A cleaner was killed and a driver injured early Monday morning when their lorry came under stone-pelting near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border amidst the ongoing indefinite truckers’ strike which entered the fourth day on Monday even as vegetable prices began to climb in Kerala markets allegedly due to fall in arrival of trucks from neighbouring States.
Though the truck driver had initially said that the incident had taken place at Kanjikode in Kerala’s Palakkad district, he later claimed that the vehicle had actually come under stone-pelting inside the Tamil Nadu territory near the Kerala border. The police were verifying the veracity of the driver’s claim.
The truck was carrying vegetables from Mettupalayam in Tamil Nadu to Chengannur in Kerala’s Alappuzha district when it came under stone pelting. “There were about 15 people in the group that hurled stones at the truck. The windshield was broken in the stone-pelting and a heavy stone hit my cleaner right in his chest,” said driver Noorullah.
The cleaner, identified as Mubarak Badshah from Mettupalayam, was rushed to a Government hospital in Palakkad where he was declared brought dead. Kerala State lorry Owners Welfare Federation president KK Hamzah said, “My information is that the miscreants were not our people. We had not issued any instruction to block vehicles as part of the stir.”
Initially, the driver whose injuries were not serious had told the police and the media that the incident had taken place when the truck had reached Kanjikode inside Kerala territory bur hours later he changed his statement to claim that the stone-pelting had happened between Chavadi in Tamil Nadu and Valayar in Palakkad district, Kerala.
According to the driver, he had initially said that the incident took place at Kanjikode because somebody told him they would get medical assistance in Palakkad only if they claimed that the place of occurrence of the incident was inside Kerala. A police official said that they were examining whether the driver had changed his statement under pressure.
Meanwhile, the indefinite truckers’ strike demanding reduction in Central and state taxes on diesel, insurance premium and road toll rates began to impact the vegetable markets in Kerala on Monday with the prices of several items going up allegedly following decrease in arrival from the neighbouring states.
“A minimum of 20 truck-loads of vegetables used to arrive here every day but only less than ten came today,” said a vegetable wholesaler at Kochi market. “Also, the prices have begun to go up. For example, tomato price went up by Rs 10 per kilo just today. The situation can worsen in the coming days if the lorry strike continues,” he said.
However, traders in leading Kerala markets said that it was not yet time for the truckers’ stir to affect vegetable prices but some middlemen might be trying to reap huge profits by arbitrarily increasing the prices in the name of the agitation. However, there was every possibility that the strike and the continuing heavy rains would push the prices up in the coming days, they said.
About 2,000 trucks used to bring goods, including food grains, vegetables and other essential commodities to Kerala. As the truckers’ stir entered the fourth day on Monday, this had come down to around 300 trucks, according to wholesalers in the market. However, most trucks transporting essential commodities were not participating in the stir, they said.
Wholesale dealers at Valiyangadi in Kozhikode, the biggest market of essential commodities in northern Kerala, said on Monday the stir had not so far affected the arrival of rice from other states, mainly Andhra Pradesh and therefore the prices had not begun to climb. But the situation might not remain so if the stir continued, they pointed out.
“The strike had started on July 20 but we have been receiving goods sent by trucks from other states till today as the trucks were sent even on July 19. But that is going to end by tomorrow and shortage is likely after that,” said Muhammad, a rice wholesaler at Valiyangadi even as lorry owners said they would not be transporting commodities to Kerala anymore.