‘No toll tax for locals on NH-44’
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, May 9: Governor Satya Pal Malik today said he believes that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was involved in Bofors corruption case.
Malik told reporters after inaugurating a Traffic Grade Separator here at TRC that Gandhi was not corrupt initially but later he came under influence of some people.”Initially, he (Rajiv Gandhi) was not corrupt but later under the influence of some people, whom I will not name, he got involved in the Bofors corruption case,” he said.
The Governor said he and PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed quit Rajya Sabha in the wake of the Bofors corruption case and formed Jan Morcha. “All this means that we accepted that Rajiv Gandhi was involved in the Bofors scandal. Initially, he was good but then he came under influence of people and ultimately he was responsible for Bofors (scam),” he said.
Asked if it was right to bring in Rajiv Gandhi into the election campaign, Malik defended the BJP saying if Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru can be mentioned in the elections, Rajiv Gandhi can also be named. “When Rajiv’s son calls you chor (thief), won’t you tell him who he is and what is his legacy,” he added.
After resentment among the people over imposition of toll tax on Srinagar-Jammu highway, the Governor said that there will be no toll tax on locals.
He said that the toll tax issue has already been taken up with the Central Government but in view of the elections they couldn’t interact with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. “We have taken up the issue with the Central Government but due to the ongoing election process things have slowed up a bit,” he said.
He added that the locals here will be exempted from the tool tax, saying that there won’t be any toll tax on locals.
Earlier, Governor inaugurated the Grade Separator at the TRC Junction Srinagar today. This Grade Separator which was conceived during the Traffic Surveys done for the preparation of Comprehensive Mobility Plan for Srinagar City in the year 2013, has been built by the Economic Reconstruction Agency, with the objective to decongest the traffic at the TRC Junction.
The main Limb of this Grade Separator is from Sonawar to Linz side (405 metres) and it has another diversion- J&K Bank Limb (225 metres) so that commuters who go towards MA Road from Sonawar can use the Limb to directly reach the M A Road.
Congratulating the executing agencies, Malik noted that this new infrastructure will facilitate the commuters in Srinagar to a great extent and regulate the traffic flow at the ever busy TRC Junction.
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