Lorries to go off roads in Karnataka from July 1

Lorry owners in Karnataka have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from July 1 in protest against the Federal law on installation of speed governors in their vehicles.

Disclosing this to reporters in Bangalore, Federation of Karnataka Lorry Owners’ Association Shanmugappa said lorry owners have decided to keep their vehicles off the roads from July 1 till the law on mandatory installation of speed governors, a gadget that reduces speed of vehicles, is withdrawn.

Though the Federal Government had mandated installation of speed governors in 1997, Karnataka Government began enforcing the same in 2005. “Around 275,000 lorries in Karnataka will go off the roads until the State Government agrees to withdraw the rule”, Shanmugappa said.

Shanmugappa claimed that the lorry owners’ associations of neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry too had extended support to their Karnataka counterparts. If inter-state lorries go off the roads in Karnataka, Shanmugappa said Karnataka would be denied the 60,000 tonnes of rice from Andhra Pradesh and 400 tonnes of fish from West Bengal, besides a host of commodities from other states every day.

Shanmugappa said even truckers transporting petroleum and diesel will be joining the strike.

Meanwhile, Joint Commissioner of Transport Department (Enforcement) Vijay Vikram said the law in compulsory installation of speed governors was a Federal law and the Karnataka Government has to abide by it.

“All public service vehicles will have to be fitted with the gadget. Or else, their fitness certificates will not be renewed”. However, he said the rule was not applicable to vehicles plying from outside Karnataka.