Congress workers held protests against the operation of a toll plaza at Lakhanpur in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district and clashed with the police on Tuesday. Several Congress workers and leaders were detained, the police said. A new toll plaza has been set up on the Jammu-Pathankot highway in Lakhanpur. Violating social distancing norms, senior Congress leaders of Kathua district, including former legislators Girdhari Lal Chalotra, Subash Gupta, Pankaj Dogra and Anuradha Andorra, along with a large number of party workers, held a protest demonstration at Lakhanpur, opposing the imposition of toll tax. Hundreds of Congress workers clashed with the police. Several of them were detained and subsequently, shifted to the district police lines in buses, the police said. Condemning the police action, Congress leaders said it was unjustified while alleging that the Union Territory administration is acting at the behest of the BJP and suppressing the voice of those who are protesting against the “anti-people” decisions of the government led by the saffron party at the Centre. The government is squeezing the poor and common people by imposing all sorts of taxes in various ways and now, installing one toll plaza after another in the Jammu region, they said.
