New Delhi, August 26
The nationwide indefinite strike of the truck operators, that entered sixth day today, seems to be losing steam amidst reports that government has decided to put pressure on the striking leaders by arresting some of them under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

Though, the officials in the Finance Ministry and All India Motor Transport Congress (AITMC) are tight-lipped but insiders say that an agreement may soon be announced as the AIMTC has agreed, in principle, to the implementation of service tax provided the truck operators are not asked to collect it from the customers.

“ We are not against the service tax, what we are asking is that truck operators should not be asked to collect service tax on behalf of the government,” disclosed a senior leader of the 51- member coordination committee of the truck operators’ associations spearheading the agitation.

The officials admitted that a large number of truck operators in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, UP and Northeastern states had already started plying trucks. But the impact of strike was still visible in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and some Southern states.

In Delhi, the police has arrested Mr O..P. Agarwal, former President of the AIMTC and some other senior leaders under ESMA.

Other leaders have gone underground to evade arrests and have switched off their mobiles.

Mr B.N. Dhumal, President, AIMTC claimed that third round of talks with the government remained inconclusive, though it continued until late last night. “ Government was exerting pressure on us to sign an agreement threatening that it will start making arrests.”

The insiders said, the strike may soon be called off as some of the associations were already pressing upon the leadership to sign an agreement “at any cost” as the transporters were suffering financial losses worth Rs 500 crore daily.

Earlier, truck operators, who were expecting Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to make an announcement in Parliament today to withdraw the tax or give some relief as a face-saving measure for the them, felt frustrated.

Officially, Mr Dhumal maintained that the transporters had no intention to call off the nation-wide truckers’ stir until the Centre withdraws 10.2 per cent service tax imposed on the industry.

Reacting to the statement of Director-General of Service Tax K. P. Singh that the government is ready for talks but not before they call off the ongoing agitation, AIMTC spokesman Mahendra Arya said there was no question of calling off the strike.

Mr Singh made the statement after a meeting with transporters yesterday. He said the association had exempted essential commodities like vegetables, milk and water from the strike.