Kapu: Kaup Block Congress and other like-minded organizations staged a protest against Surathkal toll collection at Kaup on Saturday.

Former minister Vinay Kumar Sorake said that the agitation for stopping the “illegal and unjust” toll collection at Surathkal will be intensified and that the protests shall continue until the loot is not stopped.

He was addressing the protestors at a Dharna program organized at Kaup on the behest of the Toll Gate Virodhi Samiti in association with Kaup Block Congress and other like-minded organizations.

Further, Sorake accused the MPs and MLAs from both Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts of “filling their coffers” by supporting the “illegal toll collection” at the Surathkal toll gate. It was promised that the Surathkal toll gate would be discontinued after the Hejamady toll gate became operational. But even after seven years toll continues to be collected at Surathkal, he said.

It is condemnable that the people of Udupi who travel between Udupi and Mangaluru have to pay toll at both toll gates he said and added that there was no one to listen to the plight of the people of Kapu constituency, which borders Dakshina Kannada district.