*Transporters not taken into confidence
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 31: All Jammu and Kashmir Transport Welfare Association (AJKTWA) today alleged that protesting lawyers caused damage to over 30 buses and mini-buses in Jammu on August 29 and the Jammu Bar Association did not take transporters body into confidence before giving Jammu bandh call.
Talking to media-persons here today, Vijay Singh Chib, president of AJKTWA said that transporters always supported common cause of Jammu or the J&K state in the past. They took part in bandhs for 63 days during `Bum Bum Bole agitation’ and even during agitation for AIIMS in Jammu. He said the past practice has remained that all the major bodies like Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bar Association Jammu and J&K Transport Welfare Association used to sit on the table and take collective decision after discussing issues in detail.
The Jammu Bar Association did not bother to take their Association into confidence and just passed on their decision on phone for joining their Bandh call. Chib said this is not the way to seek support for any cause. We have always been supporting Jammu cause. And when transporters had disassociated themselves from the bandh, then breaking window-panes and wind screens of the buses, mini-buses, and other vehicles by lawyers was unfair, unjustified and criminal act on their part. They have caused heavy losses to the vehicles and for that association is contemplating appropriate action. And even some organisations have defamed their chairman Ajit Singh by uploading ugly remarks against him. They will file FIR in the Cyber Crime Cell of J&K Police against them.
Chib pointed out that transporters are suffering since Oct 2019 and even faced heavy losses during Lockdown period over Covid. Transporters had strikes and even requested for help from Government. Neither Bar Association Jammu, nor JCCI projected their issue or uttered any word in the media. He said they will support only when others also render helping hand and support their cause. It is two way process, he remarked.
Chib who was flanked by heads of all the Transport Unions condemned the action on the part of some lawyers during Jammu bandh and said that they should not take transporters for granted. Moreover, transport operators can’t be cowed down for the vested interests of `some people’.
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