners alleged that NHAI has not yet completed the expansion work and have began charging extra money from the bus owners without finishing the construction.
"We want justice. We want the district administration to look into this matter. We will go for a bigger movement on Friday. The strike will not be restricted to the National Highway. The transport strike would stall the vehicular movement across Malda district on Friday," said Ujjal Saha, secretary of Malda Merchant Chamber of Commerce.
It may be recalled that in a recent report published nationwide, it was stated that NHAI has been losing Rs 75 crore daily since
demonetisation was announced by the Central government.
The Centre, however, exempted charging toll a few days after announcing demonetisation.
The Centre had stopped collection of toll tax till November 18 so as to avoid problems to commuters. Many vehicle drivers suspect that the sudden hike in toll tax was a fall out of demonetisation.