Truckers back out of strike

The decision was taken at an emergency meeting of the association at held in Bengaluru on Sunday, in which representatives of the truckers’ federation from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry participated. Various political parties have jointly called for a bandh to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation drive to put an end to black money and counterfeit currency circulation. 

“SIMTA is not in support for the bandh. We had earlier announced that we would be forced to go off road from November 24 if the deadline for toll collection was not extended. It was because our livelihood would be badly affected. We also asked for relaxation at fuel stations so that we could fill fuel using the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The government has met our demands and extended the deadlines. So we want to extend support to the Union government for a noble cause,” SIMTA president GR Shanmugappa told DTNext over phone after the meeting. He added that close to 9.5 lakh trucks are operated by truckers in South India and a bandh will badly affect transportation of essential commodities. However, he felt that the relaxation on toll fees collection and using demonetised notes for filling fuel could be extended till December 31.