J&K Transporters to go on strike on January 6
JAMMU: In view of the apathetic attitude of J&K UT Government towards the transporters of J&K of not raising the fare in proportionate to the increase of diesel and petrol prices, all the Transporters of Union Territory of J&K unanimously decided to go on strike on January 6, 2021 in entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Chairman All J&K Transport Welfare Association J&K Jammu, T.S. Wazir told reporters here on Thursday that “With the continuous lockdown caused by COVID-19 since from March 2020 by Central Government of India, has had a massive impact on the transporters and due to which all commercial vehicles have been taken off the road and suffering huge losses,”
“Ministry of Road Transport and Highway extended the validity of all documents till March 31, 2021 but the UT Govt of J&K imposing penalties on all documents at the time of their Renewal, he said and added, “We demanded to waive off Token Tax, Passenger Tax, Renewal Fees, Penalties, etc. due to COVID-19 as other State like Punjab totally waived off all Taxes/Fees including penalties on Private Transporters.”The latest public rates were revised in 2018 when diesel was around 68 rupees per liter but now the diesel costs around 77 rupees per liter but the rates were not revised.
“We have approached various times and also submitted cost of operation to the UT Govt for revision in passenger and demanded 30% hike in passenger fare, due to day by day step hike in petroleum products by Central Govt,” he said. The transporters, he said, are helpless in this regard and demanded unlimited time for registration of vehicle from the date of purchase.
The General Secretary Kashmir Transport Welfare Association Sheikh Mohammad Yusuf said “the transport sector in Kashmir is going down since 5 August 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370. During that time the government imposed a lockdown and all the government offices were closed but when we went there to pay our fees they asked for the fines also how can one pay the fee when the office was closed. We met the Higher officials of the J&K Government but no one helped us.
The representative of the Oil Tankers Association said ” the problems for transporters in J&K are increasing day by day. Earlier the penalty which was usually 500 rupees has been increased to one-third of the token fees. How a daily wager can pay such an amount”.
So it was unanimously decided that we will observe strike from January 6, 2021, and no commercial vehicle will ply on road from Lakhanpur to Srinagar, he said.
rike will continue till the government meets our demands.
