Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Nov 19: The normal life came to a grinding halt in the State today as commercial vehicles remained off the roads due to “chakka jam’ call given by public transporters demanding hike in transport fares in view of steep rise in prices of petrol and diesel.
All the commercial vehicles numbering about 75,000 remained off the roads in State for the entire day in response to the strike call given by All Jammu and Kashmir Transporters’ Welfare Association in protest against the failure of Government to hike the fares despite the steep hike in prices of petroleum products and operative cost going very high.
The transporters held protest rallies at Press Club and Bus Stand demanding resolution of their long pending demand. The protestors, shouted slogans in support of their demands and against the callousness of the Government.
The transporters also tried to march towards the Civil Secretariat but the heavy deployment of police and para-military troops restricted their movement and did not allow them to march towards the Secretariat where the district administration had already imposed Section 144 of CrPC.
Meanwhile, SRTC buses were pressed into service to avoid inconvenience to the commuters especially the Vaishno Devi pilgrims. The attendance in Government offices as well as public sector offices remained thin as employees preferred to stay indoors due to transport strike. Some private educational institutions were also closed due to transport strike.
Justifying the strike call, Anil Chopra, vice president All JK Transporters Welfare Association said that the Association has given an ultimatum of one week to the Government and in case the demand of fare hike was not settled by that time the transporters will go for indefinite strike across the State.
He said in other states of the country the Transport Commissioners are empowered to take decision regarding fare hike or decrease whenever the prices of petroleum products go high or down. The J&K is the only State where transporters are harassed as Transport Commissioner is not empowered to take a decision regarding hike in fares whenever the prices of petrol and diesel go up and they have to wait till Cabinet decision, he added.
Chopra said that the Association was demanding 30 percent hike in prices and last month the meeting of High Level Committee headed by Principal Secretary Finance, Iqbal Khandey as its chairman made the recommendations to the Government regarding the same. The meeting besides, the Transport Commissioner, was also attended by the representatives of the Association, and the views of transporters were also taken in the meeting, he added.
The recommendations made by the Committee were submitted to Government so that a decision regarding fare hike can be taken in the next Cabinet meeting. But neither the decision was taken in Srinagar Cabinet meeting nor in another meeting held at Jammu forcing the transporters to give one day strike call, he added.
Chopra said about 75,000 commercial vehicles in all three regions of the State were off roads.
The Government had in principle agreed during the meting of October 9 to hike the fares by 15 percent, said B B Gupta president Jammu -Poonch Bus Service in the Empowered Committee meeting on October 9 but till date no notification was issued forcing the transporters to give one day strike call.
Maintaining that entire commercial vehicles in Kashmir valley and Ladakh region responded to strike call, GM Bhat general secretary KMD Association accused the Government of adopting delaying tactics in taking a decision on fare hike. The Government should have made an announcement in this regard the next day after the Empowerment Committee meeting as in principle it had agreed to hike the fares, he added.
The operative cost has gone very high and the Government was putting transporters to trouble unnecessarily, he said, adding the Government fully knows that petroleum products cost has gone very high so it should not delay the decision on fare hike.
Admitting that the Empowerment Committee headed by Principal Secretary Finance had taken the cognizance of the demand of the transporters in view of the hike in petrol and diesel prices, Transport Commissioner, M A Kakroo told Excelsior, the Committee framed a report and submitted its recommendations to the Government last month. The transporters were part to that decision of the Committee, he added.
He said however due to darbar move the memo could not be sent to Cabinet and now the Transport Department has submitted the same to General Administrative Department (GAD) and “we are hopeful that the decision will be taken in next Cabinet meeting.”
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