Lorry strike: Parties ask govt to hold talks with owners
Expressing concern over the continuing lorry strike which entered its fifth day, leaders of several political parties on Tuesday asked the Central and State governments to invite the lorry owners for talks and resolve the issue since farmers and the general public are affected due to the stir.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-07-24 22:39 GMT
Chennai
PMK founder S Ramadoss asked why the Centre was adamant and not coming forward to hold talks with the striking lorry owners. The lorry owners had warned that they would stop carrying all essential commodities like water, milk and medicines since the government had not invited them for negotiations.
In the last four days, the country had suffered a loss of Rs one lakh crore due to the strike and the loss would go up by Rs 25,000 crore with each passing day, he said. CPM State secretary K Balakrishnan said the demand for essential commodities had gone up considerably. The lorry owners had conducted two similar agitations in the past and they had commenced the third strike since no action was taken to solve their problems, he said.
Meanwhile, the vegetable market in Mettupalayam near Coimbatore remained closed on Tuesday to condemn the stone pelting incident on a TN lorry in Kerala on Monday, which resulted in the death of a cleaner.
STRIKES OVER THE YEARS
The ongoing nationwide lorry strike has greatly affected the movement of essential goods like vegetables, triggering a steep increase in their prices and thereby affecting the public. However, this is not the first instance of lorry owners resorting to a strike
October 2015: Lorry owners went on a five-day strike, from October 1 to October 5, demanding the scrapping of toll plazas and simplification of the TDS procedure. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari held talks with the representatives of lorry owners’ association and assured that their demands would be considered. Based on the assurance the strike was withdrawn
April 2016: Lorry owners in Tamil Nadu announced a indefinite strike on April 4, condemning the direction to fit speed control device in the lorries and hike in toll fee. However, the strike was not called off.
March-April 2017:
The Lorry owners in south India staged a 10-day strike, from March 30 to April 8, demanding the reducing of the third party insurance premium amount, amount collected in RTOs and the VAT imposed on diesel. The government held talks with the lorry owners and assured that the third party insurance premium would be reduced from 40 to 27 per cent and rolled back the amount hiked in RTOs. After the assurance, the lorry strike was withdrawn
November 2017:
Lorry owners staged a two-day strike on November 9 and 10 demanding the roll back of GST, ending the daily changes in fuel prices and scrapping the toll plazas but their demands were not met
June 2018:
Lorry owners across the country staged a strike on June 18 condemning the daily hike in diesel price, increase in third party premium amount by 30 per cent and annual hike in toll fee. However, on June 21, the strike was withdrawn after the government assured to look into their demands
July 2018:
An All-India lorry strike commenced on July 20 demanding the scrapping of toll plazas, bringing petrol and diesel under the purview of GST and the reduction of the third party insurance premium amount. The strike is going on.
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