NEW DELHI: The seven-day-old countrywide transport strike was called off following the decision at the meeting between Union Home Minister S.B.Chavan and chief ministers of the octroi levying States recently, to set up a joint committee to look into the transporters demands.

Union Surface Transport Minister Jagdish Tytler assured the leaders of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) during a prolonged meeting that the Government would stand by its assurances given to the transporters in the course of talks since the beginning of the strike on July 1.

Coming out of the meeting the minister told correspondents that the dialogue with the transporters would continue in an effort to find a solution to their demands,

We have been able to convince them that the Government is sympathetic to their demands,” Tytler said. He announced the constitution of the committee comprising the representatives of the Center and the states to examine all issues pertaining to octroi and toll tax. Tytler will head the committees.

AIMTC general secretary Chittranjan Das, however, clarified that the strike was being “suspended for three months.” Das said that the strike was suspended on the basis of the Government decision to set up a committee to address their grievances. “We have taken the assurances at the face value,” he said.

The Government, however, agreed to eliminate the police role in jobs like permit checking and penalizing overloaded trucks, The transporters had demanded that police be withdrawn from such Operations.

During their meeting with Chavan, the chief ministers rejected the plea for abolishing octroi, The chief ministers of the concemed states sharply reacted to the Center’s decision to support the petition in the Supreme Court for the abolition of toil tax.

The chief ministers pointed out that out of the transporters’ 15 demands, 10 concerned the Center and five pertained to the states. And of these 10 demands relating to the Center six were financial in Nature whereas only one issue concerning the states had fiscal implications. “Unfortunately the entire fiscal burden of the strike is being shifted to the states and this is unfair,” remarked one state representative,

At the meeting convened by Chavan, Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, Urban Development Minister Sheila Kaul and Tytler were also present. While Six states were represented by their chief ministers three others sent a senior minister to argue their cases,

Reacting to Dr. Manmohan Singh’s observation that the Center did not have enough resources to help the states in the case of octroi abolition, West Bengal finance minister As him Dasgupta said, “Then don’t disturb us.”

In his opening speech Chavan made a plea for substituting octroi by an alternative mode of taxation. “The question of   abolition of octroi has been examined by a number of committees and all of them have recommended its abolition,” he observed.

As the AIMTC representatives entered into the final round of negotiation with Tytler following the chief ministers’ meeting, they knew no major tangible gains were possible. At one point they left the meeting to discuss the Government proposal with their colleagues at their base on the outskirts of Delhi.

After a brief discussion they came back to announce their decision to call of the strike. Das admitted that they could not make the Government concede the demand regarding withdrawing the surcharge on diesel imposed during the Gulf war. “We hope that the Supreme Court Judgement in the pathkar case will be fair,” he said.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992