India's truckers hold strike to protest diesel price hike
India's truckers hold strike to protest diesel price hike
NEW DELHI (AFP): More than two million Indian truckers
launched an indefinite strike on Thursday to protest against a
government move to increase diesel prices steeply, strike
organizers said.
The All India Motor Transport Congress, which represents 32
national cargo haulers' unions, said more than 2.2 million trucks
went off the road to protest the 35-percent price increase.
"The strike is on for an indefinite period," Transport
Congress president Om Prakash Agarwal told AFP after talks with
the government to roll back the prices ended in a deadlock
Wednesday.
"There is no use talking to the government. They are not
interested in hearing our woes. So we decided to stop our
business even if it means we die of hunger," Agarwal said.
He said the movement of essential commodities would be hit and
the truckers "will not budge until the diesel prices are
reduced."
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's new coalition government
described the strike as "completely unwarranted".
"There will be no going back on the diesel price hike,"
Petroleum Secretary S. Narayan said after the talks ended in
failure.
The government, determined to push economic reforms by
eliminating subsidies, was faced with its first test since it
took power this month.
It ordered the diesel price increase early October, just after
national elections, saying it was aimed at rolling back its
growing deficit due to petroleum imports.
Diesel prices have been raised eight times since 1997 but
Vajpayee's previous coalition government was forced to back down
six times following public uproar.
Vajpayee's government also said annual subsidies on kerosene
and cooking gas worth US$2.8 billion every year were depleting
India's external reserves. India imports 60 percent of its
petroleum needs.
The latest price rise was expected to fetch an additional $1.5
billion during the remaining part of the fiscal year ending March
2000, but transporters say the step would fuel inflation.
The price increase was also aimed at funding an ambitious
highway project criss-crossing the country.
"The government is not justified in increasing the price. They
slapped a cess of one rupee 20 paise on us last year and said the
money would be used to build roads," Agarwal said.
"Now, the diesel price hike will lead to a loss of 12,000
rupees ($282) for each and every truck on the roads. It is better
we stay at home than do business in such an environment."
In the capital New Delhi, the police offered protection to
truckers unwilling to join the strike, Police Commissioner Ajai
Raj Sharma said.
Consumers in New Delhi felt the heat on Thursday as prices of
vegetables more than doubled.
Around 50,000 trucks ferry essentials such as milk,
vegetables, fruits, cooking oil and medicines daily to the
capital.
In the western state of Maharashtra more than 100,000 trucks
went off the roads and trade bodies warned of acute shortages of
commodities if the strike continued.
The President of the Bombay Transport Association, R.K.Jain,
said the government would be responsible for the adverse effect
of the strike on the economy.
"The recession in the industry has hit us badly. Periodic
increases in the price of diesel has resulted in reduced earnings
and left many transporters high and dry," Jain said.
The southern state Tamil Nadu officials said they had deployed
trains to move the essentials and in neighboring Andhra Pradesh,
about 30,000 tractor-pulled trolleys were put into service.
The government also threatened to implement a tough law to
counter the strikers.
"Even if they evoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act,
and arrest us, we will not bend," Agarwal warned.