'It is not practical': Karnataka Speaker denies demand of separate VVIP lane at toll gates

Hours after it was reported that there was a demand from some Karnataka legislators for a separate VVIP lane at toll gates, the state Speaker on Thursday said that there was no question of any such move and also it was not practical.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that Karnataka Speaker UT Khader asked the state's PWD minister to have a meeting with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to make sure MLAs, MPs, MLCs, and former ministers have a separate lane at toll gates. The issue was taken up after Congress MLA Narendra Swamy raised the issue during the session. The demand was to have a separate lane for the VVIPs.

However, Speaker UT Khader later said that one of the MLAs raised the issue regarding the Mysuru-Bengaluru 6-lane corridor wherein one legislator was harassed by a toll person. He said toll staff doesn't allow emergency and a separate lane. "A separate lane is already there at every toll but this wasn't there in Mysuru-Bengaluru toll...There is no question of a separate VVIP lane, it is not practical," he said.