PONDA: With Vedanta-Sesa Goa promising to fulfill most of the truckers’ demands, the truck owners called off their strike on Thursday and announced they would resume transportation of e-auctioned ore on Friday.
The day ended happily for the truckers, government and other mining dependents, who were waiting for the strike to end. Mining was set to resume two day ago, but was stalled due to various reasons. On Thursday, as the deadlock between Vedanta and the truckers was broken, the latter displayed the victory sign and lit firecrackers to celebrate the success of their agitation.
According to All Goa Truck Owners’ Association (AGTOA) president Nilkant Gawas, an understanding has been reached between Vedanta and the truck owners, and AGTOA will resume transportation of e-auctioned ore on the Codli-Amona route from Friday, besides withdrawing their agitation, which they sustained for over a month.
He stated that the transportation rate for fresh mining ore has not yet been decided by the government, and if needed, the truck owners would not hesitate to agitate over the same. He added that all truck owners will get equal opportunity to transport e-auctioned ore.
However, he added that the truck owners will stop transportation for a day, February 5, which is when Vedanta, as per its assurance, will withdraw the cases against nine truck owners. AGTOA wants to see if Vedanta delivers on this promise, and if the outcome is negative, it will decide its other course of action.
Gawas further said that Vedanta had agreed to put restrictions on the 231 trucks from outside the mining belt that were transporting e-auctioned ore during AGTOA’s agitation. Each truck owner will get only two trips per day irrespective of the number of trucks owned by them.
Gawas also criticised Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar for extending the timing for ore transportation and stated that the truckers would not ply after 6 pm, but would obey the prevailing timing, which is from 8 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm. He added that the extended timing would create a lot of inconvenience for the people in the mining belt.
Gawas credited the truckers’ success to a “divine” banyan tree in front of the house of the Usgaonkar family, under which they took shelter while carrying out their agitation.
