Truck Owners’ Association to continue strike in Odisha, seeks Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s intervention

Bhubaneswar: The Truck Owners’ Association in Odisha has decided to continue their strike across the state as their 11-point charters of demands are yet to be fulfilled by the state government.

It is to be noted here that the minor mineral goods carrying vehicles started their strike from November 10 demanding issuance of valid documents. However, as no action was taken by the government in this regard even after 9 days, they decided to continue their strike.

Meanwhile, the United Truck Owner Associations Co-Ordination Committee, today sought the intervention of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the matter and requested him to consider the genuine demands of the truck operators for a smooth and hossel free transportation and supply of river sand.

Below are the 11-point charters of demands of the truck owners in Odisha:

To issue e-transit pass for each trip of river stand loaded vehicle (trucks) by the sand quarry lease holder at the time of despatch.
To avoid the overloading in the vehicle, weighment facilities be facilitate at the sand quarry site i.e. installation of weigh bridge at sand query site.
Quarry lease holder to ensure for loading of exact quantity of sand in the vehicles as per the vehicles carrying capacity specified by the Odisha Motor Vehicle Department.
To protect the interest of the sand users and to avoid the monopoly in the sand pricing at the quarry site, Government should fix up a standard selling price of sand (maximum support price) per Cu.M basis or tonnage basis for the General Publics.
Fixation of display signages at all sand quarry site containing details necessary informations about the quarry for the knowledge of the vehicle operators and general public, this will not only identify the genuine quarry but also avoid illegal mining.
Installation of IP enabled CCTV at Minor Mineral sources to recorded the activities at the quarry and also the detail information of the vehicle loading in the quarry with loading time and despatch time.
Director Minor Mineral Department to develop an mobile APP to check the enuineness of the e-transit pass issued by the sources.
Directors of Mines/ Mining officers to provide list of authorised sand quarry lists of their respective districts for the knowledge of vehicle operators be available in the public domen.
If weighment system are not made available at the loading sources otherwise the trucks are allowed to carry the sand within the carriage level until the system is made available.
The time of the e-transit pass from loading point to delivery point must be given at least 12 hours. This will helps for smooth running of vehicles as well as will avoid speedy and harse driving on the road on road safety point view.
The sand carrying vehicles are not to be penalised under the provision of the notification issued by the steel & mines department Govt. of Odisha vide notification no. 9238/SM, Bhubaneswar, Dtd. 25.10.2024, as the truckers are not indulging extraction of the minor minerals. The lessee of the quarry used to extract & load the vehicles.