Demanding action against illegal mining and over- loading, the Devbhoomi Building Material Suppliers and Truck Operators Welfare Committee (DBMSTOWC) threatened to gherao the Vidhan Sabha and the chief minister’s residence after two days if their demands are not met by then. Meanwhile, they sat on indefinite strike in Dehradun from Thursday. The protesters claimed that the around 1000 trucks have stopped plying in response to the agitation.
The association president Anil Pandey said that the state government is not as much active in stamping out illegal mining and overloading of trucks as it should be. “The mining department slapped penalty to the tune of Rs 8.84 lakh on the truck operators facilitating illegal mining through over- loading in January. Then we met the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on January 28 and thereafter, the operation against illegal mining intensified as 10 teams from various departments like police, mining, forest and transport were formed. The amount collected by way of penalty shot up to Rs 30.41 lakh. However, things slacked down again in March as the penalty amount came down Rs 18.48 lakh. It clearly means that the laid-back attitude of the state government is responsible for the continuation of the illegal mining. We are at the same time being harassed by police, mining and other departments as our trucks are being stopped and we are being forced to cough up money to release the trucks from their grip.
This is despite the fact that we are trading with utmost honesty. We are demanding the State Government to come down heavily on the corrupt transporters so that we can continue with our business without hassle,” he added.
Other transporters who participated in the stir said that unless the state government cracks the whip on the transporters involved in illegal mining and overloading they would step up their agitation in the coming days. “If things continue this way we would be finished,” said another transporter Kuldeep Kumar.