Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday announced the closure of 8 toll plazas located in the state. Briefing newspersons here, the chief minister said that with this decision, the public would save Rs 22.48 crore annually.
The affected toll plazas
These toll plazas include Teokad toll plaza in Kurukshetra district to the Pehowa-Patiala Punjab border on state highway-19, three toll plazas on Saundh, Charoda, and Pathredi road on Hodal Nuh-Patoda Pataudi road, Rai-Nahra-Barota, and Bamnoli toll plazas on Bahadurgarh road, Sunhera toll plazas up to Punhana-Jurhera Rajasthan border, and Bandhwadi, crusher zone, Pakhal, Nurera toll plazas on Faridabad and Ballabgarh Sohna road. In addition, Alipur Tigra and Biwan toll plazas on Firozpur Jhirka Biwan road have also been shut.
In reply to a question on Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, Khattar said that the Central government was earnestly committed to implementing the Supreme Court's decision in this regard and the tribunal was to decide on the water share for Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. Union Jal Shakti Minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, was scheduled to convene a meeting with the chief ministers of both states, Punjab and Haryana, in Chandigarh on December 28, 2023, he added.
On the question about the possibility of conducting elections for the Haryana assembly concurrently with the Lok Sabha, Khattar said the decision in this context rested with the Central Election Commission and the Central government.
Official State Anthem
The chief minister said that soon Haryana would have its ‘State Anthem’ and that a proposal in this regard would be presented in the winter session of the legislative assembly starting from December 15, 2023.
He said that through various competitions, the government had selected three songs and all three songs would be tabled in the House. The song with the highest votes would be declared the state anthem for one year.
₹ 97.9 Cr relief to farmers
The chief minister also said that a compensation amount of Rs 97.93 crore had been disbursed to 34,511 farmers who had suffered loss due to the devastating impact of heavy rainfall and floods in July across 12 districts in the state. He said that this compensation encompassed an area of 49,197 acres, which had been re-sown, with a rate of Rs 7,000 per acre.
