Green tax: Tourists stuck amid chaos in Manali

 Dushyant Singh Pundir & Abhinav Vashisht

Mandi/Kullu, May 23

It's chaos in the tourist paradise of Manali and Kullu. The local transport is inadequate and the five-day strike by private transporters over the green charges has virtually forced tourist to stay indoors. Hundreds of tourists today blocked the road near Manla's Mall Road demanding connectivity to the nearby tourist destinations.

And those coming in their own vehicles had a different tale to tell: Many diesel vehicle owners have allegedly been charged the green cess meant for petrol vehicles, which is less. Many alleged the officials at the Gulaba check post on the Manali-Rohtang road took Rs 5,000 from them and issued a Rs 1,000 slip meant for a petrol vehicle. "This defeats the very purpose of National Green Tribunal's recommendations for reducing pollution," said a vehicle owner. Manali SDM Jyoti Rana has said more HRTC buses would be deployed to reduce the tourist rush. 

Auto-rickshaw, taxi and luxury bus operators in Manali have been on an indefinite strike for the past five days protesting the May 5 NGT order imposing environment compensation charges on the Rohtang-bound vehicles. The order also restricts the vehicle number to 1,000 per day — 600 petrol and 400 diesel vehicles.  A petrol-driven vehicle has to pay an environmental compensation charge of Rs 1,000 and diesel vehicle Rs 2,500 and all commercial vehicles with a seating capacity of more than six seats Rs 5,000.

Puran Chand, president, Him-Aanchal Taxi Operators Union, Manali, said the livelihood of nearly 1,500 taxi drivers was at stake. He said the hefty cess would deal a cruel blow to the taxi operators.

Union secretary MD Sharma said by limiting the number of vehicles, a taxi operator would get a chance to ferry tourists to the Rohtang Pass only once in 10 days.

A hotelier said since Tuesday when the commercial vehicles went off the road, thousands of tourists had left the town.  The tourists who had stayed back were virtually confined to their hotels and were forced to take a stroll in the town, he added. Kullu Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar said the administration had again appealed the unions of various commercial vehicle operators to end their strike.