The South India truckers' bandh called by the South Zone Motor Transporters Association entered the fourth day on Sunday with lorry owners in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Puducherry, and Maharashtra participating in it to press for their various demands.
As the talks with the State Government officials did not yield positive results, a team of association leaders left for Delhi.
Open dialogue
They were expecting to open a dialogue with the Central government with the active participation of the All India Motor Transport Congress.
Lakhs of lorries came to a halt at different places in the State with nearly 45,000 lorries getting stranded in Andhra Pradesh, lorry owners said.
Some lorries were coming from long distance trips to Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and so on.
CPI(M) plea
Meanwhile, CPI(M) Krishna district committee has appealed to the government to immediately talk to the striking lorry owners associations and resolve the crisis as the transport bandh would have far reaching impact on the day to day life of people.
District secretary V. Umamaheswara Rao said it was unfortunate that the government was playing spectator's role though prices of essential commodities were rising because of the bandh.
The CPI(M) leadership expressed their total solidarity to the lorry owners, saying that the demand for 50 per cent concession for local lorries within a district at the toll gates was justified.
They also demanded that there should be a control on the cess being imposed by the State governments on the diesel sale.
