Srinagar: The transporters ferrying building materials in their tipper trucks staged a protest here Monday urging the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to take serious note of the “undue harassment” meted out to them and subsequent seizure of their vehicles by the authorities.
The slogan shouting transporters assembled at the National Highway near Pandrethan area on the outskirts of Srinagar and staged a protest against seizure of their vehicles.
The protesting drivers and vehicle owners alleged that despite paying royalty to the departments of Fisheries, and Geology and Mining, their vehicles are being seized, and they are often slapped with monetary fines.
“Those extracting sand illegally are roaming free while poor drivers are being harassed unnecessarily. Our job as drivers is to ferry building material from one place to another for which we pay royalty towards the departments concerned as per the rules, however we are being harassed and our vehicles are seized,” they alleged urging the LG administration to intervene in the matter.
They said the huge taxes to the tune of Rs 48,000 per vehicle being imposed on them have badly affected their livelihood as they are not able to other expanses of their vehicles including load-unload charges and maintenance.
They appealed to the Lieutenant Governor to personally intervene in the matter and take serious cognizance of the issue so that their livelihood is not affected.
“We are poor people, have pity on us; how we could sustain our families if we pay huge taxes. We appeal to the administration, especially our worthy LG, to intervene in the matter so that our livelihood is not affected,” they added.
