PONDA: The North and South Goa Truck Owners Association strongly objected to the rate of Rs 9.6 per km per tonne, declared on Tuesday, on the Directorate of Mines and Geology website, for transporting e-auctioned ore and expressed shock and surprise over the move.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, President Mahesh Gawas along with members said this action is intolerable and is an effort by the Directorate of Mines and Geology to drive a wedge among truck owners in connivance with some mining companies for personal gains, despite the meeting being fixed with Directorate of Transport on April 22, to decide the ore transportation rates.
According to Gawas, the truck owners are agitating to get fair rates for transporting e-auctioned ore which commenced some month back. Presently the truckers were being paid Rs 11.48 per km per tonne, which is not enough in the present circumstances to sustain their livelihood, they said. Hence, they had gone on strike 15 days ago and stopped transporting ore.
Taking cognizance of their strike, the government has, some days ago, fixed a meeting with Transport Director, along with Mines and Finance department representatives and representatives of North and South Goa Truck Owners Association on April 22, to resolve the issue of ore transportation and finalising the rates per km per tonne.
Gawas and Dessai wondere as to how the mines department could take such a step which was never done in the past.
According to Gawas the rates declared by Mines Department before the scheduled meeting are lower than the rates that are presently given for transporting e-auctioned ore, that is, Rs 11.48 per tonne per kilometre, over which they are already agitating.
Instead of hiking the rates, the Mines department intentionally declared on its website that the transporters would be given Rs 9.6 per km per tonne, which shocked the truck owners in Goa, they said. This rate uploaded on the website create confusion as per litre per tonne is mentioned instead of per km per tonne was the norm to decide rates which means for a distant a 31 kilometres transportation of ore they will lose around Rs 1000 for a trip which they were getting at the prevailing rates.
They said that the dept has no right to do such thing as the meeting of truck owners, transport department and finance representatives has been fixed for April 22.
