ESMA invoked amid strike

govt arrests chief of transporters' association

The crisis caused by the truckers' strike deepened as the government invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and arrested OP Agarwal, the chairman of the All India Transporters' Welfare Association (AITWA).

It was not clear where Agarwal had been taken and what efforts were on to have him released. What was clear was that the situation had taken a turn for the worse, as most leaders of the strike became in communicado and the strike showed no signs of ending.

The Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) , the trade union wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), today said it was willing to do whatever it could to resolve the stand-off between the truckers and the government if they were invited by the government to take part in the negotiations.

The Left parties had strongly urged the government to bring about a speedy resolution to the strike in their meeting with the UPA leaders on 25 August.

The CPI and the CPM are, however, not seeing eye-to-eye on the issue. While the CPI has debunked the truck owners position, calling it blackmail, the CPI (M) is not siding with either the truckers, or the government. This is an addition to the list of prevailing differences between the two Left majors on the FDI cap in aviation, the privatisation of the Mumbai and Delhi airports and the Manipur issue.

MK Pandhe, president, CITU said, "We are unhappy with both the government and the truckers for the manner in which they have been conducting the negotiations so far. We are of the opinion that a solution can be found if the finance minister talks to the truck owners himself." Party sources said CPI(M) general secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, had even requested the prime minister to intervene.

The CPI, on the other hand, doesn't consider the truck owners' demands valid. AB Bardhan, general secretary, Communist Part of India (CPI) said, "The strike is completely wrong. The truck owners are resorting to blackmail. After all, it is not the truck owners, but the booking agents who are going pay the tax."

Pandhe said the truckers might be pacified with the government's proposal for exempting small truck owners (those with 2 or 3 trucks). However, the modalities of collecting the tax from the booking agents would have to be worked out, he said.

Meanwhile, the striking truck operators, are likely to meet the finance ministry officials today in a bid to end their agitation.

"Our strike is on. For the sixth day today, millions of trucks are off the road," said JM Saksena, secretary general of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), the country's largest truck union.

He said the striking unions will have an internal meeting before they meet finance ministry officials in the afternoon to resolve the crisis arising out of imposition of a 10 per cent service tax on freight booking agents.

"The strike is total in all parts of the country. There is no loading or unloading of goods taking place anywhere in the country," said BN Dhumal, president, AIMTC.

"We had a few rounds of meetings with the revenue secretary without any fruitful results. The official keeps on changing the stand in every meeting. When it came to decision taking, she leaves the meeting on the pretext that she had to obtain the finance minister's approval. That is why we are requesting the minister, P Chidambaram, to listen to us and take a final decision," he said.