Punjab border residents oppose Himachal entry tax; Nihang Sikhs warn of renewed protest
A faction of Nihang Sikhs has also renewed its threat to revive its agitation against the levy, which they say continues to affect daily life in the region.The Himachal Pradesh government, under the provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Tolls Act, 1975, collects a tax on vehicles from other States entering Himachal Pradesh. Toll barriers have been set up at various locations, including Parwanoo, Gara-Maura, Mehatpur, Kala Amb, Kandwal and Baddi, along the Punjab and Haryana borders. The latest vehicle entry tax ranges from ₹100 to ₹900, depending on the category of vehicle.Opposing the vehicle entry tax, members of the Sangharsh Morcha have been holding intermittent demonstrations over the past few months near Gara-Maura, twin villages on the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border where a toll barrier is situated on the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali National Highway, demanding a complete rollback of the levy on out-of-State vehicles entering Himachal Pradesh. The agitation has drawn the support of Nihangs (Sikh warriors), who, as part of a symbolic protest earlier this month, collected what they termed ‘Khalsa tax’ from Himachal Pradesh-registered vehicles entering Punjab through the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali highway. The collection was, however, voluntary and not coercive.For Pradeep Singh Sekhpuria, a taxi operator from Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab’s Rupnagar district, taking his passenger cab across the State boundary into Himachal Pradesh has become economically unviable. Citing the example of a trip from Kiratpur Sahib to Swarghat in Himachal Pradesh, a distance of barely 25 kilometres, he said, “The vehicle entry tax keeps rising year after year. It has made it very difficult for us to work freely. While the road tax and NHAI toll apply universally, it is the ₹100 entry charge, valid for only 24 hours, singled out for out-of-State vehicles, which hurts the most. The taxi operator having a Himachal-registered cab doesn’t have to pay the entry tax, allowing them to offer lower fares, resulting in Punjab-based operators like me struggling to stay competitive in their own backyard. We want it rolled back completely.”Vir Singh, a resident of Nurpur Bedi and a local leader of the Kirti Kisan Morcha in Rupnagar district, said: “Most of our relatives stay in the adjoining Bilaspur district of Himachal. I often travel to neighbouring villages of the hill State in my private car, at times three to four times a week, and every fresh day I have to pay the entry toll. If someone is visiting Himachal once or twice in a year, then it is not a big issue for them to pay entry tax, but for people like me, the entry tax makes a deep hole in the pocket.”As the entry tax continues to disrupt their daily routine, locals, including traders, taxi and truck operators, farmers and others, have formed the ‘Sangharsh Committee’ to raise their voice against what they term an unjustified tax.“We had been intermittently staging protests for the past few months near the entry toll barrier situated at Gara-Maura villages on the Punjab-Himachal inter-State boundary on the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali highway. People living along the border depend on cross-State movement for their daily livelihoods. Traders, transporters, farmers and ordinary citizens are all being hurt by this tax. We want it withdrawn. Locals in border districts, not just in Punjab but Haryana as well, are all affected by Himachal’s entry tax,” Gaurav Rana, convener of the committee, told The Hindu.“We will again re-launch our agitation in the next few days. We are planning to hold a meeting of members in the first week of July, in which the next course of action will be decided if the demand is not met,” he said.The agitation has also drawn the support of Nihangs, who have declared that they will r
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