Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress lost its grip on power in West Bengal earlier this month as BJP stormed to power. BJP’s historic rise to power in the state was celebrated like a festival, and the decisions by the newly formed government are showing us why.
The BJP government has ordered the immediate closure of unauthorised toll or drop gates or barricades that were running on district, urban and rural roads illegally during the tenure of the Mamata Banerjee government.
The order issued by chief secretary Manoj Agarwal read, “All toll gates, drop gates, barricaded structures and operational collection points from which vehicular traffic is operating across all districts of West Bengal, which have not been duly approved/authorised by the competent authority of the Government of West Bengal, shall be closed without any immediate effect.”
The West Bengal government has taken strict action against illegal tolls and drop gates in the state. The instructions issued by Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal have said that all toll gates, drop gates and barricades operating without government approval must be closed… pic.twitter.com/1SPsdVyVoJ
— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2026
This becomes one of the first decisions taken by the BJP government after it came to power in the state for the first time.
While the decision by BJP is laudable and will easy commute for the people of the state, the shocking part is that these illegal tolls were running in the state on a large scale for years.
Was TMC blind to the sufferings of the people as they were forced to pay these illegal tolls or were they willingly looking away.
With this very first decision we can now tell why people were celebrating BJP’s win as a festival. They expected the BJP to ease their daily life’s problems, and being forced to pay illegal tolls while traveling on the roads is definitely one such problem.
This also highlights to what level there was misgovernance in West Bengal under the TMC rule as people were just setting up random toll booths on their own and extorting money from the residents of the state.
Under the BJP government, hopefully more of such daily life’s problems of the people will get resolved.
