BENGALURU: Private commercial vehicle drivers and owners have flayed the state budget presented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accusing him of completely ignoring the sector.
Representatives of the Indian Vehicle Drivers Trade Union and the Snehajeevi Chalakara Trade Union said the transport is one of the major revenue-generating sectors for the state government, but it was ignored in the budget.
“As part of the drivers and owners community, we presented many suggestions to the chief minister in the pre-budget meeting. However, none of our demands were reflected in the budget,” said Gandasi Sadananda Swami, president of the Indian Vehicle Drivers Trade Union.
Among the major suggestions recommended by the representatives to the CM included setting up rest houses for drivers every 100 km on highways, ambulance facility, steps to prevent fuel theft from lorries, and measures to prevent robberies of drivers by increasing police patrol.
They also requested that two more Indira canteens be established at Kempegowda International Airport for the drivers and recognise a day as ‘Drivers Day.’.
“We also requested the setting up of driver training centres to avoid accidents. We also urged that rates for renting vehicles be uniformly set, one city, one rate,” Swami said.
The union said that they would start a movement to get the attention of the government to their demands by stopping tax payments.