Thousands of truckers from across Punjab would gather at the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s citadel —Patiala — on July 6 to stage a protest against the Congress Government’s decision to dissolve all the 134 truck unions in the State.
“We have decided to hold a protest rally at Patiala on July 6...It will be ‘truck bachao rally’, and no truck operator would work on that day,” said Punjab Truck Union president Happy Sandhu on Monday after the Union’s meeting at Jalandhar.
Sandhu said the Government wanted to bring four lakh family members of 93,000 truck operators on the road by doing away with the truck unions. In Punjab, there are approximately 93,000 truck operators, owing allegiance to different unions.
He said the Government was absolutely wrong in saying that the State’s industry had been ruined because of the truck unions. “Unions are mostly working in villages, and there is no industry there, so how can the industry leave,” he added.
Kultaran Singh Atwal, the president of All India Motor Congress, which has also extended its support to the truck unions, said no other state has abolished the truck unions.
“We fully support the truck unions of Punjab. We will stand by them wherever they will fight,” he added.
The truckers had also staged one-day protest the previous week, against the Government’s proposed move.
In a day-long dharnas at all the block levels across the State, the truckers’ protest was supported by CPI (M), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) activists.
Memorandums were also submitted to the SDMs, addressed to the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, demanding cancellation of the government’s decision to dissolve all truck unions, numbering around 134, in Punjab.
Sandhu maintained the industry has failed in Punjab because of faulty policies and vested interests of political parties and not because of truckers. Industry failed in industrial towns like Rajpura, Gobindgarh, Khanna, ludhiana, Jalandhar and Batala despite the fact that there is no truck union in these towns, he added.
“On the contrary, despite the presence of very strong truck unions in nearby industrial towns like Tahliwal, Nalagarh, Baddi and Ponta Sahib falling in adjoining HP, industry has been flourishing at a rapid pace just because of the fact that the state (Himachal Pradesh) has a very strong industrial policy,” Sandhu added.
Truck operators had also declared that in case the Government failed to withdraw its decision, they would intensify their struggle warning that it would be difficult for the government to lift wheat and paddy from grain markets if the issue remained unresolved.