Truck owners threaten to go on strike

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Truck operators staged a protest in front of the Regional Transport Office (RTO) at Shantinagar in the city on Thursday against the government's decision to impose a lifetime tax on commercial vehicles.

The deadline for paying the lifetime tax expired on August 31. In the early hours of Thursday, transporters positioned more than 250 commercial vehicles along KH Double Road in Shantinagar, demanding that the government rescind its decision.

They also temporarily blocked the road. The truckers highlighted that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy had convened a meeting the previous week with representatives from 32 unions of auto-rickshaw, taxi, and bus operators, excluding them from the discussion.

While they were promised another meeting by August 30, it failed to materialize.

"We will not comply with the lifetime tax under any circumstances; instead, we are prepared to surrender our vehicles at the RTO," they declared.