JAMMU — Since the transporters’ association had given a call for a one-day strike, the capital city came to a complete standstill as no commercial vehicle was plying on the road anywhere. People faced lots of hardships due to this move as many were seen walking towards their destinations.
According to the news agency KNO, the strike call was given by the association against plying of e-buses in already busy routes in the city where private commercial vehicle owners were facing tough competition and were of the opinion that this is an attack on their livelihood.
President of the transporters’ association Vijay Chib said that earlier when e-rickshaws were allowed to move in the city, it had affected auto-rickshaw owners and they weren’t able to compete with the e-rickshaws.
“Similarly, the government under the smart city project brought e-busses and we had suggested routes where not many commercial vehicles plied. But these busses were allowed to move everywhere which threatened the livelihood of the mini-busses and matadors and we were forced to give call for the strike,” Chib said.
Since morning, commercial vehicles remained absent from Jammu roads and people faced hardships. Jammu city’s internal surface communication has traditionally been dependent on the matadors and mini-busses but they moved on specific routes.
Hundreds of such vehicles have been maintaining the surface communication and people got the relief when e-busses were started by the government. They started getting easy access and seats in these vehicles and the fare was also low as compared to the existing mini-busses and matadors.
As on one side, people were getting relief, private transporters were facing a tough time which forced the association to halt operations for a day. The administration also swung into action due to the strike and held a meeting with the transporters’ association to address the issue.
“We held two meetings where government officials including the Divisional Commissioner Jammu halted the operation of e-busses for the time being on our request. We will be meeting with the officials again in a couple of days to sort out the differences and decide routes for e-busses so that we don’t suffer,” Chib added.
This post first appeared on The Kashmir Pulse
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