Truckers’ nationwide ‘chakka jaam’ set to hit transport, public movement tomorrow

SHIMLA: Public movement and the transport of apples, vegetables and other essential commodities is likely to come to a standstill on Friday from 6 am as the All India Motor Transport Congress has decided to take to ''chakka jam'' on highways across the country tomorrow to protest the Union government''s refusal to accept their three major demands.

All India Motor Congress holds meeting in Shimla on Thursday. Tribune photo

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 19

Public movement and the transport of apples, vegetables and other essential commodities is likely to come to a standstill on Friday from 6 am as the All India Motor Transport Congress has decided to take to 'chakka jam' on highways across the country tomorrow to protest the Union government's refusal to accept their three major demands.

The AIMTC claimed that state unions of transporters had decided to join the 'chakka jaam' that was set to bring the movement of traffic on the highways across the country to a standstill, hitting farmers badly if the Central government failed to bring the AIMTC, which has 90 lakh trucks, on the negotiating table by evening today, say the members of the Progressive Growers Association in Himachal.

More than 15,000 apple cartons are arriving every day in the local markets. The truckers refused to load apples directly to Delhi markets due to strike call given by the AIMTC in the country from today.

The farmers have urged HP Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to intervene and take up the matter with the Centre so that growers were saved from the losses they have been suffering due to the strike.

AIMTC president Kultaran Singh Atwal said they wrote several times to the Transport Ministry seeking its intervention to sort out issues related to toll tax, cess on road and hike on freight tax.

"The GST has brought no benifit to the transporters. Instead, we have been burdened with extra taxes, which need to be brought down and uniform system needs to be introduced to check long jams at Toll Tax Barriers on highways," he said.

The government gets Rs 18,000 crore from taxes and the Motor congress is offering to pay the government Rs 20,000 crore if all these taxes are scrapped, but to no avail, Atwal said.

The uniformity in tax system for truckers would save them and commuters in general from unnecessary delays, hassles and harassment caused by multiple toll tax barriers on highways, said Amrikh Singh, spokesperson of the congress.