Transporters body defers today’s strike after midnight negotiations with govt

“There were two rounds of meeting with officers at Jammu during the day on Tuesday and both ended without any headway. However late last night we were called for a meeting which started at midnight and lasted till around 3 a.m.,” General Secretary of the Association Sheikh Mohammad Yousuf said.

He said that the meeting was held under the chairmanship of Divisional Commissioner Jammu and was attended among others by Transport Commissioner J&K, Deputy Commissioner Jammu and SSP Jammu.

“They accepted most of our demands in principle following which we decided to defer the strike,” he said, adding, “we have been assured that a committee will be constituted with regard to our demands regarding age of the vehicles while other four demands were agreed on the spot.”

Among others, the association demands roll back of the order dated February 7 by virtue of which age limit has been prescribed for the commercial vehicles. The transporters have demanded 25 years age for the commercial vehicle be retained.

With regarding to the installation of vehicle tracking device in the passenger vehicles, Yousuf said that the government has agreed that the device “can be procured from open market and not from a few dealers designated by the transport department earlier”.

He said that government also accepted demand of not allowing SRTC to run its fleet “in a manner which was against directions by High Court and other laws”.