Family woes: Maharashtra CM faces protest from aunt over toll plaza

Mumbai: He may not be facing any opposition from the Congress or NCP yet. However, for Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, one of the first agitations he is set to face originates much closer to home, with his aunt, MLA and BJP leader Shobhatai Fadnavis, deciding to launch a protest to stop collection of toll in Nagpur alleging irregularities and corruption.

Shobhatai said she will be launching a day-long agitation on 21 January on NH7 between Borkhedi and Mansar in Nagpur.

“Though the actual length of the road is 95 km, the construction has been completed only on 58 kms of the road. As per the rules, toll was to be charged only after completion of 75 per cent work of the road. But, the contractor has started collecting the toll tax after completing only 60 per cent work,” Shobhatai told Firstpost.

She further alleged that the contractor is collecting toll at more places than allowed.

“The rule allows setting up one toll plaza in 45 km stretch but the contractor has set up four toll plazas in 95 km stretch,” she said, adding that the issue has been brought to the notice of the Union minister of road, transport and highways Nitin Gadkari last month.

The contractor has also given wrong figures to the NHAI and has recovered more money than invested given the huge vehicular traffic on the road, she said.

“It is daylight robbery of public money. If the contractor is allowed to collect toll tax till 2037 as per the agreement, it will pocket more than Rs 10,000 crore worth of public money, which is completely unacceptable,” she said, adding that multiple groups will also be joining the agitation.

Interestingly, while campaigning for the assembly polls, the BJP had promised to abolish toll on the state’s roads. Recently, the BJP led government faced strong protests from citizens over a new toll collection plaza in Navi Mumbai on the Sion-Panvel highway earlier in this month.

When asked about the party’s promise during the election campaigning, Shobhatai refused to talk about it and said,“I am raising the issue as a public issue and has the support of citizens and many transport associations.”

While the Congress and NCP have alleged that the BJP has gone back on its word of promising to withdraw toll, the BJP leaders maintain that they never claimed that toll will be abolished completely.

We are working out a new toll policy which will come out soon and will provide enough relief to the public, say BJP leaders.

While there’s no obvious rift between aunt and nephew so far, this wouldn’t be the first time that family members have had a falling out in Maharashtra politics, in most cases between nephews and uncles. In the past, NCP president Sharad Pawar has had a face off with nephew Ajit Pawar, late Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray and his nephew Raj Thackeray had a falling out and late BJP leader Gopinath Munde had a run in with nephew Dhananjay Munde.