Angul: The Odisha State Truck Owners’ Federation (OSTOF) will join the nationwide truckers’ ‘Chakka Jam’ stir call given by the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), beginning July 20 to press for their six-point charter of demands including reduction in fuel prices.
The major demands of the AIMTC are the rollback of hike in fuel price, inclusion of petrol and diesel under GST purview, disbanding toll gates on national highways, no hike in third-party insurance, no collection of TDS premium and simplification of rules for direct loading and unloading of raw materials in ports.
“Truckers have been unable to run their businesses due to high costs. As our long standing demands have fallen on deaf ears and the Centre is yet to take any steps but for lip service, the truck owners are incurring losses and are not able to deposit their equated monthly installment (EMI) in banks. We are compelled to go on nationwide strike,” AIMTC president SK Mittal told media persons here Saturday.
OSTOF president Bibhuti Das said the federation has extended its support to the AIMTC and will join the nationwide strike which will begin from 6 am July 20. Import-export trade, port operations, transportation of manufacturing and industrial goods and commodities are some of the services that are likely to be seriously affected by the strike as around 90 lakh trucks will stay off roads across the country, it was learnt.
PNN