Surathkal toll gate stir to be intensified after Nov 7: Protest panel
Surathkal, Nov 5: Even as the indefinite agitation against the Surathkal toll gate entered the ninth day on Saturday, the action committee has warned of intensifying their stir after November 7, by which Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has promised to stop the toll collection.
Kateel, who is also BJP state president had on October 16 asked the action committee to wait for 20 days to remove the toll gate which ends on November 7.
The protest will be intensified if Kateel fails to fulfil the promise, committee convenor Muneer Katipalla said.
He said the agitation will continue till the toll collection at the plaza is completely stopped. If the local MP fails to keep his assurance, he should quit his post, he said.
Denying Kateel's charge that the protest is being politicised, he said all sections are welcome to join the stir as it is an issue involving the people.
Katipalla said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) authorities have made it clear that they are waiting for the Centre's nod to close the toll gate.
However, BJP leaders who are hand in glove with the contractors are putting pressure on the government to continue with the 'illegal' toll collection, he alleged.
People have been on the warpath for the last several months against the toll gate at Surathkal near here, which they term as 'illegal' as the nearest toll gate at Hejamady is just 10 km away. National Highway rules stipulate that no two toll plazas should exist between a 60-km stretch.
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8 dead, dozens wounded in Russian strike on Ukraine's Odesa port
Kyiv (AP): Eight people were killed and 27 wounded in a Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa, southern Ukraine, late on Friday, Ukraine's Emergency Service said on Saturday morning.
Some of the wounded were on a bus at the epicentre of the overnight strike, the service said in a Telegram post. Trucks caught fire in the parking lot, and cars were also damaged.
The port was struck with ballistic missiles, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa region.
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Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces hit a Russian warship and other facilities with drones, Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement on Saturday.
The nighttime attack on Friday hit the Russian warship “Okhotnik,” according to the statement posted to the Telegram messaging app.
The ship was patrolling in the Caspian Sea near an oil and gas production platform. The extent of the damage is still being clarified, the statement added.
A drilling platform at the Filanovsky oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea was also hit. The facility is operated by Russian oil giant Lukoil. Ukrainian drones also struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
