Fruit, vegetable trucks stranded on bypass near Mehta chowk for two days

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 19

As all road routes to the city have been blocked due to the ongoing protest by Sikh organisations, a large number of trucks bringing fruit and other eatables are stranded on the bypass near the Mehta chowk for the past two days.

The blockade has forced the truck drivers to stay on the road. The drivers complained that as there were no dhabas or other shops on the road, they could not even have food.

Narinder Kumar, a truck driver, said, “We were to deliver fruit at Amritsar, but as the road has been blocked, we fear that it willl start rotting. We have already lost the incentives paid by the traders if we deliver the goods before time.”

Kalu Ram, a driver from Rajasthan, said they had to deliver apples purchased from Mandi to traders here in Jodhpur. “The traders pay us Rs 60,000 per tonne. However, the delivery has already been delayed and we would also miss the next order.”

Even as the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT road is also blocked, the link roads passing near the Mehta road were used by commuters to reach Jalandhar. However, as the traffic has been blocked in this area, the city has lost road connectivity with other parts of the state.

A local resident, Nishan Singh, said, “We had to go to Chandigarh for some urgent work, but we could not and had to drop our plan.” A large number of people are using trains to reach their destinations. A visit to the railway station revealed that people are finding it difficult to get tickets due to a heavy rush. Local traders complained that the protest has impacted their businesses. “Many perishable and non-perishable items arrive from other parts of the district. The protest is expected to result in increase of prices of these goods,” said Bhagi Ram, a trader dealing in fruit.