Lorry strike affects supply of essentials to north Telangana districts

Nizamabad: The strike by lorry owners since the past week has impacted the supply of essential commodities.

The transport of rice and other pulses between states has been adversely affected. Especially in the north Telangana districts, traders are running out of commodities and are eagerly awaiting additional stocks.

It is believed that the prices of essential commodities and vegetables will start increasing if the strike goes on for another two days.

Several retailers are making do with alternative arrangements, deploying mini-lorries, vans and auto-trollies to transport goods between districts. Mini lorries, vans and auto trollies are being used for transportation of goods between inter districts and inter states.

The realty sector has been affected with the transport of building construction materials like cement, sand and iron being affected.

There are about 2.25 lakh lorries in the state and 40,000 in undivided Nizamabad district. Lorries have been off on the roads since July 20, as owners went on strike to press for various demands including bringing diesel under GST.

The National Highway 44 from Kanyakumari to Varanasi that passes through Nizamabad and NH-63 from Nizamabad to Jagdalpur were relatively free due to the lack of lorry traffic. This has affected the income of toll plazas.

Telangana State Lorry Owners Association secretary Muthyala Srinivas told this newspaper that the government should take the initiative to end the strike.

He said that apart from bringing diesel under GST, the association had certain demands regarding toll fee, insurance, the proposed road safety Bill, e-way bills under the GST, a single permit covering Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh.

These should be resolved immediately and the government should abide by the agreements struck during the 2015 and 2017 lorry strikes, he said.