Truck operators in Punjab are on an indefinite strike against the state government’s decision of disbanding truck unions in 2017. On Friday, Truck unions blocked the national highway 1 (NH-1) at the Punjab-Haryana border at Shambhu causing inconvenience to the locals. Commuters are forced to take longer routes to get to their destinations as a result of the operators’ indefinite strike, which continues to affect the movement of traffic from and towards Delhi. So far, the trade unions had meetings with the state government thrice, however, no solution could be found.
On December 23, the representatives of the protestors met a cabinet sub-committee led by Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema. However, it led to a standoff between the protesters and the AAP government.
In a positive development, the protesting truck operators cleared one side of national highway 1 after they received an official letter dated January 1st from Chief Minister’s office stating that a meeting has been fixed between the protestors and a cabinet subcommittee at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh on January 4.
IG Patiala and SSP Patiala arrived at the Shambhu border with their team. After meeting 11 members of the truck union, one side of the highway was opened.
Paramjeet Singh, a representative of the truck operators from Fazilka told Hindustan Times, “We have taken one positive step by opening one side of the NH-1 for commuters who are coming from Delhi to Punjab. However, we continue to block one side for commuters heading to Delhi.”
In this meeting, it is being speculated that the AAP government must have discussed the restoration of truck unions that were disbanded in 2017 after which the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government had introduced the Punjab Goods Carriages (Regulation and Prevention of Cartelization Rules) barring good carriage operators from forming cartels or unions in the state.
Notably, the Aam Aadmi Party during the state assembly elections had promised to revive truck unions and said in its election manifesto that the “control of politicians in truck unions will be ended.”
However, several factions within the Aam Aadmi Party have on multiple occasions clashed with each other in a bid to cease control of the truck unions. On April 4 last year, four persons were hurt in a fight between two AAP factions over the leadership of the truck union in Abohar. On the same day, Four people were hurt in Moga an AAP MLA suspended a party worker amid claims that he was attempting to become the local truck union president. Other than this, AAP factions had fought over truck union posts in Bhawanigarh, Jaito, and other areas.
