Truckers' Demand Referred To Ira
In a bid to avert the truckers strike called from the midnight of August 22 , the ministry of surface transport has referred the truckers demand for a roll-back in insurance premiums to the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA).
This is the first case before the IRA since its inception.
Official sources said here that the IRA has fixed a hearing today on the truckers demand and a decision would be given within 90 days. The truckers have demanded that the 657 per cent hike in insurance premiums imposed by the tariff advisory committee of the General Insurance Corporation be rolled back.
The MoST has also offered truckers to restrict tolling on national highways initially to recovering of fixed costs and subsequently only maintenenace costs. The ministry however has ruled out removal of tolling completely from the highways completely, as demanded b the All India Motor Transport Congress ( AIMTC). The sources said that studies on the Jaipur Kotputli sector where tolling has been undertaken for the last few months, had shown that the vehicle operating costs had come down by Rs 2.34 per kilometre whereas the ministry was recovering only at the rate of Rs 1.40 paise per km.
The ministry has also offered a uniform tolling rate for commercial vehicles. Currently on the Jaipur Kotputli sector , multi axled vehicles were being tolled at the rate of Rs 3 per kilometre where dual axle vehicles were being tolled at Rs 1.40 paise per kilometre. The ministry has offered to examine this in detail and offered to rationalise these differentials. In addition to prevent harrassmaent the MoSt has offered to work out a system of coupons for truckers regularly using the routes. This mechanism would be worked in consultation with some of the major banks, where users could deposit the charges on a lumpsum basis and collect coupons against these charges for the number of journeys undertaken. The MoST has offered to completely underwrite the costs that may be incurred in adopting this kind of a system.
Other concessions offered to the truckers include amendments to Section 86 of the Motor Vehicles Act. This particular section refers to powers given to the Transport Authorities to cancell operating permits. The sources said that this particular section would be examined in detail and if necessary amended at the earliest.
The MoST has called for another round of meetings with the AIMTC today to consider the package offered in a bid to avert the strike.
So far there are already dissensions within the trcukers, against the strike. Industry sources said that some of the southern units of the truckers association had expressed reservations against going ahead with the the strike on August 22 .