Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada District Youth Congress President Mithun Rai has stoked a controversy after urging the people to slap MP Nalin Kumar Kateel with their sandals, on Tuesday, July 16.
After tasting defeat in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, Rai, who did not make any public appearance was seen at the Suratkal toll gate on Tuesday morning, where a protest was held against the toll collection from local vehicles bearing registration KA-19.
Addressing the protesters, Rai said that toll collection near NITK Suratkal is completely unscientific as another toll plaza located in Hejamady is just 10 km away from Suratkal. “Though local vehicles are exempted from paying toll, contract company has started toll collection from the local vehicles as well. The members of the Congress party had participated in the previous two protests too, but MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has never come out in support of the protesters. There are some BJP leaders who are protesting against the toll gate, but that seems more of an eyewash,” he said calling upon people to slap MP Nalin Kumar Kateel with their sandals.
While the Congress and the BJP both had come to the toll gate to stage stir, both ended up blaming each other for the problems caused by the toll gate.
However, Deputy Commissioner S Sasikanth Senthil has ordered the toll gate management to stop collecting money from the vehicles bearing local registration number till next three days. He has said that a final decision in this regard will be taken soon.
