With reference to the report ‘Haryana govt, auto-makers, truckers spar over vehicle size’ which appeared on February 3 written by Mamuni Das and S Ronendra Singh, SIAM Deputy Director Sugato Sen has said that it is “factually incorrect and misleading” to have reported that “Last month, the Director-General of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers approached the Haryana Chief Minister, seeking fitness certificates for vehicles that did not conform to the norms.”
He adds that the purpose of the meeting was to “resolve the issue of the vehicle-carrier transporters’ strike, which was called w.e.f from 5th Jan 2015 and which had seriously impacted the dispatches of finished vehicles from OEMs plants.”
Saying that SIAM is a responsible corporate citizen and “committed to following the vehicular registrations implemented by the government”, he goes on to write that the agenda of the meeting “was to find a practical and viable solution to the strike called by the vehicle-carriers association and not at all to seek the continuation of any practice which may not be in conformity with the rules.”
Mr Sen does not dispute this.
As Mr Khemka, Haryana’s Transport Commissioner, has stated, “The demand was to certify the transport vehicle as fit despite the actual dimensions of vehicle body not conforming to CMVR-89.”
As SIAM was representing the vehicle manufacturers in its meeting with the Chief Minister of Haryana, it may be left to the readers to decide whether the line Mr Sen objects to is “factually incorrect or misleading”.
The report did not either question SIAM’s responsibility as a corporate citizen or its commitment to following vehicular laws.
As reported, the Haryana government ended up giving a one year-exemption to trucks that did not meet the fitness norm.
If this is the “practical and viable solution” to the call for a strike that SIAM had intended, then it succeeded in doing so.