Bengaluru: Truckers strike may disrupt essential services from today

Bengaluru: The day one of an indefinite nationwide strike called by truck owners received a mixed response in Bengaluru, as one faction operated their fleet on Thursday.

The faction of truck owners’ association led by G.R. Shanmugappa observed the strike, while the other faction led by Channa Reddy, didn’t participate. However, things are expected to become grim from Friday, as Reddy’s faction will also take trucks off the roads.

The two main demands include scrapping of toll on major national highways and bringing down the vehicle insurance premium charged by government and private companies. “In last three years, the premium amount has increased a whopping 150 per cent,” said Sham Giridhar, a truck owner.

Regarding highway told he said, “The central government has recovered what it had invested on roads through toll collection. Hence continuation of the same amounts to exploitation.”

As expected all the goods supplies were hit by the truck strike. “Vegetable growers are expected to face the heat from Friday when all the trucks will go off the road. Another industry which expected to be badly hit is construction sector. The city requires around 500 loads of sand per day and if that stops, all the activities come to a halt,” said Swamy Murthy, another truck owner.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy held talks with the agitators, but they failed to break the deadlock, as the issues of toll and insurance premiums should be addressed by the Centre. “We have agreed to look into all the demands of the truck owners association pertaining to state,” said an officer from the state transport department.