New Delhi: Unwilling to give in to the demands of the agitating truckers, the Centre has asked states to handle the week-long strike with “firm and effective” action, just as they did to end the stir by PSU oil officers.
Taking note of the situation arising out of the truckers’ strike, cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar has written to the states for ensuring free movement of essential commodities and prevent hoarding of goods by “unscrupulous traders”, according to the official sources.
“...due to firm and effective handling by central and state governments, the strike by Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) has ended. However, the strike of truckers continues and requires equally effective intervention on the part of state governments,” the letter said.
Effective action has to be taken to “prevent hoarding by some unscrupulous traders to take advantage of the strike situation” and raise prices of essential commodities, it said.
“The public distribution system, including state civil supplies corporations and consumer cooperatives have to play an active role in procuring, transporting and distributing essential commodities and vegetables,” it said.
According to the sources, Chandrasekhar told the state governments to give wide publicity to steps taken by them to minimise the impact of the strike on availability and prices of essential commodities and all other steps taken to mitigate the impact of the strike on common man.
The sources said railway board member (traffic), who attended the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) meeting on Saturday morning, apprised the committee that there were problems in loading and unloading of food grains and fertilisers in some states.