Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Over 90,000 hit by lorry strike

— Photo: K. Ganesan.

Stationary: Lorries parked at Koodal Nagar yard in the city on Wednesday.

MADURAI: As the nation-wide indefinite strike called by All-India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) from Sunday midnight entered its third day on Wednesday, the livelihood of over 90,000 people in the district has been affected.

“Around six racks (360 compartments containing goods) are standing in the Railway Goods Shed in Madurai without goods getting unloaded. They contain rice, grains, pulses, wheat, urea and other commodities,” Madurai Lorry Owners’ Association president, C. Sathiah, told The Hindu here on Wednesday.

In Madurai district alone, more than 60,000 people such as drivers, cleaners and loadmen were directly dependent on the lorry sector with another 30,000 such as mechanics being indirectly connected.

Over 1,000 lorries enter the district every day with 350 of them having national permit and coming from other States. Every day, another 2,000 lorries operate inside Madurai district. The commercial loss suffered by the district owing to the strike amounted around to Rs. 60 crore every day, he said.

“We (lorry owners) are also losing crores of rupees. The Government must take all steps to meet our demands and end the strike,” he said. Most of the parcel booking services in the city has stopped taking orders.

The main demand of the truckers, he said, was the immediate reduction of diesel prices by Rs. 15 and petrol prices by Rs. 20. The value added tax (VAT) on diesel should be made uniform at 4 per cent across the country.

The excise duty and customs charges on tyres must be halved to 35 per cent and import of cheaper radial tyres, used for withstanding heavy loads, from China should not be restricted, Mr. Sathiah said.

He also called for scrapping the service tax on transportation.

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