Maharashtra Truckers To Go On Strike From Midnight Against 'Unjust' Collection Of Fines
Lakhs of trucks and goods transport vehicles across Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra are set to go on an indefinite strike starting Tuesday midnight
Lakhs of trucks and goods transport vehicles across Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra are set to go on an indefinite strike starting Tuesday midnight, protesting against the e-challan system for traffic violations along with other pending demands, transporters said.
However, bus operators — including those providing services for schoolchildren — have decided to defer their participation in the strike following a request from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The CM urged them to reconsider, citing potential inconvenience to warkaris (devotees of Lord Vitthal) ahead of the upcoming Ashadi Ekadashi festival.
Taking cognisance of the transporters' strike, the state government set up a 10-member committee led by Transport Commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar to look into the issue.
The Vahatukdar Bachao Kruti Sanghatana, an action committee of the transporters' associations in the state, said the indefinite strike will begin from midnight as the transporters are frustrated with the e-challans and harassment by the enforcement agencies for recovery of e-challans.
As many as 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh trucks and other goods-carrying vehicles in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra will go on strike after midnight," said Uday Barge, convener of the action committee.
However, he made it clear that the transportation of essential items, including milk, vegetables and medicines, has been kept out of the strike's purview.
Barge further said that the All India Motor Transport Congress, the apex body of transporters in the country, has supported the strike along with the Maharashtra Rajya Truck Tempo Tanker Bus Vahatuk Mahasangh, the All India Bulk LPG Transporter Association, and the Navi Mumbai Transport Association, along with many other transport bodies.
He said that the government did not invite them for any meeting on Tuesday.
heir other demands include stopping the forceful collection of e-challan fines, cancellation of e-challans older than six months, waiving existing penalties, cancelling the mandatory cleaner rule for heavy vehicles, and reconsidering no-entry timings in metro cities, among others.
'As the Uttar Pradesh government has waived old fines issued through e-challans in their state, the Maharashtra government should also consider taking a similar move," said Kailas Pingle, president of Maharashtra Rajya Motor Malak Sangh, which has also extended support to the strike.
The transporters complain that the recovery process by authorities has become aggressive and is disrupting business operations, besides mounting fines of e-challans.
Harsh Kotak, a leader of the Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghatana, one of the bodies of bus operators, told PTI that earlier in the day a meeting was held to take a decision about participation in the strike.
At that time, CM Fadnavis requested the bus operators over the phone not to go on strike to avoid troubles for the warkaris, as Ashadi Ekadashi is just a few days away.
'We have decided to postpone our participation in the strike till the midnight of July 6," Kotak said.
Deepak Naik, president of the Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghatana, said that they have extended their support to the strike and they will express their protest by tying black flags to buses in this period.
The School Bus Owners' Association, a body of school bus operators, also said that both Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik have assured them they will address their grievances with due seriousness.
'Respecting the positive intent shown by the government, the committee has decided to postpone the strike and pursue the matter through the channel of dialogue and negotiation," Anil Garg, leader of the School Bus Owners' Association, said in a statement issued after a meeting.
In view of the transporters' strike call, the state government formed the 10-member committee with senior officers from the Mumbai Traffic Police, Highway Police, and Motor Vehicles Department as its members along with leaders of transport associations.
According to the Government Resolution (GR) issued late Tuesday night, the committee will submit its report within a month.
On June 26, Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik had assured the formation of the committee.
From June 16, the transporters had started an indefinite sit-in protest at Mumbai's Azad Maidan to press their demands about e-challan and other issues. Finally, they ended the protest on June 24, after Maharashtra Industries Minister Uday Samant assured them he would convene a meeting to resolve their issues.
In the meeting held the next day, Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik and Industries Minister Uday Samant assured them that a committee would be formed to look into the demands.
The transporters, however, remained firm on their stand of going on strike from the start of July as they were not going to get relief from the recovery of e-challans older than six months, which they are demanding to withdraw.
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(a) Weekly Sanjivani (b) Bipin Chandra Pal's New India (c) British House of Commons 1907 (d) Public meeting in Calcutta Town Hall in 1905 The failure of moderates' 'mendicant policies' (appealing to the British through prayers and petitions) to counter Curzon's repressive reforms led to the search for a new technique to demand revocation of the Bengal partition. The idea of boycotting British goods was first proposed in Krishnakumar Mitra's weekly Sanjivani on July 13, 1905, and later adopted by nationalist leaders at a public meeting in Calcutta Town Hall on August 7, 1905. Therefore, a is the correct answer. (For more, refer: Revisiting the legacy of Swadeshi movement amid Trump's tariff tirade, Dileep P Chandran, The Indian Express) Consider the following pairs: 1. Brahmobandhab Upadhyay : Sandhya and Yugantar 2. Aurobindo Ghosh : Bande Mataram 3. Bipin Chandra Pal : New India Which of the pairs given above is/are correct? 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Mahatma Gandhi was detained in the Agha Khan's Summer Palace in nearby Poona. During more than two years they spent in Ahmednagar Fort Prison, Nehru and Azad, who were not just leaders of the national movement but also men of quite extensive learning, began writing two of their finest works. Nehru wrote his seminal work, The Discovery of India, while Azad composed his much-loved Urdu classic, Ghubaar-e-khaatir, a collection of letters penned in the early morning hours when the Maulana would ruminate over subjects as diverse as life, literature, philosophy, and history, all over his favourite cup of Chinese Jasmine tea. Interestingly, other eminent co-prisoners and intellectuals, including J.B. Kripalani and Pattabhi Sitaramayya, also spent their time writing books. Therefore, b is the correct answer. (For more, refer: Quit India Movement – Protests, prison writings, and post-war order by Amir Ali, The Indian Express) 'I wanted India to take an eager and active part in the mighty conflict, for I felt that high principles would be at stake, and out of this conflict would come great and revolutionary changes in India and the world.' Whose words are these, in reference to India's potential role in World War II ? (a) Lord Linlithgow (b) Muhammad Ali Jinnah (c) Jawaharlal Nehru (d) Subhas Chandra Bose The backdrop to the Quit India movement was thus very much shaped by the uncertain global situation that had arisen with the Second World War. Some leaders of the Indian national movement tended to sympathise more with the Allied powers, who claimed to be on the side of democracy and freedom as they fought against the Fascist Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. 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