VIJAYAWADA: With incidents of attacks on lorry drivers and cleaners reported in Tamil Nadu and some other parts of the country, the Andhra Pradesh Lorry Owners’ Association (APLOA) on Tuesday appealed to the lorry owners, who had stayed away from the nationwide strike, to join it with immediate effect to put pressure on the authorities, so that not just the lorry owners’ demands were met, but no untoward incident adversely affected the striking lorry owners.
As the indefinite strike entered its fifth day on Tuesday, the combined loss to the transport sector in the State, during the last five days was, according to the lorry operators, around `100 crore.
The strike has, among others, adversely impacted the fruit vendors of the State’s largest wholesale fruit market at Kedareswarapet area of the city. The fruit vendors of the market have incurred a revenue loss of around `5 crore over the last five days. While the market imports tonnes of fruits, such as green grapes, pomegranate and orange from Solapur in Maharashtra, apple from the northern states and pineapple from Kerala, with the indefinite strike continuing, several hundred tonnes of fruits have got stranded mid-way.
‘’Even with the lorry strike entering its fifth day, the Central and State governments are not considering our demands seriously. Hike in diesel prices, third party premium and toll fees have become a huge burden on the transport operators. The government should consider our problems to protect the interests of the transport sector,’’ said YV Eswara Rao general secretary of APLOA.