TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
BELGAUM: While anxiety and anticipation regarding absence of senior leader L K Advani and others prevailed in the two-day BJP national executive in Goa, the party has left millions of transporters all over India disappointed.
Transporters, who were eagerly anticipating the discussion on Goa’s controversial entry tax in the two-day meet, are upset as despite assurances from top BJP leaders the entry tax issue was allegedly not discussed during the meeting.
The disappointed transporters from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa, who have vowed to continue their fight against the entry tax, will now take the matter to court.
“We had discussed the entry tax issue with BJP President Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley who had assured us that it will be sorted out during the national executive convention,” All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) President Bal Malkit Singh told Herald.
“We had also written to all the BJP executive members in the fervent hope that they will take up the matter during the meeting as this tax on non-Goan vehicles is discriminatory against national interest. However, amid their own chaos, BJP leaders seem to have forgotten the issue,” added Singh.
Stating that AIMTC members will meet BJP leaders in Delhi soon to ask why the issue was not discussed in Goa, Singh said: “We are in the process of legal consultation and are planning to go to court against the ‘discriminatory and controversial’ entry tax by Goa.”
According to Singh, the issue that had an adverse impact on BJP in Karnataka in recent assembly elections may also cost the party as at the national level about 12 crore people are associated with the road transport sector of India.
Federation of Karnataka State Lorry Owner’s & Agents Association President G Shanmugappa, who was equally disappointed over the developments, said stringent measures will be initiated against the adamant Goa government against the entry tax.
“Now that we have lost hopes in the BJP leaders in Karnataka and Delhi, apart from initiating appropriate legal initiatives, we will persuade Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah to take up the matter on priority,” Shanmugappa said.
Meanwhile, Belgaum Rajya Sabha MP Dr Prabhakar Kore said he took the opportunity to discuss the issue with Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
“Parrikar has assured me that along with Belgaum and Karwar, his government is seriously thinking of exempting entry tax on vehicles from other immediate neighbouring districts in Karnataka and Maharashtra,” Dr Kore told Herald.
