India: All-India Motor Transport Congress set to strike & blockade in solidarity if protesting farmers’ demands not met
“Farmers’ protest: Transporters calls for nation-wide strike in support, threaten to halt supply of essential goods”, 02 December 2020
An apex body of transporters on Wednesday threatened to halt the movement of essential goods across North India and subsequently the entire country if the demands of the farmers protesting against three farm laws passed in September to liberalise the sector are not met.
“From December 8 onwards, we will shut all our operations across North India and stop all our vehicles across North Indian states and UTs [Union Territories] including Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal, and Jammu [& Kashmir]. We have decided that if the government still does not agree to the demands of the protesting farmers, then we will call for a Chakka Jam all across India and stop all our vehicles,” said AIMTC president Kultaran Singh Atwal.
In a statement, the AIMTC said the transporters are extending unstinted support to the farmer agitation. “They are fighting for their legitimate rights … the farm sector is indeed the backbone and lifeline of the nation…Over 70 percent of the rural households depend on agriculture. Entire North India is affected and thousands of trucks carrying food, vegetables, and other perishable and non-perishable items coming from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K [Jammu & Kashmir] are impacted and we still support them as 65% of the trucks are engaged in carrying farm produce,” the statement said.