TOLL Taking its ''TOLL''

Modern Technology has made road travel more comfortable, faster and reliable and it’s a pleasure to go on long journeys keeping our spinal cord intact. It was only during the last decade or so that the govt. has woken up to solve the grave problem of setting up a decent infrastructure and expressways have sprung up all along the country.
We have had a perennial problem of farmers not getting the correct procurement price due to lack of warehousing facilities, lack of good roads connecting the rural cultivating area to the urban Consumer market which often leads to wasting about 25% of the total produce.
More than one lakh people succumb on the Jittery roads and crore’s are doled out every year from the TAX PAYERS money to the next of kin of the unfortunate Victims in compensation.
Gallons of Petrol/Diesel are wasted day in and day out due to the lack of good roads or bad maintenance.
Building an infrastructure needs lot of capital investment which culminates in national benefit because it arrests most of the ill effects mentioned earlier. The Govt. ropes in Companies of repute after setting a deadline offering the contract to the lowest bidder. It further gives them authority to operate on BOT basis. BUILD, OPERATE & TRANSFER.
The Person who builds the roads/bridges has to maintain that infrastructure in a sound condition.
The Govt. gets the credit for building the bridge and the Contractor the coffers from the TOLL that they subsequently impose/collect from the end users.
Unfortunately off late it has been seen Kiosks have been built alongside old roads which are in dilapidated state to collect tolls. Though the sum is quite meager in some cases , huge amounts are being collected for no effort at all. The Babus in the govt. have hit upon this new found idea to procure advance money from the so called infra co’s which in turn, more than recovers the same through engaging in ‘’TOLL””.
One would have felt happy if the toll was utilized for maintenance of the roads but most of it is ends up in the wrong side of the pocket after paying the trivial salaries/mundane expenses of the collection agents.
After a certain number of years when the cost of the infrastructure is recovered through the levies some benefit should be passed on to the users may be through reduced fare structure, instead the toll inevitably goes on mounting every passing year devoid of any logic or sense.

The people have become immune to all these irrelevant taxes that are treacherously levied on them and seldom protest against these unjustified and immoral practices.
Though we Indians are intelligent, mature and knowledgeable we show an amazing tolerance level that has instigated and emboldened the perpetrators (our spoilt parliamentarians) to levy any tax at their whims and fancies.
The muck in the Parliamentary sort of working where the netas dictate terms to the electorate ,raise their own salary by unilaterally amending/flouting the laid down norms in the name of ‘’DEMOCRAZY’’ should be exposed at all levels .