Scrap DND toll or we will lay siege: Farmers

NOIDA: Gautam Budh Nagar farmers have threatened to seize the toll plazas on the Delhi-Noida-Direct flyway and the Yamuna Expressway if these key carriageways are not made toll-free for them by September 30, in a letter to the district police and administration.
"It is unfair that we have to pay for the use of roads that have come up on farmland once owned by farmers," said Dhirender Singh, a farmer."If we are not invited by the authorities for a dialogue, we will take over the two toll roads on Wednesday," Singh said. "We will intensify our protest making it a daily affair till we are exempted from paying toll," he said .
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has, on several occasions, forced open the toll gates of the plazas of both the DND and the Yamuna Expressway, demanding that the stretches be made toll-free.
Toll operators said that they had received the farmers' letter and had written to the administration asking it to provide necessary security backup. "We have written to the district magistrate and the senior superintendent of police to provide security personnel to maintain law and order on October 1," said Anwar Abbasi, spokesperson, Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd. "We will ensure that toll users do not face any inconvenience due to the protest," he added.
NTBCL officials further said that according to their agreement with the Noida Authority, they were not allowed to waive the toll for anyone. "However, we do allow toll-free access to vehicles carrying agriculture produce by the farmers," Abbasi said.