Truck operators call for three-day strike from Wednesday
Over seven lakh trucks, including big and small ones are anticipated to stay off the roads of West Bengal for 72 hours starting from 11 September.
Around 33 truckloads of cylinders have been stranded inside the LPG bottling plant of a nationalised navaratna company since yesterday morning causing severe inconvenience to the transporters and the domestic fuel provider, ahead of the festivities.
The drivers, despite a tripartite agreement on career vehicle’s fuel expenses valid till 2027, have suddenly demanded alteration, seeking a revised higher expense. As stated Prajesh Chatterjee and Tapan Saga, two prominent transporters, “The drivers have been behaving aggressively with an arbitrary demand ahead of the festivities flouting the tripartite agreement signed in July 2023.” The agreement, which the drivers had agreed upon, mentioned per litre fuel expense against every 3.65 km of journey. The driver’s pool now demands a revised per litre fuel expense bill against the 3.50 km journey.
“The falling road conditions in the districts are causing our heavy fuel guzzling vehicles to negotiate harder with the falling mileage against which has fallen as an unbearable tax on us. So, we’ve gone for an indefinite strike from today,” said Sumit Lai, leader of the striking drivers. The INTTUC, one of the signatories of the contract, has asked the vehicle owners to sit with the striking drivers and restore normalcy immediately.
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The Indian Oil Corporation’s bottling plant authority, with the given circumstance, has asked the transporters to sort out the crisis immediately or face penal measures. The bottling plant engaged 250 transport vehicles for the purpose of shifting of cylinders to and from the retailer’s points across South Bengal and parts of Jharkhand.
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