Truckers call off strike in Telangana State

Hyderabad: The Lorry Owners’ Association has called off its strike following an assurance that the State government would consider its demands. Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari, Transport Minister P Mahender Reddy, Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao, MLA Srinivas Goud, union president Bhaskar Reddy and senior officials of Transport Department participated in the talks held with the association leaders at the State Secretariat on Thursday. 

Briefing the media persons later, Mahender Reddy said the State government would consider all the 11 demands made by the association. They include reducing vehicle tax and single State permit among others. The Minister said a Cabinet sub-committee would be constituted to study demands and based on its recommendations the issues would be resolved. 

The



association leaders said the strike had been withdrawn to ensure that the famers did not face problems in view of Khariff season. More than 3.5 lakh trucks on Wednesday went off the roads in Telangana, affecting the movement of goods. The strike hit supply of essential commodities and vegetables in Hyderabad and nine other districts of Telangana. 

The lorry owners were asking Telangana government to slash tax in view of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Their argument was that since quarterly tax of Rs7,000 was fixed for vehicles to ply across 23 States in the undivided State, the Telangana government should reduce the tax. The other major demand of the truck operators was for a single permit agreement between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh so that vehicle could ply between the two States on payment of a fixed tax.