Fuel price hike: Truckers to go on indefinite strike from April 5 - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The All India Motor Transport Congress (AITMC) on Friday gave a call for an indefinite strike from April 5 demanding a rollback of the fuel price hike. With this call over 75 lakhs trucks will go off the road from April first week. Briefing the media about the decision, AIMTC president G R Shanmugappa said: "We have submitted four major demands to the government and will wait till the midnight of April 5, 2010. And if the demands are not met by this time, we will pull-out all our trucks from the road." The AIMTC meeting demanded the Centre to immediately roll-back hike in fuel prices, especially that of diesel, which rose by over Rs 2.5 a litre consequent to a duty hike on fuels. "The hike is abnormal, unbearable and intolerable, which will further deteriorate the already dwindling condition of truckers," he said. The AMITC is also demanding the implementation of the agreement on national permit that would require truckers to pay only a one-time fee of Rs 15,000 for a year, against the current norm of paying each states a fee of Rs 5,000. The Centre promised to reduce the fees when the truckers went on strike in 2009. The Centre had signed an agreement with AIMTC on February 23, 2009 for implementing the new national permit scheme before January this year, but despite of the minister's assurance, the government has not notified it. The AIMTC claimed the strike would also have the support from other segments such as tempos and other small goods carrying vehicle owners and asked the government to notify and implement the same before March 31.