The action comes in
the wake of the arrest of two employees of the contract firm found
collecting the toll fee without issuing receipts and then pocketing the
money thus collected. “Workers were roped in through Jayamurugan
Manpower Agency, to man the five toll plazas on Inner Ring Road from the
month of May last year. In the wake of a series of complaints against
the workers, the toll plazas were constantly monitored. Based on the
observations, the contract with Jayamurugan Manpower Agency has been cancelled,” said corporation commissioner R Nanthagopal.

Rather than the vigil of the corporation authorities, the
irregularities were brought to light by a member of the public, who
posted a complaint in the Facebook page of district collectorAnshul Mishra.
The collector, in turn forwarded the complaint to the police. Acting on
the complaint, police monitored the toll gate No 1 on Inner Ring Road
and found that the workers were collecting toll fee but were not issuing
receipt. Othakadai police arrested the two employees identified as A Rajkumar of Keeraithurai and K Mookaiah of Silaman.

In fact, this is not the first time that such irregularities crop up in
till plazas. Last year. the city corporation authorities led by deputy
commissioner K Sabhavi conducted a raid in the toll gates and found that
this practice was widespread in all the five toll plazas. Subsequently,
the civic body removed employees of the contract firm then.

Now, the city corporation has chosen a Chennai-based firm to supply
manpower to man the tollgates on a trial basis. “Chennai-based Third Eye
has been ordered to send employees for the toll collection booths and
the new employees have joined for duty,” said Nanthagopal.

The corporation is also contemplating to install CCTV cameras to prevent similar irregularities in future.