No Diwali gift, staff make toll free for 5,000 cars

AGRA: Upset over a “paltry” Diwali bonus, workers at a toll plaza on the Agra–Lucknow expressway staged a silent protest by leaving the boom barriers open and letting more than 5,000 vehicles pass without paying the toll of Rs 650.Unlike most protests, this one was swift, quiet — and if you happened to be driving between the two cities for the long Diwali weekend — quite convenient. Around 10pm on Saturday, as Dhanteras traffic backed up on the expressway, every lane at the Fatehabad toll plaza turned green. No one was charged. No one was stopped. No toll was collected. The staff had raised the boom barriers and walked off, leaving at least 5,000 vehicles to pass through for what they said was “inadequate festival incentives”.The 21 toll plaza staff were protesting a “meagre” Diwali bonus of Rs 1,100 announced by Shri Sai & Datar Company, which took over operations at Toll No 21 in March this year. The company claimed that since it had only recently taken charge, it was not obliged to pay a full-year bonus. The workers disagreed — and did so without ambiguity. “Last year we got Rs 5,000,” said one employee. “This year we got a justification.”By midnight, with senior company officials on site and tensions flattened by the promise of a 10% salary hike, the barriers came back down and the plaza returned to routine.