Transporters oppose toll tax collection in Balakot

MANSEHRA: The transporters on Tuesday threatened to remove the toll tax plaza at Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road in Balakot by the National Highway authority.

“This toll tax plaza is erected illegally in Balakot and we will remove it by force if the administration doesn’t remove it within seven days,” Jan Alam, the president of Hazara transporters association, told reporters.

Flanked by the other office-bearers of the association, he said that Mansehra was the only district across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the NHA has been receiving toll tax at the points.

“The Balakot tehsil has been exempted of tax after the 2005 devastating earthquake and traders as well as the local people are against erection of toll tax here,” Jan Alam said.

The association’s general secretary, Pervez Khan Swati said that they would remove it by force if the administration didn’t close down the toll tax plaza and suspended the collection at Balakot.

“We have already been paying toll tax in Khatain Da Galla at Karakoram Highway near Mansehra and at two places in the same city at Hazara expressway but even then the NHA erected that toll tax plaza,” he added.

Swati said there was no toll tax collection elsewhere in the entire province.

“We have already taken up this issue with the district administration and local lawmakers, asking them to remove this toll tax plaza but to no avail. And that is why we have decided to remove it,” he said.

FREE MEDICAL CAMP: The Helping Hand Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences (HHIRS) held three-day free-medical camps in Lakki Marwat.

The patients from Lakki Marwat and surrounding areas were examined during the camp, said a press release.

The patients from Lakki Marwat and surrounding areas were examined during the camp.

According to the press release around 425 patients were screened and assessed and home exercise programmes were recommended for the stroke, CP, post-polio paralysis, post traumatic contracture, sciatica, CTEV patients and people with disabilities.