Kasaragod: Manjeshwar MLA A K M Ashraf has intensified his protest against the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) toll plaza at Kumbla on NH 66, converting it into a round-the-clock indefinite sit-in.

Following a meeting held on Tuesday evening, Ashraf decided to stay on at the protest tent pitched next to the toll plaza at Arikady in Kumbla. A multi-party action committee led by the MLA launched the indefinite sit-in earlier in the day, a day after NHAI began collecting user fees at the toll plaza, located 20 km from another toll plaza at Talapady on the Kasaragod-Dakshina Kannada border.

The MLA and the action committee said the toll plaza violated the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, which the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has repeatedly directed NHAI to adhere to.

Rule 8(1) stipulates that a toll plaza should not be located within 10 km of a municipal area or town, while Rule 8(2) mandates a minimum distance of 60 km between two toll plazas on the same stretch of highway. Although the rules allow deviations in exceptional cases, MoRTH has repeatedly cautioned NHAI against treating exceptions as the norm.

In a petition filed by CPM's Kumbla Area Committee secretary Zubair C A challenging the toll plaza, NHAI told the High Court that it was "compelled to" establish a temporary toll plaza at Kumbla as the designated toll plaza on the Chengala-Nileshwar stretch was still under construction and not operational. The designated plaza is located at Chalingal in Pullur–Periya panchayat, exactly 60 km from the Talapady toll plaza.

Inaugurating the protest on Tuesday morning, Kasaragod MLA N A Nellikkunnu said people could not be penalised for the tardy progress of work by concessionaires. The highway project, he said, was divided into multiple reaches only for the convenience of NHAI and the concessionaires. "For the public, it is one continuous stretch of highway, and the rules are clear that user fees cannot be collected more than once within a 60-km distance," he said.

Action committee leader and Kumbla panchayat member M A Khalid said an urgent petition would be moved in the High Court against the toll plaza. NHAI had begun collecting toll even as the action committee's writ petition remained pending before the court, he said. During the last hearing on November 14, 2025, Justice V G Arun had directed NHAI to produce the sanction order permitting toll collection at Kumbla, said the petitioner, Ashraf Mohammed, also known as Ashraf Karla. "NHAI has not produced the order so far," he said.

Khalid pointed out that the Kumbla market was just 1.5 km from the toll plaza and that thousands of families living on the other side depended on the town for daily needs. "Should residents of Kumbla pay a toll just to reach their own market," he asked. He also noted that the toll plaza lacked a green channel for ambulances. "All these issues will be raised in the fresh petition to be filed before the court tomorrow," he said.

People's representatives from Kumbla panchayat and the Kasaragod district panchayat, cutting across party lines except the BJP, participated in the protest. CPM leader Zubair welcomed the gathering at the protest venue in the morning.