Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan has expressed shock over the Comptroller and Auditor General of India report, which had said that 53% of the vehicles that passed the Paranur toll gate near Chennai belonged to VIPs and did not pay any toll.
Pointing out that over 50% of the vehicles getting a free pass at a toll gate was unique, he said it stood testimony to the BJP model of corruption.
It is the same case with other public-funded toll gates in the State, where higher percentage of vehicles — in the guise of belonging to VIPs — have been allowed to pass free of cost, he said in a statement.
According to the CAG report, 1.17 crore vehicles have used the Paranur toll plaza between August 2019 and June 2020. “Over 1 crore vehicles passing through this gate is a mind-boggling number. A more staggering point is that of them, 62,37,152 vehicles, which belonged to VIPs, had not paid toll,” he added. As for other public-funded toll gates, 36% of vehicles at Authur toll gate; 25% of vehicles belonging to VIPs at Kappalur (Madurai) toll gate and 18% at Lanbagudi toll gate were allowed to pass free of cost, he said. These numbers, he said, were in sharp contrast to the percentage of VIP vehicles that passed through privately-developed road (build-operate transfer (BOT)) projects.
While 49.77 lakh vehicles have passed through the Senkurichi toll gate near Uluthurpet between January 2020 and September 2020, free pass were given only for 12.60% of vehicles of VIPs. Only 11.12% of vehicles of VIPs had passed free of charge at Kaniyur toll gate, 7.13 % through Velan Chettiyur toll gate, 6.93% through Palayam toll gate, 6.76% through Vaigundam toll gate and 6.06% through Kodai Road toll gate.
“The fact that as high as 53% of vehicles have been allowed to pass free of cost at the public-funded Paranur toll gate and only 6% of vehicles of VIPs passed through BOT toll gates for free shows a large-scale pilferage of public money,” the MP said.
The CAG report dropped another bomb-shell, stating that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had not produced any evidence for the free usage of highways by vehicles belonging to VIPs.
Clarification rejected
In a clarification issued in July 2021, the NHAI had said that collection of toll, even in public-funded road projects, had been entrusted to private agencies. Any loss in collection is their responsibility and, hence, government had not incurred any loss. However, the CAG report has rejected this clarification, Mr. Venkatesan said. Rules for both public-funded and BOT toll gates are the same, the MP said, adding that it was the duty of the Union Highways Ministry to ensure that toll collection agencies were complying with them.
He questioned whether the Centre had incurred any loss or if the toll was collected and not been included in the accounts.
Pointing out that the contracts of toll collection were given to private agencies only based on anticipated revenue, he wondered how much public money would have been swindled. While the toll should be collected for the bridges constructed after September 11, 1956, NHAI had collected toll for a bridge built in 1954 at Paranur toll gate, the MP said.
This toll gate has become “historically-special” on many aspects as per the CAG report, he added.
