NIRMAL MANGAR
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| The meeting between Lachungpa (right) and leaders of the tanker owners’ association in Siliguri on Wednesday. (Kundan Yolmo) |
Gangtok, May 30: Private
tankers supplying oil to petrol pumps in Sikkim today suspended their
indefinite strike for eight days after the state government offered to
look into their demand for an increase in the freight charge.
The assurance was
given at a meeting between the Sikkim Bengal Tanker Owner’s Welfare
Association and the additional chief engineer of the transport
department, Ganden Lachungpa, in Siliguri today.
The 103 private
tankers went on the strike from Monday, demanding that the
transportation charge be hiked to Rs 8.50 per kilo litre per kilometre
from the present amount of Rs 5.80.
“We had a meeting
at the Sikkim Nationalised Transport office in Siliguri today. We
received a letter from the state transport secretary, requesting us to
call off the strike and come for talks in Gangtok on June 7. The
government assured us that it would look into our demand for the hike in
the freight fare. So, we decided to withdraw the strike till June 7,”
said Shamal Dey, the adviser to the association.
However, he warned
that the association would resume the strike from the next day if there
was “no positive outcome” at the Gangtok meeting.
Dey said all tanker drivers had been told to fill petrol and diesel from the depots at NJP from this evening.
The private
tankers are hired by the SNT to ferry fuel from the depots of different
oil companies at New Jalpaiguri to 40 petrol pumps across Sikkim. The
owners sought the increase in the freight fare, saying the maintenance
cost of the tankers had gone up after the last hike in 2009.
The petrol pump owners heaved a sigh of relief following the temporary withdrawal of the strike.
“We have been
rationing petrol and diesel for the past two days. Each vehicle was
given only five litres of petrol. We hope the situation will come back
to normal soon,” said a pump manager here.(TT)
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