Transporters defer strike after meeting with govt officials
Srinagar/Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir transporters on Tuesday deferred the strike after a crucial meeting with the officials from the UT administration.
Transporters had called for an indefinite strike in the UT from February 24 against the imposition of tax and had demanded increase in fares.
“We were all set to hold a pan-UT protest by stopping all major and minor passenger vehicles,” Vijay Kumar, a transporters’ said. But he added, following a meeting with the Transport Commissioner and with other officials of the concerned department, “we are satisfied with response of government and have decided to defer out strike till further decision.”
Meanwhile here in Srinagar, earlier in the day, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary assured the transporters that the government is for earliest and a viable resolution of their genuine demands and urged them to call off their strike.
Speaking in a special meeting he had convened with the transporters in Srinagar, the DC assured the heads of different transports associations that their genuine demands would be taken up with higher authorities and a viable resolution will be found within a stipulated time period.
He assured the transporters that the government wants a just and favourable-to-all resolution of the issue and motivated them to call off their strike.
Some of demands the transporters raised during the meeting include among others announcement of a transport policy which gives the transport sector the status of an industry, hike in the fare structure, waiving off of token and passenger taxes from August 2019, review of condemnation age of vehicles, fresh survey in compliance with the J&K High Court directions for identification of feasible locations for auto/sumo/mini-bus stops/stands, and taking transporters into confidence while fixing fee for toll plaza and parking places.
