Toll

NICE

action

TB Jayachandra

illegal

PWD

collection on thering road and peripheral road by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) has come under the scanner of the state government. The Legislative panel appointed to probe into the irregularities of the company has noticed that the company is illegally collecting toll from its users and likely to take a stringentagainst such a toll collection.The committee was surprised to find that the company was collecting toll from its users to the tune of several crores every year violating terms and conditions of the contracts. Speaking to media persons, Law and Parliamentary affairs minister and member of the House Committeesaid, “Thetoll collection has come to the notice of the government and we are considering it seriously. A strict decision to curtail toll collection will be taken in this regard in the next meeting of the committee scheduled to be held in the first week of October.”Sources in the state legislature revealed that officials of the Public Works Department () have submitted a detailed report about the toll collection. “Every day the company is collecting about Rs.1 crore as toll charges. Annually, this will amount to Rs.365 crore. Our own investigation has also revealed that several important files related to the project have gone missing. We will further find out at what stage these files have gone missing in the coming days,” Jayachandra clarified.Considering that the investigation will need still more time, the committee is also contemplating submitting a request to the speaker to extend the tenure of the committee by another three months. “The committee had previously resolved to appoint retired High Court judge Justice Nagmohan Das as legal advisor. He is expected to submit his report in another two months after going through the verdicts pronounced by High Court and Supreme Court over the project. Based on his report, we will submit a detailed report to the house,” the minister explained.