As transporters go on strike from Monday midnight, the city braces for a short supply of vegetables. On Sunday morning, a delegation of transport unions met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who reportedly assured them on filing a review petition against the controversial order of National Green Tribunal to put a ban on trucks older than 10 years.
“A large number of trucks in the city are older than 10 years. If they hit the road, the officers of traffic and transport department will prosecute us and slap heavy fines. We are keeping our trucks off roads to avoid prosecution,” said Manginder Pal Singh Lovely, president of All India Transport Association. “I have 10 trucks, out of which, eight are older than 10 years. As we are allowed to operate at night it takes around 3-4 days to complete an inter-state assignment for a truck. I can’t operate with two trucks as it will create a huge pendency of orders,” added Lovely.
The strike, if continues longer, will aggravate the problem of short supply leading to price-rise, which is already moving north due to huge destruction of crops caused by bad weather. The transporters claim that over one-third trucks plying through Delhi are over than 10 years old. As almost all the vegetables come into the city from neighbouring states, Delhi will face the first crisis of shortage of vegetables.
According to a rough estimate, over 1,000 trucks arrive every day with vegetable supplies for Delhi’s whole sale markets in Ghaziapur, Sabzi Mandi, Azadpur, Okhla and Shahdara.
“The protest will continue till we are provided relief from this ‘one sided’ order,” said R S Khurana, Delhi Transporters Union.