Northeast stares at LPG crisis as truckers begin strike today

GUWAHATI: LPG transporters will stop transportation of cooking gas cylinders throughout the northeast from Monday, demanding a hike in ferrying charge from IOCL.
The indefinite protest called by two leading associations of truck owners and workers is set to bring gas cylinder supply from the bottling plants to the distributors to a halt.
“We are running the trucks at the 2011 tender rate. Now, the latest tender rate has been revised and technically brought down by 5% a trip according to the IOCL decision. Under such a rate, it is impossible to run the trucks in view of the rise in fuel price and other maintenance costs,” said Niranjan Mahanta, president of North East Packed LPG Transporters’ Association. The association said the strike will affect transportation of gas cylinders from eight bottling plants spread across Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. These plants are located in Sarpara, North Guwahati, Bongaigaon, Gopanary, Duliajan and Silchar in Assam, Dimapur in Nagaland and Sekmai in Manipur.