JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir transporters on Wednesday observed one-day strike from Lakhanpur to Ladakh in protest against non-issuance of fitness certificates to the commercial vehicles by the State Transport Department.
However, due to ‘chakka jam’, no commercial vehicle was seen plying on road thus adding woes to commuters.
The protesting transporters said that Transporters’ bodies from Kashmir and Ladakh have also joined the strike and no commercial vehicle including buses, mini-buses, trucks/ load carriers, oil tankers, Tempo Travellers, Sumos/ Taxis, autorikshaws etc are plying on the roads.
The Transport Department few years back, forced the transporters to install high security number plates and speed governor’s on the vehicles, they added.
“We followed the instructions and installed the same but despite that two trucks and three taxis went missing from Jammu some time back,” they alleged and said that the authorities failed to trace the vehicles.
“Only some private companies are roped in to install their systems costing Rs 5000 to Rs 8000 for the own interests of some key officials while there is no benefit at all to the public and transporters,” they added.
They further alleged that all the RTOs and ARTOs have stopped issuing fitness certificates to the commercial vehicles and the transporters are being forced to install vehicle tracking devices and panic buttons in all the commercial vehicles.
The transporters amid protests this morning threatened that if their demands will not be met in days and the government if do not come out with some solution, they will go on indefinite strike.
Meanwhile commuters especially the Vaishno Devi pilgrims suffered due to non plying of commercial vehicles.
The Government has pressed SRTC buses into service to address the worries if commuters.
(AGENCIES)
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