Team Herald
PONDA: The All Goa Truck Owners’ Association (AGTOA) will stop ore transportation from February 18 to demand reasonable transportation rates for freshly extracted ore. AGTOA’s previous agitation for a hike in the transportation rate of e-auctioned ore had lasted around 34 days.
AGTO, led by its president Nilkant Gawas, held a meeting in Usgao-Vadakade on Wednesday and decided not to transport ore extracted by Vedanta. The truckers’ alleged that Vedanta, while settling the previous issue a month ago, had assured to set rates for transporting fresh ore, but it had failed to honour its promise.
They also claimed that Vedanta had not fulfilled its assurances of withdrawing the cases against nine truck owners and providing them with an account of trips and payment after every 15 days, hence, the company was not trustworthy.
Gawas claimed that instead of having a meeting with AGTOA, Vedanta tried to start transportation of fresh ore at the rate of Rs 8.50 per kilometre per tonne under police protection on February 15.
According to the truckers, their previous agitation ended when Vedanta had offered them a rate of Rs 11.10 for transporting e-auctioned ore and had promised to set the transportation rates for fresh ore.
Gawas added that AGTOA wanted a transportation rate of Rs 11.27, but Vedanta was offering only Rs 8.50, which was not acceptable for the truckers. He also accused the government of failing control mining activities in the Goa.
