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.