The Hindu Business Line : Movement of goods, essentials largely remains unaffected

Mumbai/New Delhi, Jan. 8 While the movement of goods and essential commodities largely remained unaffected on the fourth day of the transport strike, there were some reports that coercion was used by local unions on truckers who were plying on Thursday.

The Bombay Goods Transport Association (BGTA), affiliated to All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), said that it is pursuing its demands in a peaceful manner.

“We do not know of any such incidents taking place, however, some truckers might have got into strife out of sheer frustration. There is no such means being adopted by the association,” Mr Girish Agrawal, General Secretary, BGTA, told Business Line.

Impact

Gauging the impact in the five agriculture produces markets in Mumbai: movement of trucks remained unimpacted on the fourth day.

“Barring masala market and sugar and grain market where the arrivals of trucks has been less compared to average arrivals, vegetable, fruit and onion-potato markets have seen more arrivals than the average, in the last three days,” said Mr Sudhir Tungar, Secretary, Mumbai Agriculture Produce Market (MAPM).

“The strike has had an impact. Very few long distance trucks are coming in the last three days,” said Mr Mukesh Kuvadia, Secretary Mumbai Sugar Merchants Association.

According to data from MAPM, 87 and 184 trucks arrived in masala, and sugar and grain market, respectively, till 5 p.m. on Thursday against the average arrivals of 228 and 379, respectively.

Mr Mahendra Arya, former President BGTA, also said that certain container operators association on the ports have joined the strike. “Our strike is getting stronger. Nhava Sheva Container Operators Welfare Association has joined the strike. Container Association of Maharashtra is already participating in the strike.”

However, a senior official from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) denied any disruptions in operations. He said the port and the Container Freight Station (CFS) operators had their own tractor-trailers used to transport containers from and into the port. “Each of the three terminals of the port has about 100 such vehicles, either own or on hire. The pool of 300 tractor-trailers is adequate to meet the requirements of the port. Hence, the strike did not have any impact and there is no pile up of containers,” he added.

Auto movement

Vehicle manufacturers also said that they are not affected by the ongoing truck strike because dealers are now clearing inventories.

“Since the movement from factories to showrooms has been temporarily stopped there will be a logistic problem. But there is no shortage as far as the sales are concerned,” said a spokesperson of Hyundai Motors India.

Since the entire vehicle market is facing slowdown, there is not much activity in terms of vehicle despatches to dealerships.

“So far we have not received any complaint about despatches not reaching dealerships because of truck strike. But if it continues we will have some problem,” said Mr P. Balendran, Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, General Motors India.

Maruti officials also said they have not felt any impact due to the ongoing AIMTC strike.

Earlier in the day, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), an independent monitoring agency of road transport with network across the country, said in a statement that at some places loaded trucks on trunk routes were forcibly stopped on Thursday.

Steel traders told Business Line that intra-State movement has not been impacted, but some truckers were stopped from moving into the steel plants due to coercion from local unions. “This has lead to increased risk perception on inter-State movements,” a steel trader said.

However, an official from JNPT denied reports that there was some violence at some of the CFSs, when a few loaded tractor-trailers were tried to be forcibly stopped.

Government stand

Reiterating that the Centre has met all the commitments it had made to the transporters during July 2008 strike, the Transport Secretary, Mr Brahm Dutt, said the AIMTC should not get into a "misinformation campaign".

On whether the Government plans to invite AIMTC to the negotiating table, he replied, "The Centre has made its position clear four to five times on each of the issue. Many of the issues are in the States' jurisdictions". "We have advised States to take required steps. Now they have to act in a decisive manner," said Mr Dutt, adding that Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have already invoked ESMA.

(Inputs from Amit Mitra, Manu P. Toms, Ambarish Mukherjee, Priyanka Vyas)

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